The value of human connection: Everything we learned at Cannes Lions 2025
We’re back from Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2025, having had yet another incredible week on the French Riviera in the fine company of our industry friends, with plenty of rosé at hand.
Here’s everything we learned at Cannes Lions 2025… and why it’s well worth going.
Amazon Port is buzzing
Amazon Port is practically an event in itself. It’s our favourite part of Cannes Lions, an exciting chance to mingle with the Amazon Ads team in a more relaxed setting than usual, network with our friends in the industry, and learn what’s happening at Amazon and beyond.
The festival was a high for Amazon, as CEO Andy Jassy took the Cannes Lions Award for ‘Media Person of the Year’, and three big announcements were made from the Amazon Port stage (Disney, Roku and Amazon Live – read on for more!).
Amazon Port also had daily sessions with brands and stars sharing best practice. Actor Jamie Lee Curtis took to the stage to talk about storytelling; basketball legends Blake Griffin and Dirk Nowitzki shared their experience of collaborating with brands; and Twitch streamer Kai Cenat talked about influencer partnerships.
Podcast advertising, ‘retail-tainment’, the fan experience in sports streaming, co-creation, culture and nostalgia were all big themes too. A full run-down of the Amazon Port sessions is here.
Connected TV partnerships with Disney and Roku announced
Connected TV (CTV) was a big theme. Amazon announced a partnership with Disney Advertising, which brings Amazon DSP to Disney’s Real-Time Ad Exchange (DRAX), something to look out for in Q3 2025.
The partnership enables brands to advertise across Disney’s platforms, including Disney+, Hulu and ESPN, while gaining cross-platform audience data and insights from both companies.
Amazon also announced it is expanding its partnership with Roku, the streaming TV expert, giving Amazon exclusive access to Roku’s ad inventory for the DSP network.
Amazon Live is now in AMC
Amazon Live, the influencer programme, looks set to move forward with full-funnel data now available for brands and creators.
Signals from Amazon Live have been integrated into Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC), meaning brands will be able to get ad-level reporting and advanced attribution from Live broadcasts; to analyse which influencers are driving the most engagement; and even to target custom audiences from influencers’ viewers.
It’s a great opportunity for brands selling on Amazon to measure the impact of the Live shopping experience and check how well using influencers actually converts for them.
AI and the power of human connection
Naturally AI was a big topic at the event, within Amazon Port and beyond.
‘AI agents’ was the buzzword. AI agents are being developed across all Amazon’s functions – for advertising, for ops, and for shopping itself. Generative AI for content and creative “was everywhere”, and there was lots of talk about how much better AI is going to get.
On the other hand, many of the Amazon Port sessions over the week were on the theme of human connection, emotion, and interaction.
They included an emotive session with NBA stars Blake Griffin and Dirk Nowitzki on the themes of community engagement and fan loyalty; a session about capturing multi-generational audiences by building trust and amplifying authenticity; and a session on how to leverage nostalgia for brand relevancy.
The message is clear: it’s the age of AI, but showing your human side still works really well for brands.
Amazing social experiences
As always, the greatest value in Cannes Lions is the networking: it’s more informal, relaxed and friendly than at any other industry event. We always come back having made a handful of high-value connections.
And the social events of Cannes Lions are something else, from e-Comas’s exclusive dinner with friends, to Amazon Port’s incredible wine tasting experience and major concert from electronic duo ODESZA.
Our CEO and founder, Jérôme de Guigné, says: “From the outside Cannes may look like a business holiday with the sun, the rosé, the concert… and partially it is. Why would we use our precious time then?
“The secret is in the connections. I am not a party animal, but I am very much a connections one.
“We meet mostly peers, ad tech execs and Amazon execs. I have always come back with precious individual connections, where quality trumps quantity. Maybe two, maybe five key people we’ll collaborate with, learn from and become better.”
Our CTO Claudiu Clement says: “Unlike a trade show or a sellers-oriented event, Amazon Port is about partners, ad tech, and the advertising industry in general.
“I last went in 2023, and I can see more surface covered by Amazon, better organisation, and a slightly more premium treatment to partners.”
Jérôme adds: “We’ll be back next year in the heat, in the crowd, cheering on all the hard work and events Amazon Ads will have prepared with passion for us, yet again.”