The Croisette took over this week, and the Indie Agency News members made the most of it — some came home with actual Lions, some came home with hangovers and op-eds, and at least one came armed with a $1,000,000 bingo prize (asterisk very much included). Beyond Cannes, the hardware kept piling up on the Event Marketer IT List, a few campaigns picked real cultural fights, and a handful of agencies got philosophical about AI, ROAS, and the strange art of being visible. Here’s everything worth your attention from the past few days.
🦁 Cannes, Won
The part where indies take home the hardware.
Klick Health made history, getting named both Healthcare Agency of the Year and Healthcare Network of the Year at Cannes Lions 2026 — taking both honors in the same year.
Serviceplan Group had a milestone of a different scale: “Moving Landscapes” for BMW Spain brought home a Bronze Lion in Industry Craft — the first-ever Cannes Lion for their team in Spain. Earlier in the week, Serviceplan also celebrated LEGO Group’s Julia Goldin becoming the first-ever European CMO of the Year, an award presented at the festival.
Founders Agency earned a Lion for “30 Under 30: The Magazine That Shouldn’t Exist,” and framed it the only way it could be framed: not a celebration of advertising, but a reminder of 30 young lives lost to gun violence that should still be shaping the world.
We’ll feature more Cannes wins as they come in.
🏖️ Live From the Croisette
Panels, hot takes, and one AI-generated tire.
CAPE‘s Wyatt Smith joined the Indie Agency News Beach panel “Unapologetic Unseating” to talk about how independent agencies win major accounts through speed and senior-level attention. By Day 2, his takeaway was that Meta Beach had the clearest take on AI he’d seen all festival.
Highdive had a busy week on two fronts — copywriter Kelsey Williams represented the agency on an Indie Agency News panel, and the team headed to Google’s Creative Lighthouse Luncheon to unveil “Tire Story” with Jeep, a fully AI-generated cinematic brand film powered by Google Veo.
Goodway Group‘s CEO Paul Frampton-Calero made the rounds, telling LBB that AI may change how creative work gets made, but people still shape whether it connects. VaynerMedia, meanwhile, kept a running tally of takeaways for brands looking to bridge the gap with creators. And Oberland touched down championing the INDIE at Large movement alongside Cutwater, Translation, VERB, and Main Character.
😎 Cannes, But Make It Funny
Not everyone was there to win a Lion.
Gus ran the week’s best counter-programming with Gus Bingo — complete a card, post it, tag them, and you’re entered to win $1,000,000 (Zimbabwean dollars, which works out to roughly $2,763 USD). They followed it up with the only correct pronunciation guide: “it’s pronounced Cannes.”
The Many opted out entirely: “Ad people go to Cannes. NOS drivers go to Drift Mansion.” Curiosity kept it simple with croissants and a side of Cannes Lions, and Loop.co spoke for everyone left off the guest list: “Cannes believe I didn’t get the invite.”
🏆 Hardware Beyond the Croisette
Cannes wasn’t the only place handing out trophies.
Rethink was named the #2 Independent Agency at the Campaign Global AOY Awards. The Event Marketer IT List 2026 was a busy one for IAN members: Giant Spoon landed it on the strength of its five-truck, 21-city Walmart Delivers tour, G7 Entertainment Marketing marked its 9th consecutive year, and Outerkind notched its fourth year running.
Powers of Reasoning got a Drum case study on its Gold- and Silver-winning DUDE Wipes campaign, built on a media plan where humor was the only filter — if a placement wasn’t funny, it didn’t get bought. Unruled Outdoor Agency‘s “Earn Your Strikes” for Raymarine landed its 5th award, a Bronze Telly in Online Commercial editing, and Stella Rising is cheering a nomination for Digital Agency of the Year at the 2026 U.S. Agency Awards.
🎯 Campaigns With a Point of View
Work that’s trying to move something.
DNA&STONE partnered with The More We Love on “Poison the Fantasy,” confronting sex buyers ahead of the World Cup — using the visual language of solicitation ads and the one deterrent that sticks: the fear of loved ones finding out. Rethink celebrated Canada’s first WNBA team by introducing a limited-edition Coors Light “Tall Girl” can for the Toronto Tempo.
Sukle is bringing back “Use Only What You Need” for Denver Water to fight a historic drought, with coverage from Ad Age’s Tim Nudd. And Glow Creative Agency‘s Head of Creative, Emily Sireno, weighed in for Adweek on Nike’s World Cup work, calling “Rip the Script” less a tagline than good life advice.
😏 The Funny Business
Proof that selling something doesn’t have to be boring.
Baldwin& launched a full intervention against the dating-app fish pic for Long John Silver’s, landing on the theory that the problem was the fish weren’t fried. Quality Meats Creative got refreshingly honest about its own work: “perhaps you will be influenced to buy a stylish Moen faucet by this commercial about an influencer showing off her stylish Moen faucet.”
Highdive found a post-credits angle for KFC — after the movie ends, you get rewarded with chicken. And Joybyte broke down how it turned Heretic Parfum’s viral Nosferatu TikTok moment into a profitable TikTok Shop engine, on the theory that the goal isn’t a viral post — it’s a system that keeps winning after the moment passes.
🧠 Big Thoughts, Smaller Agencies
The week in unsolicited-but-welcome wisdom.
Hot Lava Agency‘s CCO Phil Jungmann offered the AI line of the week: “Technology isn’t the advantage. Judgement is.” Noble People presented “The Sinner,” an investigation into media and analytics’ most common sins — why correlation isn’t causation, and what happens when a measure becomes the target.
SRH made the case that brand visibility is less about “brand love” and more about showing up every day until they realize you’re the one. And in a refreshingly contrarian move, Cheerful Persistency wrote about why they stopped posting on LinkedIn for six weeks — not because they stopped caring, but because they’d gotten bored with themselves.
🤝 Moves & Milestones
Hires, deals, and one new house economist’s worth of data.
Yes& Agency announced that Modo Modo Agency is joining the fold, expanding its B2B marketing and Atlanta presence. Klick Health added SVP of Strategy Emily Barnes as part of a wave of 18 senior leadership hires.
Mother Bear Agency‘s client NewHomeSource brought a sharp data story to Fortune on why newly built homes are getting smaller and more expensive, backed by chief economist Ali Wolf. And The Brandon Agency was named a South Carolina Top Workplace for the 9th year in a row — but who’s counting.
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