Location: Palais - Debussy Theatre
Creativity has never been more accessible, but how do you move beyond clichéd storytelling tropes to create stories that endure across generations?
Dentsu brings together one of gaming’s most influential and beloved franchises, FINAL FANTASY, with Japan’s leading public broadcaster, NHK, to explore a uniquely Japanese approach to storytelling.
Hear first-hand how these cultural icons continue to innovate, bringing emotional storytelling to life across evolving media and creating work that resonates deeply with audiences over time.
As AI transforms the creative process, this session asks a timely question: what will make tomorrow’s stories truly last?
Questions this session will answer:
- How are the most powerful stories shaped by how time is designed within the audience experience?
- What can Japanese storytelling teach us about building narratives from characters and relationships, rather than starting with plot?
- Why do certain moments stay with us long after a story ends, and what makes them resonate more than scale or spectacle?
This session is part of the Cannes Lions Festival programming and is separate from the dentsu Beach House. You must have a Cannes Lions Festival pass to attend. For more details, please visit Cannes Lions website. You may purchase a pass here.
Location: Palais - The Forum
What will the future look like? Our hand-selected visionaries will paint a picture of our world 18 months from now. Attendees will get the scoop on what’s a fad, what’s sticking around and what is still to come.
But why 18 months? Because the insights gained from these sessions will be tangible and immediately actionable for you to future-proof your organisation and creative ideas on your return home.
This session will ignite blue-sky thinking for the possibilities of tomorrow. Attendees will gain valuable insights into the trends and movements that are on the horizon. Further discussion between the future gazers will unpick the world of tomorrow right before your eyes.
Questions this session will answer:
- What will the future look like, and how should you future proof your creative?
- What are some actionable insights into the future you could begin planning for now?
- Where is the industry headed and how can I play a part in it?
This session is part of the Cannes Lions Festival programming and is separate from the dentsu Beach House. You must have a Cannes Lions Festival pass to attend. For more details, please visit Cannes Lions website. You may purchase a pass here.
BROUGHT TO YOU BY MiQ
Join us for dentsu Beach House Opening Reception hosted by Takeshi Sano, President & Global CEO, dentsu.
Set against the Croisette, this opening night brings clients, partners and dentsu leaders together to celebrate creativity, collaboration and 125 years of dentsu innovation.
Expect a special Cannes opening night, designed to spark connections and ideas, and set up your Cannes 2026 experience with dentsu.
As AI increasingly influences how brands are discovered, understood, and considered, the rules of growth are being rewritten. In a world where assistants recommend, summarize, and shortlist, media spend alone won’t make you visible, and creative excellence alone won’t make you chosen.
The brands that win next will do two things at once: speak fluently to machines and mean something to people. They’ll build the structured signals, clear brand truths, and technical precision that AI can recognize - while creating the cultural relevance, community conversation and distinctive ideas that humans trust and talk about.
Expect a live discussion on how to stay discoverable without becoming generic, how to stand out in a sea of sameness, and why the future belongs to brands engineered for recommendation but designed for difference.
What happens when partners don’t just plug in, but operate as important value drivers inside your marketing system? This session examines how dentsu.Connect 4.0, a modern internal operating system, transforms collaboration with partners like Amazon and MIQ from basic interoperability to true co‑creation. We’ll explore new ways to unlock partner value, from rethinking how datasets are combined and activated to powering always‑on media and creative measurement. The takeaway: partnerships become living systems, not handoffs—driving smarter execution, faster learning, and outsized impact.
Location: Palais - Debussy Theatre
As dentsu marks its 125th anniversary, join Global CEO, Takeshi Sano in this exclusive fireside conversation, his first since being appointed in the role. Drawing on 30+ years as a growth partner for clients and society, he will reflect on dentsu’s journey from a news agency to one of the world’s most integrated marketing networks.
The session grounds the future of innovation firmly in the founding ethos of the company and will explore what it means to be truly client-centric, how innovation must translate into real impact, and the beliefs shaping dentsu. Through personal insight, case studies and visual storytelling, the session offers perspective on how collaboration, agility and culture can unlock meaningful outcomes for clients, today and tomorrow.
Questions this session will answer:
- How do you build sustainable growth through trust, and what does true client centricity look like in practice?
- How can innovation move from ideas to measurable outcomes that drive real business and societal impact?
- What role does culture play in creating competitive advantage, and how do you embed it across an organisation?
This session is part of the Cannes Lions Festival programming and is separate from the dentsu Beach House. You must have a Cannes Lions Festival pass to attend. For more details, please visit Cannes Lions website. You may purchase a pass here.
Thirty years ago, iProspect helped define performance marketing. Join us as we prove the best is still ahead. Join us beachside for an exclusive programme of leadership conversations, live panels, and a sunset happy hour designed for those of us shaping what comes next - as we toast 30 years at the forefront of brand and performance.
- 4:00 - 5:00 PM - Programming
- 5:00 - 6:30 PM - Happy Hour
The industry has spent years conflating loyalty with frequency. High-frequency brands build points programs. High-consideration brands build communities. And the two almost never share a stage. This session changes that – and surfaces the most important insight in Modern CRM: the underlying principle is universal, even when the mechanics are completely different.
Different categories. Different purchase cycles. Different definitions of what loyalty even means. But we see the same fundamental truth: brands that treat first party data as a media asset, not just a retention tool, are the ones winning the algorithmic era.