Cannes Lions 2026: What creators earn that reach can’t buy

by Experian Marketing Services 3 min read September 16, 2026

Why trust is the real creator currency

Reach tells you how many people saw a creator’s post. It doesn’t tell you whether they trusted what they saw. At Cannes Lions 2026, leaders from Adobe, AdsWizz, Alaska Airlines, Grupo Bimbo, PMG, and Wpromote shared how marketers can assess creator fit, build brand alignment, and decide where artificial intelligence (AI) fits. Watch the conversation below to hear why trust, not audience size, is what makes influence work.

Watch the conversation

How does trust turn creators into real brand partners?

Beyond the buy

Creators work best as genuine partners, not as another line on a media plan, so the strongest results come from brands that choose creators who truly know their category.

Alignment beats a quick bump

Chasing creators for a fast spike rarely pays off, but partnering with people who already love the brand builds results that last.

Brand fit makes creator content feel credible

A large audience means little without true brand alignment, since that’s what keeps a creator’s content from feeling like a paid placement.

Follower count does not capture trust

An audience’s trust in a creator, not their follower count, is what drives influence, and that dynamic is most visible in personal formats like podcasts.

Know what to keep human

Creators earn trust by sharing real experiences, so AI should support that storytelling rather than replace the people behind it.

  • Adobe – Clare Philips, Director of Social and Influencer
  • AdsWizz – Anne Frisbie, Senior Vice President of Global Business Development
  • Alaska Airlines – Eric Edge, Chief Marketing Officer
  • Grupo Bimbo – Catherine Berger, Vice President of Marketing Transformation and Services
  • PMG – Chad Stoller, Global Head of Media
  • Wpromote – Deanna Cullen, Vice President of Media Investment

Want more conversations like this one?

Connect with us to learn more about how brands build creator partnerships that earn lasting trust.

This is one of several conversations from Cannes Lions 2026 on how brands can turn influence into long-term impact. Subscribe to our newsletter to get our next Cannes conversation delivered to your inbox, read our latest marketing insights, and hear from more industry leaders on why trust, not reach, drives influence.

For more from Cannes Lions 2026, continue with another conversation in the series

Contact us

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.


Latest posts

Closer to the source: Activating Experian Audiences in Google Ad Manager Curation

Buyers can now put Experian’s audience and contextual intelligence to work in Google Ad Manager Curation in two ways: through off-the-shelf solutions available directly in Google Ad Manager, or through Custom Curation packages that Experian builds using Google Ad Manager’s inventory supply. Together, these options bring Experian’s consumer data foundation closer to the Google supply agencies already buy, with the flexibility to choose between a ready-to-use solution and an Experian package tailored to specific campaign goals. Why targeting at the source matters Many audience strategies still apply targeting on the buy side, which means signals pass through multiple systems before an impression is evaluated. Each step can shrink the pool of requests where the audience is still recognizable, so a carefully built strategy can reach the auction at a fraction of the scale it started with. Google Ad Manager Curation moves segment evaluation closer to the ad request. When a request matches the selected Experian segment, Ad Manager sends the bid request with the associated Deal ID to the buyer’s DSP. This more direct path can support stronger match and deal-transaction rates, more accurate forecasting, and better access to the audience defined in the strategy. As AI shapes more media decisions, the quality and provenance of the data feeding those systems matter more. Evaluating audience or contextual criteria closer to the source helps preserve the connection between the strategy and the impression being considered. Two ways to get started The right entry point depends on how much customization the campaign requires. Buyers can access Experian solutions off-the-shelf directly in Google Ad Manager or work with Experian to build a Custom Curation package using Google Ad Manager inventory supply. Start off-the-shelf For buyers who want direct, self-service access to Experian audience and contextual solutions. Experian solutions are available off-the-shelf in Google Ad Manager, giving buyers a straightforward way to select the data or contextual strategy that fits their campaign and create packages through Google Ad Manager’s Curation capabilities. Experian Audiences Experian Audiences draw on a deterministic offline identity foundation that represents more than 250 million U.S. consumers and 126 million U.S. households. Buyers can choose from Experian’s Audiences spanning demographics, lifestyle, financial signals, media habits, and household characteristics. That depth adds real-world consumer context beyond digital behavior alone. Contextual Experian contextual solutions give buyers a way to reach relevant environments without relying on identity. Buyers can select contextual audiences aligned to specific interests, categories, and content to inform where media appears. Experian also offers Predictive Indexed, which uses Experian audiences to predict the contextual categories and pages to target based on the likelihood that consumers visiting those environments fall within the selected audience. This gives buyers an audience-informed way to approach contextual activation without requiring identity at the point of activation. Build a Custom Curation package For buyers who need a strategy tailored to specific audience, contextual, and inventory requirements. Experian can build Custom Curation packages using Google Ad Manager’s inventory supply based on the targeting criteria that matter for a campaign. Where off-the-shelf solutions draw on Experian data, custom packages can also incorporate partner audiences and a brand’s own first-party audiences. Packages can combine Experian audiences, partner audiences, a brand’s own first-party audiences, contextual signals, and inventory or site criteria. Experian applies those criteria against Google Ad Manager inventory supply and brings the data, targeting, and inventory together into a single curated deal. This gives buyers a way to combine audience and supply decisions rather than managing each component separately. The approach can be tailored to the campaign. A buyer might start with a defined audience and add contextual or inventory criteria, bring a brand’s established first-party audience into the strategy, or build around specific supply and audience-quality requirements. Choose the path that fits the campaign Both paths do the same underlying thing: they move the audience or contextual decision closer to the ad request, before signal loss builds across the path. Whether a campaign calls for something ready to use or a package built to spec, the result is a more direct line from strategy to impression. Ready to get started? Explore Experian solutions available off-the-shelf in Google Ad Manager or contact your Experian representative to request a Custom Curation package. Latest posts

October 13, 2026 by Experian Marketing Services
Case study: How Experian helped FanThreeSixty enrich 7.6 million fan records

See how Experian helped FanThreeSixty clean, match, and enrich 7.6 million fan records through data enrichment and identity resolution.

October 6, 2026 by Experian Marketing Services
Neutrality in infrastructure: How commerce media networks should evaluate data and identity partners

What commerce media networks should look for in commerce media data partners, and how to test a provider’s structural neutrality.