A fun thing about Cannes Lions: it’s not just about the yachts and the beach and the rosé. Apparently, there are also awards!

Winning a Cannes Lion is generally considered one of the industry’s most prestigious honors, but who makes the decisions and how?

In short, executives at ad agencies around the world, though some brand-side marketers are typically also in the mix. This year, nearly 300 jurors will deliberate across several categories, including film, outdoor, and design.

According to former jury members, decisions aren’t taken lightly and often involve reviewing hundreds of submissions for weeks before and during the festival, then debating which ones are most worthy among fellow jury members. Yet despite the stress, everyone told us they’d do it again.

“For me, it was definitely a pinnacle moment,” Judy Lee, head of global brand experiences and programs at Pinterest, told us. Last year was the first year she participated in the festival as a jury member. “Hopefully, I’ll have an opportunity to rejoin the jury in a future year.”

Read the full story here.—KH

Over the last eight years, performance marketing expert Dara Denney spent over 10,000 hours in ad accounts and $100M in ad spend. Now she’s partnering up with the creative analytics platform Motion to spill all of her secrets with you so you can unlock your brand’s paid social potential.

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Disney is in the process of introducing a new advertising framework designed to incentivize brands to spend more—and more intentionally—on women’s sports content.

The initiative, called Level Up, asks brands to commit a certain amount of spend to women’s sports content via espnW across all the platforms where it has a presence, like live events, linear, streaming, and social media, according to Deidra Maddock, Disney’s VP of sports brand solutions.

Her team is currently pitching advertisers on the framework, so none have officially signed on yet, but Maddock told Marketing Brew that initial reactions have been “really positive.”

Maddock is aiming for brands participating in Level Up to commit to a minimum spend of about $5 million each, she told us, although she later said that number isn’t definite and may vary “depending on the brand and the specifics of their deal.” Maddock said Disney is “pretty flexible” with brands on the structure of their buys, including the kinds of inventory they want to focus on.

“That’s why we call it a ‘framework,’ because it allows us the flexibility to work with multiple brands with different priorities and KPIs to find the right way in each of the areas on our platform to activate for their brand,” she said. “But what we are asking is that brands activate with intention in all of those places—that it’s not just cherry-picking one thing.”

Continue reading here.—AM

Day One of Cannes Lions 2023 is in the books—unless you’re one of the people who started partying over the weekend, to which I ask, when did you get here and how were you not jetlagged?

So far, my Uber driver, my Airbnb host, and my barista have asked why so many foreigners are in town. It’s like the UN Summit, but for sellin’ stuff.

Despite some recent torrential downpours (and the threat of orcas?), the beaches are set up and the yachts are afloat. The humidity is also off the charts. Anyone who said “bring linens” wasn’t kidding.

Spotify kicked things off early on Monday with a panel featuring Charlie Smith, chief marketing and communications officer at luxury brand Loewe, and influencer Emma Chamberlain. Chamberlain shared things like her perfect equation for a brand-influencer partnership (“Both voices are heard equally and…the two parts together create something brand new in a way that feels exciting and fresh, but yet still authentic to both audiences”) and how she used to pronounce Loewe as “lowey” (“You can’t say that in the wrong room”).

Later in the day, Spotify hosted a party at a villa featuring a performance by H.E.R., where we spotted everyone from influencer Tinx to Paris Hilton to Trevor Noah.

Meanwhile, I spoke with actress Sophia Bush about the key to meaningful brand partnerships and with Joy Robins, the new global chief advertising officer at the New York Times, about the media ad landscape.

I also made my way up and down the Croisette (with the step count to prove it) to check out what brands and agencies were doing with their beaches. Activations ranged from Stagwell’s Sport Beach, where mostly ad bros were shooting hoops, to Pinterest’s Manifestival, where people were getting temporary hair jewels and tattoos. Anyone leaving Cannes inked this year, please send us pics.—KH

There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren’t those.

Ask me anything: Peruse Snap’s overview of how its user base is using the app’s AI chatbot.

(Don’t) reply all: Twitter accounts that engage in “trendjacking”—AKA replying to viral and popular tweets in an effort to boost engagement and exposure—may face suspension, owner and CTO Elon Musk tweeted.

LinkedOut: RIP to LinkedIn creator tools like carousels, profile videos, and link stickers—the platform is phasing them out starting on June 26.

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Mergers and acquisitions, company partnerships, and more.

• WPP purchased a 30% stake in Majority, a creative agency based in Atlanta co-founded by Shaquille O’Neal.
• Allen Media Group has signed a 10-year deal with VideoAmp, making it the company’s “primary and preferred advertising currency.”
• NBCUniversal has struck a deal with Group Black, a collective of publishers and creators focused on bringing more ad dollars to Black-owned media, that will let the org “sell ads in shows on its Peacock streaming service that are popular among Black audiences.”