Cannes 2024: Weather’s impact on the Croisette and beyond

While the 71st year of the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity is officially in the rearview, the excitement and inspiration are still very much alive at The Weather Company. And right now, it’s clear the industry sits at a pivotal moment, with weather data and insights as key elements to its great potential.

From driving creative momentum, to bringing a renewed vigor and commitment to innovation and positive change, weather was a topic of many conversations, meetings, and thought leadership sessions. Our single takeaway: Weather data is no longer “nice to have” but a “must have” for understanding consumer behaviors and motivations, making more informed business decisions, and delivering action against our changing climate, for the back half of the year and beyond.

For some brands and businesses, a weather strategy may already be part of your broader marketing strategy; for others, it may be a new, innovative approach. Regardless of where you stand, here are three need-to-knows from this year’s Festival, brought to you by your Chief Weather Officer.

1) No cookies, no problem…for these brands

_{Randi Stipes, Chief Marketing Officer, at Little Black Book & Friends Beach and The Marketing Academy Villa stages}

Data signal loss with cookies eventually going away has been an on-going topic in many Ad Tech circles and programming, and this year was no different. While the industry waits for cookies to fully deprecate, many brands and marketers are focused on defining their first party data and audience strategies, understanding clean room solutions, and adopting alternative privacy-forward data signals. Regardless of Google’s timeline, weather data has long served marketers in driving business growth while protecting consumer privacy.

This year, we partnered with four leading brands — Milk-Bone^®, Chloraseptic, EcoFlow, and Tyson Foods — to showcase the value of a weather strategy. We call them the ‘Rainmakers of Marketing,’ smart brands that understand the deep connection between weather and consumer behaviors, moods, and motivations and are winning within their categories, in large part by leveraging weather to supercharge their campaigns. Our partnership with Milk-Bone, Chloraseptic, EcoFlow, and Tyson Foods were on display 24/7 across three digital out-of-home billboards along La Croisette (because Cannes Lions is the greatest opportunity to display OOH, of course). If you missed them, check them out here.

Rainmakers of Marketing poster art showcased in The Weather Company meeting suite at MediaLink Beach (L to R): Milk-Bone^®, Chloraseptic, EcoFlow, and Tyson Foods

_{Sheri Bachstein, CEO, at The Haven x HUMAN and MediaLink Beach stages}

2) AI: moving from conversations to commitments

Last year, the conversation around AI took on a very different look. Across the Festival mainstage and along La Croisette, creatives, agencies, brands, publishers, and creators were discussing AI’s advantages and disadvantages, debating how human creativity and thinking would play alongside the latest advancements and detailing how it would improve efficiency, performance, and outcomes across the advertising landscape. This year, those conversations shifted from ideation to application.

For The Weather Company, AI has long been foundational to our business. As the world’s most accurate forecaster,¹ we combined AI, advanced weather science, and technology with human expertise to keep consumers informed, whether it’s how to dress for cooler-than-average temps at this year’s Festival or preparing for the most active Atlantic hurricane season (which is happening right now). Our deep expertise in AI doesn’t stop there. This June, we introduced the broader market to The Weather Engine™, a data and insights platform built on AI based multivariate models aimed to deliver deeper insights and visualizations on the impact of weather with zip code level precision. While there’s immediate benefit for advertisers when it comes to media activation and targeting, the real magic happens when we partner to create bespoke insights through the application or Machine Learning and AI against first party, third party, and other actionable data sets, specific for businesses and KPIs across advertising, marketing, and the entire enterprise.

Read how SC Johnson’s Off!^® brand, America’s #1 trusted Insect Repellent brand in 2024, is finding success with The Weather Engine.

_{Cannes Lions Mainstage with Randi Stipes, Chief Marketing Officer}

3) Weather: no longer small talk

From Sustainable Development Goal Lions, to reducing both waste and carbon emissions associated with the event, sustainability and climate continued as a core theme at this year’s event. The advertising industry, and the marketers behind the brands, sit in a unique position to shape public behavior and drive action, and that’s exactly why Cannes Lions was the perfect stage to proclaim the reality of changing weather and influence collective climate action — helping create connections between the weather and all aspects of human well-being.

We were honored to bring ‘Weather Kids,’ our joint campaign in partnership with the United Nations Development Program and the World Meteorological Organization, to the Cannes Lions mainstage. The conversation centered on a projected forecast for 2050, and how it might change depending on the climate actions we take today. Missed this session? If you have a Cannes Lions pass (physical or digital), you can watch it on demand, or read the ungated abridged version in the Cannes Lions Daily. Either way, be sure to take the two minute action of signing the pledge on behalf of the kids in your life to change the future for the next generation.

_{Cover image of Lions Daily News featuring ‘Weather Kids’ campaign}

_{‘Weather Kids’ campaign banner hanging inside the Palais des festivals}

Whether you attended the Festival or not, we’ll leave you with one final note, or perhaps action…

You either develop a weather strategy…or a strategy for defending why you didn’t develop a weather strategy. We’re here to help with the former.

Consider us your Chief Weather Officer.