Exclusive: Inside Disney's Plans for the 2025 Cannes Lions

If you’re at Cannes Lions and walk past the Hôtel Martinez, look up and you just might see a 15-foot chrome Mickey. That’s just one of the many surprises Disney has in store for the annual event. While the House of Mouse has been part of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity every year for over a decade, Rita Ferro, Disney's president of global advertising, said this year will be the company’s most ambitious yet. In previous years, Ferro said they were always too busy speaking on other people’s stages, but she wanted to think of stronger ways to curate Disney's experience and elevate how they think about Cannes. “We tend to be very conservative and measured in how we approach things,” Ferro told ADWEEK. “We've always had hundreds of meetings and strategic conversations with important partners, but there was less of a show or presentation, or a curated, high-end, ambitious scheduling of events.” But Ferro said she wanted to take a different approach this year and bring the full force of the Walt Disney Company with them, which includes a team of her senior executives, as well as some of their agency and brand partners, athletes, and recognizable talent who could speak to how the company is transforming the advertising business. “I want to see the impact that it has because [Cannes] really has become such a place and destination for thought leadership,” Ferro said. “There’s this notion of technology and innovation that we’re always talking about, in addition to creativity, which ultimately was the real reason we started going. At the end of the day, Disney is a storytelling company, first and foremost, at our core.” Weekend kickoff On Saturday, Disney plans to kick off the weekend with a curated lunch in the afternoon with some of their strategic partners to give them time with each other as well as a way to thank them for their continued support, while Sunday consists of the company's signature Disney Beach Soirée event at La Croisette, which hundreds of people attend, coming in and out throughout the day. “It’s a day where we have everybody from partners, to vendors, to clients, to industry organizations come by and spend the day with us as a welcome to Cannes,” Ferro said. “It's become a very nice destination for people to come in to have a bite, have a drink, and hang out.” Data, women’s sports, and Ryan Reynolds Like previous years, Disney will be on different stages throughout the week. For instance, Ferro said Disney Entertainment co-chairman Dana Walden and talent like Dan Fogelman and Sterling K. Brown will speak at the Palais for a storytelling panel, while Disney also has a women's sports panel planned at Publicis' Influential Beach. One of the new events Disney has curated this year is a closed-door thought leadership series focused on various bold topics impacting the future of the industry and where the market is going. Monday's will be focused on Disney’s data and measurement practice, while Tuesday will be dedicated to women’s sports and the female sports consumer—and how women across the sports marketplace are changing and driving growth in sports consumption and what impact that is having on advertisers and how they think about where they're spending their dollars. Rosalyn Durant, ESPN's head of content, will lead the discussion, which will also include several perspectives from brands and leagues. “Sports is really driving the marketplace now—and in the upfront. It has been driving the marketplace all year,” Ferro said. “The reason for the growth in sports is really coming from the female sports consumer.” Ferro pointed to the Taylor Swift effect as one of the key moments of the last few years. “Casual fans discovered the NFL because they wanted to see if Taylor was going to be watching one of the Kansas City Chiefs games, and they realized that they loved watching live, passionate, and shareable moments with their friends that create culture and conversation,” Ferro said. That impact is being seen across college sports, football, basketball, hockey, and tennis, especially following the 2025 French Open earlier this month where Coco Gauff won the title, making her the first U.S. woman to win the tournament in over a decade. "When people think about sports, they automatically think guys, and that's not really the modern thinking around sports anymore," Ferro said. The final speaker series lunch on Wednesday will feature entrepreneur and actor Ryan Reynolds—whose production company and digital marketing agency, Maximum Effort, previously created custom content for Disney during the Oscars—alongside John Campbell, who leads Disney's entertainment partnerships, to talk about storytelling and creativity driving the outcomes that brands and partners are looking for. “It's not always in the traditional ways you’d think, but there are more opportunities, especially in live moments that sit across not only sports, and obviously entertainment is a big driver of that,” Ferro said. “It was Ryan who was passionate about wanting to join us to have this conversation on the topic and what’s next in the industry. Is AI playing part of that or not? How do you think about cultural moments and creative versus scripted programming, news, and other events in TV, which are still relevant—and yet context matters. We know that premium storytelling drives attention and engagement—and that drives outcomes.” Carbone at Cannes Meanwhile, while Disney has usually hosted multiple separate dinners—sometimes 20 a night between various team members with clients—this year it will only host one dinner on Tuesday night at Carbone at Cannes. “We’re exclusively bringing Carbone to Cannes with a musical performance by Mary J. Blige for our customers who will be there with us," Ferro said. "Instead of multiple dinners, we'll have one big dinner to celebrate Disney being at Cannes." As for the giant chrome Mickey on Hôtel Martinez, which also unlocks an AR experience, Ferro said they have never had a sign that explicitly showcases Disney on a building at Cannes before. It's one of the biggest branded moments Disney Advertising has ever produced at Cannes Lions, in collaboration with experiential agency partner 2Heads. But Ferro said it all ties back to how they really want to make a mark this year. “It took a lot of work to get it done, approved, and ready to be executed, but it looks spectacular," Ferro said. "It will definitely make a statement that Disney is there in a way that we've never really done before.”

Cannes Lions

Exclusive: Inside Disney's Plans for the 2025 Cannes Lions

Disney will host a three-day speaker series exploring topics like the impact of women's sports.

Saleah Blancaflor

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