Marketing leaders at Cannes Lions on June 23 outlined a playbook for connecting with consumers in an era of AI-driven discovery and fragmented attention. During Variety's C-Suite series, presented with Canva, executives from Disney, Target, Kraft Heinz, Taco Bell, L'Oreal, Walmart, and others shared how they are moving from broad messaging to real-time participation and two-way relationships.
Real-time marketing and the power of live moments
Rita Ferro, Disney's president of global advertising, and Michelle Mesenburg, Target's chief brand officer, discussed the growing value of partnerships that plug into cultural events. "Disney is an incredible partner to Target," Mesenburg said, pointing to an exclusive drop of Disney IP with Lego and in-store "Saturday Spectaculars." The two stressed that brands must be ready for spontaneous moments. "You have to be ready for the moment. You don't know when it's going to happen, but live allows you to create that spontaneity and that creative decision-making in real time," Ferro said. She noted that Disney's portfolio of live sports and streaming has made its upfront negotiations particularly dynamic, especially with ABC's 2027 Super Bowl telecast on the horizon.
Cultural agility: from ranch dressing to Taco Tuesday
Todd Kaplan, chief marketing officer for Kraft Heinz North America, and Taylor Montgomery, global chief brand officer for Taco Bell, offered examples of how brands can act quickly on cultural trends. Kaplan recounted how Kraft Heinz spotted reports of airport security confiscating bottles of ranch dressing from World Cup tourists. Within a day, the company produced a TSA-compliant 3.4-ounce sachet. "We made them available in a clear, carry-on case, and we gave them out to consumers so they can take the equivalent of a bottle home with them that still clears through security," Kaplan said. Montgomery described Taco Bell's campaign to "liberate Taco Tuesday" by freeing the trademark, a move that partnered with LeBron James after the athlete's own unsuccessful attempt. "That's how the campaign was born and at the time it was our biggest campaign ever," Montgomery said. He added that marketers often overlook the cultural intelligence within their own teams. "First and foremost, listen to your team. My team is more plugged into culture and what people are saying about the brand and have a more diverse point of view than I do on how people are thinking and receiving us."
AI and the shift from inference to intent
Asmita Dubey, chief digital and marketing officer for L'Oreal, urged marketers to examine whether their brands appear in the answer layer of AI-generated queries. "As LLMs are becoming the new front door to beauty discovery, we are thinking about three questions: Are we appearing in the answer layer? If beauty is a conversation, how are we shaping that conversation?" Dubey said. Ndidiamaka Oteh, CEO of Accenture Song, said she has "never underestimated and also overestimated AI more in terms of what it actually can do," noting that while AI helps reach new consumers, the best creative still relies on human influence. William White, chief marketing officer of Walmart, said AI allows the retailer to move "from a world of inference to intent." He explained: "We know so much more about what someone is looking for. We're not guessing based on some signal we've picked up. They're literally saying what it is." Gabrielle Wesley, chief marketing officer of Mars Wrigley North America, added that consumers now demand two-way engagement. "They don't want to be talked to. They want to engage. And because they want to engage, it's like any other relationship. You have to keep having conversations."
Scaling the fan-verse with interactive content
Frances Berwick, chairman of Bravo and Peacock unscripted, and Alan Cumming, host of "The Traitors," detailed how the reality competition series has grown into a streaming hit. "It's built every single season and Season 4 was up by 72%. It's up to 6.4 billion minutes," Berwick said. She attributed the success to a format that blends strategy, psychology, and comedy. NBCUniversal is extending the franchise with "The Traitors: New Blood" and an "always on" strategy that includes a prediction game on Peacock. Cumming, who said he stays open to new opportunities, noted that the show's success has been "really affirming of my understanding of when I do just stay open to things and give things a go, they usually turn out quite well."
Why this matters for marketing professionals
The discussions at Cannes Lions highlight three concrete shifts. First, the window for capitalizing on cultural moments is shrinking, demanding real-time responsiveness and agile internal processes. Second, AI is redefining brand discovery - marketers must now optimize for the "answer layer" where consumers explicitly state their needs, moving beyond inferred signals. Third, the relationship between brand and consumer is now a two-way dialogue; engagement strategies must treat every interaction as part of an ongoing conversation, not a one-off message. Marketing teams that invest in cultural listening, AI literacy, and participatory content models will be better positioned to build trust and relevance.
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