Publicis Groupe Unleashes Cannes’ Most Famous Lion

Publicis Groupe [Euronext Paris FR0000130577, CAC 40] This year, the most famous lion in Cannes won’t be metal – and it won’t be in the Palais. With a global campaign harnessing the largest connected influencer platform in the world, Publicis will give a live demonstration of the power of creators, technology, and AI, to make an unknown lion the most talked-about figure on the Croisette.  

This lion delivers more than industry accolades. Thanks to Influential powered by Captiv8, a network of more than 19 million creators, and boosted by Epsilon’s data, it will show how clients can generate Super Bowl reach (over 127 million impressions) for a fraction of the price and as part of their media mix. 

The operation launches on June 16th, with a joint Instagram post from top wildlife influencers @shandorlarenty (9.3M TikTok, 596K Instagram) and @Pubity (40M Instagram, 17M TikTok), to introduce the lion. From there, the activation will expand across Influential and Captiv8’s network of creators, covering 90% of influencers with more than 1 million followers, and 95% with more than 5000. The Lion Tracker at Influential Beach will monitor the lion’s growing audience in real time. By the end of the Cannes Lions Festival, he will have reached big game reach – through the power of Publicis’ unique influencer platform. 

To drive the point home, the program is backed by a playful digital OOH play, comparing the cost of a Super Bowl-worthy influencer buy to a Cannes week tab: a handful of business class tickets, a quarter of that beach party budget, or just a sliver of the awards entries that some flood the system with to rack up metal. 

Arthur Sadoun, CEO of Publicis Groupe commented: “With every acquisition — from Captiv8 to Influential — and every innovation, like CoreAI, we’re building a future-ready platform to help clients navigate an increasingly complex and challenging marketing landscape. At Cannes this year, we’re focused on turning AI hype into business upside — with practical, Monday-ready solutions our clients can put to work immediately”.