There are 2 types of people at Cannes — only one of them gets the yacht invite

I just got back from Cannes Lions.

The Super Bowl of marketing. French Riviera. Yachts everywhere.

And I wasn't in the audience.

I was on stage. Speaking on a global panel. In a category people laughed at me for 3 years ago: B2B creators.

This was objectively the most insane week of my career — and I want to break down exactly what I took away from it, because I think it changes how you should be thinking about creator marketing right now.

Let's get into it.

1. The silly little posts were the strategy

A few years ago I was averaging about 2 likes per post. One of them was my mom.

This past week I was on a panel at Cannes Lions called "Group Chats: How Creators Drive B2B Marketing Impact," sitting next to folks from OpenAI, Lovable, and Gamma, plus two of the biggest B2B creators on the planet.

Here's the thing nobody tells you:

The silly little posts were the strategy.

Every one was a rep. Building in public. Niching down. Staying focused while everyone else chased reach. Chasing the unsexy stuff while it felt like nobody was watching.

Turns out the unglamorous version of the work is what eventually puts you on the stage next to the yachts.

We started Creator Match 2 years ago. This week we were in France at Cannes, our logo next to the biggest names in AI, paying out millions to creators, speaking on global stages about B2B.

If you're early and it feels like you're shouting into nothing: keep going.

The silly little posts compound. Don't delete the ones with 1 like.

The takeaway: Consistency in a niche beats chasing reach every time. The reps you're putting in right now are building something — even when you can't see it yet. People ARE noticing. It just comes down to how consistent you can become…

2. The biggest AI companies are still betting on humans

Creator Match co-hosted the AI Creator Brunch at Cannes alongside OpenAI, Clay, Vercel, Gamma, and ElevenLabs.

Think about that for a second.

The biggest names in AI. The companies literally building the tools that could generate any influencer they want. All of them still choosing to put real humans in front of their brand.

Here's what stuck with me from that room:

Give your brand a face and a POV. Software doesn't have packaging to fall in love with. Tech is hard to humanize. So you put people behind it. Founders, employees, creators. Someone with a face and a point of view that people can actually connect with.

Hire for storytelling, not just content. Anyone can generate content now. What you cannot generate is trust. That still comes from a person. Creators are the best storytellers we have, and that matters more than ever.

Co-marketing is the unlock. It's easy to go heads down and want to beat everyone. The real play is brand-to-brand: each company brings creators the others don't have, so everyone's reach compounds. Multiple brands. One room. One audience. Building something none of them could pull off alone.

The "event marketer" is underrated. Everyone's hiring AI engineers right now. But the person who can get the right people in the same room? Worth more than most ad budgets. Brands need to start thinking about that.

The takeaway: The companies building the tools that could replace creators are the ones paying creators to be in the room. That tells you everything about where the value sits right now.

3. There are only 2 types of people

There are only 2 types of people in this world: those on their heels, and those on their toes.

Cannes proved it.

Getting to the conference is the easy part. Just hop on a plane. You don't even need a badge.

The real Cannes happens behind closed doors. The invite-only dinners. The villas in the hills where CMOs, celebrities, and pro athletes are in the same room. The yachts where a single conversation is worth more than the entire week on the main stage.

And every one of those rooms has a door. A list. A reason you're not supposed to be inside.

You know that door. It's the job you weren't "qualified" for. The DM you were too scared to send. The room where everyone else had a better title than you.

The person on their heels waits to be invited. Waits to be noticed. Waits to feel ready. They brake at every yellow light. They play defense.

The person on their toes finesse their way in. They're so sure of what they bring that the list doesn't matter. They're delusional, in the best way. They play offense.

Think about a yellow light. Do you hit the brakes? Or do you read the gap and go?

This is the exact mentality I've built Creator Match on. It's why I can walk up to a CMO of one of the biggest companies in the world, cold, and pitch them like we were always meant to meet.

And when there's no door? You go build your own.

I didn't get invited to those rooms. I made myself impossible to leave out.

Nobody opens the door for the person on their heels. And nobody's coming to build it for you.

The takeaway: Stop waiting for permission. The room you want to be in already exists. The only question is whether you're willing to make yourself impossible to leave out.

4. B2B finally has a seat at the table. And creators are why.

This is the part that's personal to me, because I watched it happen in real time.

For most of Cannes Lions' history, the festival was consumer brands, celebrity talent, and the agencies that ran their campaigns. B2B was an afterthought — if it showed up at all.

That changed this year.

Still don’t believe me? Creator Match is managing 8 figures of B2B creator spend, and we are only 2 years old. AND WE ARE STILL SOOOOO EARLY!!!

Cannes now has a dedicated B2B Lions awards category. LinkedIn returned as headline partner with a full rooftop activation at the Carlton. There was a B2B Summit. A B2B Creator House. Brands like Microsoft, Adobe, and Salesforce running sessions not for consumer audiences — but for professional ones.

And the creators in those rooms weren't lifestyle influencers. They were tech creators. AI educators. Practitioners in their own work domains. People whose audiences are product managers and finance teams, not Instagram followers. Subject matter expert creators who have spent years building trust in a niche — and brands are finally figuring out that trust is exactly what they need.

A few select creators (called B2Baddies lol) hosted their own villa called B2B Creator House… and Creator Match partners with most of these creators. Watching them go from building audiences in the quiet to being flown to the south of France for brand deals at the world's biggest ad festival — that doesn't get old. And it’s just getting started

The headline from one industry piece this week said it best: "B2B arrived at Cannes. But this is only the beginning."

I've been saying B2B creators are the future for three years. The room at Cannes this week wasn't laughing anymore.

The takeaway: B2B creator marketing isn't a niche play. It's where the category is going. The brands who figure that out now are going to have a serious head start on the ones who wait for it to be obvious.

The takeaway: B2B creator marketing isn't a niche play. It's where the category is going. The brands who figure that out now are going to have a serious head start on the ones who wait for it to be obvious.

🤝 In Partnership with Creator Economy Live (CEL) East

I just got back from Cannes Lions. Before that, NYC Tech Week. My body is running on overpriced airport coffee and neck pillows, but one thing is clear across every room I sat in: the energy around creator marketing right now is unlike anything I've seen.

So where's everyone headed next? Before the industry officially logs off for summer, we are all heading to NYC forCreator Economy Live (CEL) East.

I know this event will be worthwhile because you are chatting with the emcee!!

Senior marketers from the NFL, AG1, Disney, Zillow, and more will be attending, along with the most influential creators.

I went to CEL West in Vegas last year. It was one of my favorite events of the year. But let's be honest, us East Coasters know where the real action lives.

The conversations happening on that stage will be the same high value ones I was having in closed rooms at Cannes, except this time anyone can pull up a chair.

See you there!

^{Use code CREATORMATCH20 for 20% off all passes.}

That's a wrap on Cannes. Genuinely one of the most surreal weeks of my life. Feeling incredibly blessed and grateful, and I cannot be more stoked for what’s ahead (including CEL East lol).

Same time next year? But plz turn up the AC, lol.

— AJ

P.S. If you want to work with Creator Match (as a brand or a creator) — start here.