For more than 70 years, the Cannes Lions festival has brought marketing and advertising professionals to the South of France for a week of networking and deal-making. But in recent years, a new group has started showing up on the French Riviera: influencers. By 2026, they were right at the center of things—speaking on panels, attending lunches, dinners, and parties, and holding meetings along the Croisette.

For some, this was the deepest they’d ever stepped into the business side of content marketing. Cannes might be a glamorous place for a conference, but it’s still a conference. Most influencers built their online followings by being funny or inspiring, not because they were business experts. Now, brands are increasingly asking them to act as representatives at industry events—and to help shape marketing strategies behind the scenes.

“The role of an influencer or creator in 2026 looks very different from what it used to be,” says Shana Davis, founder of influencer marketing agency Ponte Firm. Caroline Wilson, an executive in UTA’s brand advisory group, describes creators as “a marketing strategy” in themselves, rather than just one part or an add-on to a larger marketing machine that operates separately from them.

These days, creators tend to be involved in brand campaigns from the start, not just brought in to boost them. Nikita Walia, strategy director at brand and venture studio Unnamed, who works at the intersection of creator and brand strategy, sees creators as businesspeople. “They understand their audiences, build their own intellectual property, and make smart decisions about positioning, partnerships, and growth,” she says. “The relationship is shifting from ‘make this content for us’ to ‘help us figure out what’s worth making in the first place.'”

As Vogue Business predicted at the start of the year, creators are being brought into the brand fold not just as talent or marketers, but as consultants. This is where the creator economy has been heading for a while, Davis says. “Creators are being taken more seriously, and those riding the next wave of success are moving beyond one-off content and thinking long-term.” Still, brands often don’t publicize the strategy work creators do with them.

Brandon Edelman, a TikToker known as Bran Flakezz with 1.4 million followers, posted from the festival that Cannes Lions felt like “Spring Break for your boss’s boss,” and was amazed at how business executives let loose during late nights. Edelman, who worked on the social media team at Gopuff before becoming a full-time creator, regularly posts about navigating brand partnerships and says companies have hired him to advise their teams on best practices for working with creators. “A lot of brands are like, ‘We need to use creators to also give us feedback and say, here’s what we’re doing wrong and here’s what we should be doing.'”

At the top end of the talent scale, Coach launched &Coach at Cannes Lions, a content series co-created with Gen Z creators and talent like Paige Bueckers, Angel Reese, Malala, and PinkPantheress. The project will keep evolving and shape how Coach works with creators behind the scenes. Beauty brands have led the way on this approach; earlier this month, Laura Mercier launched The Laura Mercier Collective, a group of creators hired to consult internally and represent the brand externally. Smart brands are tapping into creators’ expertise, which isn’t always about broad marketing tactics. Rhode, for example, brought beauty influencers Golloria George and Toni Bravo on as product consultants to improve its formulas and shade range; Bravo has given feedback on products like Rhode’s recent blush and bronzer launches. Still, brands often don’t publicize the strategy work creators do with them.

The shift is happening, but building the strategic planning skills and business know-how to not just promoteBrands’ products are one thing, but giving feedback on rollouts, budgets, and big-picture creative strategies is a much bigger ask—and a very different one from what influencers have traditionally been trained to do. Is this really what creators signed up for?

A unique skillset

Over the past year, brands have handed influencers more creative control, which many creators feel was long overdue. At Vogue Business’s Gen Z Summit last November, influencer Alix Earle pointed out that while her best-performing branded content is usually her less polished, off-the-cuff videos where she has full freedom, not all brand partners are open to that approach yet.

Experts agree that not doing so is a mistake. After all, 75% of Gen Zers say creator-made content feels more relevant than anything coming out of a brand’s boardroom, according to Archrival—yet 44% of marketers still rely on brand-scripted content.

A Microsoft-hosted panel on turning influence into business. Photo: Courtesy of Respective Collective

But many argue that giving creators freedom only at the execution stage doesn’t fully use what an influencer partner can offer. Having a creator’s perspective on the backend is genuinely valuable, says UTA’s Wilson. “A creator’s closeness to their audience is data a brand can’t get anywhere else. Bring that insight in at the strategy stage, not just during execution, and brands will stop building briefs that miss the mark.”

This gives creators a deeper understanding of channels, communities, and cultural codes than the brands hiring them, says Walia. “They have direct feedback loops with their audiences and can spot shifts in language, taste, and behavior before those changes show up in a formal research report.”

Despite this depth of context and insight, at Cannes Lions, many creators posted content about feeling out of place or overwhelmed at what is essentially a business conference. Experts agree that’s the fault of the brands and businesses inviting them—though they aren’t convinced it’s a bad thing.

“Creators shouldn’t have to show up at Cannes already fluent in the language, rituals, and hierarchies of the advertising industry. In some ways, their value comes from not being overly shaped by that world,” Walia says. “Their role can be to bring a more direct understanding of audiences, creativity, and contemporary culture into conversations that might otherwise become abstract or insular.”

Ben Harms, chief growth officer at Archrival, agrees. “Their unfiltered take on how the work actually lands is the only thing they have that all the marketers on the Croisette don’t,” he says. That said, he argues it’s the organizers’ responsibility to prepare invited creators to communicate their own expertise. “If you invite someone to a business conference, brief them like a business partner. Most creator invites are photo ops dressed up as inclusion—and they can feel it.”

Cannes Lions brought together traditional marketing execs and savvy content creators. Photo: Vianney Tisseau/Variety via Getty Images

The burden of business

What this discussion at Cannes made clear is that the business and strategy side of the influencer marketing industry is a very different job, and it’s not one every creator can or wants to do.

Some are eager. Influencer Luciana Fuller recently took part in a fireside chat with CPG company Reckitt and influencer marketing firm Influential, alongside one other creator and about 20 executives, she recalls. “It was definitely a cool experience, but more than anything, it showed me that they valued our perspective beyond just making content,” she says. But she thinks there would be real value in bringing creators into the actual campaign process earlier on.

Fuller remembers being on set for a retailer campaign. “The entire time I had ideas running through my head. Not because they weren’t doing a great job, but because I kept thinking, ‘Oh, this would be so relatable,’ or ‘I know exactly how this would land with my audience.’ It made me wonder whether brands everBring creators in before the campaign is already built.
Wilson notes that some creators are more open to this than others. “Some are building their own product lines and businesses, and they genuinely want that strategic involvement. Others simply want to make great content in their own voice. It’s important to be able to tell the difference and use creators where they’re strongest.”

Walia points out that being close to an audience isn’t the same as knowing how to build a lasting business or brand. “There’s a real skill in connecting artistry and cultural relevance to commercial and creative results over time,” she says. Harms agrees, adding that good instincts aren’t a strategy. “Knowing what your 40,000 followers want isn’t the same as knowing what a category needs. Brands mix those up all the time—then they blame the creator,” he says.

Read More
How Influencer Marketing Is Changing in 2026
By Madeleine Schulz

Walia worries that as budgets shrink and CMOs face more pressure to show quick results, creator involvement could become just another short-term tactic rather than part of a thoughtful long-term plan. “Creators can offer valuable cultural and audience insights, but they shouldn’t be expected to replace every other form of strategic, marketing, or operational expertise.”

Experts agree that creators now have more leverage than before, so they’re in a better position to decide how involved they want to be on the strategy side—even as brands become more eager to include them. Harms says that smart creators who aren’t interested in getting into consumer brand business are building their own subscription revenue so they don’t have to take on such opportunities. It’s a safe bet: 52% of Gen Zs like directly supporting creators financially, according to Archrival, which gives influencers more power, he argues.

Plus, at this stage, it’s not a guaranteed income boost, experts warn. At the start of the year, influencer agents noted that many influencers would be willing to take on a consultancy role at no extra cost. “Our influencers want to feel part of the creative process, often willing to serve as a creative consultant for free alongside content creation,” Davis said at the time.

But this sets a risky precedent, experts agree, noting that creators need to be paid and prepared for any extra work. “The key is that brands don’t quietly expand the creator’s role without adjusting the pay, access, or authority that comes with it,” Walia says. “Asking someone to advise on the business, share audience insights, or shape strategy is different from asking them to make a piece of content.”

A new model
The paid precedent opens the door for a new creator industry model where talent is much more closely tied to brands, experts agree. This might mean creators are brought in earlier in the process, but it could go even deeper, Davis notes, pointing to the rise of equity deals. “Flat fees still work when the relationship is campaign-specific rather than built around long-term shared growth,” she says. “But as more creators start thinking like business owners, I expect these longer-term, equity-based partnerships to become a much bigger part of how brands and creators work together.” For example, skincare brand ESW Beauty announced that influencers Katie Fang and Aliya Rachinski had become the brand’s first creator equity partners, taking an ownership stake in the company.

In this next era, brands need to set creators up for success—both in the boardroom and in spaces like the beachside compounds at Cannes Lions. “Brands and platforms have a responsibility to give creators context and meaningful ways to participate,” Walia says. “It’s not enough to invite them for visibility and then leave them to figure out a conference that wasn’t designed with them in mind.”

Brands need to give creators full context to best use their skills and expertise, HarmHe says this means giving up creative control. “When creators lead the story, the work feels more original and more human,” he explains. “It only works if you truly let them take charge.”

More from this author:
Could This Yacht Reverse Aging?
With Neon Rebels, Maisonette Targets the Tween Market
How to Pull Off an Influencer Trip in 2026

Frequently Asked Questions
Here is a list of FAQs tailored to the topic Are creators ready for their new marketing responsibilities

General Definitions

Q What exactly are new marketing responsibilities for creators
A It means creators are no longer just making videos or posts Brands now expect them to act like fullfledged marketing partners This includes understanding campaign goals hitting specific sales targets analyzing data and ensuring their content fits into a larger advertising strategy

Q Why are brands pushing these responsibilities onto creators now
A Because it works Consumers trust people over ads Brands have realized that creators can move product not just build audiences As the creator economy matures brands want to track return on investment so they are treating creators like media channels instead of just artists

Q Is being a creator now the same as being a marketer
A Not entirely but the lines are blurring A marketer focuses on the brands goal a creator focuses on the audiences interest The new responsibility is to marry the twocreating content that serves the audience but also drives the brands business objectives

Readiness Skill Gaps

Q Are most creators actually ready for this shift
A Honestly no Most are ready to create but not all are ready to strategize Many lack formal training in areas like conversion tracking funnel building or media buying However the best ones are fast learners who adapt quickly

Q What is the biggest skill creators are missing
A Data literacy Many creators know how to read likes and comments but they struggle with metrics like clickthrough rates conversion rates or customer acquisition costs They need to understand why a video sold a product not just why it was entertaining

Q Im a beginner Do I need to learn all this right away
A No If you are small just focus on storytelling and engagement As you grow and start taking paid deals you need to learn the basics of brand goals Start by asking the brand What does success look like for this campaign That is the first step to being ready

Practical Challenges Problems