Cannes Lions might be the craziest, busiest, most deal-making week of my entire year. It's not (just) a vacation, so treat it like that or stay home and save money imo.

👋 Welcome back to Content to Commas, your weekly playbook for turning content into authority, opportunities, and growth.

I'm writing to you from Cannes, France right now.

Landed on last week Sunday, spoke on 3 panels, hosted a mixer with Vayner, had a few brand dinners and brunches, and currently juggling a few brand deals.

… at this point, I've lost my voice and am writing this with all the energy I have left from lack of sleep (iykyk).

The coolest part this year was the number of people and brands that stopped me while I was walking to tell me my content about last year's Lions is the reason they showed up this year.

That’s what we do here … help people with content, so content can work for you.

This issue is about deciding if Cannes Lions is worth it for you, so you spend the money on purpose instead of on FOMO.

📌 In this issue:

Let's get to work.

— Brandon

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You should only come to Cannes Lions if you believe it grows your career, your network, or your wallet.

Don't come because it seems cool online.

This conference is very expensive, and I don't want to pretend otherwise.

Hotels, flights, food, Ubers, festival pass … $5K-8K on average.

So if you can't draw a straight line from this week to something that pays you back, I think you might be disappointed.

So before we get into planning, let's talk about who I think will benefit the most & how to attend in 2027.

Here’s a few cohorts, but this isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach.

This is your lane, and the barrier is lower than you think.

The Lions run Young Lions plus brand and creative academies, with real pathways in, including student passes. The academy programming isn't a side show. It's some of the best learning here, built to move your career forward.

If money is tight and you're early, you get to learn from people whose work you've studied and build a network years ahead of your peers.

Start laying the groundwork now.

Talk to your manager about the company covering it. Make the case that showing up sharpens your presence and your thinking.

Start before budget season closes, not the week tickets sell out.

You're not coming to "get better." You're coming because the best people in your field are all in one square mile for one week. That access doesn't exist anywhere else.

I talked to an exec who's been coming 7+ years when we were escaping the heat.

Even as the conference gets louder every year, he said this is still where his company inks most of their seven-figure deals. Revenue-wise … it never stops being worth it.

You get the south of France and a full day of conversations with people you'd chase for months back home. The setting does half the selling.

10 conversations here that would take ten months anywhere else. The math isn't close.

Year 3 of programming built for creators, and it grows every time. The creator presence feels like it doubles year over year.

So I'm expecting 4,000+ next year.

Creators fly in from the States, the UK, the UAE, and South America to work with brands, meet execs, and shoot the best content of their year.

But the money question gets real here, which is what the next section is for.

If your only reason is "everyone else is," that's not a reason. That's peer pressure with a plane ticket.

The city is small and it gets packed. Demand spikes for one week, and prices go somewhere unreasonable.

I saw one-way Delta economy flights for $18,000 this year.

Book this last minute and you're choosing between a flight that costs more than your rent and not coming at all.

The fix is simple.

You don't plan Cannes Lions a month ahead. You start two quarters ahead.

For creators, since the budget isn't just sitting there:

For brands and marketers, one underused move: split the cost. Share activation and travel with other brands. You don't have to carry the whole bill to have a presence.

Each week, I share simple plays on branding, monetization, and growth strategies, plus tools I actually use that you might've missed. Catch up in minutes.

Yes, these are affiliate links, but I really use them.

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