Our columnist, Chloe Singleton, group media and influence director, eight&four, looks how creators are becoming part of the fabric of modern marketing...

Three headlines. One clear message. 

If Cannes confirmed anything this year, it's that creators have officially moved from the edge of the marketing mix to its very centre. And it wasn't just the conversations happening on stage that pointed to this shift. Over the past few weeks, three headlines have reinforced the same goal from different angles:  

1. Cannes Lions was dominated by the USD$1.35tn (£1.08tn) creator economy as budgets continue to shift away from traditional media 
2. Forbes highlighted the rise of C-suite leaders as creators in their own right 
3. Unilever revealed an update to their World Cup strategy built around 50,000 creators

Individually, they're punchy headlines, right? Together, they point to something much bigger: creators are becoming the infrastructure that modern marketing is built on. 

500 creators spoke at Cannes Lions 2026

For years, Cannes Lions has been the epicentre of marketing holy grail, reflecting the winners and north stars of the marketing industry - "Shall we try and win a Cannes Lion this year", agencies around the world say. 

But this year, it reflected something much bigger: a redistribution of influence. More than 500 creators took to the stage, not as guest speakers or entertainment between keynotes, but as experts, strategists, and business leaders.  

Alongside the headlines forecasting a USD$1.35tn (£108tn) creator economy and continued budget shifts away from traditional media (as we’ve truly been hearing for the last 10 years), the festival itself became a signal of where attention, investment, and authority are moving.  

Creators are no longer being invited into the room to talk about content - they're helping shape the future of marketing itself. And perhaps that's the biggest shift of all. The industry is no longer asking whether creators belong in the media mix; it's redesigning the media mix around them. 

C-Suite leaders become creators 

Perhaps the most interesting evolution isn't happening outside organisations, but within them. Forbes highlighted a growing trend of founders, CEOs, and senior leaders becoming creators in their own right. Instead of stuffy corporate communications, they’re building audiences through snappy and pizzazzy LinkedIn thought leadership pieces, one-liners in podcasts, and soundbites in social content. 

As AI makes content easier to produce, expertise, personality, and lived experience become increasingly valuable differentiators. Trust is shifting from institutions to individuals, and the people with the deepest understanding of a business are increasingly becoming some of its most influential marketers.  

The question for brands is no longer, "Which creators should we work with?" but "Who inside our organisation already has something worth following?" 

Unilever’s 50,000 creator World Cup Strategy 

There’s perhaps no clearer signal of where marketing is heading than Unilever’s latest FIFA World Cup Strategy - a campaign built with a force of 50,000 creators, across 120 markets, supporting over 35 brands. These numbers aren’t the story, the mindset is. For one of the world’s biggest advertisers, the priority wasn’t extending reach, it was to find, build, and activate a complex ecosystem of creators embedded into the right conversations, communities, and cultures.  

As Dove’s head of purpose and engagement, Kathryn Fernandez, put it, this was a “Super Bowl every two days” - a reflection of the pace and scale of cultural moments that traditional campaigns cannot keep up with.  

The criteria mix also reflects where influence is heading. Alongside the expected lifestyle, fashion, and beauty creators were sports fans, 'alpha fans', former footballers, broadcasters, CEOs, and founders who were invited to pop ups and live matches. All in all, it’s again that reminder that influence no longer belongs in a single category; it’s expertise, it’s lived experience, and it’s cultural proximity.  

Creators are replacing certainty

Here’s the takeaway for any brand: instead of spending months trying to craft the perfect message, invest in the people who already understand the communities you want to reach. They already speak the language your audience trusts. And don’t forget to look inside your own organisation. Your most powerful voices may have been hiding there all along.