Sparks and ADWEEK Bring CMOs to Cannes for an Afternoon at Le Palais Bulles

Cannes Lions draws the marketing industry's attention to Cannes for one week each year, but ADWEEK's Marketing Vanguard community treats the festival differently: as a chance to get its invitation-only network of CMOs together, away from the main conference halls, for something less transactional. This year, that meant the Marketing Vanguard Inspiration Excursion — one of the most exclusive gatherings the program hosts annually — held at Le Palais Bulles.

Built into a cliffside above the Mediterranean and once home to Pierre Cardin, the house is made almost entirely of curves — a series of interlocking domes designed by architect Antti Lovag, who avoided straight lines wherever he could.

Sparks co-hosted this year's excursion with ADWEEK, joining a group of brand-side leaders who make up Marketing Vanguard: senior marketers given access, intelligence, and influence at a moment when the role itself is being rewritten.

The centerpiece was a conversation between supermodel and entrepreneur Ashley Graham and Marisa Thalberg, EVP and Chief Customer and Marketing Officer at Catalyst Brands, who spoke candidly about what collaboration actually looks like in practice, and about fashion as a form of self-expression and human connection.

It's the kind of afternoon Cannes Lions doesn't usually make room for: no stage, no panel format, just a couple of hours with the people who sit closest to a brand's biggest decisions. For Sparks, that's a worthwhile way to spend a week otherwise built around noise.

Photography by Ivan Piedra.