Cannes Briefing: Creativity is moving beyond the agency model

June 26, 2026

By Seb Joseph Bose CMO Jim Mollica hasn’t used a creative agency in four or five years, he told Digiday. One CPG CMO, overheard at a dinner this week, said they no longer believe in agencies of record. They want ideas to come from anywhere — a creative agency, a creator, even AI. Creator-owned StudioB founder Olly Lewis met with several CMOs this week who want creator-made shows, not TV ads, as the baseline for their advertising.

These are small examples but they point to something bigger. For the first time, a growing number of CMOs are thinking about creative more broadly than creative agencies. Those businesses don’t have a monopoly on it anymore.

“What we see from our own agency partners when we collaborate from the same starting point are more relevant campaigns that enhance the consumers’ in-the-moment experience — faster iteration, sharper formats, and work that adapts as audiences do,” said Corey Rados, head of global creative studio at Uber Advertising. “When AI is optimizing placements against real-time behaviors in milliseconds, brands need to build campaigns that can move fluidly with those signals. This makes closer collaboration across creative and media necessary.”Continue reading this article on digiday.com. Sign up for Digiday newsletters to get the latest on media, marketing and the future of TV. …read more

Source:: Digiday