Sport Beach ran for four days during the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity in June in Cannes, France.Photo: Stagwell's Sport Beach
CANNES, FRANCE—Every year, the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity impresses a seen-it-all crowd of brand marketers and event professionals. This year was no exception (see our coverage here), but one massive activation certainly had people talking for the duration of its four-day run at the French fest: Sport Beach.
From marketing and communications network Stagwell, Sport Beach returned to Cannes for its third year with an expanded roster of athletes and sponsors. The goal was to represent a broader scope of sport—from rugby fan-favorite Ilona Maher to F1 star George Russell—while creating opportunities for vital meetings and networking, without losing the original spirit of the activation.
"This spirit is key," says Georgina Burrows, head of strategy for Cheerful Twentyfirst, the brand experience agency that Stagwell partnered with for the third time to produce the activation, along with TEAM. "Sport Beach is the only place on the Croisette where you can shoot hoops alongside NBA stars, play, and network—and where sports stars and marketers are on a completely level playing field."
This year, Sport Beach comprised 41 panels, 147 speakers, 43 athletes, and 11 morning workouts. More than 6,300 people checked in across the four live days.
Sport Beach housed panels, meetings, networking opportunities, plus a host of sports activities like basketball and pickleball.Photo: Stagwell's Sport Beach
Highlights included Serena Williams teasing news of her upcoming podcast and memoir; Mo Farah leading a guided morning run; and (new this year) the Sport Beach Speakeasy with food, wine, and no phones allowed. "[This] gave guests the chance to enjoy our space unlike ever before," says Beth Sidhu, Stagwell's chief brand and communications officer.
To differentiate the design from last year, while still using the same amount of space, Cheerful Twentyfirst built upward to create new double-decker spaces.
"We took inspiration from everything—from a washing bowl to the Superbowl, via gladiatorial arenas and the promenade decks of ocean liners—to create the ‘thunderdome,’ a circular truss structure with a ticker screen all around," Burrows says.
The thunderdome was used to provide lighting for dinners, but it ultimately created a focal point for content and sports activities alike.
That's one of the inherent challenges of producing an activation like this, one that houses both panel sessions and meetings, but also... hockey. And workout classes. And basketball, pickleball, volleyball, and a wine and spirits festival.
"Nearly all of the 70+ sponsors have their own swag, plus games equipment, set dressing, and multiple space flips," Burrows explains. "Plus, we have very limited storage on the beach. Our logistics team had to have a regimented system to move all physical items between two storage units, an offsite production office, and the beach."
More than 6,300 people checked in across the four live days.Photo: Stagwell's Sport Beach
Sport Beach was also packed with programming, from 6 a.m. to midnight. Burrows says there were no fewer than 15 events and meetings happening at any one time.
"We flip the court and decks multiple times throughout the day," she adds. "For this, we have an incredibly tight schedule and a crack team on hand, who can work quickly and efficiently to ensure everything runs smoothly."
And run smoothly it did, despite other inherent, beach-related challenges like rain, wind, tides, and heat. Attendees were able to do things like spend a morning running alongside an Olympic champion, customize bags with Adobe, and learn life lessons from a tennis icon.
"There are few moments in my life I’ve found myself speechless, but meeting Billie Jean King was certainly one of them," Sidhu says. "Hearing her share three life lessons on our stage—relationships are everything; keep learning; and keep learning how to learn—is a moment I’ll never forget."
Burrows concludes that producing Sport Beach is a marathon, not a sprint.
"We work on it nearly all year round and spend two weeks building the space before the first guest sets foot in the arena," she says. "From the initial concept to the final moment of derig, the team is everything. Success in a project that is as complex as Sport Beach comes down to this team’s hard work, skill, and graft, as well as the trust—between each other and between us and Stagwell."
Sidhu concurs: "Sport Beach is a team sport; we wouldn’t have had the incredible success and turnout we had this year without our incredible agencies, partners, and clients showing up the way they did."
Keep scrolling for more photos and insights from Sport Beach 2025...
