Stagwell’s ‘Sport Beach’ campaign won Gold in Experiential Networking at The Drum Awards, blending sport, networking, and culture to create a transformative professional engagement platform at Cannes Lions.
Cannes Lions is the world’s largest gathering of marketers and agencies. Every June, holding companies create lounges, yachts, and panels designed to showcase visibility and foster relationships. The landscape is crowded and predictable.
Stagwell entered Cannes with the mindset of a challenger: bold, inventive, and determined to build a platform that would elevate its brand and provide meaningful networking opportunities that went beyond traditional meet-and-greets.
The brief:
Create a networking environment where meaningful professional connections could form organically.
Build an ownable, repeatable platform that facilitates collaboration between agencies, clients, athletes, and cultural innovators.
Deliver measurable business outcomes for Stagwell, its agencies, and partners.
The challenge:
Most Cannes activations offered superficial engagement. There was an opportunity to design a networking experience that combined participation, content, and cultural relevance in a single environment.
Cultural Insight
Sport is a universal language and a catalyst for authentic connection. Athletes are entrepreneurs and cultural leaders, and shared experiences around sport can break down barriers, foster trust, and create lasting professional relationships.
Cannes lacked a space where sport could accelerate connections between marketers, agencies, brands, and cultural influencers. Stagwell seized this opportunity to craft a platform that blends play, business, and networking.
The Strategy
Sport Beach was designed as a networking-first environment that naturally encourages collaboration and interaction.
Fandom as Connection
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Physical arenas on the beach: basketball, futsal, pickleball, and open workouts.
Attendees, athletes, and brand representatives interact in shared, high-energy activities, creating memorable relationship-building opportunities.
Functionality as Business Impact
Curated stage programming with 170+ speakers and 40+ panels on sport, business, and culture.
Closed-door workshops and VIP dinners connecting CMOs, innovators, and athletes in meaningful conversations.
Two content studios producing 190+ interviews, amplifying connections beyond the beach.
The strategy merged play with purpose, ensuring that networking was both organic and high-value, driving tangible business outcomes.
The Execution
The Build
Courts and open-play areas created shared activity zones that naturally prompted introductions and interactions.
Modular cabanas hosted workshops, meetings, and brand showcases, providing semi-private spaces for relationship development.
Athlete-led sessions served as networking catalysts, giving participants authentic access to cultural influencers.
Not everyone plays basketball - the versatility of programming played an instrumental role in empowering connections. Between swim clubs or yoga, breakfast on the terrace, dinners and even a speakeasy, guests found low barrier entry points into business. All hosted within an arena that could keep up with the changing formats.
Year One – The Spark (2023):
A bold experiment, creating a new networking model at Cannes beyond standard lounges and panels.
Year Two – The Transformation (2024):
Sport Beach became a cultural and professional hub with 7,434 attendees and 30+ pro athletes, demonstrating its capacity to foster meaningful connections.
Year Three – The Ecosystem (2025):
Elevated to official sports partner of Cannes Lions and expanded to CES, Super Bowl, SXSW, and the US Open. Sport Beach crystallized Stagwell’s ethos: do not just show up where culture happens. Build a networking arena for it.
TEAM and Cheerful Twentyfirst’s Role
Sport Beach exists because of a three-year trusted partnership between Stagwell, TEAM, and Cheerful Twentyfirst. Together we have spanned time zones, navigated complex logistics, and combined distinct expertise to ensure every networking opportunity is purposeful, seamless, and memorable.
This collaboration allows speakers, sponsors, and athletes to return year after year, confident that Sport Beach is the most impactful networking environment at Cannes. Every decision—from programming to participant flow—reflects the synergy between Stagwell, TEAM, and Cheerful Twentyfirst.
The Networking Experience
Sport Beach was not designed for passive spectators. It was designed to facilitate professional interaction.
CMOs ran alongside Sir Mo Farah, creating informal relationship-building moments.
Brand teams played basketball with Dwyane Wade, sparking authentic conversations.
Creatives engaged with athletes in open-play activities, breaking down hierarchical and organizational barriers.
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Informal challenges and group workouts generated organic networking and social media visibility, extending connections beyond the beach.
No velvet ropes or off-limit zones. Every activity encouraged collaboration, discussion, and shared experience. In post-event surveys, attendees consistently noted: “I formed more meaningful connections here than at any other Cannes event.”
Why It Matters
Sport Beach redefined professional networking at Cannes. Speakers, sponsors, and athletes return year after year because it is the environment that fosters authentic connection, cultural engagement, and measurable business impact.
The three-year partnership between Stagwell, TEAM, and Cheerful Twentyfirst ensures that each activation leverages strategy, creativity, and operational expertise to deliver an elevated networking experience. The event proves that experiential networking can go beyond traditional introductions to create lasting professional relationships, knowledge exchange, and real business outcomes.
Business Results
What set this year apart was not just who came, but how they showed up. Athletes did not just hit the stage, they stayed. They participated in roundtables with CMOs, lingered after panels, and built authentic connections with more than 85 global brands, 27 agencies, and 18 media partners. That depth of engagement is a core KPI: proof that Sport Beach is not just an activation, but a catalyst for business and lasting collaboration.
'Sport Beach' at a Glance:
6,343 total attendees
45 A-list athletes
193 content studio interviews
41 main stage panels
35 Fortune 100 companies
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18 media outlets
89 brands on stage
8.6B digital and print impressions
276K social engagements
Brand Partnership Pipeline: Created an ecosystem where 89 brands gained stage presence alongside 45 athletes, with Fortune 100 participation underscoring 'Sport Beach' as a premium brand elevation platform.
Industry Trendsetting Authority: Panels on creator-athlete partnerships and empowerment predated Cannes Lions’ own Creators Program, positioning participants as industry leaders.
Measurable Commercial Impact: 30+ executive roundtables and private sessions documented partnerships, deals, and alliances formed onsite.
Premium Audience Quality: Attracted CMOs and senior leaders from JPMorganChase, Visa, PepsiCo, Diageo, Adobe, Mercedes-Benz, Netflix, and more, connecting brands with decision-makers controlling billion-dollar budgets.
Cultural Currency Generator: Elevated participating brands through authentic athlete partnerships and content moments that resonated with younger demographics.
Year-Round Amplification: Extended value through activations at World Economic Forum, Super Bowl, SXSW, and the US Open, ensuring continued visibility for sponsors across the calendar year.
The Emotional Hook
Sport Beach shows that the most valuable professional connections happen when people move, play, and interact together.
By designing networking that is participatory, energetic, and culture-driven, 'Sport Beach' demonstrates the future of professional engagement: authentic, memorable, and business-forward.
Ready to get your work recognized on a global stage? Enter The Drum Awards today. Need more inspiration? Read our Award Winning Case Studies.
Stagwell
Stagwell is a global marketing and communications group founded in 2015 by Mark Penn.