Happy hump day from France.

We’re already halfway through the festival, thanks to this year’s shortened schedule. Cannes Lions organizers went out of their way to bolster the value proposition this year, cutting the week from five days to four and creating a “convince the CFO kit.” But veterans note that attendance feels low, the sidewalks and beaches are less crowded, and no major news has broken (yet).

In another sign that Cannes might be tired of … Cannes, an increasing number of companies from Flipboard to R/GA are whisking small groups of people out of the town to places like Antibes and Grasse for intimate seaside dinners and secluded pool parties. London ad-tech company Captify invited our video team to its estate in the hills of Le Val de Mougins for a day of lounging (see FOMO photo above).

During a talk at Adweek’s Creative 100 celebration on the roof of the JW Marriott last night, Sir John Hegarty, creative chair in residence at Screenvision Media, said the festival has “lost a little bit of that sense of creativity. I keep hearing conversations about platforms—I don’t need to catch a train. Can we talk about an idea?” He added that “Cannes is constantly changing, constantly evolving, constantly responding to the industry. Sometimes it gets it right, sometimes wrong.”

The mood of the festival reflects the mood of the industry, added Eva Santos Bouzas, global chief creative of Proximity Worldwide. “We are living in a big change, and I believe it’s interesting because we need a change,” she told the crowd. “It’s a transition period. Guys, what is the next stage for this festival and for our job?”

You can contemplate all of this at tonight’s Y&R Moonlight on the Promenade, a quiet affair on the beach that promises “no drinks, no music, just you and us and a telescope pointed at the cosmos.”

Thoughtfully yours,

Stephanie Paterik
Managing Editor

Adam Rippon on failure in artistry

Adam Rippon, who this year became the first openly gay athlete to win a medal at the Winter Olympics, said artists owe a lot to failure. A few years ago, he was rejected from the U.S. team, and a year ago he was nursing an injury. “Not making the Olympic team changed my entire life, and breaking my foot was the best thing that ever happened to me because it really put me in a place where I needed to be grateful for what I had and put me in a mindset where I had to push forward or crumble, and to crumble is never an option for me,” he said before snapping a photo with Adweek’s edit team at the Creative 100. We have already framed this and mailed it back to our cubicles.

A stat that’s getting attention

When female-friendly social and dating app Bumble stopped requiring a Facebook account to sign up, it saw a 40 percent uptick in new users, said founder Whitney Wolfe Herd. And the service is about to hit 40 million members. Read more about Herd’s conversation with Hearst content guru Joanna Coles here.

Observations from our Agencies Editor

“So far, everything is even keel and risk-averse. Not only are agencies sticking to familiar topics like why technology and creativity don’t have to be antagonists, but attendance is down at most events. There’s a general sense that everyone wants to play things by the books, with the week’s biggest news items to date concerning a crackdown on fake influencers and a new holding group from the former CEOs of Droga5 and Untitled Worldwide.” —Patrick Coffee

Observations from our Agencies Editor

“You’re probably going to be in flight-or-fight all week, even though you’re in a beautiful place like Cannes,” said Elena Litvack, who recently gave Adweek employees a tune up. Here are three easy hacks for staying focused today:

“Set an alarm on your phone and say, ‘I’m going to take three breaths, sit outside in the sun or have a tea.’ Put it in your calendar, and it reminds you when you’re in a such high-paced environment.
I’m big on breath. For this, you don’t even need to go anywhere. Pause, take a big breath in and out, and then continue. When things are spinning out of control and you feel overwhelmed, pause—that’s the simplest thing you can do. You can even be in the middle of a conversation.
Do one thing at a time. We think we can multitask, but that’s actually an illusion and we’re just splitting our attention from one thing to the next. Pulling things apart and taking them one at a time can prevent becoming overwhelmed in the first place.”