TikTok at Cannes Lions 2026

Cannes, France

2026

Industry: Tech

Creative Team - - Environmental: myself. Graphics: Kenneth Liew, Joy Seet, Eduardo Lopez y Lopez. Copy: Heliz Mazouri. Design Director: Hamilton Tamayo

Events Director: Yvette Banks.

Production: Jack Morton Worldwide. Fabrication: MAC

Event photography: Matt Monfredi

This event was the official debut of TikTok’s refreshed brand to the world, with a more elevated look and feel. With this new look, the aim was to showcase that the platform’s strength as a strategic place for brands to attract and engage with their customers. In a twist, we opted to get more minimal this go around, with less activations and instead one impactful story that communicated the year’s messaging of “Watch It. Love it. Want it.”

Site: Carlton Hotel Cannes, France

This is the fourth year for TikTok’s presence inside the Carlton Hotel’s central garden. Each year, the challenge with the growing amount of greenery is ensuring that the most is made of the footprint available to build on.

The Structure: La Cintree

New tent, who dis? After three years of using Atypique’s Le Retro, we wanted to embark on a fresh and more open structure — opting for the La Cintree tent with its curved pitch and fully open space, leaving behind the columns from the Retro.

A New Set-up

For the first time, guests would not be entering the TikTok Garden through the hotel. Instead, the initial point of entry was set to be outside along the periphery of the hotel. This presented a new challenge with branding the entrance experience, as guests would wait to enter into a hallway and then proceed into the Garden.

TikTok’s Brand Refresh - a brief overview

Pivoting from its earlier palette of brights, TikTok changed its colors to reflect the brand’s new direction. It’s still grounded in trademark teal & red hues, called “Glint” and “Blaze”, along with black and white as its core four. Now it includes a new set of optimized secondary light, dark, and neutral hues. The major new element is the Spark, introduced with supporting secondary elements that all draw from characteristics from the iconic TikTok Note.

Developing the New Exterior Cladding

A new tent with a new entrance and guest flow called for a fresh new exterior! The Spark decidedly had to be the star of the show and key brand signifier since it centers the known TikTok Note. I created a “ripple” version of it to outfit the front and pool side of the tent, and for the entry/exit side an open version to frame the doors. To help it stand out, I paired the Glint color with white to reflect the beachy energy of being in a garden near the French Riviera.

Development included other options of the Note and a secondary container shape.

For the interior of the tent, working with an open space enabled me to look at different ways to plan how this year’s story came to life. Speaker programming is a major activity and always draws in large audiences for talks on stage, so I and the event director made the executive decision to increase the footprint allotted to programming for increased seating capacity. Always with a “hero” wall that separates this space from the rest of the garden, I ideated in the sketches below on a variety of divider options, seating setups, and activation placement to sort out the new guest flow.

  • Early concepts for the overall spatial layout

  • Ideation sketches on the programming space and divider wall concepts

  • Ideation sketches on the programming space and divider wall concepts

  • Getting a little more detailed on exploratory programming area concepts + a fun entryway structure

  • Getting a little more detailed on exploratory programming area concepts + a fun entryway structure

  • Ideation sketches on the whole garden experience

  • Some minimalist approaches to the main space

  • Concept sketches for ways to approach the divider wall openings, guest flow, and programming space setup

  • Concept sketches for ways to approach the divider wall openings, guest flow, and programming space setup

  • Concept sketches for ways to approach the divider wall openings, guest flow, and programming space setup

CANNES 2026 RENDERINGS

This year’s look was minimalist and elevated. The hero wall continues to display the overhead key messaging moment on the main space side, with the TikTok logo over the programming side. I also continued the space-saving tradition of the central aperture doubling as a backdrop for evening entertainment. With a slightly smaller main space, the creative team opted for one main activation, a product station, and a space for content capture with live shopping. I repurposed key elements and worked with Jack Morton WW incorporating a/c into the tent, and created wall seating nooks to supplement general seating. I partnered with 2D design lead Ken Liew on outfitting the space with bold color blocking, messaging, and photography for an elegant, impactful experience.

The New Exterior

The big bold Sparks came to life in a clean polished white with Glint “waves” emanating from them. At night, Jack Morton WW lighting lead Joe Lite created a beautiful effect with the brand colors uplighting the exterior and surrounding greenery.

  • The new queuing area in the hallway between outside the hotel and the central Garden. Graphics by Ken Liew

  • Spark entrance into the TikTok Garden

  • View into the Main space featuring general seating, activations, with food & bev service.

  • Seating nook, the “Ask The Experts” product station, and the main fragrance activation. I repurposed the two powered high tables, recolored with the brand’s new green hue “Thrive”. Graphics by Ken Liew

  • “Maison des Notes” fragrance lab activation is a collaboration with Olfactory, a custom perfumery. Each scent is based off of the platform’s hottest trends. The Spark corner blends along in the Thrive color block.

  • This corner served as a space for guests to take pics or make TikToks, and also the backdrop for TikTok Live selling. I created small block letter signs of the year’s core messaging “Watch it. Love it. Want it” as part of the composition

  • The bar has been good to us! I reused it again here and gave it a simple texture. Fewer seating vignettes allowed for greater ease when flipping the space for the evening entertainment hours

  • The daytime setup of the main space, this time with less general seating. The hero wall message “Make things people love” hovers over the aperture that opens into the programming space, while the screen totems display the programming schedule.

  • The Programming space all in solid Blaze color, had capacity increased to 70+ guests with nooks and standing room. This solved for a big demand in increasing the viewing capacity and eliminating excess queues in the main space

  • Programming space

  • The main stage included a larger platform and I repurposed the two large screen totems from previous years. TikTok logo and the core “Watch it. Love it. Want it.” messaging on the aperture panels

  • A larger main stage size solved for a demand for more speakers and panelists at a time

  • Big bold canvas photography framed both of the programming area’s seating nooks

  • Beautiful brand color exterior uplighting at night. Lighting designer: Joe Lite (Jack Morton WW)

Meeting Rooms

For this year’s meeting rooms, we wanted to create a backdrop with warmth, texture, and utility. I designed two versions: one as a storage bench and one without. Infusing the wood slats from the texture and material palette I developed for the brand, 2D lead Kenneth Liew created the central graphic with the Spark and main message. I partnered with event director Yvette Banks on styling and furniture selects.

The refreshed and elevated branding on display at Cannes Lions 2026 had an incredible reception and turn out welcoming nearly 5000 attendees. The Garden and meeting room spaces received several accolades from TikTok executives for their sleek new look. The fragrance activation, in partnership with Olfactory, drew in guests eager to learn of the brand’s trends and take away specially formulated trend-driven scent combos for the event. This year’s Cannes drew in the highest revenue to date compared to years previous.

Renderings showcasing both versions of the backdrop in two of the meeting rooms. Each meeting room had a different sized one.

Evening Entertainment and Happy Hour

Always a major attraction, the TikTok Garden Happy Hour in the main space welcomes all to come have a drink and dance the evening away with live entertainment from featured musical artists and DJ’s. This year included a game night showcasing a World Cup match, performances from Ja Rule, and an end of Cannes Lions week grand finale performance from DJ D-Nice. The house gets packed and is always a ton of fun.

Lighting design: Joe Lite (Jack Morton WW)

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