Charlotte Mceleny returns to discuss Cannes Lions 2026: the creator economy's growing dominance, the industry's fixation on "culture," and renewed momentum behind CCOs and organisational trust. The conversation turns to GEO and AI search's parallels with early SEO, before closing on the Gen Z-led political movements reshaping communications across Asia.

Earned First's Cannes podcast series concludes with Omnicom PR CEO Chris Foster, who joins Arun Sudhaman for a wide-ranging conversation about creativity, culture, CCOs and consolidation.

Foster reflects on what he sees as a shift in creativity toward influence, and what that means for earned media in an AI-driven landscape. He also examines the growing prominence of CCOs at Cannes, the relationship between geopolitics and market access, and what the best creative work of the week tells us.

Seven months into the creation of the new Omnicom PR, he also opens up about the lessons of integration, on communication, culture and what it takes to make a network feel like more than the sum of its parts.

Craig Buchholz, US CEO of Burson, joins Earned First at Cannes Lions 2026 the day after the agency's Kit Kat Heist campaign won the PR Lions Grand Prix. He discusses what made it work: a crisis reframed as cultural opportunity, bravery as a prerequisite for award-winning ideas, and the "culture up" philosophy that sits at the heart of Burson's earned-first approach.

The conversation also covered the CCO's evolving role in the C-suite: from brand protector to enterprise growth advisor, and the degree to which that elevation turns on individual relationships as much as institutional structure. Buchholz, a former CCO at both General Motors and Procter & Gamble, also addresses what it takes to keep a seat at the table once it's secured, the growing presence of investors and private equity at Cannes, and what it signals about where the communications industry is heading.