Effie Academy at Cannes Lions
If it’s not effective, it’s not marketing at all...
Ready to take your marketing effectiveness to the next level? Effie Academy at Cannes Lions offers a unique, full-week experience at the Festival, designed to give you the courage, confidence, and judgment to create effective work.
The Effie Academy at Cannes Lions Programme
Guided by the Effie Framework – a proven four-pillar methodology for driving marketing effectiveness and the core of the Effie Awards – this immersive programme explores every facet of marketing effectiveness and brings theory to life with stellar real-world effectiveness cases that highlight what truly works, while putting you at the heart of the industry’s most influential conversations.
You’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at proven effectiveness strategies, and exclusive access to insights from top industry leaders through handpicked Cannes Lions sessions.
Connect with a high-calibre network of decision makers. Get VIP entry to exclusive events. And walk away with actionable takeaways to elevate your marketing approach long after the Festival ends.
Effie Academy at Cannes Lions Programme Package 2025
Your registration guarantees your place in the programme and includes:
- a Gold Cannes Lions pass
- a pre-Festival orientation with your cohort, led by Effie Academy Effectiveness Coaches
- exclusive access to the Global Effie Awards Best of the Best Winners Cocktail Party
- three months of post-Festival access to the Effie Fundamentals online programme.
Who is it for?
You’re a mid- to senior-level marketer with 8–15 years of experience working across brands, agencies or platforms. You drive business growth, manage budgets, and oversee key client and account relationships.
This programme is ideal for:
- brand leaders – brand directors and senior managers or above
- agency executives – VPs and directors across strategy, planning, communications, and creative, at director level and above
- media - client solutions managers at senior level and above.
Please note: To ensure an enriching and well-balanced learning experience, we carefully select participants from a variety of disciplines and company types. Our goal is to foster a dynamic environment that maximises the learning potential for all attendees. We reserve the right to manage the composition of the group to maintain this balance, which may include offering an alternate pass. If you have any questions about the programme, feel free to reach out to Nisha Stephen, who leads our Effie Academy at nisha@effie.org.
How it works
Effie Academy at Cannes Lions is a week-long guided experience. The programme kicks off with two curated days of Festival content, immersing you in world-class creativity and effectiveness insights. You’ll then dive into an intensive 2.5-day workshop that delivers:
- proven insights into what makes ‘ideas that work’, with exercises and discussions based on Effie’s globally recognised framework
- a mix of theory and hands-on application, including a mock judging experience to sharpen your strategic skills
- candid discussions with industry leaders on how to turn best practices into real-life success
- exceptional networking opportunities with cross-industry marketers to widen your perspective and expand your connections.
The programme is grounded in Effie’s four-pillar framework for marketing effectiveness:
- Pillar 1 – Challenge, Context, Objectives | Diagnosis How to define business challenges and market context, and explore growth opportunities.
- Pillar 2 – Insights & Strategy | Challenge to Solution How to craft a strategic idea rooted in powerful insights.
- Bringing the Strategy & Idea to Life | Strategy to Activation How to translate strategy into impactful and relevant activities.
- Pillar 4 – Results | Impact How to measure success and extract key learnings for future work.
Effie Academy at Cannes Lions goes beyond theory. It’s a hands-on experience designed to elevate your strategic thinking, spark creativity, and make effectiveness part of your everyday work. You’ll leave with the tools, insights, and inspiration to drive real business impact.
If you have any questions about the programme, feel free to reach out to Nisha Stephen (nisha@effie.org).
Effie Academy Effectiveness Coaches
Hayley Spurling
Hayley is an experienced marketer, management consultant, and trainer. She specialises in building marketing capabilities to attract, develop, and retain people – lifting their performance to drive growth.
Over more than 20 years, her career has spanned leading companies and exciting brands at Tesco, BBC, Coca-Cola, Brand Learning, and Accenture. Hayley has worked with clients across the world, taking her to Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the United States.
Her cross-industry and cross-cultural experience ensures she’s both knowledgeable and flexible, and able to connect with a diverse range of people.
Danielle Tenconi
Danielle spent seven years as a commercial consultant at Accenture, leading projects in the US, Asia, and Europe, for Energizer/Edgewell, Pfizer, LVMH, Abbott, IHG, Merck, Visa, SC Johnson, Otsuka, Singapore Tourist Board, and Janssen.
She’s highly experienced in developing commercial strategies, with extensive media and PR experience, working most recently with CBS, Today Show, Fox & Friends, 14 ABC networks, The Hill, and The New York Times.
She has led global brands at Merck, Unilever, and Mars across over 50 markets in 6 continents, with P&L responsibility, delivering consistent double-digit growth and managing multiple product launches.
Ready to join the Effie Academy at Cannes Lions?
Take your marketing effectiveness to the next level.
