26 conversations with the people running independent agencies, the clients who hire them, and the creators they work with. Specialization, growth, procurement, junior talent, AI, and the craft itself. Recorded at Indies @ Cannes 2026 — written to still be useful a year from now.
Not a festival recap. Every session here is built intellectual property — the real thinking from a live IAN room, organized so you can act on it.
What was argued, where the panel split, and the uncomfortable truth each conversation surfaced. Written to land on its own, months later.
The named concepts each room produced, plus the exact words to use when a client asks for something you don't do.
Every session ends with specific, do-it-this-week directives. Read one, then go change something.
Read the one that matches the problem on your desk, or work through a day at a time. The cross-session synthesis is where the argument lives.
What happened, the five things worth knowing, and the one quote that travelled furthest.
Open the session →The four arguments the week never settled, the four things nobody said, and the sentence it all reduces to.
Open the session →A pitch consultant, an ex-CMO and a UK procurement lead on the six months of small disappointments that end a relationship.
Open the session →The unglamorous mechanics that make indie partnerships hold, and the one thing that breaks them.
Open the session →Ted Wright on fake followers, the 22-second conversation, and why the heritage story isn't why anyone buys.
Open the session →Three creators on borrowed credibility, the middle seat, and why one-off contracts guarantee nobody invests.
Open the session →Agencies cut entry-level first and rebuild it last. The panel had to answer what a junior is actually for.
Open the session →Rarely through a review. Usually through a fire, a compliance brief, or one person tracked across three jobs.
Open the session →Five founders on why the everything-label is a lie, and the exact words they use when the answer has to be no.
Open the session →Heidi Singleton on what happens after the deal closes — the part nobody writes about.
Open the session →Mozilla, JKR and Strong Roots on the variable that decides what work survives.
Open the session →Oakley, pickleball and four people who independently named logo-first sponsorship the most overvalued tactic in sport.
Open the session →Uber, Ro and Special on why the real threat isn't the in-house team — it's being the agency that can't work with one.
Open the session →Commercial spaceflight as a case study in pricing access to something scarce with no playbook to copy.
Open the session →Nielsen and Stella Rising on the reporting framework the creator economy still doesn't have.
Open the session →The politics of influence, the 5% of a CMO's life agencies touch, and why blaming the agency is a cop out.
Open the session →30 boards, 10 owners, a 30-minute minimum buy, and an unbriefed idea delivered on top of the plan.
Open the session →Burger King and BarkleyOKRP on how the apology got past the franchisees, the CEO and the board.
Open the session →Sollis Health and VEG on what breaks when nobody has heard of you yet.
Open the session →Kraft Heinz's eight-point scale, on the record — plus the warning that the scale gets weaponized.
Open the session →Measurement versus gut, argued properly, with the only client on stage wanting both.
Open the session →How an audience insight degrades at every handoff until the campaign runs against something unrecognizable.
Open the session →Vertical episodes, brand-as-character, and the line item this format shrinks.
Open the session →FIG on four saliency drivers, the story map, and seven years of pricing against a number they own.
Open the session →One panelist got his evenings back. Another's team works longer than before. Both are describing the same tool.
Open the session →Google on where control relocated — and the case for independents building audience businesses.
Open the session →A performer's stroke, a voice model, and a SAG addendum built from scratch because none existed.
Open the session →14 years of Cannes, one CMO calling an agency “just a vendor,” and the accusation that the week never talked about the work.
Open the session →Join Indie HQ and every Blueprint — plus the tools, the surveys, and everything else we build — opens up with one sign-in.
