Stagwells Mark Penn on how Sport Beach became top…
CANNES — The hottest ticket at Cannes Lions was Stagwell’s Sport Beach.
For the third straight 12 months, the multiday sports activities, fandom and advertising occasion returned to the Cannes International Festival of Creativity — and, for the first time, served as the “official sports partner” of the pageant from June 1619.
It was the premier vacation spot for both present and retired seliminateed athletes, celebrities and executives to meet, collaborate and get artistic while having fun with scenic views of the French Riviera.
Sport Beach is the most well liked ticket of Cannes Lions. Erik Messori
The Post’s Jenna Lemoncelli (l.) speaks with Mark Penn (r.) at Sport Beach in Cannes. Erik Messori
This 12 months’s starry roster featured the likes of Basketball Hall of Famer Carmelo Anthony, 23time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams, retired seliminateed soccer participant and Olympic gold medalist Megan Rapinoe, fourtime WNBA champion Sue Bird, World Series champ Alex Rodriguez and threetime NBA champion Dwyane Wade, to title a few.
Stagwell chairman and CEO Mark Penn has the system discovered when it comes to marrying sports activities, information and leisure.
“I think when we started three years ago, we were Stagwell — who knew Stagwell?” Penn instructed The Post. “We had been an upandcoming holding company that actually no one knew. And we had to say, properly, ‘How are we going to get ourselves known?’ What are we gonna create?’
“I put it out to the agencies, give us some ideas. And they came up with the idea of Sport Beach, some folks at [fullservice creative agency] 72andSunny, and we said ‘yes,’ and best to do in the corporate team, ran it, and the first year it was just a clear success.”
Carmelo Anthony speaks at a panel at Sport Beach. Erik Messori
Penn then detailed the trail to building on that success.
“I always talk about ‘Godfather’ syndrome. Okay, well, the first one was really pathbreaking. The second one was the best. And then you have to worry that the third one went downhill. So, I think we met the challenge, the third is not downhill,” he stated.
“… I think in general, too, the economy is better. I think more people are here, more people are in a good mood to go hear about sports. And so I think we aimed for bigger and better, and we got bigger and better.”
Penn’s profession spans 40 years in market analysis, promoting, public relations, polling, and consulting.
He has suggested top world leaders, including presidents, led corporations and written two bestselling books.
Of Sport Beach, Mark Penn instructed The Post, “We aimed for bigger and better, and we got bigger and better.” Erik Messori
A selfdescribed “news junkie,” Penn defined why he was intentional in leaning closely into sport when it got here to launching Stagwell’s Sport Beach.
“I think the world is made up of news junkies, sports junkies and entertainment junkies,” he stated. “I personally am more of a information junkie. But I’ve to acknowledge that they had been proper, that this was a second for sports activities, because sports activities is a very unifying ingredient in our tradition.
“No matter what workforce you root for, you truly really feel you might have one thing in common with the people who are rooting on the opposite facet. And you come collectively, I believe, in the admiration of the winner in sports activities… and plus, it was a very sensible factor.
“The athletes needed to get closer to the brands, because many of the athletes now are saying, ‘You know what, my career is not just the couple of years I can play at the top of my game. But I need a long life in terms of a brand for representing what I’ve done.’ And the brands are super interested in getting close to the athletes, so we also created a marketplace for that.”
Alex Rodriguez (c.) was among the panelists at Sport Beach in 2025. Ella Pellegrini
One of the various indicators that Stagwell’s Sport Beach was a success early on was that athletes weren’t just attending and taking part in a panel and leaving — they stayed and continued to come back 12 months after 12 months.
Anthony, Bird and Rapinoe have participated in Stagwell’s Sport Beach since its inception in 2022.
“I think the first year, you’re giving people a promise and it doesn’t exist,” Penn stated. “… But the first factor we thought would occur is [that] the athletes would come in and they’d be right here for a half hour, and as soon as their panel was over, they’d cut out. This is just not what occurred.
“This is cool. And they hung out, and they got to know us all here at Stagwell, and now it became a regular thing, like this is part of their year, to come show up, so I’m really pleased it worked out that way.”
The world’s top athletes and entrepreneurs primarily had trust and believed in Penn, taking a gamble on the concept he and his workforce at Stagwell had been presenting.
Carmelo Anthony has been half of Sport Beach since its inception. Erik Messori
“It wasn’t that we gave them an unimaginable gross sales job or had milliondollar checks, it actually was that they… got here to get pleasure from it, their brokers stated, ‘Hey, this is good for you and your career. Where else are you going to get 50 brands together in a room that you can talk to?’
“So I think all of those things made sense, but I think there was a personal element here where they frankly felt comfortable. And also, where else do they kind of get to meet fellow athletes, really across all of these different sports at the same time, with the same goal of what kind of life are we going to have after sports?”
Penn moderated the “Future of News: Why News Junkies are the Real MVPs” panel on Wednesday, which unpacked the business case for investing in highquality media environments of information — a subject that is close to him.
The scene from Sport Beach at Cannes Lions. Erik Messori
“… So we did a large research and we positioned the identical advert in all types of totally different environments and across totally different information tales, a sports activities story, an leisure story, a presidential marketing campaign story. We did the identical, okay? All this stuff about the model security, you wouldn’t need Boeing to have an advert in the center of the India story. I imply, there are specific issues. But by and massive, it was bunk, proper? And close to 40 or 50 p.c, I believe, of CMOs and corporations don’t promote on information. So, as a consequence, good journalism just isn’t supported.
“… We need to get CMOs advertising in news, sports, and entertainment based on the results, not on a false sense of brand safety. Otherwise it means, frankly, paywalls have to be higher or there will be fewer journalists and fewer journalistic outlets.”
Penn went on to tease a particular shock on the ultimate day of Stagwell’s Sport Beach on Thursday.
“Come and be here for the closing,” he stated. “We usually say the biggest secret, the most interesting kind of event for the end.”
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