Cannes Lions 2026 Day 2: Google’s Paul Limbey on AI Transformation, LinkedIn Creators & Heineken’s Bronze Lion

On day two at Cannes Lions 2026 (Tuesday, 23 June), host Conor Byrne recaps a busy schedule at Brand Tech Beach, including an interview with Natasha Wallace to be released later in the summer with The Digital Voice. He doorstops Google’s Paul Limbey, who warns against the “double shift” of giving top performers both day jobs and transformation work, highlights the rise of forward-deployed roles backed by major programs from Google Cloud, Anthropic and OpenAI, and explains his upcoming leadership fable The Frog in a Sock (out early July) about organizational constraints like workflows, approvals and pilot obsession; he also argues for product-minded scaling, better performance metrics for transformation, and repeated communication. At the System1 party, Conor discusses talks from Andrew Tindall, Mark Ritson and Jon Evans, chats with creator Henry about high-effort LinkedIn video, and interviews Jon Evans on going full-time with Uncensored CMO. Fiona shares Heineken Ireland’s Bronze Lion wins for The Pub That Refused To Die, while Digital Voice street interviews cover AI, retail media, and creators seeking long-term brand partnerships.

00:00 Day Two Kickoff

01:02 Paul Limbey from google

01:28 Ending The Double Shift

05:00 Frog In A Sock

05:50 Scaling Beyond Pilots

06:45 Performance And People

08:07 Repeat To Lead Change

09:31 System1 Party Recap

10:35 Henry Hayes On LinkedIn Comedy

14:45 Jon Evans Goes Solo

20:54 Heinekens Bronze Lion with Fiona Curtin

23:19 Croisette Street Interviews

That’s What I Call Marketing is where marketers come for real conversations about brand, B2B, creativity, effectiveness and the future of the profession.

Hosted by Conor Byrne, the show features conversations with CMOs, marketing leaders, agency leaders, authors, thinkers and practitioners about what good marketing looks like in practice.

• Listen, follow and find more episodes at: https://www.thatswhaticallmarketing.com
• Connect with Conor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/conorbyrneirl/
• If you enjoy the show, please follow, subscribe and leave a review. It helps more marketers find the conversations.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.