Cannes 2024: Pepsi’s smart can and the Kelce brothers take the Croisette

We’ve made it to Thursday! My cumulative step count suggests I traveled to Monte Carlo on foot this week, but I’ve actually just been walking up and down the Croisette.

Last night, there were rival performances keeping people out late—Amazon hosted The National, Spotify Beach featured Arcade Fire, and Yahoo put on a concert with The Chainsmokers—and it’s safe to say that it made for a slower morning at Cannes Thursday. With that said, when I caught up with Brigitte King, Colgate-Palmolive’s chief digital officer, this morning, she said she ended her night working on a deck for the company’s 2030 goals. Now that’s productivity!

Today at Cannes, PepsiCo unveiled its latest marketing innovation, the Pepsi Smart Can, an “LED engagement platform” in the form of a beverage can, Mark Kirkham, SVP and CMO of international beverages at PepsiCo told us. The idea is to allow the company “to share content in a whole new way.” He, along with Chief Design Officer Mauro Porcini, met up with me to give me a demo of the can, which is first being rolled out to influencers and media (stored and sent in a sort of futuristic chamber to keep it safe) to share content like celebrity videos and campaign teasers.

Each can contains its own SIM card, allowing the company to tailor content shared on the device to each recipient, Kirkham said. “We get to bring our product, our brand, and our message together in an incredibly innovative way,” he told us.

From beverage news to “new news” (IYKYK), in the afternoon I braved the crowds at Sport Beach to see Jason and Travis Kelce. There were perhaps overly optimistic rumblings that Taylor Swift would join the Kelces in Cannes (so much so that Stagwell’s own CEO, Mark Penn, weighed in on the rumors), but I sadly haven’t spotted her. Yet.

That wraps up my daily Cannes coverage. Thanks for following along! I need an Aperol spritz—and then a nap. Au revoir!