Marie Stafford

4 days ago | vml.com | Emma Chiu |Marie Stafford |Mustafa Suleyman |Sofia Hernandez |Sofía Hernández

Boundless creative possibilities were unleashed at Cannes Lions, with human touch taking center stage The 72nd Cannes Lions Festival wrapped on a high note, with WPP named Creative Company of the Year. With more than 150 hours of content and 500 speakers, the VML Intelligence team was on the ground, distilling the best talks, activations and standout work into a concise round-up of the key trends.

1 week ago | vml.com | Marie Stafford

The Mad Men era is over as new powers emerge In a sign of the globalization of creative power, this year Grand Prix were awarded to a broad range of nations, including a first for Puerto Rico. At Cannes Lions, delegations from Mongolia and Saudi Arabia hosted pavilions at the Palais, while Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland and Mongolia joined the shortlisting jury for the first time.

Mar 20, 2025 | vml.com | Marie Stafford

Amid tumultuous change, we're holding on to what makes us human. The world converged on Austin last week for the SXSW Festival, an annual celebration of human creativity and of getting in line. And with plenty of big-name speakers in town for the conference (hello, Michelle Obama!) those lines required some commitment. With so much political turmoil, we might have expected some provocation, but most speakers opted to sidestep the drama.

Mar 19, 2025 | vml.com | Marie Stafford

Five of the best from this year's Festival While it was not a standout year for brand activations at SXSW, a select few pulled out the stops and captured the crowds. Dubai’s Museum of the Future consistently drew lines to its popup blending Middle Eastern art, culture, thought leadership and hospitality. But fewer big spenders made room for smaller or local brands to shine. Here’s our round-up of activations worthy of a shout-out this year. 1.

Jul 11, 2024 | vml.com | Marie Stafford

Luxury brands and retailers put on a show with VR. A new multisensory VR cinema experience has launched, promising luxury brands and retailers an innovative way to deepen consumer engagement through immersive and spectacular storytelling. xydrobe at Harrods is a multi-person VR experience for luxury retail, drawing shoppers inside the creative world of a brand via multisensory storytelling.