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Michelle Boockoff-Bajdek shared thisWhat do Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, KitKats, and AI have in common? Marcin Skucz, apparently. Somehow our Carpool Cannes Conversation went from Deloitte Digital's "moments that linger” to attention, authenticity, taste, and whether the original KitKat is still the best KitKat. For the record, it is. Marcin said, you can rent attention, but you can’t really own it. And that feels especially true in an AI era, when making more content is not the hard part. Making something that stays with people is. We also talked about why marketers need to keep taste human because the machine can help us move faster, but it cannot decide what is actually beautiful, memorable, or worth saying. Also, break me off a piece of that KitKat bar. #CarpoolCannesConversations #CannesLions #Sitecore #DeloitteDigital #AI #Marketing
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Michelle Boockoff-Bajdek shared thisDid you think Carpool Cannes Conversations was over? Au contraire! Kelly Masters kept things going with Preeti Saini and Cajwayne C. from IFS, and the conversation got right to the heart of what it means to get the beige out of marketing: you have to be willing to take the risk and BE BOLD. IFS has done that in a very literal way, earning a Guinness World Records™ title for the longest static indoor billboard at O’Hare at 304 feet. Not subtle, and very much the point. But the bigger idea is that bold brands are willing to show up where attention is actually happening, whether that’s an airport, an AI answer engine, a customer community, or anywhere else people are making decisions and forming opinions. As Preeti put it, “We have to go to the party where our customers are.” Also, Caj would like to ban “speed” from the AI conversation, and I’m with him. Sometimes you have to go slow to go fast. And Caj, I really hope you tried the escargot. I happen to love them. #CarpoolCannesConversations #Sitecore #IFS #AI #Marketing #BeBOLD Sitecore
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Michelle Boockoff-Bajdek shared thisAnd we are done. Cannes Lions was such a strange and wonderful mix of absolute ridiculousness and very real work. Actual overheard conversation: “Beyoncé was here.” Shows picture. “That’s not Beyoncé. That’s Ciara.” Still. Impressive. And that exchange alone is emblematic of Cannes. But real work gets done here. People come to be inspired by creative work, to celebrate the ideas that actually broke through, and to learn as much as they possibly can from customers, partners, peers, agencies, and yes, even the technology vendors who show up with smoothie bars, branded VWs, mini mics, and very strong opinions about AI. At the Deloitte Digital brunch with Marcin Skucz, I heard Dalia Feldheim of Run Like a Girl fame say something I’ll likely borrow for some time to come: “Let AI do the work of work.” In other words, let it help with speed, scale, synthesis, and analysis. But judgment, taste, emotional intelligence, and boldness still must come from humans. That was the red thread running through the week, whether we were talking with customers, filming Carpool Cannes Conversations (go watch if you haven't), hosting discussions at SiteCabana, or grabbing five minutes with someone between meetings. While some of my schedule was planned, many of my best moments were not, including when my coworkers found Hoda Kotb getting gelato and somehow got her to record a video asking FOR ME. Cannes is ridiculous, exhausting, and a lot. I can't wait to go back. Sharing a few favorite moments from the week, including the Sitecore team in action, a few necessary snacks, Hoda with gelato, a lovely chat with Talisha, and the only reasonable way to end Day Four: walking straight into the Med. Which, honestly, felt less like a luxury and more like a reset button. #CannesLions #Sitecore #AI #Marketing #Creativity Kelly Emily Millija Michele Note to the reader: the VW van was real, as were the logo decals on the side. That outrageous car *was* real. But the logo on the side was AI generated as a nod to the event.
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Michelle Boockoff-Bajdek shared thisIt was 91 degrees, the seatbelt alarm tried to join the conversation, and we may or may not have borrowed a tiny bit of inspiration from James Corden. But Microsoft's Alysa Taylor and I did manage to talk about the important stuff: AI, marketing reinvention, personalization, and why “training season” is officially over. Sitecore Carpool Cannes Conversations epi #4: sweaty, slightly chaotic, and actually useful. #reinvention #CannesLions #CarpoolConversations #Microsoft #Sitecore
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Michelle Boockoff-Bajdek shared thisMicrosoft’s Sydne Mullings talked about the IKEA effect during a fireside chat with me and Chris Andrew this morning, and I loved the way she connected it to brand, AI, and ownership. Now I fear no piece of flat-pack furniture is safe from becoming a marketing metaphor. ;-) If you have ever spent a Saturday afternoon building something with an Allen wrench, tiny print instructions, and one screw that absolutely does not seem to belong anywhere, you know exactly what she means. “You value it more because you built it.” Yes, IKEA furniture is aesthetically pleasing, but it’s also industrialized and mass made so people can have stylish, affordable furniture in their homes. Even if thousands of other people have the same one. Even if it only costs $100. The point is that there is something about having your hands on the work that changes your relationship to it. And that is where I went when I asked Sydne whether marketers have ceded control of their brands to AI. Her answer was an unapologetic “absolutely not.” Not if marketers are still in the work. And, not if we understand what AI is seeing and not if we are shaping the inputs to AI with real intention. AI is good at helping us build and execute, but marketers still have to have their hands on the brand.The IKEA effect works because we value what we help create, and I think the same holds true for brands. So, to get the max value out of this metaphor, if we want AI to represent our brands well, we cannot just hand it the Allen wrench and walk away. We have to stay in the work. Thank you, Sydne and Chris, for such a thoughtful conversation. Looking forward to what we will build next together. #sitecorecabana #FutureofSearch #canneslions #sitecore
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Michelle Boockoff-Bajdek shared thisYou know it’s hot when the primary topic of conversation is ice cream. Soft serve, to be more specific. Chris and I did manage to talk about AI discovery too - when AI recommends your brand, people go looking. And a recommendation does a lot more work than a mention, so marketers need to care about how they show up and have a plan. As I've said before, knowing AI discovery matters is not a strategy. Soft serve and search behavior. Very Cannes.Michelle Boockoff-Bajdek shared thisSeatbelts for safety. We are behind the wheel with Michelle Boockoff-Bajdek, Kelly Masters, and Chris Andrew. Between ice cream truck spottings and a potential French power hour, Chris made one point that stuck. Marketers now have a whole new audience to account for, AI bots. Something we will be unpacking a lot more this week. We’ll see you back on the road tomorrow. If you enjoyed the conversation between Michelle and Chris stop by the SiteCabanna Cafe tomorrow, June 24 from 10 to 11am for a fireside chat. They will be answering the question every marketing leader should be thinking about. If AI is telling your brand story before buyers ever reach you, is it telling the right one? We can’t wait to see you for day 3 at #CannesLions
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Michelle Boockoff-Bajdek shared thisWhen your friend Michele asks you to join her on the Rezolve AI yacht, you say yes. Every time. And look, I am not going to pretend I was not in awe of the 60-meter boat. I absolutely was. (We most definitely will NOT need a bigger boat. 🦈) But beyond the very obvious “am I really standing on this yacht in Cannes?” moment, it was also a wonderful opportunity to talk with Michele about her new role and the ways AI is changing what we do, how we work, and what marketers need to rethink next. Grateful to Chris Gilkes for stopping by for a fantastic conversation with me, Dave Michela and Emily Nicholls about Aston Martin F1 Team and the value of motorsport in building incredible fan experiences that do not end at the track. The best ones keep going - through content, community, digital engagement, and the moments people want to talk about long after the race is over. Which, honestly, became a bit of a theme for the day. It was the topic of my Carpool Cannes Conversations with Marcin Skucz, who talked about the importance of creating moments that linger - the ones that make you truly feel something - especially in the age of AI. He reminded me of the amazing creative work behind the #Kitkat phone break campaign, which drove actual, immediate behavioral change. Oh, and we talked about Jimi Hendrix. You’ll see. Tomorrow, I’m hosting a panel with Sydne Mullings, General Manager, Americas CMO, and Scrunch CEO Chris Andrew on “Creativity in the Age of the Algorithmic Ghostwriter: Who’s writing your brand story now?” And because apparently Chris and I are spending the week talking about AI everywhere, we also have a webinar tomorrow featuring Chris and our own Scott Liewehr: https://lnkd.in/eCKS2i_b Cannes is a lot. But today was the good kind of a lot. #CannesLions #CannesLions2026 #Sitecore #Scrunch #AI #Marketing #BrandExperience #CarpoolCannesConversations Millija E. Ø. Laszkiewicz Shawn Lisbon Dan Street Kelly Masters Michaela Choate
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Michelle Boockoff-Bajdek shared thisRemember the time that Dan Street made me balance on a wall and walk across rocks to make a meeting? I do. #anythingforthejob #cannes2026
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Michelle Boockoff-Bajdek shared thisEpisode One of Sitecore Carpool Cannes Conversations is live! Thank you, Kelly for the ride and convo!Michelle Boockoff-Bajdek shared thisWe are kicking off the Carpool Cannes Conversations with Michelle Boockoff-Bajdek and Kelly Masters. They take the scenic route to talk music, marketing, and why so much AI-generated content is starting to look the same. Michelle’s said it best, “It’s time to stop industrializing beige”. Stay tuned for our next guest tomorrow. #CannesLions
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Michelle Boockoff-Bajdek reacted on thisMichelle Boockoff-Bajdek reacted on thisFor one month every four years, FIFA dominates the media, and every city it enters. Currently, the FIFA Club World Cup games are happening across the US (thank you to the tourists on Twitter, keeping us updated on the wonders of America). (https://siteco.re/4gjQy8v) Because FIFA owns one of the most valuable events in sports cities, stadiums, and brands that want to be part of it, must play by FIFA's rules. One of those rules? Stadium naming-rights partners must cover their logos during the tournament to protect the exclusivity FIFA sells to its official sponsors. That creates an obvious risk: your brand disappears at exactly the moment the world is watching. According to The Wall Street Journal, that is not what happened (https://siteco.re/4y2wzkY) In New England, Gillette stadium covered their logo in shaving cream. In Toronto, Heinz handed out unbranded ketchup bottles around the stadium. In San Franciso, Levi’s left their logo shape visible under a white sheet and changed their profile photos to match. Instead of disappearing, the strongest brands turned the restrictions into the campaign. They technically complied while quietly refusing to disappear. You only pull off that stunt if your identity is so recognizable people can identify it with almost nothing visible. In the stadium, FIFA sits between the brand and the audience. In digital, AI engines, search, and recommendation systems do the same thing. Customers don't discover brands in a straight line anymore. The job is to understand who is asking what questions, where (which platforms) those questions are being asked, and - most importantly - how can you ensure you show up, earn the recommendation, and win the decision. The new challenge for marketers is simple: can your brand still get chosen when someone else controls the sign above the door?
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Sitecore
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YMCA of Greater Nashua
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The YMCA of Greater Nashua is an organization committed to “building strong kids, strong families, and strong communities” through programs and services that “develop healthy spirit, mind, and body for all!”
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