Cannes Lions usually serves as a stage for discussions about the direction of the advertising industry. In the 2026 edition, Mercado Ads, the digital advertising unit of , brought the LATAM Club to the festival, a space dedicated to meetings between advertisers, agencies, content creators and sector executives.
In addition to the debate agenda, the company presented solutions aimed at integrating media, data and e-commerce. The program featured the participation of pilots Gabriel Bortoleto and Franco Colapinto, ambassadors of Mercado Livre, as well as experts and industry leaders to discuss topics such as retail mediaartificial intelligence and creator economy.
Check out the main excerpts from the interview.
CNN Brasil: Mercado Ads took the LATAM Club to 2026, a space that concentrated the company’s programming during the festival. What was the main message you wanted to convey to marketing leaders?
Jesus Moreno Sosa: For decades, advertising operated under the understanding that building a brand and generating sales results were separate disciplines, with separate budgets and teams. The branding spoke of memories; performance, clicks. Our big message at Cannes 2026 is that this trade-off is over.
For the first time, there is an infrastructure capable of connecting the beginning and end of the consumer journey. At LATAM Club, designed to be a hub for connections and high-level content, we want to show CMOs that Latin American creativity and business intelligence can — and should — go hand in hand. Today, the value is in bringing together brand building and conversion in the same environment, supported by the same proprietary database.
CNN Brasil: In addition to being a space for connections and business, the LATAM Club at Cannes 2026 promotes an intense schedule of panels and debates with big names in the market. How was this content agenda structured and how does it strengthen the advertising industry leaders who participated in these meetings?
Jesus Moreno Sosa: Our objective with the LATAM Club was not just to create a meeting point, but to promote discussions about the future of marketing in Latin America. We bring together global and regional references to discuss topics such as the transformation of retail media, the ethics and efficiency of applied artificial intelligence and the new economy of content creators.
The proposal is to offer concrete data, exchange of experiences and practical views on how to navigate a market that is transforming traditional marketing models. We want participants to leave these meetings with reflections that help them make smarter, more agile decisions oriented towards business results.
CNN Brasil: One of the company’s most anticipated announcements at the festival is the partnership with TikTok. How will this solution work in practice and what changes for advertisers?
Jesus Moreno Sosa: This integration presented at Cannes Lions 2026 materializes our vision of Commerce Powered Media. With it, brands will be able to distribute video ads on TikTok, reaching qualified audiences based on the profile and high purchase intention of consumers in the Mercado Livre ecosystem.
TikTok has established itself as one of the main environments for discovering products and brands. Now, this moment of discovery is now directly connected to the Mercado Livre purchasing ecosystem.
The main change for advertisers is end-to-end funnel trackability. It’s no longer just about measuring visibility on social media. It will be possible to monitor the entire journey and accurately attribute whether these impacts boosted searches for the brand, addition of products to the cart and real conversions within the marketplace.
In this first stage, advertisers will be able to activate campaigns with awareness. Consideration and conversion objectives will be available soon. Furthermore, when operating with deduplicated audiences, each impact corresponds to a real person: the reach is real, the frequency is real and investment decisions are now supported by verified data.
CNN Brasil: The creators’ economy (creator economy) also gained a prominent space among the releases of . How does the company intend to transform this front in the region?
Jesus Moreno Sosa: We will launch the largest network of content creators in Latin America with full traceability, making more than 7 million Mercado Livre creators available to brands and agencies.
The difference is connecting inspiration and recommendations on social media directly to sales. Additionally, we eliminate traditional industry estimates. We will be the first solution to deliver a ROAS (Return on Advertising Investment) verified by concrete sales within the region’s leading marketplace.
CNN Brasil: To complete the launch ecosystem at Cannes Lions, the company presented new formats shoppable for video campaigns. How does this format transform social networks, streaming e Connected TV (CTV) on immediate transaction channels?
Jesus Moreno Sosa: Today, the line between entertainment and shopping has simply disappeared.
With new video formats shoppablewe accelerate the connection between content and e-commerce by integrating campaigns on social networks, streaming e Connected TV (CTV). Using our proprietary data, ads allow users to discover, explore and purchase products without abandoning content.
The consumer can add items to the cart and complete the purchase directly on the screen. This transforms the way brand-building video campaigns are measured, giving advertisers an accurate view of how many searches and sales were generated in a premium environment.
