Mark Ritson and Byron Sharp don't agree on much. That, frankly, is the point — two of the most cited, most stubborn voices in modern marketing, normally on opposite ends of any argument about brands, growth and effectiveness.
So when they share a stage, people turn up. At Cannes Lions 2026 they did exactly that.
Five Marketing Truths We Can Actually Agree On
On Monday 22 June, in the Debussy Theatre, Ritson and Sharp — appearing together for the first time at Cannes — tried to do something unusual: work out what they actually agree on.
The session, part of the Creative Impact stream co-curated with WARC, set out to define a modern marketing "baseline": the handful of issues where the evidence is clear enough that marketers can act with confidence rather than fashion.
The promise was simple. Five effectiveness principles you can build a strategy around. A bit of arguing into the bargain. And, for once, two people who love to disagree telling you where the common ground actually sits.
If you've ever wanted a short list of "what we know works" — stripped of the theatre — this was the session built to give it to you.
The full conversation
We sat down with Mark at Cannes for the first ever episode of Boringly Effective. It goes well beyond the stage: pricing, creativity, brand building, luxury, Madonna, Baudrillard, Romania, and the strange gap between the real Mark Ritson and the public one.
It's already live. Listen to the Mark Ritson episode.
And if you'd rather not miss what's coming next, sign up for the newsletter — new episodes and the rest of the Cannes Lions 2026 series drop there first.