For the third consecutive year, nonplusultra staffed Meta Beach at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, welcoming more than 15,000 visitors from over 90 countries to Meta's flagship brand activation.
On 23 June 2026, Meta unveiled Meta Glasses in New York, introducing the latest additions to its smart glasses portfolio and expanding its Meta Wearables lineup with new styles. Just minutes after the launch, visitors at Meta Beach were already able to experience the new styles hands-on, ask questions, and purchase selected products directly on site.
But the real story at Meta Beach was bigger than the product launch. It was about delivering a world-class visitor experience, and showing how Meta's ecosystem is transforming creativity, communication, and marketing through AI.
Cannes Lions Is Not a Trade Fair — and Meta Beach Is Why That Distinction Matters
Cannes Lions brings together the people shaping the future of creativity and marketing: CMOs, brand leaders, agency executives, platform teams, creators, and creative talent from around the world. At Plage Barrière Le Majestic, Meta Beach became the place where visitors could experience Meta's latest innovations directly. The activation was built around a connected visitor journey across Meta Wearables, Meta AI, Meta Ads, WhatsApp, and creative collaborator experiences.
Every interaction had one purpose: to make Meta's technology tangible, relevant, and easy to understand.
A Connected Experience Across Hardware, AI, Creativity, and Advertising
Visitors moved through several immersive experiences designed to bring Meta's vision to life. They explored the Meta Wearables line, including Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta smart glasses, alongside the new Meta Glasses styles. They experienced how Meta AI can support creative development at the AI Variation Station. They saw how content can be personalised and distributed across Instagram, Facebook, Threads, WhatsApp, and Quest through the Distribution Visualizer powered by Advantage+. And at the Collaborator Creative Experiences, creative partners invited visitors into hands-on content creation.
Together, these experiences showed how Meta is making creativity faster, more interactive, and more personalised across the full marketing journey.
The Meta Glasses Announcement Landed Mid-Activation
Throughout Meta Beach, visitors could explore and buy across the Meta Wearables line — Ray-Ban Meta, Oakley Meta, and the new Meta Glasses styles. When Meta unveiled the new styles during the activation, interest immediately increased across the beach. Visitors wanted to try the new styles, understand the features, and experience the product for themselves.
The standout was the Starfire Kylie edition, created in collaboration with Kylie Jenner. Interest was immense, and demand was so high that the available inventory sold out very quickly.
Our team was right at the centre of that moment: guiding visitors through product demos, answering questions, supporting the retail experience, and making sure the excitement around the launch translated into a smooth, high-quality guest experience.
"Greetings from Cannes — hello Meta Glasses. Our team is smashing it at Cannes Lions Festival. Visitors leave with an amazing demo experience on Meta Wearables, Meta AI and Meta Ads." — Lisa Bendisch, Head of Consumer Solutions, nonplusultra, 23 June 2026
25+ Brand Experience Experts. Four Days. One Consistent Standard.
Oana Veronica Preda led the nonplusultra team in Cannes, together with on-site co-leads Pedro Cavalcante and Amy Tegerdine. Across the four days, more than 25 brand experience experts delivered the activation on the ground.
The visitor profile at Cannes Lions is demanding. Many guests are CMOs, creative directors, agency leaders, brand decision-makers, and industry experts. Every conversation is a professional evaluation of the brand, the product, and the experience.
That meant our team had to be fluent across multiple areas at once: Meta Wearables, Meta AI, Meta Ads, WhatsApp, and the full visitor journey. This was not about following a script. It required product knowledge, confidence, flexibility, and the ability to adapt each conversation to the person standing in front of them.
The pace was continuous. Across four days, the standard had to remain the same from the first visitor to the last. That is what the team delivered.
Year Three Is Fundamentally Different Work
By year three, the work is different. You know the venue. You understand the visitors' behaviour. You can anticipate where pressure points will appear before they become visible. You know how the flow changes throughout the day, where support is needed, and how to keep the experience consistent even when the activation is at full capacity.
That depth cannot be built overnight. It comes from showing up year after year, delivering at the level the client expects, and treating every activation as the foundation for the next one.
For nonplusultra, three consecutive years at Meta Beach means something specific: the trust to keep delivering. We are not in the business of one-off activations. We build partnerships that become stronger over time. The continued collaboration with Meta across EMEA is exactly the kind of relationship we work towards.
What Brands Planning Live EMEA Presence Can Take From This
▸Product depth wins on launch day. When Meta announced new glasses mid-activation, our team was ready. They already had the product knowledge and confidence to guide visitors through the experience immediately. That preparation is the difference between a team that adapts and a team that scrambles.
▸The venue is not the variable. Whether it is Cannes Lions, a MediaMarkt Experience Zone, or a flagship retail activation, the setting changes. What does not change is the need for people who truly understand the product and can represent the brand at the right level.
▸Year one earns the contract. Year three earns the trust. For a one-off event, competence matters. For ongoing live presence across EMEA, the real question is whether the partner treats the relationship as a transaction or as a foundation for long-term growth.
If your brand is planning live retail presence at a flagship European event or across an EMEA retail footprint, our Retail Touchpoints & Experience Zones service is where that conversation starts. For the full picture of what our client partnership with Meta has delivered across EMEA, see the Meta case study.