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Deep Blue Sports + Entertainment is bringing women’s sports back to Cannes Lions in 2025, and it’s added JPMorganChase and Genius Sports to its roster of supporters.
At its Business of Women’s Sports Summit on Tuesday in Manhattan, Deep Blue announced its Deep Blue Women’s Sports Yacht Club as part of the 2025 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Scheduled for three days from June 16-18, the event has already confirmed The Wellness Oasis activations, as well as speakers including track and field star Allyson Felix, two-time World Cup Champion Ashlyn Harris, and Peloton instructor Kirsten Ferguson.
“We are looking forward to bringing the Deep Blue Women’s Sports Yacht Club to the beach at this year’s Cannes Lions Festival—creating more opportunities for global networking, insight sharing, and partnership development,” said Laura Correnti, founder and CEO of Deep Blue Sports + Entertainment. “With the Women’s [European soccer championship] and [2026] Milan Olympics in sight, it’s more important than ever to bridge the global conversation in women’s sports, and Cannes Lions presents the perfect platform to facilitate those discussions.”
Each day of the event starts with The Wellness Oasis mental health and wellness programs before diving into a full slate of speakers, iHeart Women’s Sports podcast recordings, and beach-adjacent dinners and receptions.
Last year, Deep Blue used its first stop at Cannes to launch a women’s sports audio partnership with iHeartMedia, anchored by content from journalist Sarah Spain, WNBA insider Khristina Williams, and others. Founding brand partners included Capital One, e.l.f. Cosmetics, and e.l.f. Skin.
Since launch, iHeart Women’s Sports quadrupled women’s sports coverage across iHeartMedia’s broadcast radio network, releasing more than 35,000 women’s sports reports, providing more than 600 hours of content, and reaching 75 million fans. The iHeart Women’s Sports podcast network has nearly 3 million downloads since launch, while the audience for Spain’s show alone grew 130% in November and December from the two months prior.
This year’s Deep Blue partners at Cannes, meanwhile, join the party with deep existing ties to women’s sports. Within the last year, JPMorganChase has thrown its support behind the WNBA’s newest franchise, the Golden State Valkyries, and its multi-time champion and MVP A’ja Wilson. Combined with its existing sponsorships, the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, and its 43-year sponsorship of the US Open Tennis Championship, Chase is unsurprisingly enthusiastic about backing a Cannes event focused solely on women’s sports.
“At JPMorganChase, we are dedicated to supporting the growth and momentum in women’s sports and are thrilled to partner with Deep Blue at the Cannes Lions Festival,” said Kate Schoff, JPMorganChase’s managing director of sports and entertainment.
Genius Sports, meanwhile, provides data, technology, and broadcast assistance to sports leagues and teams worldwide. Last year, however, it used a partnership with the WNBA to showcase its Second Spectrum 3D tracking technology at each game.
The technology uses an array of cameras placed in every WNBA arena, and Second Spectrum tracks player positioning and ball movement. The league used Second Spectrum primarily to measure shot quality, shooter impact, time in the paint, efficiency, points per chance, contest quality and defensive matchup data—becoming the first women’s professional sports league in the U.S. to use league-wide 3D tracking data and contributing to a data set that puts its metrics on par with those of its men’s counterparts.
“Basketball is going to be basketball, whether it’s a man or woman playing, and technology is not going to have a bias—it’s just going to tell you the data,” Manny Puentes, gm of advertising at Genius Sports, told ADWEEK in 2024. “It’s going to help you be better, and it’s going to bring parity across the leagues in cases like the NBA and WNBA.”
Clarification: Previous reports on Deep Blue’s Cannes activation indicated it would take place on a yacht. Instead, it will be held at the Maëma beach and restaurant. Those reports also indicated the presence of New Age guru Deepak Chopra. He will not be taking part in the event.
