S4 Capital's Monks Showcases Strategic Moves with Tech Innovators to Supercharge AI-Powered Creativity

Monks Joined Forces with Leading Tech Disruptors at Cannes Lions to Demonstrate New, Real-World Impact of AI––from Les Monks Cafe to the Mainstage

, /PRNewswire/ -- Monks, the global, purely digital, data-driven, unitary operating brand of S4Capital plc, shared a series of strategic moves last week at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity with leading brands and visionary technology platforms including NVIDIA, Amazon Web Services, Google, Adobe, Runway, MiniMax, Twelve Labs and Creative AI Academy. Each collaboration underscores Monks' belief in working with technology companies that are reshaping the creative landscape with rapid, intuitive and AI-powered solutions.

Throughout the week, Monks and its fellow tech disruptors built on their collective expertise to further elevate how its teams create and collaborate, ultimately empowering clients with greater agility, more impactful content and the ability to unlock innovative solutions and measurable growth in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. This collaborative approach highlighted a shared commitment to rapid innovation and dismantling silos, a process that democratizes access to world-class creativity and technological breakthroughs for ambitious brands worldwide.

Shaping the Conversation at Cannes Lions on AI-Powered Creativity

Among those activities, S4Capital Executive Chairman Sir Martin Sorrell participated in a Cannes Lions mainstage panel discussion with Linda Sheng, General Manager Global Business, MiniMax, and Tanzeen Syed, Managing Director, Head of Consumer Internet and Technology at General Atlantic. The session explored how AI-powered video generation is transforming the creative process, including General Atlantic's investment in Runway's revolutionary approach to AI-driven content creation, to unlock creative potential and deliver measurable business impact. Sorrell shared how creative teams are employing Runway's groundbreaking technology at Monks to enhance content generation and broaden creative workflows. He also touched on how Monks' strategic collaboration with MiniMax provides early access to advanced AI models for video, text and music generation, streamlining creative workflows for clients across Greater China.

"We believe the most forward-thinking brands are prioritizing three core principles," Sir Martin Sorrell, Executive Chairman of S4 Capital, said on the stage. "The first is genuine agility, which goes far beyond the buzzword. The second is enabling clients to have greater control and ownership. The third, and arguably most critical, is the strategic use of first-party data. At Monks, we are operationalizing these principles through Monks.Flow, a suite of AI-driven tools that helps our clients innovate across their business, from real-time research to the scalable creation of AI video."

During an FT Live session moderated by Financial Times Global Media Editor Dan Thomas, Sir Martin Sorrell unveiled a groundbreaking collaboration between Saudi Arabia's new national AI company HUMAIN and AI startup Luma AI, which combines Luma's Ray2 video generation technology with HUMAIN's full-stack AI infrastructure to deliver culturally-adapted creative content at unprecedented scale.

In a one-of-a-kind discussion between Sir Martin Sorrell and will.i.am, Founder & CEO of FYI, two industry icons shared their view on creativity, technology, and the power of constant reinvention and innovation as a driving force for growth.

Additionally, Sir Martin Sorrell and Monks EVP EMEA Juanita Draude joined top-level brand execs for discussions on AI-powered efficiency and personalization, and the new agency structure during a Cannes Lions program from Weischer, one of the leading independent media providers in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

Mercado Libre, an Argentina-based company named among the TIME100 Most Influential Companies and whose ecommerce business surpassed 100 million unique annual buyers, invited Sir Martin Sorrell to join CMO Sean Summers on stage at a Mercado Libre event. Sir Martin Sorrell also joined leadership from Walmart, Google, Mediasense and Taboola for sessions on the rise of artificial intelligence and the importance of elevating the omnichannel customer experience through innovation and relevance at scale.

Further demonstrating its AI leadership at the festival, Monks returned for its fourth year with an expanded presence at Les Monks Café, where daily programming featured insights on the intersection of creativity and technology. A key session, "Future-Proof or Fall Behind: The AI Investments That Build Resilient Brands," explored how forward-thinking companies can leverage AI-driven solutions to ensure business resilience and growth. Moderated by Lewis Smithingham, SVP of Strategic Industries at Monks, the panel featured Matt Carter, Head of Industry at AWS; Jamie Allan, Director, AdTech & Digital Marketing Industries at NVIDIA; Bobby Mohr, Vice President of Revenue at Twelve Labs; Christian Fraser, Broadcaster and Writer for the BBC; and Caitlyn Rourke, Head of Partnerships and Business Development at Leonardo.Ai. The group discussed how generative AI can be used for content creation and performance optimization to unlock efficiencies, reduce costs and drive sustained growth in challenging economic times.

"It's increasingly important for brands and enterprises to own their AI journey, and that starts with smart investments," Jamie Allan, Director, AdTech & Digital Marketing Industries at NVIDIA, said during the discussion. "Not just financially into compute, but partnerships, people and platforms which align to their goals and policies. Especially in areas like sports, entertainment and media—the value in the IP and the trust built between viewer and broadcaster can be harnessed and extended with AI."

Immediately following, Tanya Bogin, EVP, Global Head of Studio at Monks, welcomed Hannah Elsakr, Vice President, New Business Ventures at Adobe; Pat Murphy, Founder/CEO, MurphyCobb; Olga Mykhaylenko, SVP Operations, Monks; and Christine Maguire, Global Vice President, Tripadvisor for a talk on "Where Creativity Meets Automation: AI and the Future of Marketing Workflows."

"Some in the industry question whether AI will replace creativity or take over human roles. But that's never been its purpose—AI is meant to be another tool in the toolbox," Elsakr shared on the panel. "With Adobe Firefly, we're developing generative AI in a human-centered, responsible way, ensuring creators and marketers can stay in control, amplify their ideas, and unlock their full creative potential in the AI era."

Supercharging the Workflow with Monks.Flow

At the core of Monks' AI strategy is Monks.Flow, the company's enterprise-grade operational backbone that combines intelligent workflows and AI tools to optimize marketing operations. At Cannes Lions, Monks revealed that Monks.Flow is now fully agentic, demonstrating how the company is seamlessly orchestrating and harnessing the power of AI to redefine the creative lifecycle. This proprietary, agentic architecture integrates diverse AI capabilities, utilizing specialized AI agents who collaborate in real-time with Monks' teams and clients, quickly transforming brand intent into strategic briefs and creative concepts using real-time data and built-in feedback.

"For years, we've remained focused on weaving AI into the core of our operations, and these new tech alliances powerfully amplify those efforts," said Henry Cowling, Chief Innovation Officer at Monks. "By building upon these best-in-class platforms, we are equipping our teams with the best-in-class AI tools to unlock new levels of innovation and deliver exceptional value for our clients, now at an even greater speed."

"Monks.Flow is an enterprise-grade platform, built from the bare metal up to function as an agent marketing factory," said Will Kelly, Global EVP, AI Products and Services at Monks. "We've hardwired the most disruptive AI technologies directly into this operational backbone, working with partners like AWS, Google and NVIDIA to ensure the architecture is robust, scalable and secure. This allows us to create a true end-to-end service where specialized AI from our partners serve as integral components of the workflow, collapsing the space between creative ideation, production and media performance at a level of integration not possible before."

Recognizing that continuous learning is paramount in a landscape where AI capabilities evolve daily, Monks is also empowering brands with the latest AI knowledge and practical skills with Creative AI Academy. This collaboration provides access to cutting-edge training programs, ensuring all stakeholders can effectively navigate and leverage the rapidly advancing world of AI for sustained innovation and competitive advantage.

Altogether, these strategic alliances signaled a shared commitment between Monks and its tech collaborators to accelerate the real-world application of AI-powered innovation. This collaborative ecosystem was built on a mutual vision: to empower brands worldwide with the speed, agility and cutting-edge tools necessary to thrive in an era of constant change, delivering tangible results and fostering sustainable growth through collective ingenuity.

About Monks
Monks is the global, purely digital, data-driven, unitary operating brand of S4 Capital plc. With a legacy of innovation and specialized expertise, Monks combines an extraordinary range of global Marketing and Technology Services to accelerate business growth and redefine how brands interact with the world. From crafting tailored, outcome-focused campaigns to modernizing critical infrastructure for the ever-evolving digital landscape, Monks delivers solutions that engage audiences in real time, drive cultural relevance and sustain long-term impact—a tripartite approach that establishes it as a trusted partner to the world's most innovative brands.

Monks was named a Contender in The Forrester Wave^™: Global Marketing Services, ranks among Cannes Lions' Top 10 Creative Companies (2022-24) and remains the only partner featured in AdExchanger's Programmatic Power Players list every year (2020-24). Named Adweek's first AI Agency of the Year (2023) and The One Show's inaugural AI Pioneer Organization, Monks was also awarded Business Intelligence Group's 2025 Excellence in Artificial Intelligence Award in both the Organizational and AI Product categories. As a trusted partner to cutting-edge innovators in tech, Monks earned titles such as Optimizely Experimentation Partner of the Year (2025), runner-up for the Adobe Firefly Partner Award (2024), and Workato's AI Visionary Customer Impact Award (2024). Additionally, Monks was named Webby Production Company of the Year (2021-24) and achieved a record-breaking number of FWAs.

About S4Capital
S4Capital plc (SFOR.L) is the tech-led, new age/new era digital advertising, marketing and technology services company, established by Sir Martin Sorrell in May 2018.

Our strategy is to build a purely digital advertising and marketing services business for global, multinational, regional, and local clients, and millennial-driven influencer brands. This will be achieved by integrating leading businesses in two synchronised practices: Marketing services and Technology services, along with an emphasis on 'faster, better, cheaper, more' execution in an always-on consumer-led environment, with a unitary structure.

The Company now has approximately 7,300 people in 33 countries with approximately 80% of net revenue across the Americas, 15% across Europe, the Middle East and Africa and 5% across Asia-Pacific. The longer-term objective is a geographic split of 60%:20%:20%. At the Group's last full year results, Content accounted for approximately 60% of net revenue, Data&Digital Media 24% and Technology Services 16%. The long-term objective for the practices is a split of 50%:25%:25%.

Sir Martin was CEO of WPP for 33 years, building it from a £1 million 'shell' company in 1985 into the world's largest advertising and marketing services company, with a market capitalisation of over £16 billion on the day he left. Prior to that Sir Martin was Group Financial Director of Saatchi & Saatchi Company Plc for nine years.

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SOURCE Monks