How Kargo Pulled Off Its Show With 1,400 Drones at Cannes Lions

June 18th, 2024

As featured on Adweek

Perhaps the only way to top a drone show at Cannes Lions is to make an even bigger drone show.

That was Kargo CEO and founder Harry Kargman’s philosophy as the ad solutions company supersized its Cannes drone show from 600 drones last year to 1,400 this year. Kargo brought in Drone Stories to produce the show and rented the drones from Nova Sky Stories, which was founded by Kimbal Musk, the younger brother of Elon Musk.

The lighted drones dazzled above the Mediterranean Sea outside of Stagwell Sport Beach, which was holding its annual Clio Sports Honorary Awards Dinner.

In front of athletes Shaun White, Sue Bird, Megan Rapinoe, Mikaela Shiffrin, JuJu Watkins and Paul Rabil, as well as the rest of La Croisette and the Palais, Kargman unleashed his drones set to music that blasted from the speakers of Sport Beach. Kargman has three shows that will each run all four nights of Cannes for a total of 12 performances.

Each show will have a different theme. The first show was “Scenes + Screens,” with the following performances being dubbed “Art and Ad Tech” and “Keep Innovating With Creativity.”

To execute the show, Kargo brought in a barge from 100 miles away because it was the closest barge big enough to do so.

“We had to get permission from the French national authorities, the local authorities, the FAA (Directorate General for Civil Aviation) of France, the city of Cannes, the Port of Cannes and the Cannes Lions to pull this off,” Kargman told ADWEEK.

The company began planning this eight months ago, and while Kargman wouldn’t say how much it cost, he did say it was “not inexpensive,” given that he has two security boats operating 24/7 “because the government is worried that somebody is going to swim out and try to go on to the barge.”

In total, there are 20 to 30 people at any one time working the show, which he calls a “labor of love.”

So why does Kargo do it?

“It’s about creativity. I want to make sure that the creative element is here in Cannes and that people can have ideas, breakthroughs, meet and brainstorm,” Kargman said. “And this hopefully will inspire people to talk about it and to be as creative as they can be.”