Marketing Vanguard at Cannes: Saying No Is the New Power Move ft. Mainardo de Nardis & Rani Al Hajji

Marketing Vanguard continues live from Cannes as Jenny Rooney hosts a special Adweek House conversation with Mainardo de Nardis, Global President and COO of Edelman and Rani Al Hajji, Chief Growth and Transformation Officer, Personal Care at Unilever. This conversation cuts straight into one of marketing’s biggest modern problems: everyone has infinite opportunities, infinite channels and infinite reasons to do more. But the best marketers are not winning by doing more. They are winning by making sharper bets and doing less for more. Mainardo de Nardis is Global President and Chief Operating Officer of Edelman, with deep experience across full-service marketing, PR, digital, media, startups, AdTech, MarTech and global agency leadership. His perspective centers on how brands earn relevance and trust in a world where attention cannot simply be bought. Rani Al Hajji is Chief Growth and Transformation Officer, Personal Care at Unilever. With more than 25 years in marketing and consumer goods, including roles at L’Oréal, Colgate and Unilever across Europe, the U.S. and China, Rani focuses on redefining how brands create connection moments that matter. In this conversation, he brings that lens to Unilever’s personal care portfolio, cultural relevance and the FIFA World Cup. What You'll Learn: Why visibility is not the same thing as attention How brands can move from attention to real engagement Why saying no is now one of the hardest and most important marketing skills How clear KPIs make distractions easier to spot Why cultural relevance starts with knowing what each brand actually stands for How Unilever is building around FIFA without buying its way into the moment Why paid should amplify earned relevance, not replace it This episode is part of a special vidcast series that was recorded live during Cannes 2026 and presented in partnership with Edelman Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.