TRunblocked.com’s Cannes Blunt Tier Awards 2026
3 minutes read
Introduction by: Peter Marshall
Welcome to TRunblocked.com’s Blunt Tier Awards 2026, Cannes’ least official – and possibly most revealing – celebration of travel retail achievement.
Yes, it’s that time of the year again – awards season. Our judges have looked beyond sales, strategy and all those inconveniently serious metrics to recognise the true markers of a successful week on the Croisette: diary density, stand stamina, strategic visibility, the ability to identify a useful person from 40 metres away, and the tactical acquisition of a goody bag large enough to concern one’s airline.
Many of these awards will undoubtedly earn their recipients valuable internal company points – a congratulatory Teams message, a LinkedIn post and perhaps the right to mention “award-winning” in next year’s presentation. Whether they will make quite the same impression on business partners is another matter. Still, in an industry built on optimism, hospitality and professionally managed hyperbole, we feel that should not stop anyone entering and congratulations in advance to all awardees.
Can you see yourself and your colleagues in what follows?
The Blunt Tier Awards
1. The Table Tetris Award
For the event planner who discovers that, with vision, confidence and absolutely no regard for chair clearance, a room can always accommodate another six tables.
2. The Cabin-Bag Crisis Award
Recognising the delegate who arrived in Cannes with a carry-on and leaves requiring a freight-forwarder, largely due to the sheer density of luxury goody bags.
3. Best Use of a Goody Bag as Checked Luggage
For the bag so beautifully constructed, and so alarmingly heavy, that it crosses the line from branded takeaway to practical suitcase.
4. The “We Must Catch Up” Marathon
For the executive who says “we must catch up” to 47 people in three days – and somehow means it every time.
5. Outstanding Achievement in Reaching Full Diary Capacity Before Breakfast
For the person who has no remaining availability, yet continues to accept meetings in corridors, taxis and during the first 12 seconds of a champagne reception.
6. The Most Considered Stand Visit That Lasted Four Minutes
Awarded for the tour containing a warm welcome, two product stories, an obligatory photograph and the increasingly urgent phrase: “We know you have to get to your next appointment.”
7. Best Conversation Conducted While Looking for Someone Else
For exceptional eye contact, active listening and an unwavering peripheral search for the retailer one was actually hoping to meet.
8. The Cannes Heat-Resistance Medal
For maintaining the appearance of calm commercial authority while walking the Croisette in formal wear, carrying a laptop, a tote bag and three samples.
9. The “Travel Exclusive” Clarification Prize
For the launch that is exclusive in a manner requiring a footnote, a regional definition and a separate conversation with legal.
10. Best Strategic Use of the Word “Momentum”
For demonstrating that any result – from a strong quarter to an early-stage conversation – can be presented as compelling momentum.
11. The LinkedIn Sunrise Award
For posting the first “What a fantastic week in Cannes” message before the final dinner has even concluded.
12. Excellence in Spotted-at-the-Right-Party Visibility
For being photographed at exactly the correct reception, beside exactly the correct people, while looking as though it happened entirely by chance.
13. The Commercially Sensitive Champagne Award
For conducting a discussion of considerable financial consequence over a flute of champagne while saying: “Let’s take this offline.”
14. Best Rebranding of a Catch-Up as a Strategic Partnership Discussion
For elevating a familiar conversation into a future-facing alignment of shared ambitions.
15. The “Same Time Next Year?” Lifetime Achievement Award
For sustained, exemplary participation in the annual Cannes ritual: the meetings, the launches, the dinners, the tote bags. And the quiet conviction that next year’s diary will be more manageable.
