Is it possible to describe Marketing’s week in Cannes as – grounded and practical? Upon reflection, I think what I experienced in Cannes this year was a sign of a larger shift occurring, for the good, throughout Marketing. A greater focus on eliminating waste, exploring very real opportunities for growth, and building relationships with those who can help you succeed.
Eliminating waste – it was a trend with Cannes and seems to finally be catching on within the world of data-driven marketing. I know every individual’s Cannes experience is different, and I am not invited to all the poshest parties. But generally speaking, this year’s event was a bit more subdued. I even heard multiple people refer to the entertainment for one of the largest parties as “sleepy”. Perhaps the flashiest thing of the week was a Wednesday night drone show, apparently sponsored by mobile ad platform Kargo. But even that wasted little more than some battery power.
Likewise, eliminating waste within data-driven marketing is getting some well deserved attention. Members of the ANA were in Cannes continuing to tout their most recent Programmatic Transparency Benchmark work. For years, the ANA and various research providers have shone a light on wasteful spend within the programmatic ecosystem. Waste caused by outright fraud, erroneous data, middle layer players who add no value, etc. For the first time in my career, big marketers seem to be taking note.
Perhaps no one has drawn more attention to the ills of addressable advertising than Ex-UM Privacy Chief Arielle Garcia. In a recent interview for Mi3 she covered everything from how erroneous data used for targeting can be, the existential risk to search and publisher revenue due to AI, and the destructive incentive structure prevalent in all parts of the marketing supply chain keeping bad actors and practices alive and well. Interestingly, I posted a link to this article and was glad to see respected names from large advertisers commenting that they’ve had enough. Could the days of ineffective, inefficient, simply wasteful spend in advertising be nearing an end? Will we finally achieve a state of transparency needed to solve the problem of waste?
I’ve previously seen a lot of gimmicks folks claim will change the marketing world while in Cannes. From “text me – the future of marketing is one to one messaging” to VR and AR activations that show you something your consumers are definitely not interested in doing. There was obviously some of that this year, but it was significantly overshadowed by topics where brands see real growth opportunity.
Commerce media was perhaps the big winner of the week. United Airlines officially launched their Travel Media Network, Kinective, and seemed to have people and props everywhere. Many other commerce media brands were likewise on hand talking about the opportunity for brands to spend with them. Behind the scenes I continued to hear the same challenges though. In most cases retailers have added media capabilities siloed off from merchandising. This creates a non-synergistic competitive dynamic within the retailer. Merchandisers and media teams trying to grab more spend from the same advertisers. In turn, advertisers will tell you they appreciate the growth opportunities commerce media has created, but the pricing is out of control and not sustainable.
I remain convinced that we will soon see hybrid skill sets and organizational design to remedy these challenges. Retailers will cross-train merchants to understand media and vice versa. Brands will incentivize marketing and sales to collaboratively think full funnel, all the way through the sale. This evolution will lead to real growth for both advertiser and retailer, as there is much room for improved marketing effectiveness and margin growth.
AI was another topic that surprised me. Not in terms of how much it was talked about, but rather the nature of the surrounding conversations. I did not see AI being put on a pedestal as the answer to everything, nor spoken of in fear as if it were coming for every attendees’ career. Rather, I heard examples of very tangible use cases where brands are already doing things with AI previously not feasible. One example came from a CMO at Mars explaining an award-winning campaign for Pedigree brand pet food which utilized AI to drive pet adoptions nationwide.
Perhaps some of the smartest and most interesting comments I heard regarding the future of AI came from an artist, not a technologist – will.i.am. During a small breakfast presentation hosted by Salesforce, Will masterfully articulated that AI enables “the materialization of ideation”. I think he’s right, and there are massive implications for brands and the future of growth.
We all know Marketing is a relationship based industry. Nowhere is this more obvious than in Cannes in June. I believe everyone comes to Cannes seeking growth in some way. And all of us are looking for the relationships that will help us drive that growth. I personally benefited from many of my existing relationships but also began building new ones throughout the week.
My plan was to allow serendipity to happen and it did. I tried to spend about 50% of my time in Cannes with planned meetings and leave the other 50% open for the opportunities that present themselves. I am not too proud to admit, at an Irish bar at 2:30 in the morning I happened to meet a technology provider which may offer a very valuable solution to multiple of our clients. These kinds of connections happen regularly at Cannes if you leave the space for them to occur.
Ultimately, I returned from the south of France more energized and optimistic than I could imagine. I sense some great times ahead for the Marketing industry as we shift our focus away from frivolous, meaningless tactics and metrics and towards the opportunities which drive real growth. I hope to do just that with many of you by my side.
