Cannes Lions 2015

CANNES — One consequence of the rise of data-driven marketing is brands creating tens of even hundreds of ads for various audience segments for a single campaign, not just two or three like in the old days. It’s “great from a sales perspective and not so great from a marketing cost perspective,” says Richard Guest, […]

CANNES — So-called “addressable TV”, in which TV sets can now speak back to broadcasters, are tantalizing with the promise of household-level ad targeting. But addressable TV is not just about more refined TV targeting – the device in the living room is one platform that will feed in signals to an overall system which will produce […]

CANNES – As addressable TV advertising emerges, so are a number of companies including Visible World (recently bought by Comcast), Clypd, Simulmedia and others.  For the new medium to succeed, one essential will be companies that focus on yield management around addressable TV, says investment banker Terence Kawaja. Kawaja is CEO of LUMA partners, a boutique […]

CANNES – Comcast’s data from its twenty millions set-top boxes, coupled with marketers’ first party data, will create a “whole new world” for NBC Universal, for both advertising and content creation, explains Linda Yaccarino, Chairman, Advertising Sales and Client Partnerships in this this interview with Beet.TV Comcast has been expanding its addressable technology via acquisitions including […]

CANNES – “I think what clients are looking for from agencies now is a partner that helps them navigate,” says Lyle Tick, chief growth officer for J. Walter Thompson. “And that’s a lot of what we’ve been doing at J. Walter is restructuring ourselves in order to deliver those types of solutions to our clients […]

CANNES — The $72 billion US TV advertising industry is premised on making 30-second spots that target consumers. Imagine what happens when TV sets give advertisers the cues they need to target customers individually. Michael Bologna, president of GroupM’s Modi Media division, which is working on just that proposition, says 2015 is the year it […]

CANNES — In one form or another, David Kenny’s career has been all about data, from the advertiser, agency and publisher perspective. Now The Weather Company’s CEO and chairman, Kenny was previously a president at Akamai, a managing partner of VivaKi, and a founder of Digitas. In his first job at Bain, he learned from […]

CANNES – “Certainly the speed of technology innovation is dizzying,” says Cary Tilds, chief innovation officer for GroupM. “Some say it would be nearly impossible to keep up with that change.” Tilds’ four tips for keeping up are to be a student of technology; to maintain a consistent framework for learning about new technologies; to […]

CANNES — Addressable TV has been in development for the last decade, but only now is it beginning to reach scale. That means that gross ratings points, or GRPs, may be starting to become obsolete. “You know what’s really silly?” says Michael Bologna, president of GroupM’s Modi Media, in a panel discussion at Cannes recorded by […]

CANNES – We are living in the “golden age” of television which is being populated by an unprecedented amount of premium programming, says Liz Dolan CMO of Fox International Channels.   For advertisers, this represents new opportunities – including powerful brand association with shows via social media, she explains. She cites the “Walking Dead” as an […]

“Uninterrupted,” a video site of videos by prominent athletes had its official launch in Los Angeles this week.   In Cannes last month, we interviewed James’ longtime business partner and childhood friend Maverick Carter about their new venture which is being published in partnership with the Bleacher Report.  The series initially launched last December. We […]

CANNES — After “programmatic” methods of refining and automating the planning and buying of digital display ads took off, many are wondering when the same technology will get traction in the TV world. But that’s the wrong question to ask, according to GroupM global chairman Irwin Gotlieb. He says the same approaches have been used since TV […]

CANNES – Teads, the video platform that powers video advertising into the text articles of many of the world’s top publishers including Forbes, the Guardian, the Washington Post and Le Monde, has grown quickly from its origins in Paris to be a global company which is now booking most of its revenue in the U.S. […]

CANNES — Addressable TV promises to be a powerful tool for reaching consumers at scale with creative that’s carefully targeted to them, but how much lift are marketers who are investing in it actually seeing? “You’re seeing 50, 60, 70% increase in sales lift,” says Tracey Scheppach, SMG’s EVP-Precision Video Director, in a panel discussion […]

CANNES – While agency clients want to have complete transparency over what they buy programmatically and prefer to buy in a private exchange, there is room for buying in an open marketplace, explains Adam Shlachter, Chief Investment Officer of Digitas LBi i this interview. We spoke with him about the advertising industry transition to an automated marketplace during the […]

CANNES — The fact that many the world’s biggest brands recently started to review their long-held agency relations, putting them out to tender once again, is making agencies nervous but will refocus their minds on results, according to one agency boss. Adweek reports, in the last six months, as advertising technology opportunities swirl around them, 20 big brands […]

CANNES –  Native advertising was very much part of the conversation at Cannes Lions with the BBC and others announcing ambitious initiatives.  One of the most talked about was the announcement of a joint venture between WPP, Snapchat and the Daily Mail around a native advertising initiative called Truffle Pig. At Cannes, we spoke with Rob […]

CANNES – An app that allows women in Turkey to ask for help by simply shaking their phone, won the Media Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions Festival last month. The use of technology and media by “NGO” like organizations for public good was one of the most creative and important trends at Cannes Lions […]

CANNES – Much has been said over the past year about the issue of advertising fraud and  the danger it poses to the ad tech industry.   This was a contentious topic of conversation at the recent Rubicon Project rooftop session during the Cannes Lions Festival. After the session, we spoke with moderator, Jay Sears, SVP […]

CANNES — BBC News has managed to mix online video and text since the late 1990s. But why keep the two separate? Now the organization is ensuring both are on-screen at the same time, launching a product called “stick video”. “The idea is that the video player moves with you on the screen,”BBC Global News sales […]