Robert Williams

CANNES – Effective leadership involves an understanding of people’s strengths as they work together on teams. Sarah Kramer, chief executive of Publicis’s Spark Foundry, said leaders also recognize when they need the help of people with unique skills. “Diversity and skill sets, hiring people that are smarter than you, that have specialist skills that are […]

CANNES – The ability to get things done is a key trait for people in leadership roles, though that competence accumulates over time. “I noticed that in my twenties as a leader, I needed certain traits. Now that I’m in a different part of my career, it’s funny how listening becomes a really critical trait,” […]

CANNES – Retail media advertising typically refers to digital media channels, but it does have ties to in-store promotions and shopper marketing. That’s especially the case in parts of Europe, where retail media networks are in an early stage of development. “We love shopping in Europe, we love going into the stores. There are stores […]

CANNES – The major shift in people’s television viewing habits has led to a need for audience measurement that covers a variety of platforms – everything from traditional linear television to video streaming on connected devices. Media companies in the past year have gained greater confidence that they can sell advertising with the help of […]

CANNES – The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity this year was notable for introducing sustainability criteria in every advertising award category for the first time. The new requirements come as the media and marketing industries become more aware that their marketing activities result in greenhouse-gas emissions. “For many years, we’ve been focused on climate […]

CANNES – Media company Paramount is part of a partnership that advertising agency Havas announced with data-collaboration platform LiveRamp on data clean rooms. The goal is give marketers a way to improve audience targeting by matching their customer data with other datasets while also protecting people’s privacy. “At Paramount, we think a couple of core […]

Marketers can make advertising campaigns more effective with reliable information about how they reached a target audience. Consumer identifiers that don’t reveal personal details about people or invade their privacy are an important resource in these efforts. Identity “streamlines the way that we transact in the marketing ecosystem,” Julie Clark, senior vice president of media […]

CANNES – The popularity of ChatGPT, a chatbot powered by generative artificial intelligence that’s adept at creating a variety of text-based content, has helped to ignite interest in the technology among media and marketing executives. That group includes attendees of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The term “AI” is among the five key […]

CANNES – The significant changes in how people spend time with media and advertising have led marketers and media companies to find measurement solutions that accurately reflect consumer behavior. Rivals to Nielsen, which has dominated television ratings for decades, are gaining acceptance in helping to set the value of ad transactions, or what are known […]

CANNES – Uber Technologies in the past year has diversified into advertising sales, building on its relationships with consumers who have used its apps to hail a car-ride or to order food for delivery. The data the company gathers about people’s destinations and their buying habits are a key resource in helping to provide brands […]

CANNES – The fragmentation of the media marketplace has challenged marketers to find more ways to measure the effectiveness of advertising, including a metric for people’s attention to brand messaging. Advertising agency Havas teamed with measurement partner Adelaide to develop the Meaningful Attention Unit (MAU) as a key metric. “We’re going to change how we […]

CANNES – The advertising industry’s carbon footprint was a major topic at this year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, with plenty of discussion about how marketing professionals can include sustainability issues in their decision making. “Our agencies are getting more and more interest in not only what they’re doing for their organization, but what […]

CANNES – The ad-tech industry relies on computers whose power partly comes from burning fossil fuels. Natural gas and coal are used to generate 60% of the electricity in the United States, while 20% comes from renewable sources such as wind and hydroelectric, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Demand-side platform Adlook is looking […]

CANNES – Responsible media investment seeks to support a diverse range of publishers, broadcasters, streaming platforms and creators of content. The effort also reflects the growth of multiethnic audiences, especially younger consumers with growing spending power. Publicis Groupe several years ago created the Once and For All Coalition to advance diversity and inclusion goals. “We […]

CANNES – The advertising industry’s effect on climate change was a big topic at this year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, with plenty of discussion about how marketing professionals can include sustainability issues in their decision making. John Osborn, the former chief executive of OMD USA and BBDO New York, wants to help them […]

There is growing awareness among companies that their marketing activities affect the environment. Greenhouse gasses not only come energy-intensive operations like running a factory or a fleet of trucks, but they also come from the electricity to host websites, store data or for automated bidding on digital advertising. As global chief sustainability officer of UM, […]

CANNES – Many retailers have created media networks to sell digital advertising space to brands that want to reach consumers as they shop online. The emergence of these networks is adding another dimension to the relationships between marketers of consumer brands and retailers, as retailers become suppliers of advertising inventory to the companies that supply their […]

CANNES – Marketers seeking to reach a mass audience have many ways to do that through a variety of channels – and retailers that sell online advertising are a fast-growing way to do that. However, these retail media networks have ad formats and definitions of engagement that can make them hard to compare with each […]

Uber will soon introduce full-length video ads for the first time on its ride-hailing app, food delivery service Uber Eats and alcohol sales platform Drizly, the company announced. The ads will appear on the main Uber app while customers wait for drivers to arrive and during their trips, Mark Grether, vice president and general manager […]

As marketers, agencies, media companies and adtech firms gather for this month’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, there will be more discussion about the role of artificial intelligence in the creative process of advertising. The explosive popularity of ChatGPT, a chatbot developed by tech startup OpenAI, has many people asking about the possibilities and […]