Beet.TV Coverage of Cannes Lions 2017

CANNES — Cannes Lions is billed as “the international festival of creativity” but, judging from some of the tech talk that has made in-roads in recent years, you could forgive a delegate for not feeling very creative anymore. So, in a world of ad-tech, what place does creativity have at the table anymore? Creativity is […]

CANNES — Across the TV industry, MVPDs are examining how they can upgrade their ad sales processes. Taking a cue from online video ad sales, they want to start trading ads using data-infused insights, allowing advertisers to target audiences, not just content. Brian Golbere wants to help, though he says the prospect has a ways […]

CANNES — After a few years in which the advertising industry has talked plenty about targeting, precision and data, many executives used last week’s Cannes Lions to talk about rebalancing the narrative with a nod back to creativity. But the two hemispheres of the industry don’t have to be divorced from each other, says one […]

CANNES – Call it television, video or neither. What matters to ESPN’s Eric Johnson is that it delivers “value and impact” to advertisers. Like other attendees of the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, Johnson welcomed the many conversations about how the industry can come together and drive more effective ways of measurement. “We’re trading on […]

CANNES — Marketers should start preparing for an age in which their independent intelligent brand assistants are at consumers’ beck and call to answer pre-purchase questions using artificial intelligence, according to one leading ad agency executive. At Cannes Lions, AI – perhaps surprisingly – emerged as one of the key trends and opportunities facing modern […]

CANNES – Reducing commercial ad loads on network television is paying dividends for viewers and advertisers. Now the industry needs to balance context and content to improve the ad experience on digital platforms. That’s the prognosis of Chris Linn, President of Turner Entertainment’s truTV, which was the first network to announce limited commercial interruptions “and […]

CANNES – Time Inc. doesn’t foresee a letup in the niche segmentation of television content going forward. And even if that content doesn’t attract huge audiences, that’s okay as long as viewers are “super engaged,” according to Rich Battista. Just in case this prediction doesn’t pan out, Time Inc. will be churning out all manner […]

CANNES — Driverless cars are already here. But that doesn’t mean drivers shouldn’t be able to take control at the wheel whenever they fancy putting pedal to the metal. The marketing chief of one big auto maker believes owners should be able to choose their vehicle’s driving mode depending on their preference. Earlier this year, […]

CANNES – Sailing against companies like Facebook and Google, Oath—the combined AOL-Yahoo entity—finds itself navigating deeply competitive waters. So it’s apt that the person chosen to pilot the new vessel, John DeVine, not only ran Yahoo’s global operations but also is a former U.S. Navy officer. Oath is a portfolio of more than 50 media […]

CANNES – In a world of seemingly endless video content choices, one thing is still missing: a better value exchange in which consumers realize that watching commercials might just be worth it. “I think it’s one of the things we’re kind of missing,” Dave Penski, CEO of Publicis Media Exchange Americas, says in this interview […]

CANNES — The world of online advertising has grown up by using metrics like click-throughs as proxies for advertisers’ real end goals, like driving sales. Now, slowly, as new attribution technology hots up, brands are being promised the ability the ability to close the loop. But, whilst, to many, this evolution appears to be driven […]

CANNES – Expanding its premium video advocacy footprint beyond North America, FreeWheel debuted the FreeWheel Council for Premium Video Europe (FWCE) at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. Right out of the gate, the FWCE garnered the support of the some of the biggest TV programmers and operators across the region. Initial FWCE members include […]

CANNES — Many brands remain wedded to an advertising planning system developed by econometricians – but the so-called “marketing-mix modelling” doesn’t necessarily give them all the answers about campaign performance. In this discussion panel recorded by Beet.TV, ad agency tech executives say many clients are capable of moving forward – but they are caught between […]

CANNES — When they burst on to the scene a few years back, so-called “programmatic advertising” techniques focused on unlocking lower-grade ad inventory using real-time auctions. But times have changed. And one ad-tech exec is witnessing a maturation of programmatic that now includes a focus on premium ad space and a “flight to quality”. “Programmatic […]

CANNES — As Cannes Lions played host to plenty of discussions about the role of artificial intelligence in advertising and marketing, many might have wondered how far off some of the technologies may be. Certainly, tools like 3D brand avatars imbued with lifelike emotions and empathy may seem far-fetched. But they are real, here and […]

CANNES — The market for addressable TV, the practice of using data to digitally target TV viewers over connected devices, could double this year, says one leader working in the space. Speaking with Beet.TV in this video interview, Cross MediaWorks CEO Nick Troiano says the technology is rolling out well in local TV, and will eventually […]

CANNES — Artificial intelligence may get talked about a lot as a future technology. But the reality is that some of the big technology firms already make several AI and machine learning disciplines available for any developer to use in their own applications today. That means the time is now to pick a horse in […]

CANNES – What constitutes “premium content” is in the eye of the beholder. So rather than trying to ascertain a common definition, one’s time is better spent understanding the drivers of ROI while taking into account things like environment, ad formats and targeting. “That’s really more what we’re focused on versus worrying too much about […]

CANNES — Artificial intelligence is promising the touch and revolutionize every industry on the planet – even journalism. Already, algorithms are beginning to take the basic inputs of data and write coherent narratives, But one top magazine editor doesn’t believe robots will be calling the shots in the newsroom any time soon. “I’m not terribly […]

CANNES – Global agency MEC has a bias against bias. Toward the top of the list is “unconscious bias” and it’s become an acute problem in a day and age when agencies are facing more competitors than ever. “We’ve done an awful lot of work on unconscious bias. It’s a huge thing in our industry,” […]