Cannes Lions

CANNES – Because it may have grown to become too big and too expensive, the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity should be examined for its location and format, according to Sir Martin Sorrell. However, boycotting the event or not participating is not the right approach, according to the Founder & CEO of WPP. Sorrell’s comments […]

CANNES — Once upon a time, television advertising used to be all about igniting consumers’ initial interest, sometimes long before an eventual purchase. It’s called “branding”, raising awareness at the very start of the marketing funnel – with no real ability to track a TV ad’s specific impact on sales. But all that is changing, […]

CANNES — Who would ever have thought that the world’s biggest festival for celebrating creativity in marketing would have ended up discussing artificial intelligence, blockchain and cognitive technologies? But all these new-wave developments could be set to revolutionise advertising, as well as the other industries they touch. Companies like IBM and Microsoft are pitching their cognitive […]

CANNES – Advertisers have made big strides in understanding issues like digital ad viewability and consumer attention. Now they need to focus more on understanding business outcomes. To Jay Sears, this means focusing not on proxies or clicks or even intention “but actual sales lift as the result of an exposed population seeing an ad.” […]

CANNES — The UK’s two leading pay-TV providers have teamed to develop a “common currency” for addressable TV advertising in the country. Sky (satellite) and Virgin Media (cable) may be fierce rivals, but this week they announced a “strategic partnership” to scale advanced TV ad targeting opportunities, against the common enemy of online platforms. In this […]

CANNES – First off, don’t call them avatars. They’re “digital humans” with their own biologically inspired emotional models. And they are ready to help bring brands to life in amazing ways. In this, Soul Machines Co-Founder & CEO Mark Sagar walks The Weather Company CMO Jordan Bitterman through three immersive and utterly absorbing examples of […]

CANNES – Just as brands want to have a singular view of their users and prospects, forward-thinking media investment companies know they can no longer maintain channel-specific teams. It takes big investments in technology—some of it artificial intelligence-enhanced—to accomplish both. In the past 12 months alone, GroupM launched its global [m]PLATFORM and then bolstered its […]

CANNES – Andrew Feigenson joined Nielsen Catalina Solutions about six months ago hoping that the ad industry was moving toward an outcomes-based approach to measuring success. So far, he hasn’t been disappointed. “From an advertiser perspective, we’re seeing a lot of that right now. Brands that are actually taking sales impact as a KPI and […]

CANNES – Lost in the headlines about so-called fake news is the reality that artificial intelligence is making things better. But it’s not lost on Washington Post. “I think the way we think about AI is how to strengthen our journalism,” Jarrod Dicker, Washington Post’s Head of Commercial Product & Technology, says in this interview […]

CANNES – Each side needs a little of what the other has got, and they are coming together to make something better. That is one way to describe the current state of media – at least according to Turner president David Levy. Speaking with Beet.TV in this video interview, he sees a convergence of digital and […]

CANNES – Who would ever have thought that the world’s biggest festival for celebrating creativity in marketing would have ended up discussing artificial intelligence, blockchain and cognitive technologies? Those were some of the trends on the lips of ad execs as Cannes Lions got underway early this week – but how could they help advertisers? […]

CANNES – Bank of America believes that artificial intelligence, along with its upcoming digital assistant dubbed Erica, will make the financial giant more nimble and predictive with its customers. “I think it’s going to be an incredible enabler and make us much quicker,” BOA’s CMO, Meredith Verdone, says of AI in this interview with Beet.TV […]

CANNES – Artificial intelligence offers brands a wide spectrum of new capabilities, from machine learning insights to enabling more human experiences and interactions. “AI is in many ways like that word innovation,” says Lisa Donohue, Global Brand President of Starcom Worldwide. “There are so many parts to AI that fall under the equation.” In this […]

CANNES – The OMD Oasis, an annual fixture at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, doesn’t lack things to do and see. But its core mission is to make things simple for marketers at a time when creativity and technology are always intersecting. At the same time, the personal ambition of OMD Worldwide’s CEO, Mainardo […]

CANNES – The near-term forecast at The Weather Company calls for Watson—as in a name change that will place IBM’s artificial intelligence capabilities at the forefront of a company heretofore known for its atmospheric aptitude. “The experiences that we’re are bringing our clients through here that are all Watson-based is really where the future is […]

Creation and viewing of mobile video is growing in leaps and bounds but marketers aren’t moving fast enough to keep up with the trend. This is the focal point that Facebook will bring to the fore at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity as it continues to roll out new video formats. The social media […]

Artificial intelligence (also referred to as augmented intelligence) is expected to be one of the most talked about topics at Cannes next week. But it can be hard to fathom exactly what AI could mean, and for whom. That’s why the Weather Company CMO  Jordan Bitterman and his team plan to bring the technology to life […]

In a fast-moving world with fast-changing technologies, new strategies and ideas prompt constant innovation in the way we construct messaging and communicate for companies. But is constant reinvention necessarily a good thing? In this video interview with Beet.TV, one of the creative chiefs from a major international agency calls for longer-term thinking. “We talk a […]

One of the world’s top ad agencies is well used to making messages for TV screens – but TBWA also sees an opportunity to break free from that screen. Speaking with Beet.TV in this video interview, TBWA’s global chief creative officer Chris Garbutt says: “There’s never been a more exciting time for storytelling. All these […]

The digital ecosystem is awash in content, but it’s not a case of more is merrier. “We think less is more,” says David Lang, Chief Content Officer for Mindshare NA and President of Mindshare Content+ Entertainment. As he looks ahead to the 2017 Cannes Lions festival, Lang talks about the importance of conducting content strategies […]