Industry experts share their thoughts on the back of the 2024 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, providing a glimpse into some of the event’s big talking points and their takeaways from the latest edition of the festival.
Andrea Ching, Global Head of Integrated Marketing, Bloomberg Media
“This year was a pivotal moment for the industry, emphasising the importance of both nurturing and training the next generation of marketing talent. AI was a standout theme, in particular leveraging the technology to achieve more with fewer resources. This aligns with Bloomberg’s theme of ‘Good Business’, highlighting how innovation can drive a positive impact on global societies, systems and trends.
“The battle for audience attention was fiercer than ever, for example with the inclusion of live music at almost every beach event. This underscored the rising importance of creative and effective approaches to increase engagement, as attrition increases year-on-year.”
Paul Wright, Head of International, Uber Advertising
“Anecdotally, we heard that out of a week of highlights at CannesUber Advertising’s late-night pizza giveaway on the Croisette stood out as especially welcome. When our team was helping serve them, they were certainly warmly welcomed by the event’s attendees!
“In terms of key topics, the rise of commerce media and commerce networks was undeniably dominant. Prominent brands across verticals, from our own platform, to airlines to banks, all came to highlight their commerce media offerings. Last year, the focus was perhaps more on pure retail media, but this year’s Cannes showed that commerce media offers distinct advantages. It can effectively steer consumers along their purchase path and empower brands to amplify their message across upper and lower funnel.”
Julia Beizer, Chief Digital Officer, Bloomberg Media
“There was crucial discussion about the health of the Open Web, focusing on protecting it through investing in premium publishers. As synthetic content floods the digital space, and signal loss reduces measurability, safeguarding integrity becomes more important than ever.
“Incorporating this perspective highlights the necessity of responsible business practices, to move the dial on from business to practising ‘Good Business’.”
James Hill, Chief Commercial Officer, EXTE
“This was the year of Responsible Cannes. Cannes has so often been tarnished with tales of over-indulgence but encouraging others to call out inappropriate behaviour is a critical step in creating a more inclusive, collaborative and constructive ecosystem for all. And it feels like we have made a big step in improving perceptions and maturing as an industry.
“Responsible media is something that EXTE strongly advocates to support premium publishers and quality advertising, so it was great to see the industry and businesses alike, visibly and vocally championing this.
“The other key takeaway is the confusion that abounds over Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how it is referred to in the market. While AI in general presents an exciting opportunity to streamline processes and capabilities, there needs to be more clarity around the nuances between Generative AI and Narrow Intelligence (Machine Learning), so the benefits of each can be exploited appropriately and effectively for marketeers.”
Lena Arbery, Associate Director Sales, Tripadvisor
“The key lesson from Cannes Lion 2024 is the importance of consistently innovating while staying true to your brand’s core values and putting consumers at the centre of your brand. In a crowded market, advertisers must prioritise their end customers, who are the heart and soul of the brand, to effectively target and retarget them through every step of the funnel.”
Christine Cook, Global Chief Revenue Officer, Bloomberg Media
“This week brought sustainability back into the conversation in measurable ways, with discussions on the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) and Scope 3 emissions. Bloomberg’s theme this year, ‘Good Business’, underscored the positive impact that business has the power to make.’
“Educational activations highlighted an industry desire to continue learning and stay ahead, amidst constant changes in the digital landscape. The ANA Global CMO Growth Council offered valuable insights as part of Bloomberg Media’s programming, while our workshops provided hands-on experiences.”
Phil Acton, UK MD, Adform
“This year the buzz of Cannes was the best it’s ever been. It seemed like everyone was in a positive mood to do business. Several themes stood out. AI (obviously) was the name of the game and a lot of our clients were keen to understand the short-term opportunities. Similarly, Google’s cookie deprecation was peppered amongst the conversations – The consensus of most of these was that we shouldn’t wait, especially when there are solutions now, such as Utiq and ID Fusion.
“What I did notice was not as many conversations I was having included ESG, but having spoken to peers about this they assured me they didn’t see that which was reassuring to hear. One ESG highlight however was the GARM framework announcement.
“CTV has been a big contender during 2024 so it was unsurprising to see TV OEMs, such as LG Ads Solutions and Samsung Ads have a decent presence. Roku, Disney+ and SambaTV all put CTV on the agenda and people were talking about budgets and activations as much as they were talking about strategy.
“Finally, I took part in a roundtable at Maison NDA, where topics such as curation, SPO and Retail Media also sparked debate. What’s clear from all of this is that Cannes put the spotlight on moving the industry towards solutions, rather than paying lip service to the problems.”
David Shaw, Co-Founder and CEO, Cedara
“Sustainability was the hottest topic at Cannes this year, with the release of GARM and Ad Net Zero’s Framework pushing the issue back to the top of ad industry agendas.
“There has been a clear absence of standards or guidelines for tracking and reducing carbon emissions, but this Framework has changed the game.
“It’s set a new standard for accountability, which will prove invaluable in motivating the entire ecosystem to take responsibility and prioritise sustainability in its strategies and practices. However, in order to drive meaningful change, it is essential that brands ensure all vendors, including ad platforms and publishers, measure and reduce corporate emissions according to these unprecedented standards.”
Mateusz Ruminski, VP of Product, PrimeAudience
“This Cannes, a lot has been said about audience curation – which seems one of the most promising ways to help advertisers buy more qualitative audiences without compromising user privacy.
“Unsurprisingly, Generative AI is repeated virtually everywhere. However, I would expect more sophisticated uses of Generative AI technologies in advertising, than those that were presented, giving new entrants more opportunity.
“People are tired of hearing about cookieless. At the same time, industry leaders are quite convinced that brands are significantly underprepared and will get a shock when the plug gets pulled.
“Finally, measurement remains a challenge, in particular, how to understand the campaign results holistically, considering that individual targeting tactics rely on different targeting and measurement tools and there is no easy way to reconcile it all.”
Mike Khouri, CEO, Tactical
“This year’s Cannes Lions festival was dominated by media platforms and AI, highlighting a potential de-prioritisation of traditional creative storytelling in favour of these emerging technologies.
“Despite some valuable insights into AI’s potential for disruption, I missed a deeper dive into how this technology can be harnessed to enable what Cannes Lions is all about – creative excellence.
“With AI at our fingertips surely the real opportunity for creatives is to capitalise on its input and automation to free up more time for the industry’s greatest strength – human creativity.
“From a networking perspective though, Cannes continues to offer unparalleled access to thought leaders and tastemakers, providing a window into what great looks like today as well as what trends and topics matter most to the industry.”
James Hill, Chief Commercial Officer, EXTE
“This was the year of Responsible Cannes. Cannes has so often been tarnished with tales of over-indulgence but encouraging others to call out inappropriate behaviour is a critical step in creating a more inclusive, collaborative and constructive ecosystem for all. And it feels like we have made a big step in improving perceptions and maturing as an industry.
“Responsible media is something that EXTE strongly advocates to support premium publishers and quality advertising, so it was great to see the industry and businesses alike, visibly and vocally championing this.
“The other key takeaway is the confusion that abounds over Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how it is referred to in the market. While AI in general presents an exciting opportunity to streamline processes and capabilities, there needs to be more clarity around the nuances between Generative AI and Narrow Intelligence (Machine Learning), so the benefits of each can be exploited appropriately and effectively for marketeers.”
Lydia Oakes, Co-Founder, Bluestripe Group
“Let’s put aside the ubiquity of AI content for a minute and look at the actual look and feel of this year’s festival. Undoubtedly, it was the busiest Cannes for many years and the way it is done is changing. Yes, you’ll still hear all about late nights at The Gutter Bar but you’ll also hear a lot more about 8.30 breakfast meetings, how busy people are and the amount of meetings people are trying to cram in. And there’s no quiet start to the week anymore. Sunday was busy and Monday was huge. People actively wanted to talk business and do deals and that’s exactly what we wanted to see.”
*This article features clients of Bluestripe Communications, owned by Bluestripe Group, publisher of NDA
