'People are turning away from the everything app': How to avoid mediocrity at scale

Speaker A: Hello and welcome back to the Performance Marketing Unlocked podcast Cannes lion edition. It's uh, part two of our two part, uh, Cannes lion podcast miniseries coming at you from on the ground on the crosset. You'll be hearing this in the wake of the event, but I can assure you the discussion that has been had has never been more relevant. Uh, we're diving into all of the key takeaways on the brand side of the event this year, uh, diving into the dominant themes, the biggest talking points, perhaps what has been ignored a little bit and might be the point of discussion in 12 months time when we come back. And of course we're touching on some of the highlights of the week and some of the cool things we've unearthed in our discussions that perhaps haven't come up across the organization. Awards and the panels and the events. This is sort of the underbelly of Cannes lion, if you like. And joining me for that discussion is of course our, uh, editor at pmw, Robyn Langford. Robin, how are you? I should say I'm Joseph Arthur, still Joseph Arthur, the deputy editor of pmw. Bear with me. It's towards the end of the week now. Robin, how are you?

Speaker B: I'm, um, I'm good, Joe. I've got my usual day four can voice. So apologies to the audience for that and I'm glad Joe, you remember who you are at this point. That's great.

Speaker A: I know I'm doing well. We're sort of, we're. I like to think we're over the hump and getting towards the end. It's Thursday afternoon Friday. Things, uh, wind down a little bit, but uh, I've actually got a panel ahead of me this evening, so not quite off just yet. But you're nearly done, aren't you? After this, you don't have much else left.

Speaker B: Yes, I'm very demob happy right now. I might not be at my full here, Joe, but here we go.

Speaker A: Well, uh, let's get into it, shall we? Why don't we start talking about. We've both had some chats over the last couple of days, um, with some brand side people, uh, and some agencies that are working with some of the biggest brand side clients, uh, some of the platforms in similar positions. And I just want to get your take on perhaps the dominant theme, the biggest talking points that have been recurring in the chats that you've had.

Speaker B: Um, oh God. I mean so much drinking from the firehouse. But the general theme of can is even more leaning into data and tech. Um, but to fuel that Next generation of creativity, I think.

Speaker A: Yeah, I think it's sort of going beyond the beginning of the week is very AI focused and everyone was sort of foisting their new technology and their big launches. But I think as the weeks progress, we've got a little bit more client side and a bit more outcomes focused. And I was saying earlier, you know, we've got to make sure we're still worrying about measurement and we've got to make sure that the underlying data that's feeding all of these systems is reliable. And it's been enlightening that people uh, have really started to put that front and center.

Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely, Joe. Um, yeah, and I think we've been looking at a bit of perspective from lots of different brands, um, in Cannes this year. Um, it's a really big. One of the big attractions with Cannes line is it does seem to attract those high level executives at brands and that's why everyone else comes here. So yeah, I've spoken to um, the CMO of Bose, really, uh, fantastic guy, Jim Mollicher. I've been talking to someone from the um, virgin, uh, O2 network and also some of the big names in television broadcast things like ITV, Channel 4, that kind of thing. So really interesting perspectives.

Speaker A: Yeah, we've got a range of things coming up in this episode alone. You can look forward to hearing insights from the chats, uh, I had with Tesco Media's Nick Ashley, um, Spotify's Per Sandel. Of course. I caught up with Ben Moore of Bereal and it was really interesting actually to speak to Bereal who have been floating under the radar as a social platform, I think in terms of, you know, their presence along the cross set. Um, I know they had a party last year, but this year they've been just in the weeds talking to people, talking to clients, taking meetings. So it was great to chat to Ben. And you can also look forward to some insights, um, with specsavers. Um, I had a chat with Lisa Hale from specsavers who gave me a great insight. She's lovely, based out in Wales and was telling me all about what they are doing and the content that they've been taking in. Um, so you can look forward to that coming up in just a moment. But I want to get you to elaborate quickly, Robyn, if you don't mind. Is there anything that stood out to you as when we think about data and we think about technology, how's that merging with creativity, which sort of remains the calling card of Cannes Lion And a lot of people make the case that AI is moving performance channels up the funnel and now we can measure brand and things like that. Is that something you've seen come to volition here?

Speaker B: Yeah, I think so. Um, just lots of new ways to measure things that were perhaps previously unmeasurable. There are the sort of, the more traditional metrics of those like, um, brand lift studies and net promoter scores and customer surveys and things feel like they feel a bit old school now and often they felt a bit imperfect as a way to actually like link up the effects of branding and performance. But, um, increasingly those, those channels are measurable and you know, dare say becoming performance channels themselves. And that whether that's digital out of home, whether that's um, all sorts of packaging, I've spoken to someone about that today. Um, but I think brands themselves are just more keen than ever to actually just see the results across the board of what they're investing in.

Speaker A: I agree. It's consistent across channels. Whether you're talking about retail media, social media, audio as a format as well is obviously a big one. Certainly, uh, all channels, all verticals. The expectation is that there are going to be some outcomes now and that's a little bit of product of the economy, uh, and also a product of just the raising standards that technology has brought forward. Um, so I'll leave you listeners to enjoy some insights from a couple of those discussions. So Tesco Media, Spotify, be real. Um, Georgina Iston as well from AEG Global Partnerships. I shouldn't forget. I spoke to her as well. Uh, and of course Specsavers. So enjoy uh, their thoughts on what the big dominant talking point and theme has been for Cannes Lion 2026 coming up now.

Speaker C: I'm Nick Ashley, I'm Propositions and Go to Market director at Tesco Media. Um, been at Tesco Media for three years. Prior to that I was in the Tesco customer marketing team and prior to that I was at wpp. So I spent most of my career agency side. I think more a theme really, rather than a specific highlight is that I've always loved Cannes for its creativity. I think it's always been a brilliant place to come and learn, understand how people are experimenting, um, learn from brands from outside of the uk. Particularly for us, I think has always been really good. I think the discernible difference that I've seen this year is that it's not just creativity, it's creativity that's connected to results genuinely is. So conversations about how creativity can drive business performance, I've seen much more of a focus on that.

Speaker D: Uh, I'M Paris Sandel, um, and I'm co lead of the advertising business for Spotify. Um, and I focus mostly on our technology solutions across product engineering, um, data science and machine learning. Um, and I've been with Spotify for about three and a half years now, um, and focused really heavily on our advertising technology and that journey that we've been on of rebuilding and rebooting kind of the technology focus that we've had as a business. Yeah. So this week I think has been a pretty incredible one for us as a brand. Um, and also I think for can as well. It does really feel this year is one of the more successful cans that I've been to in the last couple of years. It feels much more lively, much more active. Um, but you know, I think if I take a lens of my own personal view and the Spotify view, um, we've been really excited about how we've been starting to bring and connect our advertising business back to kind of broader span Spotify and that focus on fandom, um, and the focus on the solutions that we've been bringing to market. Um, and I think for us that's a really good celebration of the truth, 20 years of our history and how we've been really being able to tie that together, not just as a focus on a business, but a focus on the value that we're bringing to the fans and our listeners across the board. And for me, I think the best feeling really is seeing these moments that we try to create with technology happening in real life. Um, and so when I'm standing in the back of one of our concerts and I'm looking at Ray performing and I see everybody having that experience of either being a fan and having that emotional one or becoming a fan, I know that that is something that I feel like we have built the technology to make that possible in the digital environment. And that is an incredibly unique experience and not one that you get to see very often happen in front of your eyes.

Speaker E: I, um, am Paul Samuels, President of AEG Global Partnerships International and I've been here for 20 years.

Speaker F: I am George Iston, SVP of Global Partnerships for AEG and I have been here 18 years.

Speaker E: I think it's probably similar to as we expected. I probably didn't realize how manic and busy it is. And you walk along the, you know, the, the beach side and all these different events that, uh, you realize you think you've registered for everything you need to register for. And as we walk from our apartment and we walked along the first like six, seven beaches we came to. We were like, we didn't register for that. We didn't register for that. Uh, but you know, you get to know that and realize actually the beaches are just one small, small part of it. Actually last night going to an event with CAA and met lots of people, um, just going to the restaurants around, coming into here at the Carlton Hotel. You know, there's so many people here in so many different places and like great contacts that we've known. People that we've actually have known maybe for a while, but you never get a chance to get together in London and we have a chance to sit down and have a conversation.

Speaker F: The thing I've found quite interesting is we've done a couple of the panel sessions and the ones that feel really targeted to your work stream have felt actually less relevant and the ones that are outside of your work stream actually have been more relevant. And I'll give an example of that. We went to a podcast that was with the Summer House TV crew just because I love watching Summer House. Um, but they were talking about the diversification of the TV product into micro content and then how you do live shop with. And you start thinking how could that bring in to the music world and our fandom, um, and you know, and the micro content of how to get the, I don't know, Olivia Rodrigo look when she comes to the O2 and things. So I actually have found the podcast, the, the panel sessions that are less relevant to our industry the most interesting

Speaker E: and I guess the other to follow on from that. I guess the other part that uh, stood out for me the most is, you know, hearing about Cannes for many years, you think of advertising agencies and they, they're going to own this place. It's not, it's the tech companies that own this place now. And that just shows you how the industry has changed over the last 10, 15 years. Um, and that's probably the biggest wow factor for me that I'm not seeing all these big agencies here. I'm actually seeing the tech companies.

Speaker G: Yeah, thank you for having me. And uh, my name is Ben Moore. I'm the managing director for birel in the U.S. i've been uh, doing that for uh, the past year. My uh, my scope is essentially focusing on marketing, sales and uh, user growth. I'd say that people uh, on roundtables and panels that have been, are uh, much more uh, moderate about AI. It's been such a buzzword for the past two years. And last year was AI powered this AI fueled That and now people are like yeah, we all get it. You know, AI is such a great tool. It's so much better for execution, it's very efficient, our team are faster, better, uh, and blah blah, blah. But now this year they're like okay, AI is great, but AI will never replace the human. They're putting back the human in the equation at the center, uh, at the forefront actually. And I think a lot of the, I've seen a lot more creators this year than ever I've been coming here for the past decade and there are so many creators that are saying this on the panels and roundtables that they've been. That AI will never replace the vulnerability, the um, uh, empathy and essentially the uh, authenticity of an actual human being. And I think yeah, uh, it's very telling because uh, social media, and I like to call B roll the only social network because social media is trying to become more social than media. For the past decade it was all about media consumptions. The passive, you know, uh, uh, the passive scrolling, the doom scrolling, the brain rot as Gen Z call it. And uh, it's a problem. Uh, we've reached that tipping point where people especially the Gen Z are like, well the 90s were pretty good. You know, people had you know uh, a device, a Game Boy to play their games, they had an ipod to listen to their music and whenever they wanted to read a book they were actually opening a real book. And so there is a trend, a nostalgia trend where people are actually uh, moving away from the Everything app. And I think that's the era, the new era we're entering in. We're going back to social media being actually social, connecting people, human beings, not bots, not uh, you know, AI generated content. And uh, I like to call it the proof of human, uh, social era, the proof of participation. Human is the new premium.

Speaker H: Yes. So I am um, Lisa Hale. I have been at Specsavers for about seven years. Seven years I think. And I look after brand comms. So that's pr, social media partnerships and advertising. So yeah, quite broad spectrum. Started as head of social and then it just evolved as the industry is evolving basically. Okay, I'm purposely not going to talk about AI because it's a wormhole and everyone's talking about it and there's no need of me saying that because I think it's so, it's such an obvious answer but it's sort of semi related to it I suppose is um, for me I think it's the, the importance and the power of earned Strategy and uh, strategy in particular. So earned traditionally has been seen as the amplifier or something that you would use to prolong the conversation around an above the line sort of advertising campaign. But with AI and everything that's happening, earned is becoming core to strategy. So it's not a channel anymore. And I think that's being reflected in. We're seeing more and more times now PR agencies winning gold. Um, I think that happened for the first time three years ago. So it was actually Golan, um, with Specsavers who we won a campaign called Misheard Lyrics with Rick Astley and it was the first time in history that a PR agency picked up the award, not a creative agency. But since then it's happening more and more and I think it's signalling what's happening in the industry. Um, and I think uh, last night it was um, Dana Tahir of Havas Middle east actually said, um, sort of summarized it quite well. If this year's work reminds us of anything, it's that earning attention has never been harder. People have become remarkably good at avoiding marketing. We skip ads, scroll past content and close pop ups. Yet we still stop to send a friend a link and say, you've got to see this. So the strongest work was designed to participate in culture. And I think that's really key. And that's becoming more and more evident over the years that that's becoming central to it.

Speaker A: Lots to unpack there, Robyn. And some excellent points hit. And I think it is sort of built upon what we were saying where, you know, the brands have certain expectations and the platforms, the media networks, the agencies, the social, they've all just got to meet those expectations. They sort of have to come to where the brands are and understand we can tell a story, we can make it compelling, we can make it authentic, but we're going to make sure that there's data to support it. That's been the big calling card. What about what we've ignored this week so far? Is there anything that stood out to you that maybe we haven't been talking about as much as we should? Or is there a conversation that we've begun that you think might go further along in 12 months time that we'll be talking about a lot more this time next year?

Speaker B: Um, um. I've been asking a lot of people on the, on the course that sort of question. I think, um, going back to what I said, I think that uh, I, uh, was speaking to Sandra Wagner of Aurorio and they're pretty special in that they're pretty More making packaging a performance channel. And what they're doing is increasingly putting QR codes on packaging and it can activate all sorts of things. And it's a real interesting way for brands to measure a new channel and also gives power back to brands in that retail environment. Obviously the shelf space on a supermarket is almost like the ultimate uh, ultimate place where those decisions are made and people often think, you know, those products on the bottom shelf of a supermarket often get ignored and that kind of thing. So there's. They're giving them a new way of measuring that kind of thing. And also I learned something fascinating about that. Um, in 2027 there's going to be worldwide regulation that all those old barcodes on products are being phased out for QR codes. I've kind of learned that just today and all of you are very well placed for that because that actually becomes quite a big untapped marketing opportunity if every brand now will have a QR code on their packaging that becomes much more accessible to the consumer rather than they. Consumers are very comfortable scanning barcodes. So we're going to see products becoming inventory for advertising I think very quickly.

Speaker A: That's fascinating. And it's sort of like old school meets the new school in that sense where we might just get to the point where things that are physical in the physical stores are more valuable than ever. That's very like, I mean in store media and retail media has been making that case for quite some time, particularly in the uk. That reminds me of. I was so speaking to Rachel El Dagiri uh, at the PMW powerless party, uh, from the DMA and she was talking about the sort of the fact that even direct mail has, is making a bit of a comeback and how that was, you know, the beginning of the DMA way back when the Direct Marketing association.

Speaker B: That's a bit of a point that people are old enough still sometimes call it the Direct Marketing association. Like me.

Speaker A: Yeah, Slightly before my time but what certainly isn't is those QR codes are now often on those flyers that you see in door drop campaigns and the direct mail and it makes it a bit more measurable and something as old school as just door drop. Direct mail marketing can now be digitized with a QR code. Um, so these formats that maybe have vanished because they weren't digital are ah, making a bit of a comeback. It's the whole. It's why digital out of home's become so popular.

Speaker B: No, absolutely. And the other, um, someone from an expand um, from um, Octopus Energy, a really up and Coming Disruptor brand in the energy market. Seb Dreyfus, um, he worked with them, um, and he actually created that cool little octopus logo for Octopus Energy. He's now moved to Sparks and he's actually looking to measure the effectiveness of events. Live events as we found in the ipa. Bellwether has had a bit of a supercharge and he's putting some metrics together that can help marketers measure their events alongside their media plans and it's really fascinating.

Speaker A: You can actually hear from Seb on the website, um, he features in I think the Day two question of the day video.

Speaker B: Well done for remembering a bit of, a bit of a m merging together.

Speaker A: It's across our socials and our website, but that's still up. And you can go and hear from Seb talking specifically about events um, and their importance and the work he's doing at Sparks, which is really, really cool. Um, but for a little bit of the conversations that I've had along the cross site, I'll refer you back to our expert panel from Tesco, Spotify, aeg, Global Partnerships, Bereal and Specsavers, uh, to enlighten you listeners about what those folks think. Uh, we'll be talking about a lot more in 12 months time and perhaps we've missed a little bit so far, uh, in this week Canline 2026. So you can listen to that now.

Speaker C: M. I think, I mean look, AI has been the topic of discussion, hasn't it? Full stop. But I've note again I've noticed a shift in that there's definitely been more practical application um, rather than theory as to how AI can be used for multiple different things. So, so I would like to see that if I think about in my space particularly I think where I, where I can play a really important role is connecting data and insights to creative output. I don't think we've been good enough

Speaker B: at that in the past.

Speaker C: So how do you take all those amazing audience signals that we might be able to provide from clubcard and how do you translate that into really effective, personalized, relevant, creative. I think AI will play a critical role in that moving forward. So for me I think if we look forward in a year and genuine practical applications of IT across the total industry, I think that would be a really good result for us all.

Speaker D: This is a great question. So you know, I think that there's probably a few ways that I would break this up. Um, and so first I think that over the next 12 months we're going to see a lot bigger rise of audio as a format. Um, and we've really seen that happening in the way that humans are interacting with computing today. Um, and you know, whether you're looking at how you work with maybe your AI tools, you know, whether that's Claude or it's ChatGPT Codex, that becomes a much more auditory experience. Experience. And I think that, you know, we're kind of moving in a way that culture has always done for, you know, the hundreds of thousands of years and, you know, storytelling and figuring out this area where voice and audio and sound and music powers excitement and really powers culture. And I think, you know, over the next year, I think we're going to see a big increase in that. You know, you walk up and down the Croisset, everybody is doing an event with musicians, everybody's doing an event with podcasting. Um, and you know, as we've started to expand into audiobooks and started to expand as well into fitness, you know, we're really seeing that Spotify as a whole is actually setting these entertainment and cultural and fandom paradigms. And I think we expect to see that more across the industry over the next 12 months. Um, and on that note, obviously, you know, I think I'd be remiss to not mention and talk a little bit about some of the artificial intelligence side of the universe as well. Um, and that's another area where I predict that, you know, over the next 12 months we're going to see a lot more, you know, agentic phocin solutions, particularly when it comes to media activation. Um, and that's an area where I think, you know, Spotify has really been leading the way and we're going to see a lot of folks trying to catch up to what we've done. Um, we've built out, you know, AI creative tools. We've got, you know, over 7,000 advertisers using those already on the platform today. Um, and you know, we're also been building a number of solutions around like cloud CLI plugins and plugins for codecs. And I think we're going to see a lot more of those from media platforms, particularly platforms that have a large logged in user base and the ability to execute from the command line in a very efficient way is what I think that we're going to see a lot more of in media, which is taking those areas that used to be time sucks and turning them around to focus that time that you've regained in workflow in agentix solutions back to creativity. And so if we do the right thing, things and the industry does the right things, we're going to be able to spend more time on the message and less time on the paperwork. And I'm m hopeful that you know, with the technology that we've been building that we've seen across the industry, we see a lot more of that. Um, and so I think those are probably my predictions over the next 12 months.

Speaker E: Uh, I mean clearly AI which is, is dominant here, but I think people sometimes just use AI as an AI word and don't realize what even AI is or what it could do. I think we're going to see development of actually what actually AI is and what's it actually doing, uh, more and actually seeing it live in practice because we hear about it and people are using it, but actually seeing it, how it's making a difference and changing the world of marketing.

Speaker F: I think it's changing the world of consumer behavior which means that marketing has to keep up. So for example, if I want to find out what taxi companies, companies are working in this area, I can find out from AI in two seconds who the firms are. What I've got to then know is the brands and which brand do I actually uh, value the most. So that brand building work that needs to happen before you've gone into the digital environment to find the brand is becoming much more important. It's sort of cutting out the traditional digital marketing that has been around for so long. So I think there's going to be more of the pressure on the brand building side of things. And I'm really excited because that's what our world is.

Speaker G: I'd say everything around the uh, proof of realness, the proof of human uh, is going to be a big one. Uh, we're seeing a lot of uh, campaigns, uh, ad campaigns on B roll, uh, being somehow conduits of out of home campaigns. Um, I feel like there's a big you know, also comeback of uh, out of home. I don't know if it's ever been gone, but I see a lot of uh, uh, creative billboards. Whether it's in Los Angeles, New York, Paris or any other cities that have been even this week in cad. We're seeing a very creative uh, you know, assets on, on the facades of the hotel. And I'd say that uh, there's going to be um, somehow um, a parallel joint work between out of home and social media. People are going to use social media that can amplify reality and make sure that it's real, uh, uh, to do out of home campaigns, billboards and You've seen it, I'm sure, on social, on LinkedIn. People are taking pictures of actual billboard and they're saying, well, this is not AI generated, this is actually real. And people are like, well, it's a minute now. I'm not sure if, uh, what you're saying is real. So a lot of advertising advertisers are going to find, uh, are going to look for ways to really, uh, amplify those messages in a very, not only authentic way, but proof of real. They're going to look for, you know, uh, they're going to look for proving to their audience that their campaigns are out there and that, uh, they're not, you know, using AI generated for everything.

Speaker H: Do you know what that was? Actually, my answer was that I think I'm talking about earned, because I'm in that world.

Speaker A: You need other people talking about it.

Speaker D: Yeah.

Speaker H: And I think, you know, I'm here with, um, an earned PR agency. And so I'm very conscious that we're in our bubble and we're talking about it, but as a broader industry, I don't think it's being discussed or it's. Or it's an it is but in pockets. Um, and I think what we need to think about as an industry is how are to we going collaborating across the different spectrums and relook at that. So, um, we've got to start with how do we earn attention, how do we then amplify, um, with above the line and with paid, um, how do we then learn and then put those learnings back into the ecosystem again? So it's sort of a different way of approaching marketing to what we used to do.

Speaker A: Finally, Robin, to finish things off and wrap up our annual Cannes lion podcast miniseries, we've got to talk about the highlights, we've got to talk about the best bits. Maybe, um, a low light in there if there's something that you want to raise that you think is relevant. Um, but now that we've got, you know, pretty much, uh, the Week in the Rear View Mirror, uh, talk us through some of the things that stood out to you. Um, whether for good reasons or bad,

Speaker B: um, I think obviously you can't. The parties are fantastic and we've been to some fantastic beach parties and stuff, but the PMW Powerless party was obviously a massive highlight for us. What's always nice about that being, uh, being a brand for the industry, is seeing all those great people come together and actually those rather curious connections of people that never knew each other, but, you know, they kind of should and will really hit it off there. And you go, oh, it's great that those two. But finally talking. So that's been great to see. Rak, uh, Patel was there, the chief commercial officer of Channel 4. And one of my highlights was seeing him speak. And if anyone knows Rak in the industry, he's obviously ex Spotify. Come over to Channel four. Um, hearing him talk at RTL beach was fantastic because he made a really good point. Lindsay Clay at thinkbox was moderating that panel and the big question is, is YouTube TV? Ah. And that is often a big issue. And Rack was quite, uh, made a quite powerful point and quite barbed point as well, towards, towards YouTube, um, which is, um, recently, um, Barb themselves created a new measurement, uh, platform that put YouTube alongside the broadcasters. And YouTube served a cease and desist to Barb. I think we might remember that news story earlier this year. But he made a really good point which I think we can all take back, um, with us, which is, um, if they want to be tv, they have to be answerable to TV level, um, scrutiny. That's interesting. I mean, if you two do want to be seen as tv, they do need to be ranking alongside by the same metrics as itv and so they should that. So I think that Cease and Desist, that was somewhat controversial and then Rack did call them out on it, which is quite good.

Speaker A: Well, I think it's fair enough because if you want to be treated like tv, then you're going to get treated like tv. Ah.

Speaker G: And.

Speaker A: And that comes with the good and the bad, the hard and the easy. Uh, it's fascinating though, just thinking about that geographically, the fact that RTL beach is pretty much next door to Google and YouTube beach as well, so they might have been able to overhear.

Speaker B: Exactly.

Speaker A: Coming at them.

Speaker B: He did refer to it as RTL beach. And Comcast Beach's oasis is away from the walled gardens and it felt like there's a bit of a resurgence of the open web, which was the subject of my Day four article.

Speaker A: Yeah, you can read that on the website, as you should, if you haven't already. Um, that's a good one, Robyn. And you mentioned the events and of course the PMW palace party, as always, its worlds colliding and it's bringing people together who, as you say, haven't met and probably should. It was a little bit bittersweet and I do want to call out England for putting on such a dreary performance and maybe it made for better conversation. The fact that people weren't Glued to the football because it was so horrible.

Speaker B: Yeah, obviously, Joe, you're a soccer ooze fan, so it wasn't. You weren't too, Too distraught with that one. I know, but. But we all want to see a good game of football, and we were kind of a bit full storm with that Croatia game before. Which was a stonker.

Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. It was. And I'm nervously anticipating our third and final group stage game for the. The soccer ruse. We're not quite through yet, but we. We're nearly there. Um, a highlight of mine was. I mean, Mumford and Sons was obviously awesome. A big thank you to Spotify, our, uh, friends over there for having us along. And, um, yeah, they. They were quite the soccer hooligans themselves, actually. It seemed that they'd come in directly from the match the previous night and they'd flown into Cannes for their performance at Spotify beach, and they couldn't stop talking about the football. Um, and, you know, you. I sort of had a vague recollection of where they were from, but we both sort of thought they were Irish and they're clearly not. They're very big football bogans.

Speaker B: Yeah. But they were fantastic. They were so engaging to the audience, and it really, really was a massive lift. It was a really amazing moment that.

Speaker A: I think my biggest highlight, though, was actually on Dentsu Beach. And this happened, uh, right in the middle of the week. And Takashi Seno, the new global CEO and president of Dentsu, uh, really threw down the gauntlet, uh, setting expectations for the resurgence he's planning for Dentsu's international business in particular, which we know has been struggling while its Asian business has thrived. Much of that success in Asia and Japan was spearheaded by Takashi Sano. He's now been in the global role for four months, and so he was really talking to the press all about his plan to bring Dentsu back into the international stage. And he set the standard for some of his holding company competitors, calling them out for focusing too much on AI and not enough on PI, which, uh, he calls people intelligence and basically says the big, important thing everyone's got to focus on, and what will separate the winners from the losers in the AI era is not how you use AI, but how you use the time that it saves.

Speaker B: Ah.

Speaker A: And that's been the biggest thing that I've taken away this week. It's being constructive, and I think we mentioned it on the first podcast. But making sure we're not using AI to write poetry while we do the dishes. We need AI doing the dishes and the arbitrary jobs while we write poetry, get creative, do the campaigns, uh, you know, invent new technology and innovate. And so that was a great takeaway. And you can read the full, um, interview unpacked from that briefing on the website as well. Uh, but that certainly stood out to me. It was interesting to see a big, you know, group head of a big holding company really laying down the law. And he spoke very candidly, which I appreciate. Appreciate it.

Speaker B: Excellent. Yeah, I think that probably is maybe a major thing to think about for next year. What will we be able to do and show at Cannes line 2027? With the time that is supposed to being saved through all this AI technology, will it really rekindle that creative industry? And will we see some fantastic adverts?

Speaker A: It's time for the output. The pressure on the output now. Uh, Robin, a big thank you for joining me. It's always a pleasure. And, uh, it's always, you know, it's a gift being out here at Cannes Lion. You know, we all complain and find things to whinge about, but ultimately, uh, it's champagne problems. Good problems to have.

Speaker B: You're saying that phrase a lot. I did make a note that 0.06% of the marketing advertising industry ever make it to Cannes. I think I said that last time.

Speaker A: So we're very, very fortunate. Uh, appreciate your time as always, and I'll leave you listeners to enjoy some of the highlights, uh, from our panel of experts you've been listening to throughout the episode. So you can look forward to the future. Favorite little tidbits. Right now,

Speaker C: there's an area that I'm really pleased is being talked about a lot, um, which is the value of in store media, particularly from the U.S. retailers. Um, so in our particular space, um, we've been on a big exercise digitizing our screens for a long time. Um, it feels like there's a genuine desire and understanding that that environment is an amazing environment to build brands and persuade people right at the point of purchase. And I'm glad that that's been part of the discussion as well as all of the digital discussions as well. So we're genuinely thinking about how we can drive growth across multiple channels, not just single singular ones.

Speaker D: So I think, you know, we've seen a huge evolution in Cannes, um, over my time of coming. And, you know, I think I'm well into the double digits of can now. Um, and it's really evolved, I think, into a way where we're not just talking about, like, what Business dealer we're doing or what I o. We're signing. But now we're talking about this experience of creativity that's across the board and seeing the rise of, you know, the creator participation, uh, athlete participation, broader media participation. Um, and also, you know, the interest from the media as well has been like an incredible evolution notion of Cannes. And so, you know, I think for me, every year that I come here, it's kind of like watching what that next year ahead of us is going to look like. And so I find that it is one of the best weeks of my year where I can predict what the next year is going to look like. Um, and so for me, the takeaways really are like our focus that we've been doing on podcasts, on creators, on bringing fandom in. We're starting to see that actually be like replicated across, across the advertising industry. And I think that's a really positive tailwind for us. Um, and one that, you know, as we start to bring audio as a new medium to market in a more aggressive way, um, it's thrilling to just see kind of that the industry is also making the same steps that we're doing. Um, and so, you know, to tie it back to music, I guess we're all marching to the beat of the same drummer. Um, and that's, that's like a really rewarding thing to see happen because for many years, you know, parts of can have felt like an uphill battle as you've been trying to introduce net new mediums, whether that's audio or it's podcasts. And now it seems like, you know, these are now more ubiquitous and we're focusing on the strategy of how we find success in them. Um, rather than focusing on. You should test this.

Speaker F: Our business is all about in real life experiences and so just connecting with companies, having conversations. Like last night we met a guy that we, um, opened the O2 with back in 2007. Um, he was the chap selling the VIP seats. He's now a commercial director of Formula One. Turned out I had a picture on my phone of him 18 years ago dressed as a chicken. That's a story for another day.

Speaker E: I think it was Woody from.

Speaker F: It was. Sorry, Woody from. Yeah, yeah. Um, but what an incredible contact. I had no idea that he was in that role. And our jobs really align and we're hearing great things about Formula One and you know, that was just a great conversation that I wasn't expecting to have, but I hope now that I'll keep in contact with him.

Speaker E: And I think I've learned actually you don't need to. Beforehand we were thinking about we better book things up and program ourselves like bang, bang, bang. Actually you don't need to, you need to just come along. Yes, you have to register for things, but things have to go more of a flow. We uh, don't know where they're going to, you know, go to. I mean last night we were at the CAA football event, watching England play, meeting uh, some old contacts and the next thing we were watching Ray play at uh, the Spotify party. And it just kind of, yes, we knew we had tickets and passes, whatever it was, but we didn't know what we're gonna do that night. And it just worked out really well. I guess my biggest learning will be book some restaurants in advance.

Speaker G: Uh, so far I would say that uh, and it's been going on for the last year that I've been at Birol, but people have been uh, so encouraging of my mission, of our mission at Birol. You know, uh, being the healthy social network, being the, the place where you actually never have to wonder if what you see is real or not. And uh, people uh, of all generations, whether it's clients, agencies, journalists, are really cheering for a platform like B Roll that connects people. And they know that yes we might become the next big thing, but even more than that, uh, they want us to be the next good thing and they want that for the future generations, the Gen Z, the Gen Alpha. But they know that there's fundamentally something wrong with the big tech platforms right now and that uh, yeah, it can't be controlled. It's too far. You know, the lines have been crossed, the sail as uh, the ship has sailed and it's too far for those platforms to uh, you know, get back to uh, the roots of social. And so I think, yeah people, uh, I found it very uh, heartwarming to hear from so many people, parents actually that they are very comfortable with having their kids on burial. And they create those uh, family groups the same way they have uh, a WhatsApp family group, iMessage family group to check in on the people they actually love, they actually care. And you know sometimes just uh, showing up uh, on B roll and not showing off on Instagram is enough. And that's how they use B Roll. They want to check in on their kids, they open up uh, uh, their B roll feed and they see that their kids are ah, starting college or starting a new chapter of their life, is uh, you know, posting with a smile on their face and they're very happy about it. And so, yeah, hearing it from, you know, actual users, people that used to be on the app and that are excited about, you know, how we are building B roll and always staying true to our DNA is, uh, very encouraging,

Speaker H: I want to say. I mean I. It's so easy to get caught up in Cannes in the fun, but what I'm. I mean, I haven't had a chance yet and I'm getting there because I've only been here like two days. But, um, it's actually the learning that I'm most looking forward to and I haven't done much of that yet other than see the work, but going to some m, going to some talks and actually sort of immerse myself in the reason why I'm here. Because, yeah, it is easy to get swept away in all the fun, but the high, I suppose one of the highlights for me was, um. Uh, I was at lunch with News UK and I was 100% convinced. I was sat next to Karen Brady and literally for about half an hour I was like, that's Karen Brady. I'm having lunch with Karen Brady. And then Karen Brady started talking and then it became very evident it was the CMO of Virgin Money and not Cara Brady. And actually um, one of the nicest people I've met and would, you know, love to stay in touch with her. So it was lovely. And I think, I think in terms of highlights is meeting people. I think you just meet characters and just extraordinary people every time I come. So, yeah, that's definitely been a highlight.

Speaker A: And that concludes this episode of the Performance Marketing, um, Unlocked podcast. Uh, a big thank you to our, uh, editor Robin Langford for joining me throughout the week to put together the CannesLion two episode miniseries. It's always pleasure having the head honcho on the show to talk us through the latest and greatest coming through from the Crosset. A big thank you of course, to the guests. Across both episodes we had a great mix of platforms and agencies and brands and ad techs that we spoke to and we're very fortunate to have contributors throughout the episode. So big thank you to them and I hope you enjoyed their insights. Um, you can catch up on all of our Cannes line coverage from the week that was on the PMW website as well as across our social media. We've got podcasts, we've got video, we've got live blogs, we've got news stories, we've got interviews. That's pretty much the full gamut of journalism coming out of the week for you to enjoy. Thank you, of course, to you, the loyal listener, for tuning in each and every episode as you do. Please, if you haven't already, subscribe to the show on your podcast platform of choice and go and give us some love on social media. We're on YouTube, TikTok and LinkedIn at performance marketing World. With all that said, we'll be back in seven days time with another episode. In the meantime, have an amazing week and you'll be hearing from me again very shortly. Bye for now. Sam.