The Start.io team returned from the 2023 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, excited and exhilarated by the volume of sessions and networking in such a short time – set against the spectacular views of the French riviera of course. Cannes is truly a conference like no other. It provides the opportunity for players across the advertising and adtech ecosystem to come together and meet face-to-face, and immerse ourselves in the industry trends and momentum, today and for the coming year.
Here are our impressions:
Women’s empowerment: It was great to see several women-led organizations such as Chief, Women in Programmatic and Female Quotient, who had a big presence at the festival this year. We enjoyed the impressive member lineup of female executives and multiple women-led panels that dived deep into the issues in the industry. Kudos and looking forward to seeing more of this in years to come.
CTV: CTV was a very hot topic at this year’s Cannes festival, with emphasis on its dominance in the future of television. Even companies still operating primarily in traditional TV are shifting their focus on the indisputable power of CTV. In particular, ad-supported streaming emerged at Cannes as a prominent growth engine within the streaming business.
Sustainability: This was another crucial discussion point at Cannes, and many companies are ‘walking the talk’, already working towards reducing their carbon footprints. There is still much more to do, and Ad Net Zero, the industry initiative for sustainability was in evidence in numerous sessions and conversations throughout the event. Sustainability took on an even broader and more profound meaning with the new advertising award: the Sustainable Development Goals Grand Prix. The 2023 award went to Mastercard for its moving “Where to Settle” campaign about the Ukrainian refugee crisis:
Post-cookie era: There was a lot of buzz around what is going to happen to user tracking in the era after cookies and identifiers. In particular, the conversation centered around how to monetize the data and segmentation that publishers enable on users who consume their content in the future. Once cookies finally disappear, it’s going to be tricky, yet there is much opportunity to be had. How will publishers maximize that opportunity? The jury’s still out.
Cannes Lions 2023 was a not-to-be-missed event, as always. If we didn’t get a chance to catch up with you under the sun, reach out to the Start.io team to find out how our data-driven mobile advertising and monetization solutions can work for you.
