• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, June 15, 2015

So Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel will be speaking at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity next week -- something near none of us could have imagined even just ten years ago when social media didn't exist and Super Bowl ads were the Crown Jewel of advertising accomplishment.

Setting aside for a moment the notion some people in this business still think the best way to spend $5 million is to run a Super Bowl ad, it's really quite exciting to see such a young brand set foot onstage inside the Palais. Yes, Facebook made an appearance -- but at the time, it was far more mature than Snapchat is at this point.

If you process this shift a bit further and make note of the fact that we have moved from 30-second ads on a box the size of several suitcases around which the family would gather to watch three networks to a world in which everyone has a device -- tiny enough to fit in one's pocket -- that gives access to every conceivable form of content from anywhere in the world -- including pictures from friends that disappear after ten seconds -- then you realize that Super Bowl ads, well, kind of sound stupid now.

However, even as the Internet and mobile have increased the ability of marketers to target consumers ever more accurately, don't look to Spiegel to continue that trend with Snapchat. In fact, he thinks that kind of targeting is creepy, telling AdWeek: "We're going to stay away from building really extensive profiles on people because that's just bad and doesn't feel very good."

But is that a viable option? It's kind of like serving untargeted ads to a huge audience with huge waste like, well, like the Super Bowl.

Maybe, Spiegel will make this all sound a lot more intelligent when he takes the stage in Cannes next week. Stay tuned.

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