Commentary

5 Topics Certain To Be Talked About In Cannes Next Week

by Dave Morgan , Featured Contributor, June 13, 2024

Tens of thousands of advertising, media and marketing professionals will descend on Cannes next week for the annual Cannes Lions festival. While I won’t be there myself this year -- too much going on in the U.S. to be in two places — the event will continue to be on my radar. I’ll be reviewing reports from my many colleagues, friends, journalists and pundits who will be in attendance.

What will be the big topics of conversation this year on the Croisette and in the bars, beaches and villas? Here are five topics I’m certain will be in many of the conversations:

Michael Kassan is back. Never, ever, ever count Michael Kassan out. Sure, there was a kerfuffle with UTA, the company that bought his consultancy, Medialink. And sure, there were some related lawsuits. But, rest assured, nobody is better at weathering stuff like that than Michael. And nobody else can deliver value-add consulting, networking and business development like he can. Michael is back. He'll be fine. Long live Michael.

Netflix, Amazon and YouTube are the new Big Three of the TV screen. Yep, there was a time when all that mattered in the TV business in the U.S. were the Big Three networks, ABC, CBS and NBC. Well, with the explosive growth of streaming and the growing dominance of Netflix, Amazon and YouTube in capturing viewing on connected TVs, it looks like we’re heading for a new Big Three again.

The heat. It will be hot. The Weather Channel’s 10 Day forecast calls for another hot one, but fortunately with some partly cloudy skies. Pack your linen and a number of changes of clothes.

Terry’s parody video. Investment banker and comedian Terry Kawaja will once again host his Cannes Blanc party and will debut a parody video. There’s always conversation about who’s in and who’s out.

Coming consolidation in ad tech. Every year, folks talk about the inevitability of consolidation in ad tech, and every year (almost) it doesn’t happen. We tend to only see true ad-tech consolidation every five to eight years: the dotcom run-up in late '90s; the dotcom bubble bursting in 2000-01; the pre-financial-crisis buying spree in 2006-08; and the aftermath of the burst of ad tech IPOs in 2014-18. For sure, lots of folks will be talking about ad-tech consolidation, but that doesn’t mean that much will happen.

I’m sure that there are a bunch of other conversation topics that will be big in Cannes next week. What are some of your predictions?

6 comments about "5 Topics Certain To Be Talked About In Cannes Next Week".

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Emily Lang from NA, June 14, 2024 at 10:22 a.m.
You couldn't have said it better - I'd never, ever, ever, EVER count Michael Kassan out of the entertainment industry. He is legit.
Reply

Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, June 14, 2024 at 11:28 a.m.

Dave, according to Group M's figures the three legacy TV biggies---now called Disney, Paramount and Comcast get about $30 billion in ad revenues yearly in linear and streaming TV. About $8-9 billion is in streaming. Latest estimate for Amazon and Netflix, combined re streaming ad revenues is roughly $3 billion and much of the Youtube ad revenue is not attained from traditional TV ad budgets---it seems. My point is that it may be a while before these three--Netflix, Amazon and YouTube can be called the "big three". More ,likely we will have to create a new category for our increasingly fragmentsd streaming space---maybe :The Big Ten" will be more appropriate.

Lily Robins from n/a, June 14, 2024 at 2 p.m.

Kudos to Kassan for fighting the good fight and showing up at Cannes. What a boss.

Dave Morgan from Simulmedia replied, June 14, 2024 at 2:05 p.m.

Emily & Lily,
Yep. I'd never count Michael out, ever!
Dave

Dave Morgan from Simulmedia replied, June 14, 2024 at 2:10 p.m.

Ed,
For sure, the legacy TV companies drive more ad dollars from TV viewing in the US than the Big 3 tech players, but given the acceleration and existing scale of the latter -- and their extraordinary profitability-- they are already being passed. The Bug 3 in tech own all of the momentum, are driving programmatic buying and a whole new measurement & attribution paradigms.
Dave

Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, June 14, 2024 at 3:07 p.m.

Dave, agreed about driving programmatic buying. But, as I have said in the past, I don't see programmatic buying---in the sense that computers make the deals--becoming a major factor for TV branding advertisers---or sellers. We have to distinguish between search, DR ,and sales promotional TV and branding TV. The latter deals witl premium TV content and there are only a few dozen sellers to deal with, not hundreds or thousands---few of whom will relimquish control of their audience inventories to computers. Nor will advertisers ---with all of their sacred cow/must buys and upfront dealings go programmatic. They are locked in to the kinds of TV that they want---sports, news, specials, big time primetime entertainment shows, etc. They don't need computers to buy for them based mainly on CPMs.