Connectopia’s Founder, Andrew Webb, was a delegate at last week’s Cannes LIONS scouting for new tech that would be of use to publishers. He wasn’t disappointed – amidst the yachts, bars and parties, there were some gems. Over to you, Andy…
If you’ve never been to Cannes Lions, you should go!
Last week I was ‘en Cannes’, fighting my way up Le Boulevard de La Croisette, weaving through the crowds of linen clad media professionals, past the endless beach ensembles of the tech giants, on the lookout for the emerging companies, trends, and innovations to help publishers navigate the storms ahead. It’s raining! After a bright start, baking hot in the early part of the week, on Thursday morning it started to poor, biblically. With the growing feeling this was a metaphor for the clouds gathering over the publishing industry, I became ever more determined to uncover the emerging solutions to support the industry, through what will be one of the more important epochs in media.
Cannes is certainly a noisy event. If you haven’t been I would encourage you to go, just to experience it. The scale of the festival is something to behold. Everyone is there, sprawled out on beaches, yachts, in villa’s, penthouses and bars. The aptly named Gutter Bar, positioned along La Croisette is the location of many a deal, carved out after a chance encounter. Serendipity plays a big part here.
So why am I here? I set up Connectopia to go forth and uncover new shiny tech innovations for the publishing industry. To find the partners whose demo’s leave you gobsmacked and in awe. My purpose? To support publishing to build stronger structures and culture around tech to grow and succeed in the coming decades. The pain point is publishers do not always have the time to be that curious and future facing. Therefore, by helping early-stage innovation break new markets, I can ensure the best meets the best on all sides, and we all win.
AI, AI, AI, oh and sustainability
AI was chucked into panel discussions like confetti at a wedding. It will clearly be a seismic shift in the way the media industry operates. The visionary narratives dished up off the back of yachts certainly created a sense of storm clouds gathering. On a positive note, publishers have this golden opportunity to build platforms of the future. A gloomier outlook is that deep learning and large language models emerging from tech giants will undoubtedly disrupt the SEO traffic publishers rely on. The shifting algorithms of Google and Meta will feel like last year’s problem. AI featured as a key component in almost all the tech emerging in Cannes. We know it is here to stay, so best we lean in!
In between the real and metaphorical storm clouds, there was plenty of sunshine coming from the sustainability sector. Ad Net Zero launched their first iteration of the Global Media Sustainability Framework. Constructed by GARM (Global Alliance or Responsible Media), this was a project twelve months in the making to finally standardise targets and measurements around CO2e for the advertising industry. Led by a coalition of the biggest advertisers, ad agencies and media owners around the globe, this was great news for the planet and a boost for tech and innovations in the space. There were some notable scaling businesses on display, which left me feeling positive about the role of tech in solving these problems, and the responsibility of media to prevent them in the first place.
I met up with Gabrielle Persson, Chief Product Officer of the adaptive streaming technology company SeenThis, which minimises emissions from creative delivery, to get her views, and asked what the significance of the announcement was for them. “The Global Media Sustainability Framework, unveiled at Cannes this year, is a testament to the power of unconventional collaboration. It marks a turning point for our industry. With a unified measurement approach, we can finally tackle the real challenge head-on: reducing emissions. SeenThis is proud to have contributed to this work with our expertise, and remains committed to driving progress within our industry.”
With digital now responsible for over 4% of global emissions, and AI set to add to that, this was good to hear.
Capitalising on Cannes
So, back to the job in hand. I found myself wondering if there really is an opportunity for new innovations to rise above all the noise of Cannes? These early-stage companies are not booking yachts, penthouses and doing endless fireside chats. They were pounding the pavements, networking like crazy and meeting as many of their market as possible. Cannes is a different experience for tech depending on what market you are in. One of the hardest markets is where tech serves the publishing industry. Publishers at Cannes are focused heavily on their clients. Looking for suppliers is not always top of mind.
Madi Bachar, VP Global Sales at MGID, raised just that point. “MGID is firmly rooted in the digital publishing market, focused on enhancing both user engagement and revenue streams. While Cannes is excellent for networking and learning from partners, we find that presenting emerging solutions works best in more focused, intimate settings where attention is undivided.”
Kirsty Langan is Practice Lead for Emerging Innovation at Ginger May, an integrated communications agency specialising in B2B technology. I asked what she thought were some of the interesting emerging tech from Cannes.
“Cannes is very brand, and agency focussed, and so there is not much emerging for publishers to see, I was most excited about the retail commerce space. Content commerce and transactional tech keep readers in the publisher environment, good for brands, media, and users.”
Alex Collmer, CEO of Vidmob is also eyeing the retail media sector. An established solution in the relatively new field of creative data, he sees clear user cases for their solution, “The pressing need for stronger brand differentiation and sustainable advertising practices underscores the necessity of our solutions. As retail media platforms evolve, they demand highly tailored advertising that performs across various consumer touchpoints. Creative Data helps advertisers create precisely targeted content that performs efficiently, reducing waste.”
For Alex, Cannes is spot on. However, as a more established innovation, budget is perhaps more accessible, with a clearer ROI. It makes sense to be here.
Publishers, lean in to emerging tech!
The best technology for publishers, in my view. has clear outcomes, little friction, and a broad impact, and publishers could do more to involve multiple departments in the procurement process. Challenging technology vendors to meet your needs is a must, and you absolutely should meet them, be open minded and thinking medium to long term. Do not disregard them. This is where Cannes can be challenging, and to Madi of MGID’s point, the more personal environment might be better. So, could Cannes do more to create spaces for startups and scale ups, or are other events more appropriate? Yes, on both.
The unexpected innovation
I wanted to hear from the major publishers, about how they look for emerging tech.
I met with Dr Jon Roberts, Chief Innovation Officer at US publisher Dotdash Meredith at their rather beautiful villa away from the hustle and bustle. I asked what sets his world alight when discovering new tech.
“I love innovations that are founded in a mystery – when you find something weird or unique, then discover and build upon it – that’s where great innovation begins. With D/Cipher, our intent targeting tool, we discovered intent and content out-performed cookies every time. Yet, people weren’t buying this way. As we pulled that thread, it kept getting bigger and bigger – and we believe that simple discovery can bring a much-needed premium back to publishing after 20+ years of being hooked on identity. I love hearing the stories of innovations because the good ones are founded in something unexpected.”
D/Cipher is a technology that clearly meets the needs of a customer centric work culture. In-housing is not always seen as good news for new tech, but it is as a call to arms for them to create better solutions. Either way it goes back to publishers being available for those meetings with emerging tech to extract the best from developers.
What did I take away from Cannes?
Well, a lot, is the short answer. Emerging tech needs to be sought out, inspired, debated, and invested in to give all the bright sparks throwing energy into much needed solutions the best chance at creating the bespoke, effective innovations the industry needs. Through all the big talk, there needs to be a little more space for these startups. Publishers, you need to lean in more, whether it is in a more informal setting, or in a bar in Cannes. The connections between you and future innovations are vital if there are to be options outside of the big firms that are controlling the ecosystem right now. Let the sun shine!
Andrew Webb
Founder, Connectopia
At Connectopia our mission is simple. Match the most innovative media tech from around the world to the top innovators in publishing to drive growth, solve problems, and add value.
For publishers – We connect media owners with CEO’s and Founders of the worlds most innovative tech solutions to help take your business to new levels.
For tech – Connectopia helps you power your expansion into UK media companies, slipstreaming you to the right people, aligning your products to their needs, timed perfectly to get their attention.
