Top 6 Learnings From Cannes 2023

You can feel the electric buzz of excitement stemming from the 70th anniversary edition of the world's largest festival of creativity just by walking through the streets. Industry leaders from across the world gathered in Cannes, France this week to celebrate the latest in innovation and advertising brilliance, while commemorating the yearly highlights and achievements that continue to pave the way for the future of the creative industry.

This year’s Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity featured a wide variety of topics such as sustainability, diversity, equity and inclusion, artificial intelligence, retail media, and new forms of media. In this blog post, we’ll be breaking down the major takeaways from Cannes 2023.

The 6 Major Takeaways From Cannes 2023

1. Artificial Intelligence Takes Center Stage

With the launch of Open AI’s ChatGPT 4 earlier this year and the slew of follow up AI projects, artificial intelligence has everyone’s attention at Cannes, and for good reason. The game-changing technology has made waves across practically all industries, and has received some heavy praise and loads of criticism from those in the tech space along the way, to the point where it’s overtaken center stage as the number one topic at Cannes.

After years of denying the power of AI, companies are now forced to gaze into the eyes of the behemoth, withdrawing their stance that AI won’t amount to anything, with Publicis reminding us all with their 2023 comedic campaign that references the heavy criticism they received in 2017 when they bet on AI to make it big. The question now at the front of everyone’s mind seems to be: can this technology come to outperform professionals in the creative space?

In an article published in Digiday, Georges Tertois, General Manager of creative media agency Eidgens says he believes creative jobs will remain invincible from AI’s touch, saying that “the human spark of creativity remains the true start of the show”.

While some companies are choosing to avoid AI as much as possible, others are embracing it and even going as far as incorporating it into their technology. 

Smartly, one of the largest SaaS digital platforms took to the stage at Cannes to announce the unveiling of their Smartly.io AI Lab, an innovation hub which serves as a meeting point for artificial intelligence and marketing expertise.

Omnicom also took to the stage to announce its latest integration with Google AI, set to be the first commercial use of Google generative AI technology, which is set to bring text and image creation to advertising later this year.

Time will tell whether creativity and innovation professionals should embrace, tread carefully towards AI, or come to avoid it completely.

2. Sustainability: More Than Just The Name Of the Game

Outside of AI, the most prominent topic at Cannes is sustainability and responsible media. Last year, we saw “It Pays to be Green” top the 2022 Cannes festival themes, and Sharethrough’s Biggest Takeaways due to a plethora of sustainability projects, keynotes and presentations being unveiled at the event, such as Patagonia’s private screening of The Monster In Our Closet on the RV Odyssey.

This year, sustainability is more than just the name of the game - In fact, it’ a topic that is staying front of mind for everyone across the ad tech industry. 

The Most Notable Sustainability Initiatives and Moments at Cannes 2023

Dedicating Full Days to Conversations Around Sustainability

June 22 featured Beet.TV’s Sustainability & Responsible Marketing Summit, which brought together advertising professionals for a networking style event to cover important topics such as “Measuring and Reducing Emissions from Media Campaigns,” “The New World of Sustainable Action.” and “Advancing Climate Action.” Ben Skinazi, CMO at Sharethrough participated in a fireside chat with John Osborn, Director at Ad Net Zero on Sharethrough’s steps to sustainability. Afterwards, Pat Marin, CSO at Sharethrough participated in a panel alongside Suzy Ryder, Chief Digital Officer, at OMD UK, and Brian Murphy, Founder of the Alpine Project.

More Companies Signing Pledges

Gale, a global media agency, is the latest to sign the clean creatives pledge, further moving the industry towards a more sustainable future, after cutting ties with fossil fuel companies. The announcement came during 'The Power of Coming Clean: Agency CEOs on the Clean Creatives Pledge at the Next Level Climate Summit' event hosted by Meisel, which explored how the pledge can empower industry leaders by becoming part of a wider community of agencies refusing work from Big Oil. 

First-Ever Collection of Proven Business Results

The ANA’s Global CMO Growth Council came forward with some breakthrough evidence linking sustainability and business goals with the  launch of “The 2023 CMO’s Guide: A Compendium of Cases from Brands Driving Business Growth Through Sustainability & Inclusive Innovation.” The guide includes a public collection of case studies from some of the world’s leading brands and provides us with proof points from some of the world’s leading brands: with sustainable impact case studies from Haleon, HP Graphic Arts, Cascade/P&G, Chipotle, Meta & eBay, and DEIB case studies from Abbott, eos and PepsiCo.

Ad Net Zero Puts New Guidelines In Place

After going global in June 2022, the sustainability advocacy group announced in Cannes that it would  be setting new guidelines for sustainability media partners both in the U.S. and internationally. Ad Net Zero supporters will now have 12 months before they are required to set a public science based net-zero target, and companies will have a variety of options to choose from UN Race to Zero, The Climate Pledge or other compatible alternatives.

3. Ad Tech Innovations Are On The Horizon 

It should come as no surprise that year after year, companies flock to the world’s largest creativity festival to announce the latest and greatest in terms of advertising technology. This year’s Cannes was no different, with tons of new ad formats being announced left, right, and center. 

Ad Formats got off to a hot start when the first day of the festival saw Niantic launch Rewarded AR, a new revolutionary in-game rewarded AR ad format which uses the smartphone camera to immerse players within branded content in the real-world around them. This new format will be used in mobile-mixed reality games such as Pokemon-Go.

4. Retail Media Has the Potential to Be Bigger Than Ever

Retail Media companies often make a splash at Cannes, but this year their presence feels more prominent than ever before. Walmart, Target, and Instacart are among some of the biggest names who traveled to the south of France to answer the burning question: “What is going on with retail media?!”

Last year we saw Amazon put pressure on Meta & Google with it’s retail media ad business, so we looked to see what some of the biggest retail media storylines were at Cannes 2023:

Get In The Know: Contagious Hosts Retail Media Accelerator

Editorial and consultancy company Contagious hosted a 3-day long event for agencies and marketers which featured a Retail Media Accelerator, allowing brands, agencies and marketers to do a deep dive into retail media. The event featured some of the biggest in the retail media space including Nectar360, CitrusAd, Accenture Song, and Skai. 

New Proposals: Albertsons Comes Up 

Everyone is asking questions about retail media, and not everyone has the answers, but Albertsons is giving it their best shot. One of the largest food and drug retailers came forward with a retail media standardization framework proposal, and they aren’t doing it without support. The proposal is being backed by Omnicom Media Group, Unilever, Pinterest, and R3. All eyes were on Albertsons as they unveiled the framework on the 4th day of the festival.

5. May I Have Your Attention Please!

As ad spend continues to grow across the industry, and CTV poised to have the greatest growth we’ve seen in years, advertisers and brands are searching for ways to grab consumers’ attention in an increasingly competitive landscape, making attention a space that everyone is vying to compete (and win) in. This year at Cannes, you couldn't escape the topic of attention if you tried. Here are some major takeaways and trending talks on attention: 

Cocktail Parties Dedicated To Attention

KERV Interactive felt so strongly about the need for furthering the conversation around attention that the Patented Interactive Video Platform partnered up with The Rebooting to host “The Active Attention Economy,” a three day summit to explore how today’s cutting edge AI/ML technology is powering the future of commerce, creative development and attention measurement.

Industry-First AI-Powered Attention Solution for Advertisers

Double Verify, a leading software in the digital media measurement space has partnered up with Scibids AI powered software to release the DV Algorithmic Optimizer, an industry first tool which generate optimization algorithms customized to drive advertiser KPI’s, allowing global advertisers to combine end-to-end granular measurement and optimization at scale.

6. Cannes Takes Strides For Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

DEI made it into our top takeaways in 2022, and it’s evident that even more progress has been made throughout the past 12 months. Here are some important announcements and initiatives that we saw take place in Cannes this week: 

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Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives got a boost 

For the 70th anniversary edition of the festival, we saw DEI initiatives given a louder voice this year, with presenters and speakers featured across a wide range of industries and platforms where marketing, branding, advertising and creative messaging live, from small screens to cinemas, billboards and streamers.

‍Neurodiversity Takes Center Stage 

Cannes took another big step forward in the DEI department this year with the equality lounge, an offering that consists of a space with several accommodations for neurodivergent attendees of the festival, brought to all in a partnership between The Female Quotient and Understood.org. Caroline Dettman, chief creative officer and chief marketing officer at The Female Quotient, gives her thoughts on the lounge: “It’s [the Equality Lounge] really kind of its own major conference. We’re incredibly excited to be partnering with Understood this year to really continue to bring even more accessibility to our experience at Cannes.”

Other Noteworthy News

There’s no better a place to announce major company initiatives than Cannes, and this year we saw some colossal statements coming from some of the biggest in the game. Here are a few game-changing announcements we saw announced over the course of the week at the Cannes Festival for Creativity: 

• TikTok joins forces with Candle Media, announcing a strategic partnership that will see the two co-develop content together.
• Omnicon launches Omni Commerce, a connected commerce solution that will incorporate tools, technology and data. 
• Kevin Hart kicks things off: inspiring us all with his speech on transforming from a work-for-hire talent to a pioneering entrepreneur as he accepted the “The Entertainment Person of the year award
• The Creative Marketer of the Year award, often called the Oscars of the ad industry, was given to AB InBev, further inciting a wakeup call for the beverage industry following bud-lights recent debacle. 
• Twitter has been present at Cannes for as long as we can remember, but this year the company’s presence is notably absent, leaving room for other players to shine bright. 
• Roblox announces a new Roblox Partner Program designed to scale brand innovation and enable a self-serve, global advertising ecosystem on the platform. 
• Omnicom Media Group and Albertsons Media Collective are taking their first-mover partnership to the next level, collaborating within the Omni open operating system to provide Omnicom clients with a first-to-market holistic view of their cross-channel video investment.

Looking To The Year Ahead 

We caught up with JF Cote, CEO at Sharethrough following his Cannes experience to hear about his thoughts on the year ahead, and what he might expect to see at Cannes 2024: 

“When Sharethrough returns to Cannes in the summer of 2024, we expect to see some major changes across all of these topics. In regards to sustainability we hope and expect to see other SSP’s join Sharethrough in the removal of MFA sites, further cleaning up the advertising space and give advertisers the opportunity to progress their sustainability and supply path optimization initiatives into what could be called ‘carbon path optimization.’ Artificial Intelligence will continue to captivate the world of ad tech, and we’ll be sure to see new innovation on that front, with even more to talk about next year. We expect to see some major growth in regards to CTV & Retail media, and lastly, I must say that i’m extremely happy to see DEI becoming such an important topic, and this is something that Sharethrough will strive to improve in the coming 12 months and beyond, and i’m sure Cannes will take even more measure to improve their inclusivity, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives.” 

The Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity is the world’s largest festival championing creative communications and the advertising industry as a way to recognize the year’s best and biggest creative ideas, as well as celebrate yearly achievements and plan for the future of the industry. Brands, agencies, media companies and consultancies come together to learn, network, and celebrate. 

Interested to learn more about sustainability? Check out our blog or discover Sharethrough’s sustainability initiatives!