Cannes Lions, Generative AI Edition

At the Cannes Lions, generative AI applications for advertising were out in force. Plus: takes from the Croisette on retail media and cookie conspiracies.

The move from in-store to digital shopper marketing continues, as United Airlines, Costco, PayPal, Chase and Expedia make new retail media plays. Plus: what the DSP Madhive saw in advertising sales software company Frequence.

SPO is moving from efficiency to curation to ranking the top 500 publishers. We talk through industry reactions to The Trade Desk’s SP500+ product. Plus: Seedtag acquired Beachfront, a deal that’s emblematic of multiple trends in CTV, privacy and the rise of contextual.

The open web is getting smaller, with the squeeze happening in two directions. Curated deals are skimming the cream off the open web, and exposed made-for-advertising websites are shuttering.

Our other “a-ha” moments from the conference, including observations on CTV, the state of commerce media, programmatic transparency – and the lack thereof. (Oh, and as an aside, somebody at the show told me they’d fed my AdExchanger articles into an LLM that could practically reproduce my work in a snap. Which is cool. Not.)

Made-for-advertising sites are roosting in reputable publishers’ subdomains. IDs are declared inconsistently. And the established third-party measurement companies are sitting on the sidelines.

Will data dazzle media buyers at this year’s TV upfronts? Plus: Why recent changes to Google search results have decimated traffic for some digital publishers – and rewarded others.

Debrief on the CMA’s biggest issues with the Privacy Sandbox highlighted in its latest report. Then, a vibe check on the Newfronts.

Cookies aren’t going anywhere. Behind Google’s third missed deadline to remove third-party cookies from Chrome and what it means for ad tech.

 One side effect of signal loss? Media mix modeling is coming back in fashion. Google’s Meridian is the latest entrant in the MMM space, which is being embraced by large ad platforms and startups alike. Plus: Differentiating between shoppable TV and T-commerce.