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Digiday Podcast at Cannes: Ad networks take center stage at Cannes — are buyers buying in?
Digiday covers the latest from marketing and media at the annual Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. More from the series →
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If there was any doubt that everything is an ad network, this year’s Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity proves otherwise.
Ad networks, retail media networks and the bevy of ad tech companies that support them seem to have carved out a bigger space for themselves along the Croisette. For example, Chase Media Solutions has cozied up on ad tech row, along the pink carpet. A stone’s throw away, Instacart has a pop-up experience. Not to be outdone, DoorDash Ads has commandeered a storefront further down the Croisette.
To Peggy McCann, chief media officer at GSD&M ad agency, all signs point to one thing: retail media networks aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
“It’s a lot easier to buy across the retail media networks,” McCann said on a recent episode of the Digiday Podcast at Cannes. “Now, they’re figuring out again: how do they become that full-funnel ecosystem and really compete against the other ecosystem platforms like the Amazons, the Googles, and position themselves no longer as a data source, and attach purely to retailers, but more as a big marketing ecosystem.”
It’s a tall order, but perhaps fits within the expectations of Cannes’ pageantry. For media planners like McCann, the question is: is the Cannes flash enough to attract ad spend?
Recorded in Spotify’s studio on the beach at Cannes Lions, tune into the conversation with McCann.
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