Ad Tech Briefing: Cannes Lions’ biggest ad tech announcements show how TV is now programmatic

Last week, Disney Advertising announced a new partnership with Amazon Ads, adding Amazon’s demand-side platform to its Real-Time Ad Exchange, or DRAX, nearly a year after its launch with rival DSPs. This makes Amazon only the third DSP — after Google and The Trade Desk — to access premium inventory across Disney+, ESPN, and Hulu. 

The collaboration enables advertisers to combine Disney’s audience targeting tools with Amazon’s commerce, browsing, and streaming insights via AWS clean rooms and Disney Compass. This integration supports curated campaign packages powered by Disney’s contextual tools like Magic Words and the forthcoming Disney Select.

The move reflects Disney’s strategy to enhance its addressability and data interoperability, aligning with its broader ambition to provide advertisers with more actionable, outcome-driven solutions across its expansive streaming portfolio. It also builds on its DRAX partnerships with the industry’s two largest DSPs, The Trade Desk and Google’s DV 360.

Omnicom Media Group utilized the conference to announce a partnership with The Trade Desk and Disney, enabling programmatic ad buying during live sports events. The collaboration utilizes Disney’s “Magic Words” and custom algorithms to target high-attention moments in real-time, enhancing ad personalization, addressability, and effectiveness for clients across live streaming environments.

Meanwhile, Roku used the same conference to reveal that it has partnered with Amazon Ads to make the e-commerce giant’s DSP the exclusive programmatic gateway to Roku’s CTV inventory using a shared, authenticated ID. This integration spans an estimated 80 million U.S. CTV households, enabling deterministic targeting and campaign management across Roku and Fire TV platforms.

The move marks a strategic deepening of Roku’s identity-based ad capabilities, aligning with its push for performance-driven, interoperable solutions. While Roku inventory remains available via rival DSPs and direct deals, this exclusive integration for identity-based access reflects Roku’s broader effort to enhance addressability, attribution, and buyer control in a privacy-compliant way. It also ties Roku’s media strategy more tightly to retail media opportunities, as advertisers gain improved insights into consumer purchases driven by streaming ads.

Netflix also used the flagship conference to reveal that it has now added Yahoo’s DSP as its fourth global programmatic partner, joining The Trade Desk, Google Display & Video 360, and Microsoft — albeit the latter party intends to shutter its DSP within months.

The Yahoo integration, launching later this year across all 12 of Netflix’s ad-supported markets, will enable advertisers to buy inventory programmatically and leverage advanced targeting tools. Firstly, it’s a tie-up that’s likely to have bankers updating their sales decks as Yahoo-owner Apollo Global entertains offers from potential suitors for the current fourth-largest DSP on the market.  

Earlier this year, Netflix expanded interest-based targeting and first-party data capabilities, furthering access and expanding the ad targeting possibilities for brands seeking to reach its highly engaged streaming audience.

Such announcements echo the headline announcements at this year’s upfronts, where networks emphasized audience graphs, identity resolution, and signal-based metrics over traditional show-based selling. 

Here, platforms like Netflix and Amazon also made much of how they can offer cancellation terms and self-serve access akin to digital platforms, making TV more agile and performance-driven. A Digiday+ survey revealed that only 36% of marketers plan to invest in traditional upfronts this year, while over half are increasing their investment in streaming. 

Live sports still anchor demand, but buyers increasingly demand transparency, dynamic optimization, and real-time measurement. This reflects the success of such platforms’ key pitch, i.e., the convergence of premium content with the accountability and flexibility of digital ad tech capabilities. Amazon is placing this messaging — connecting content and commerce — at the forefront of its pitch, both at the upfronts and since then. 

Industry observers will note how the confirmation of the Ventura TV OS by The Trade Desk last year was an indicator of this (inevitable) trend. Eagle-eyed observers will also have noted how The Trade Desk announced an integration with Anoki last week to make Ventura more appealing to TV manufacturers.

Speaking at a conference earlier this year, The Trade Desk CEO Jeff Green described the company’s rationale for offering the software to traditional TV manufacturers. 

“Almost all of them are looking at it saying, ‘I don’t know much about advertising… this place feels very complicated and very convoluted’… once again, this plays to [The] Trade Desk strengths,” he said at a recent conference. 

What we’ve heard 

“It’s very easy to spin out AdX, it’s much less complicated than GAM [Google Ad Manager] because publishers use multiple exchanges already.” — Marketecture CEO Ari Paparo discusses some of the findings in his upcoming book, Yield: How Google Bought, Built and Bullied Its Way to Advertising Dominance, which discusses many of the findings unearthed at last year’s ad tech antitrust trial.

Numbers to know: eMarketer forecasts 

• $25.9 billion: Forecasted AI search ad spend in 2029
• 8.7%: Predicted year-on-year growth of U.S. ad spending in 2028
• $55.9 billion: The bear case scenario, i.e., tariff-dependent, for retail media ad spend in 2025 
• $1,287 billion: The bear case scenario, i.e., tariff-dependent, for U.S. e-commerce spend in 2025 

What we’ve covered:

The Shorts play: YouTube steps up creator monetization

YouTube is expanding internal tools and teaming with third-party platforms like Agentio and StreamElements to boost monetization for Shorts creators. While BrandConnect remains in beta for select influencers, these partnerships aim to simplify branded content deals and unlock new revenue, especially for smaller creators. YouTube’s goal is to scale creator-brand collaborations across Shorts and beyond.

The Guardian bets on unified programmatic ad selling as curation gains ground

The Guardian announced it has unified its programmatic ad operations across the U.S., U.K., and Australia to streamline global buying and simplify access to its inventory. The move aims to offer advertisers centralized scale and consistency without internal restructuring.

What we’re reading

Viant swipes at The Trade Desk with a billboard in Cannes 

Viant made a bold splash at Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity with marketing activations mocking The Trade Desk, in the guise of billboards emblazoned upon the Majestic Hotel, which faces the conference venues Palais du Festival, and aimed at rival The Trade Desk. Adweek reports that one reads, “Still trading on a desk?” A second, stacked beside it, answers: “Viant AI. The future of digital advertising.”

Apple executives have held internal talks about buying AI startup Perplexity

Bloomberg cites unnamed sources with direct knowledge of the developments, claiming its head of corporate development, Adrian Perica, and services chief, Eddy Cue, as well as a coterie of its AI decision-makers, are aware of the company’s potential interest in bidding for artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI. 

Meta held talks to buy Thinking Machines, Perplexity, and Safe Superintelligence

Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg has been actively exploring AI acquisitions, including early talks with Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab, Ilya Sutskever’s Safe Superintelligence, and Perplexity, according to The Verge. While none advanced to formal offers, the outreach underscores Meta’s aggressive push to revive its AI strategy amid growing competition and the rise of new AI-native platforms.

Criteo and Dentsu announce global commerce media partnership

Criteo announced an expanded global partnership with Dentsu, marking the first full adoption of its Commerce Media Platform by a major holding company. The collaboration aims to enhance commerce and performance campaigns using AI-driven tools and measurement.