Digiday covers the latest from marketing and media at the annual Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. More from the series →
The Cannes International Festival of Creativity is, as its newly changed name reflects, all about the creative side of advertising. When it comes to digital, however, the conversation is often dominated by the technology side that’s most aligned with targeting. There are times that focus on targeting, as important as it is, obscures that great advertising designed to move people and change perceptions is about creativity.
As part of Digiday’s coverage of Cannes, I sat down with Paul Alfieri, vp of marketing at Turn, the cloud marketing platform. The challenge for the industry, he believes, is moving tech discussions beyond the realm of targeting and direct-response advertising. “Technology evolves so quickly that we get caught up talking about pixel fires or whatever acronyms there are,” Alfieri says. “We forget that as good as the technology gets, the creative has to balance it out.”
That’s not to say the ad world shouldn’t embrace tech platforms. Alfieri believes that the creative side of the industry has to embrace targeting and data as ways to build upon the ideas that are the lifeblood of the industry. “The mass creative doesn’t work any more,” he says. “Our industry has to think of making great creative that leverages what all these targeting strategies are doing.”
View the full video below and check back to Digiday regularly for updates from Cannes.
More from Digiday
Ad revenue grows at Target as Roundel stays insulated from broader retailer struggles
While Target continues to contend with sluggish sales and external economic pressures, Roundel, the retailer’s ad business, seems to be a bright spot in an otherwise gloomy financial picture.
Media Buying Briefing: What does WPP Media’s course change actually mean for advertisers?
GroupM’s been replaced by WPP Media. But questions over the agency’s future remain, including how it’s leveraging AI and whether more clients are at risk of leaving.
Pride, but no budget: LGBTQ+ creators hit by ad spend drop
As advertisers curb their Pride marketing, some LGBTQ+ influencers are seeing their brand partnerships for June’s Pride Month dwindle to almost nothing.