Creativity in the Tech Era

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.”