Andy Batkin’s Post

Let's meet in Cannes! Duration Media is sponsoring the LUMA Blanc party on Monday night and two roundtables, on Tuesday, and Wednesday. Tuesday's session is The Cannes Sustainability Roundtable with Duration Media ... A year has passed since we co-hosted the Sustainable Media Roundtable Luncheon at Cannes and we're doing it again at Cannes on Tuesday June 18. Join Duration Media and Ad Net Zero to discuss the current state of sustainability in advertising. How are brands incorporating sustainability into their marketing strategies? What impact will an industry-wide standards have? What are the most innovative "green media" solutions on the market today? As a group of the leaders in sustainability, we will cover all of these topics and more. RSVP at events@durationmedia.net. Wednesday's session will be for Publishers ONLY. The leadership at Ad Net Zero invites you to an exclusive event: How Publishers Can Win in the Green Media Economy  Learn about the benefits of joining Ad Net Zero, an organization comprised of over 200 companies including brands, agencies, ad tech platforms and media companies.  Hear from companies providing solutions to publishers that empower them to grow revenue while bringing more efficient and environmentally sustainable ad products to their buyers Get an inside track on the Ad Climate Action Program, the new NGO with support from agency holding companies.  If you’re a publisher looking to grow your business while making the world a better place, join us for this special event. RSVP at events@durationmedia.net

I recently came across the Cannes Lions 2020 Content Agenda which covered 8 industry themes that were topical at the time. One that caught my eye was, “Let’s get back to brand”, a call to the industry to tone down its obsession with clicks and impressions, and get back to building long-term brand health. In a short clip, a question was raised asking, “Have we over invested in performance marketing and do we need to return to the core elements of brand building?”. Though this might have been a relevant question then, I hope this is not a question brands are asking themselves today. I have been privileged to work in two environments critical to this conversation; (1) creative agency, focusing on brand building, and now (2) performance marketing in management consulting, delivering on the kind of metrics marketeers can proudly take to the boardroom. I greatly value the contribution of both in creating long-term business success. The marketing function is a crucial pillar of any business, with a challenging mandate to create and boost brand awareness, establish a connection with customers, and drive brand engagement SO THAT businesses can acquire and retain customers IN ORDER TO drive profitability and achieve sustained business growth. So, it should never be a question of which is necessary (or more important). The question we should be asking is, 'how can businesses balance initiatives and financial resources across both brand building and performance marketing in order deliver value to their most important stakeholders (shareholders and brand members - their customers and employees)?' #brandbuilding #marketing #digitalmarketing #performancemarketing https://lnkd.in/d4EsbsvV

Cannes Lions is only a few weeks away and the excitement is building. With sustainability in Media being a key topic of conversation for many Brands, Agencies, Ad Platforms and Publishers we should all be very excited to learn more about the release of the industry standards around measurement from GARM #canneslions #sustainability #carbonreduction #media #advertising https://lnkd.in/gtsKBmGD

Though I'm not at Cannes, I wrote about the new sustainability standards Ad Net Zero and WFA's Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) announced today at the festival. The industry has long lamented not having any sort of standards or guidelines in place when it comes to tracking and reducing media-related carbon emissions. And because of that, there's often a lot of different numbers being thrown out there, which can end up actually hurting the movement. Which is why, at last year's Cannes, a group of leaders came together to start brainstorming how to address this lack of standards. In doing so, GARM and Ad Net Zero saw collaboration between competitors across the media supply chain — including brands, agencies, vendors and publishers — to find a solution to a problem that affects everyone. I spoke with Ad Net Zero's Anthony Falco and Good-Loop's Will Luttrell and Amy Williams about the new guidelines, and specifically, how Good-Loop is adjusting its own approach to be more compliant. Check out my story for AdExchanger here: https://lnkd.in/exbPJTFE.

An unparalleled helicopter view of the 70th edition of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity – five key takeaways... #ad #digital #marketing #digitalmarketing #brand #agency #brandagency #marketingagency #creativeagency #creatives #creativity #advertising #adadagency #advertisingagency #adland #communications #brandmarketing #marcomms #mediaowner #mediacompany #measurement #innovation #CTV #canneslions #technology #techagency #mediagency

🗣️ “Every Cannes Lions from this point forward will acquire an ever-bigger focus on the climate emergency.” Is the Advertising & PR industry too focused on shiny new objects rather than the hotter, scarier future it’s walking into? For Campaign US Executive Director of Clean Creatives, Duncan Meisel, reflects on this year's Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and the climate crisis, from attending events for TikTok inside a ‘literal greenhouse’ to the events held outside the Palais by groups such as Clean Creatives, Conscious Advertising Network and ACT Responsible. “It’s hard not to imagine that if billions of people were suddenly adopting a new social media format rather than clean energy, or experiencing a rapid change in their ability to purchase alcohol, rather than food essentials or housing, these trends would be seen as a priority by the world’s biggest marketing companies at Cannes.” 🔗 Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/eAzscptf 💬 Share your Cannes Lions experience with us below ⬇️ #CannesLions #CannesLions2024 #Advertising #TikTok #ClimateChange #Sustainability #ConsciousAdvertisingNetwork #ACTResponsible #Campaign #OpEd

With Cannes now firmly in the rearview mirror, we thought we’d take a moment to share our team’s key takeaways from one of the most talked-about events on the advertising calendar. 🔹 The True Essence of Cannes: Cannes is about more than the prestigious Lions awards. It's about the people, the conversations, and the serendipitous encounters that make the festival truly special. 🔹 Sustainability Focus: While sustainability discussions are less prominent this year, it's crucial for long-term growth. Shout out to those like the Conscious Advertising Network and Good-Loop for keeping it on the agenda. 🔹 UK's Global Impact: The UK continues to play a central role in international advertising, with record exports and strong representation, thanks to an excellent program by UKAEG. 🔹 Empower Café: The Empower Café highlighted the strength and vulnerability of women leaders, providing a supportive space to network and share stories, helping to tackle Imposter Syndrome head-on. The Café offered a vital hub for networking and respite, with inspirational stories shared throughout the week. Be sure to read our blog with the full takeaways from our team on the ground here: https://lnkd.in/gaS4yrTb #CannesHighlights #CannesLions2024 #CreativityUnleashed #IndustryInsights

It is time for creative and media to get back together again, but some things have got to change first… Our Conscious Recoupling event panel roundup 👇 💪 The power of convergence: All panellists agreed that when creative and media work together, the results are stronger. 💭 Context is key: you've got to understand the importance of where a message will be delivered. 💥 Everyone wants to be in charge: both creative and media want to lead the other, posing challenges for day-to-day collaboration, and different responses to briefs. ➡ There's a culture shift needed: the creative industry needs to embrace a broader definition of creativity, moving beyond traditional award-driven narratives. 💻 Technology considerations: technology has changed the way ideas are developed, focusing on iterative testing and data-informed decision making. 🥊 Declining power of the creative agency: power has been chipped away from creative agencies due to factors like big data and client ownership of insights. 🤑 Money talks: The panel agreed that money plays a big role. Without changing financial structures, there's a lack of incentive to integrate. Overall, we all want the same thing - closer collaboration between creative and media, but there a few barriers to overcome first. Thanks again: Caitlin Ryan, Shula Sinclair, Gabriella Neudecker and Mick Mahoney for your insights. Read the full roundup in the link below. If you missed this event, be sure to follow us for info on upcoming events addressing key industry challenges. https://lnkd.in/eTp5Biy3

CANNES ANYONE EXPLAIN? I was genuinely delighted to see legendary adman Jacques Seguela recognised this week at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity with the Lion of St Mark. Very well deserved. It reminded me of his most famous quote (pic below). For those non-French speakers, it translates as: “Don’t tell my mother I work in advertising; she thinks I play piano in a brothel” Nothing sums up the bizarre contradictory nature of the ad industry more than Cannes. The fact that as an industry Advertising appears to be able to self-congratulate and self-flagellate simultaneously with no irony at all. You will never see a more self-congratulatory or self-referential gathering than Cannes week. Where one of the world’s largest plastic polluters can be awarded Advertiser of the Year for a campaign lauding its supposed sustainability credentials (*sigh*). Where a bunch of campaigns that mostly no one outside of the jury room has seen get lauded endlessly. And where a bunch of industry types spend obscene amounts of money on rose & case study videos whilst simultaneously imposing pay freezes or laying off massive swathes of staff for economic reasons. It seems that, as an industry, we are all very pleased with ourselves. You’d think the industry was in the rudest of health reading this week’s LI posts from La Croisette. (Confession: I slightly fell out of love with Cannes in my last network job where I saw ‘creativity’ treated as a dirty word for 51 weeks of the year & then supposedly championed through a bunch of ‘campaigns’ for largely mythical briefs for five days before everything went back to business as usual) But then….here is the paradox I observe. I read articles, published almost daily, written mostly by grumpy old blokes bemoaning the fact that the industry has gone to hell in a handcart. The same articles seem to suggest that nothing good has been made since Black Lace were in the charts. I see post after post from people in paroxysms of despair about the state of adland and the inevitable approaching Armageddon that AI is about to impose upon us all. Apparently it’s just not as good as the good old days (that no one seems able to tell me when they were, but from the articles I’m guessing somewhere around 1983) So, which one is it? Is creativity in the rudest of health or dying in the emergency room? Often the same people knee'sing it up in Cannes are the ones writing those articles! Is there any other industry in the world that is so simultaneously self-absorbed AND self-critical? Is there another set of people who combine self-congratulation with self-flagellation in this Schrödinger way? Cannes anyone tell me? #agency #awards #Cannes #marketing #advertising #clients #adland

Sustainable advertising is the future! 🌱 I am looking forward to catching up with many of you at Cannes next month to discuss how Scope3 is supporting brands and their partners to make a real impact. Message me or use the link in the comments below if you’d like to set up time #sustainableadvertising #greenmedia