All of us at Sovrn have been watching, and I have no doubt that some have been actively participating in, the protests following the murder of George Floyd. I’ve been personally moved by both the peaceful and powerful protests and the long-standing inequities they represent.

In our company meeting this week, with 200 fellow Sovrn employees, I made the decision to talk about these inequalities and what we each individually and collectively can do to make progress on real change. What I said was unscripted, and while many of the ideas on how to make progress are not new, I felt that if I could inspire even one person more to act, then that would be well worth it.

We talked about the “ovarian lottery,” a concept I lifted from Warren Buffet. The idea here is to put yourself inside your mother’s womb some 24 hours before you’re born. You have no idea where you’ll be born, what religion your family practices; you don’t know your gender, sexual orientation, or the color of your skin. Ask yourself this: what kind of world do you want to be born into? I imagine it’s one that’s fair and equal regardless of what you look like, where you came from, or how much money or privilege you have. And while we may never reach a place of total equality, that equality is the goal. We can do things today that move us a step closer, together. If we can at least agree on the ultimate goal then we can disagree on the details of how to get there without being disagreeable.

Each of us can be part of the discussion in our own way. For some, that may be joining the protests, for others it could be summing the courage to talk about our thoughts or experiences. There isn’t one right way to have the conversation, we just need to be having it. Here in the U.S. we have the right to elect our representatives—not just our national leaders. More importantly, we should exercise our voting power in choosing our local leaders. 

Businesses have a responsibility to not only join the discussion, but to act. We need to keep the conversation going; don’t let it slip back into the shadows. We can make a difference—in our company and in our communities.

— Walter Knapp, CEO

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Although the event did not disappoint, things felt a bit more subdued than previous years. Perhaps this is in response to the state of the film industry today (I’m looking at you, Hulu and Netflix).

Cannes Lions had a different strategy for the event this year, most notably, to breathe new life into its original purpose: celebrating creativity. In the increasingly digital world that we live in today, everyone is able to tell their story. In recent years, minority filmmakers have broken down barriers to entry and given a voice to those whose stories had never made it to prominent festivals like Cannes Lions.

Cannes Lions is adapting to the changes in film, media, and advertising industries; specifically in relation to digital storytelling. If you weren’t there to see the changes yourself, don’t worry. Here are our 5 key takeaways from this year’s festival:

Key players in the creative industry are placing increasing importance on corporate social responsibility. The Palau Pledge, a travel campaign that doubled as an environmental conservation effort, emerged successful, winning three Grand Prix on the final night. Host/Havas wanted to inspire a true and lasting change in behavior, leading them to create a campaign that would transcend culture and nationality. The Palau Pledge asked tourists visiting Palau to sign a “pledge” on their passport to be environmentally conscious during their stay. It seemed Cannes Lions aligned, introducing the Sustainable Development Goals award, created in partnership with United Nations. All proceeds from submissions for the award were donated towards sustainable development causes.

No one wants the dreaded ‘Social Network’ label. ‘Social Network’ seems to have morphed into a dirty term, with companies like Twitter & Reddit opting for the more conservative ‘news’ label. This seems somewhat understandable, as any company considered a social network is then compared to Facebook… a daunting comparison. Reddit’s new COO Jen Wong stated that “the difference between Reddit and social media is the entry point. Your entry points to Reddit are your passions and interests, and your entry point to social is your friends and family.” The rejection of the ‘social network’ label at the festival is telling – about the state of the industry and the general feeling about social generated traffic.

Cannes Lions 2018 took a step back and renewed focus on creativity, the original intention behind the festival. The past couple of years have been a spectacle of bright colors and tech slang, competing for money and creating a facade. This year, the festival expanded to include the entire media ecosystem, including tech companies and social media platforms, only adding to the air of a renewed creativity. Awarded campaigns were creative, used outside-the-box techniques and touched on social, economic and environmental issues. Responding to disruptions in the industry, the festival incorporated less platform defined, more innovative media, and reoriented around purposeful creativity.

Many of the winners at Cannes Lions took a new, modern approach to the idea of storytelling. Cannes Lions represents the industries biggest celebration of creativity on it’s biggest stage. Winners not only represent the industries future direction, but also aims to push both clients and agencies to bigger ideas, craft, and execution. One of our favorite campaigns was ‘Evert_45’ by N=5, done for KPN, a Dutch landline, and mobile communications company. The initial idea behind the campaign was to connect young people today with people that were young during WWII and help to pass on their stories. Initially, N=5 and KPN collaborated on strategies to share stories of the past through the channels and with the language of today, to successfully engage younger generations. The idea developed and became Evert_45, an immersive campaign based on first-hand accounts of ordinary Dutch people from WWII. For a more modern twist, N=5 collaborated with influencers and took a phased approach played the campaign out as an ongoing series on Instagram, YouTube, and evert45.com.

The consistent theme of the week was the need to tackle diversity and discrimination, with red carpet protests lead by the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements. There were multiple red carpet protests to bring attention to the inequality and lack of representation that has plagued the film industry. French black actresses, lead by Aïssa Maïga, walked the carpet together to protest racism in French cinema. 82 women including Ava DuVernay, Cate Blanchett, and Salma Hayek protested gender inequality. Kristen Stewart took her shoes off on the red carpet to protest the Cannes dress code that says women cannot wear flats. At a film festival, you might expect the main stories to be the films. However, this year many of the biggest stories, the ones that engaged people all around the world, took place off-screen, where brave protesters called attention to issues that we all can relate to.

The mission of Cannes Lions resonates with all of us here at Sovrn. We pride ourselves in helping storytellers do more of what they love and less of what they don’t. The filmmakers at Cannes Lions create films by the people, for the people. The sponsors’ messages were reflective of the times we live in. The ultimate takeaway for us, that each and every publisher and storyteller can learn from, is that engaging, relevant, relatable content has the biggest impact.
 

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1. GDPR is here and it’s important.

On day one of AdMonsters Ops, Rob Beeler, Chairman of Admonsters, jumped on stage and set the tone: we are all in unchartered territory. Throughout the event, we received a mixed bag of feedback from publishers on GDPR – some have done nothing and some are fully prepared in tandem with their own in-house legal counsel. One thing is certain, we are all playing the waiting game to see what happens next. Emry Downinghall, Vice President of Advertising at Chegg, urged attendees to better educate users on what publishers and SSPs do with data. This will help all publishers come out on the winning side of GDPR.
 

2. We all crave simplicity.

In today’s data-driven world, publishers are overwhelmed by new ways of monetizing and measuring. Some of this is good and some of this produces frustration and confusion. There was a sense of urgency for SSPs to band together and DSPs to identify and stick to the same important metrics, eliminating the clutter of CPC, CPA, CPH, & CPM.  Whatever the future holds, we hope to see more focus on time on site & user engagement.
 

3. Ad quality and the lack of it bothers everyone.  

Ad quality remains a top point of frustration for publishers, users, and frankly, SSPs. None of us wants to deal with a poor, disruptive ad experience. Publishers explained that ad quality is often why senior leaders do not want to invest in programmatic. Sovrn has led the fight against fraud in ad tech for years and we will continue to partner with our buyers to mitigate what results in heartburn for all.
 

4. Viewability is here to stay.

Viewability is in the limelight now more than ever. Publishers are consistently looking for the best ways to actually improve viewability and many are still hesitant to make changes. In order to improve upon viewability, publishers may have to deal with short-term loss in order to achieve long-term gain. Andy Evans, CMO at Sovrn, spoke about Viewable Engagement Time and the importance of not only taking into account viewability but also the amount of time the user is active on the page. Products like these help create incremental, quality inventory for all publishers.
 

5. Rethink Everything.

Tom Goodwin, EVP of Innovation at Zenith, challenged the attendees to think about what it would look like if we’d never known about marketing or advertising. In order for us to break away from what we have done for years, we need to understand people by becoming more personal and move to new structures by breaking down silos. Sovrn aims to think differently in all that we do, resulting in a one-stop shop for publishers of all sizes.

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Talk about a meeting of the minds! John Battelle (Wired, Federated Media, NewCO) sat down on stage to interview Ev Williams (Blogger, Twitter, Medium) and let’s just say that he left no stone unturned. Their conversation ranged from the future revenue strategy for Medium and their plans for bringing brands into the picture (Marriot is one of few brands already publishing on Medium today), the “dark arts” of Facebook and their monopolization of content distribution, right down to Williams’ personal reflections on the state of Blogger and Twitter since his departure.

Williams beat around no bushes when it comes to the challenges publishers are facing and will continue to tackle as Facebook and other platforms (perhaps Medium is in that mix now?) further encrypt their secrets to discovery. But while some of his postures were bleak at best – see Forbes article titled “Medium’s Ev Williams to Publishers: Your Website is Toast” – he was optimistic about the potential for publishers to share their voice and ideas through online content.

Williams also had a strong reaction to questioning from Battelle about the current advertising ecosystem.

Williams: Native ads are the only thing that can work. Other stuff hasn’t been a win-win especially for users. It’s on its last legs. I’m not saying you’re done. It’s not tomorrow. But everybody knows the banner on the web page is not going to be paying your bills in five years. Not a video or a takeover either.

Battelle: Isn’t there some value in connecting the right advertiser with the right group of people?

Williams: But Facebook will do that. It’s just not going to be on your website.

Yikes.

And my personal favorite moment from the interview…

Battelle: What do you think of Blogger as it is today?

Williams: It kills me… Blogger was the first company Google ever bought. They didn’t kill it. In that era, thousands of small companies went to big companies.. and got shut down. I appreciate that, though I was frustrated the whole time. But there was a period of a year after I left when it didn’t even have a product manager… even though it was the biggest site on the Internet.

Battelle: What’s going on with Twitter? Will it be fine?

Williams: …Everything’s going to be fine.

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