On the first day of my 10th visit to Cannes Lions – I feel compelled to look back at the fascinating evolution the advertising industry has gone through in those 10 years. In 2016 Lions was dominated by creative agencies lining up for awards and programmatic media was growing significantly with tech automating media buying via new platforms like Xandr, The Trade Desk and others. Media itself was starting to become more dominated by tech – from Meta to YouTube to Snapchat. Tech was moving into Cannes.
Pretty soon all the agency banners on Yachts and the sidewalks were replaced by the likes of Meta, Criteo, Yahoo, Sizmek, YouTube and many new ad tech companies seeking to disrupt the industry.
Fast forward to this year – I would say the last 3 years have brought about the biggest changes in the advertising industry. My first hint of that was in 2022 when Amazon moved in to Cannes and took over the entire port of Cannes and parked a shiny black yacht inviting us to speak with their execs. It was clear Amazon was moving in a big way into advertising – more precisely retail media which is now the fastest growing form of advertising. In 2023 and 2024 retail media quickly became a topic on many panels and events at Cannes. In 2024 retailers like Target and Sainsburys made their appearance.
Alas, we are not done yet with changes – AI is also moving into Cannes. Generative and Agentic AI are threatening to completely reboot the industry. – from creative to media and everything in between.
The powerful combination of retail/commerce media and AI is going to completely change this industry – making it significantly more efficient and personalized for consumers. 2025 looks to be the year of convergence between AI and commerce marketing.
I am predicting that Cannes 2026 will have a completely different set of yachts, sidewalk banners and events hosted by companies you may not have thought were in advertising. Hint: some foundation AI and LLM companies are visiting Cannes quietly this year to form alliances and partnership and sign up some large brands. So are some fintech companies.
At Jivox we are betting on this convergence of AI and Commerce marketing and have already launched products that play in this intersection. Stay tuned for a lot more coming this year.
Creative destruction is an term often used when such large changes happen but I prefer to think of it as the dawn of a new era in advertising where the convergence of AI and commerce will bring about a level of personalization for consumers and performance for brands that the industry has never seen before.
This sunrise from this morning against a clear sky at Cannes seems to suggest that’s what’s coming – a golden age of advertising with new platforms and approaches that will transform advertising as we know it. Definitely and exciting time for the industry.