For several years, the digital advertising industry has grappled with an ugly, open secret – “Made for Advertising” sites. These websites, also referred to as MFAs, are designed primarily to host ads rather than provide genuine content. This raises significant concerns about the efficacy and ethics of digital marketing campaigns. While this highly viewable content may seem like a shortcut to gaining exposure, the reality is that this type of content is often far from beneficial for advertisers.  

Despite their ubiquity, MFAs present many challenges for advertisers seeking genuine engagement and meaningful interactions with their target audience. From questionable content quality to issues of ad fraud and diminishing returns, the allure of these sites often does not translate into positive outcomes for buyers. In fact, a 2023 joint industry report from the ANA, 4A’s, WFA, and ISBA found that MFAs “comprise 21 percent of impressions and 15 percent of ad spend.” Additionally, with this level of inefficiency, publishers and the SSPs that sell this type of inventory are increasingly placed under a microscope.  

In this blog, we will delve into the reasons why MFAs are detrimental to advertisers and explore how investing in these sites can ultimately lead to wasted ad dollars and diminished brand reputation.  

Adalytics Uncovers the Prevalence of MFAs 

Recently, Adalytics published the results of their study on advertisements seen on MFA sites. The report shows that many adtech companies are promoting tools to prevent ads from appearing on “Made for Advertising” (MFA) sites while simultaneously profiting from these very sites. Adalytics is critical of the industry’s hypocrisy in claiming to combat MFA sites while benefitting from the ad inventory they provide. The report underscores the need for greater transparency across the adtech ecosystem to address the issues caused by MFAs.  

“It is imperative for supply partners to place a high priority on maximizing advertiser return on investment (ROI) by directing media spend towards sites known for authentic performance metrics. This approach starkly contrasts with the inefficacy found on MFA sites, which do not provide the same level of genuine performance,” explains Brian Weigel, SVP, Operations for Cadent Aperture MX.   

“Including MFAs within an inventory source not only dilutes the quality but also adversely affects supply path optimization. This misallocation leads to a significant waste of advertiser media spend, which could otherwise be invested in more valuable inventory. With that said, it’s critical for buyers to work with trusted partners who can protect them from delivering on MFA supply—ensuring ads are placed in premium inventory that aligns with and supports the advertiser’s brand values, integrity, and marketing objectives.” 

In recent months, industry trade organizations have sought to fix some of the problems created by MFAs. First, there has been a concerted effort to establish criteria to identify MFA sites, acknowledging their detrimental impact on the digital advertising ecosystem. According to AdExchanger, the 4A’s working groups have suggested, “instead of labeling any site that buys traffic or has an above-average ad load as MFA, the group is urging the industry to focus on publishers that deliberately game programmatic monetization through ad arbitrage.” 

To maintain the integrity of digital advertising, more transparency and industry-wide collaboration is needed.  

Why Aperture MX Says ‘No’ to All MFA Sites 

Aperture MX does not allow MFA sites within our inventory, period. We ensure that buyers’ ad dollars are protected when accessing our marketplace by only offering premium inventory. Aperture MX is proud to be aggressively transparent and extremely selective with the type of publisher supply we provide – MFA sites are not allowed within our marketplace by default.  

In addition to our proprietary vetting process, we leverage the Jounce methodology and classification for MFA sites. So, if Jounce classifies a site as an MFA, we do not include the inventory within our marketplace. As a Jounce partner, we can validate that we do not run media on sites based on their classification. 

Notable features of Aperture MX include holistic audience planning, media activation, campaign analytics, enhanced brand safety, and direct publisher connections. 

• Activate true, omnichannel advertising across cable, broadcast, OTT/CTV, FAST (Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV) channels, and digital extension, like display and online video (OLV). 
• Avoid mystery inventory from unsuitable publishers by buying inventory procured through our direct relationships with premium publishers.  
• Optimize supply path by directly connecting to carefully vetted publishers – including no resellers – and increase ROI by adjusting ad spend toward performant inventory that aligns with brand goals. 

Ready to learn how Aperture MX can support your digital and CTV campaigns?  

Recently, Lindsay Teague, SVP of Client Solutions at Cadent, led a panel discussion featuring Leslie Miller, Chief Digital & Communications Officer, Ice Cream & Nutrition at Unilever and Lara Krug, EVP, Chief Marketing Officer at The Kansas City Chiefs during the Brand Innovators Sports Marketing Upfronts: Super Bowl LVIII. Their discussion focused on growing female fandom, the “celebrity effect,” and how we are entering a new era of sports marketing. Leslie, Lara, and Lindsay explored the opportunity presented by women increasing their viewership of sports and the importance of women taking on bigger roles in sports-related sponsorships – both as athletes and executive brand marketers. Learn more about how The Kansas City Chiefs and Unilever brands like Hellman’s and Dove approach their marketing efforts around the Big Game.  

Watch the full discussion below.  

Once a year, viewers tune in to watch the most unique, innovative, and iconic commercials on TV. Oh, and there is a football game to watch, too. All jokes aside, ads that make that big of an impact come with an equally big price tag. Super Bowl commercials now cost $7M for 30 seconds of airtime, before production costs. For Super Bowl LVII, Fox reported $600M of total ad revenue. Despite the investment, the reason why brands keep coming back is that, with a household rating of 40.0, Super Bowl spots drive not only brand recognition but the priceless emotional buy-in from consumers.  

Learn more about what makes NFL games some of the best programs for reach. 

To get ready for this year’s big game, we asked our employees what their favorite Super Bowl commercials were from 2010 and on. Let’s look at the ads they voted for the top three and what elements made their ads the most memorable.  

1. Puppy Love, Budweiser (2014)  

Starting with number one, it’s no surprise that 10 years later, “Puppy Love” has remained an all-time favorite. Created by the agency Anomaly, the spot Puppy Love aimed (and was quite successful) at tugging at the viewers’ heartstrings. It features the unlikely friendship between a loveable lab puppy and a Clydesdale horse, showing all the things they could do together as #BestBuds. The brand hints were subtle, with only a Clydesdale and the logo on a baseball cap, to keep the audience guessing until the Budweiser brand was revealed at the end. According to Adweek, the ad “not only topped the USA Today Ad Meter when it ran in 2014, but it also led TiVo’s list of the top Super Bowl ads of all time in 2016—with Entrepreneur praising it as ‘distinct’ and ‘emotional.’” 

2. The Man Your Man Could Smell Like, Old Spice (2010)

The Wieden Kennedy-produced commercial was a Super Bowl ad that never actually aired during the big game. The spot was pulled at the last minute and instead ran right after the game but went viral online for being witty for its use of deadpan humor. The ad features former NFL player Isaiah Mustafa, imitating a superhero-style voice, as he addresses the women in the audience. In the interactive ad, Isaiah goes from a bathroom scene to ending up on a horse, all the while echoing the message that if your man smelled like Old Spice, anything could be possible. Upon its release, the ad held eight of the top 11 most popular videos on YouTube and went on to win the Grand Prix award at that year’s Cannes Lions. 

3. You’re Not You When You’re Hungry, Snickers (2010) 

Coming in third, we have the unforgettable Snickers commercial starring Betty White and created by BBDO. The commercial garnered attention for being hilarious, outrageous, and inventive. It starts with a pick-up football game when suddenly Betty White gets tackled into a mud puddle. The viewer is left scratching their head as the team huddles to tell Betty (aka “Mike”) that he’s “playing like Betty White.” That is until he eats a Snickers bar, at which point, he starts playing like himself again. The ad concludes with the unveiling of their then-new slogan, “You’re not you when you’re hungry.” According to Ad Age, “The White spot inaugurated a campaign that turned Snickers into the No. 1 candy bar…And in 2020, the commercial topped USA Today’s Ad Meter as the best Super Bowl campaign of the last 25 years.” 

Cadent at the Center of Your NFL Strategy

As you plan for next year’s big game, consider how Cadent can curate NFL audiences and deliver your ads within premium supply from leading publishers across the linear and digital landscape. 

Ready to activate on data-driven TV and leverage the power of the big game next season?  

Earlier this month, CES took center stage in Las Vegas, attracting over 130,000 attendees – an encouraging rebound from recent years. From the bustling excitement around flying taxis and a voice-activated Mercedes to transparent TVs and robot dogs running around hotel lobbies, the event showcased the latest developments in technology. One common thread tied these innovations together: Artificial Intelligence (AI).  

As you walked the journey from one end of the strip to the other, the conference revealed not just consumer-focused advancements but also significant advancements in the world of adtech, where AI is playing a pivotal role in customizing ads, improving relevancy, doing more with less investment and increasing workflow efficiencies. Now that CES has ended, here are our key learnings from the event and how we think they will impact the future of TV advertising.  

Consideration for Cookie Depreciation  

After Google followed through on its promise, the prevailing concern discussed at CES was cookie depreciation. Despite preparations on both the buy and sell sides, skepticism lingers about the timeline for the cookie’s complete dissolution – particularly as early issues surface. Fragmented audiences and channels have made connecting the dots across devices and platforms challenging. Yet regardless of whether advertisers can leverage cookies, our media ecosystem demands a unification strategy. Bridging the gap between linear and digital performance for cross-screen targeting and measurement will be a priority for advertisers and publishers.  

Living in a Multi-Currency World 

Measurement and currency continue to be top of mind with expectations of further consolidation in 2024. Outcome-based measurement is also gaining in popularity, emphasizing the value marketers are placing on results. Brands are increasingly demanding that agencies address fragmentation and seamlessly execute cross-screen campaigns, making orchestration across planning, buying, activation, optimization, and measurement imperative. We expect performance-led buying will be a key trend over the next year. Welcome the new term “Performant” based advertising. 

First-Party Data Moves to the Top of the Heap 

This past year we saw the massive rise of retail media. As the influence and ubiquity of retail media networks have grown, so has the need for first-party data. And to leverage the power of first-party data in a safe, privacy-compliant way, there is an increased need for clean rooms. At CES, clean rooms have shifted from being merely mentioned to being the focal point of practical use cases about targeting and measurement. To address first-party data’s issues of scale, synchronization of first-party and third-party data will be essential. In turn, this will promote increased usage of API (Application Programming Interface) over UI (User Interface) solutions, reducing “swivel-chair” interactions between platforms. 

If Digital is a Square Peg, TV is a Round Hole 

Despite the abundance of solutions available, we continue to see digital solutions indiscriminately applied to TV – even though things like match rates and measurement results are below expectations. We suspect that resistance to change, multi-year agreements, risk aversion, and difficulty in proving new platforms have hindered progress. The lack of a standardized identifier has only exacerbated the long list of roadblocks. Additionally, many platforms are missing key signals or do not have the scale needed for effective cross-screen execution. Successful audience extension – the ability to extend campaigns from linear TV to CTV or other digital media such as OLV (online video) and display – will require solutions that are native to advanced TV and have never relied on a cookie. 

The Need for Flexible End-to-End Solutions 

The challenges of cookie depreciation, measurement currency, outcome-based measurement, first-party data onboarding and activation, and true cross-screen campaigns discussed at CES highlight the importance of flexible end-to-end solutions. Cadent Aperture Platform provides a simplified approach to omnichannel advertising. Offering a streamlined workflow, it seamlessly unifies identity, data, and inventory with integrated partners across CTV, OLV, display, and linear TV. Aperture Platform facilitates comprehensive campaign management from audience targeting to performance analysis. Combining the agility of programmatic buying with the precision of direct IO, Aperture Platform is a singular, streamlined environment. 

As the industry navigates through shifting consumer habits and the evolution of identity, advertisers, and publishers need tools to help meet their needs now and in the future. Find out how Cadent can help.  

Advertising Week New York took over the newly named “Penn District” last week. This year, conversations focused on retail media, AI, and data. In addition to a packed schedule of panels and presentations, attendees could experience the latest Netflix shows with a claw game and record shop, check out Google’s Formula 1 race car, or enjoy a full slate of special programming in Female Quotient’s Equality Lounge. While many sessions discussed the obstacles advertisers face in an uncertain market, others spoke optimistically about the future of the industry and what innovations are on the horizon.  

In case you missed it, here are the three key takeaways from Advertising Week.  

1. Programmatic CTV is Driving the Industry Forward 

TV advertising has evolved from a channel best suited for upper funnel awareness to a lower funnel marketing tactic able to generate measurable sales lift. By measuring campaigns against strategic business outcomes, advertisers can now understand how their CTV efforts are driving sales and other KPIs.  

“If you think about CTV pre-pandemic, [advertisers] were not applying a lot of data to their buys, either due to scale issues or the increased cost of data CPM on the media CPM, so from a data standpoint, it was still early days of data for CTV. Now we see a spike where it’s a very rich data media tactic to use,” said Conor Burgess, VP, Business Development at Acxiom. 

The combination of better audience inputs and reporting outputs has made CTV an exceedingly valuable channel for marketers.  

2. It’s Time to Refine Your Data Strategy 

More data is available to advertisers than ever before, but it’s not just a matter of having data – you must be able to activate your data across channels.  

Diana Haussling, SVP – GM, Consumer Experience & Growth at Colgate-Palmolive, explained, “You need a well-rounded data set to allow you to know if what you’re doing is working or not… you really have to play around with the mix itself of your different media levers.” 

Maureen Bosetti, Chief Investment Officer at Initiative, echoed this sentiment saying, “If we don’t get better data to help inform, ‘what is that right level of optimization we’re doing across TV, OTT, CTV, social video, digital video?’ We can’t look at CTV in isolation from all these other touchpoints.” She elaborated saying, “We need the right data feeds […] to make informed decisions in terms of how much we should be investing in those channels.”  

Maureen emphasized the importance of getting your data strategy right ‘upstream’ in the planning process, you cannot successfully execute cross-screen campaigns. 

Effective omnichannel marketing will rely on implementing a holistic data strategy.  

Learn about Aperture Dashboard and Measurement Marketplace, Cadent’s advanced reporting tools. 

3. Proof of Performance is Table Stakes 

Macroeconomic challenges persist, pushing C-suite brand executives to expect quantifiable accountability on all their media investments. 

“All media should perform, hard stop. It shouldn’t be brand versus performance. It’s a matter of selecting the right KPIs in those moments,” said Vinny Rinaldi, US Head of Media at The Hershey Company. 

Adam Davis, Senior Marketing Manager at Magnolia Bakery described how CTV has become a performance tactic, rather than just an awareness play for the brand. 

“A lot of people in the industry have these thoughts that a certain tactic is tied to a certain objective and only that objective. Two and half years ago if you had asked me, I would have said video – upper funnel, rich media – mid-funnel, Facebook ads, and Google ads – low funnel. That’s full-funnel advertising. Excellence in CTV now hits across all three of those stages in the story,” Adam explained. So, with the right solutions in place, Magnolia is able to track performance down to the order level, directly connecting an order to a CTV exposure. 

Yet while measurement has become a necessity, several measurement challenges remain in our deeply fragmented industry. First and foremost, the debate over currency.  “If you do not have alignment on currency, it becomes difficult to measure anything,” shared Chris Martinez, OTT, Director of Sales at Hearst Television. 

As demand for improved measurement increases, it is up to technology vendors and data providers to work together to develop innovative solutions.  

Interested in learning more about Cadent’s converged TV advertising capabilities?    

Recently, JC Kawalec, SVP of West Coast Sales at Cadent led a panel with Amina Pasha, CMO of Thrive Market, Jason Horowitz, SVP of U.S. Marketing/Global Head of Media & Digital at Mattel, and Katie Welch, CMO of Rare Beauty. As part of the Brand Innovators Sports and Culture Summit hosted by the LA Rams, the discussion focused on the importance of tentpole marketing strategies. Amina, Jason, and Katie shared how their organizations plan around key tentpoles, create their own tentpole moments, and use marketing activations throughout the customer journey. Learn more about how Thrive Market, Mattel, and Rare Beauty approach event marketing campaigns and what other brands should consider when it comes to tentpole marketing.

Watch the full discussion below. 

With the rise of streaming services, TV shows and movies have never been more readily available. In today’s world, the concept of sitting down at a set time to catch the latest episode of your favorite series feels almost ludicrous. Instead, we are now accustomed to binge-watching unlimited episodes when they drop onto a streaming platform such as Netflix, Hulu, or Disney+.  

Yet, while some may call this period of mass production a ‘Golden Age,’ there are broader implications on the production side that accompany this content boom. As audiences at home experience the benefits of unlimited content, there are many sacrifices taking place behind the scenes.  

So, How Did We Get Here?

Writers unionized under the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) began their strike at the end of April 2023. The writers are united under the stance that their pay and working conditions have stagnated, despite the billions of dollars being poured into streaming services, and that they are not receiving livable compensation or fair treatment. In solidarity with the WGA’s strike, the Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG-AFTRA) also declared a strike on July 14^th, 2023. Their demands are aligned with the WGA, citing concerns about fair payment, the use of AI, and overall limited consideration of individual well-being from studios. With both writers and actors currently on strike, TV and film production have come to a halt.

TV and film writers want to ensure that their working environments are conducive to growth in their field. In years past, writers have joined production staff as assistants, and then gradually moved into more senior positions. However, opportunities for advancement have been depleted as writers are hired to work for shorter and shorter seasons. Rather than being given the chance to learn the ropes and work their way up, they are often left to find new jobs after working on a show for just a few weeks. In addition, the introduction of mini-rooms, unofficial writers’ rooms assembled before a show is green-lit, has become another loophole for studios to pay creatives less.  

The AI Dilemma

Another major concern for writers and actors is the growing creative threat of artificial intelligence (AI). Today’s AI has the potential to mimic existing content to generate new show concepts and scripts – or use someone’s likeness from one production in another. When you consider that more than 80 percent of viewing on Netflix is fueled by the AI recommendation feature, it is no wonder that creative professionals fear for their future. There is certainly a place for the introduction of AI in the film and TV realm, but it must be integrated with human creative power. The WGA is demanding guard rails be put in place to prevent studios from using AI to write, edit, or alter existing content. Still, the cost benefits of using AI are appealing to studios as streaming platforms struggle to grow and maintain their viewership. 

Finding A Path Forward

Historically, writers’ strikes have lasted for weeks or even months – the 2007 writers’ strike endured for 14 weeks. Events like these often shape TV and film history and can set the stage for a burst of innovation and creativity. For instance, unscripted television, like reality TV, prospered during the 2007 strike and may experience a surge in popularity this year.  

As the entertainment landscape continues to evolve, marketers may be forced to explore alternative approaches when creating upcoming media plans. The writer’s strike is indicative of how the television and film industries are changing, but these changes offer new ways to reach and engage potential audiences. Cadent’s strategic linear and CTV solutions are tailored to meet your advertising needs during these challenging times. 

Learn how Cadent can support your upcoming campaigns during these challenging times.

The advertising landscape is constantly evolving, and the addition of artificial intelligence (AI) has only accelerated this transformation. AI can be used in multiple ways within the advertising industry, ranging from targeting to campaign optimization. However, one of the most notable advancements is its ability to generate creative and engaging content.  

Adobe officially introduced Adobe Firefly, a family of creative generative AI models that allows users to generate images, text effects, and other creative content using language prompts. The new tool is targeted towards a wide range of industries including graphic design, advertising, and film production. Firefly is intended to be a solution for the complex and sometimes repetitive tasks that creative professionals face in their day-to-day life.  

By harnessing the potential of artificial intelligence, Firefly accesses a vast dataset of images, text, and videos. Using this database, Firefly can create a variety of advertising content including product images, illustrations, infographics, and video ads.  

The adoption of this innovative tool offers numerous advantages for developing creative assets. One of the key benefits is increasing productivity – by generating content quickly and easily, users have more time to focus on strategic tasks such as deciding on creative concepts and messaging. For example, removing unwanted subjects from an image could take several minutes. Using Adobe Firefly, with the right commands, only takes a few seconds. Additionally, the tool gives more than one option to choose from that might not have been in the user’s initial thought process.  

Despite the evident benefits of AI integration, concerns have been raised by the entertainment and advertising industry regarding the potential loss of the human element of creating art. In recent years, AI has become an increasingly hot topic as many people worry about the potential loss of jobs and fraudulent or plagiarized content. The fear within the advertising industry is how these tools will replace individual creativity and lead to cost-cutting automation.  

To address these concerns, the director of digital media and strategy for Adobe Asia-Pacific has emphasized that the tool is only, “[a] co-pilot to speed up the process rather than replace graphic designers altogether.”

Legal considerations surrounding AI-generated images and their permissions and copyrights have also been raised. As a result, some large companies remain hesitant to embrace Firefly and other AI tools. To lessen those reservations, Adobe has written an indemnity clause in their offering. The clause ensures that the company will pay any copyright claims should a customer lose a lawsuit over the use of Firefly-generated content. This approach aims to reduce the legal risks surrounding the tool and potentially increase its adoption among prominent advertising agencies.  

As the integration of AI in the advertising industry continues, it offers a remarkable opportunity for advancements in content generation. Despite concerns regarding job displacement and legal considerations, it is essential to recognize AI’s role as a supportive co-pilot rather than a complete human replacement. Through measures such as Adobe’s indemnity clause, the industry can mitigate risks and confidently embrace the potential of AI in creating compelling and impactful advertising content. By streamlining processes, enhancing productivity, and opening an infinite list of creative possibilities, AI has the potential to serve as a valuable tool for professionals throughout the advertising field.  

Learn more about the state of advertising from the Cadent team.  

This year, the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity gathered over 15,000 people, including advertisers and marketers, AdTech companies, agencies, and more to celebrate creativity at its finest. The week-long event left attendees with new connections, bits of inspiration, and strategic takeaways that will shape the future of advertising through 2023 and beyond. Whether you were able to make it to the French Riviera or not, here are five takeaways to keep in mind for your upcoming brand campaigns.  

1. AI is front and center with a focus on advertising insights and uncertainty around content creation. 

AI is everywhere, especially generative AI since ChatGPT entered the conversation. Amazon, Snap Inc., Omnicom Group and others put a spotlight on their AI initiatives at Cannes. For instance, Snap Inc. showcased their conversational AI product, My AI, which can act as an ad targeting and social listening tool and even improve advertising on the app.

Throughout the festival, some industry leaders obsessed over AI and its productivity potential, while others warned that AI is not a substitute for human creativity and content creation. There’s no doubt about the growing importance of AI for advertisers. A recent survey from EMarketer has shown that 70% of brand marketers are most excited about generative AI’s ability to accelerate market research on prospects and customers, as well as create content. AI is sure to remain at the forefront of advertising development, so now is the time to experiment with this new technology.  

2. Advertising creative that evokes nostalgia and sparks fandom proves successful. 

At its core, Cannes brings creativity into the limelight to celebrate creative excellence across the marketing community. ‘Clash from the Past’, a two-time 2023 Grand Prix winner, harnessed the power of nostalgia by creating 40 years of faux history and lore for the game Clash of Clans. The campaign went back in time, using fun and fandom to tug at their audience’s heartstrings and show how nostalgia is a powerful tool for brand exposure and lift. 

Video games aren’t the only thing that sparked fandom. The festival also welcomed the Stagwell Sport Beach activation with sports playing fields featuring professional athletes playing sports, giving lessons, and chatting with brands. The activation found a clever way to connect sports fandom and marketing by following Apple’s Tor Myhren approach to successful advertising: embracing the product, being confident, and having fun. Ultimately, brands that found their version of fun made the biggest waves at Cannes.  

3. CMOs are shifting their marketing strategies to go back to the basics. 

Many CMOs at the festival shared that they are going “back to the basics” with marketing budgets and staying true to their brand’s values. P&G’s Chief Brand Officer, Marc Pritchard mentioned returning to the fundamentals in an interview with Ad Age and sticking to areas of advocacy within your brand’s wheelhouse. Other brand leaders stressed the same importance for brands to show up authentically in response to the recent political backlash Bud Light faced after their influencer campaign with Dylan Mulvaney. 

Ad Age recently published an ANA report which found that “$20 billion out of $83 billion in open programmatic ad spend was wasted going to ineffective ad placements on bad websites,” which indicates that marketers may need to pay closer attention to where their ad budgets are going. Sweta Patel, VP of Growth Marketing and Merchandising at Roku shared with Business Insider that tighter marketing budgets are driving greater focus and incremental success as teams home in on goals and measurement. Moral of the story: going back to basics isn’t just playing it safe and can have a hand in protecting brand health and marketing budgets. 

4. Retail media networks are on the rise along with a push for data standardization. 

Retail media continues to grab the attention of both advertisers and networks, especially with retailers’ ability to utilize first-party data to target their audience based on their direct needs. According to eMarketer, retail media advertising spend is expected to hit $45.15B in 2023 and more than double by 2027 with spend is expected to reach $106.12B.  

Although retail media has the potential to dominate, it has also missed the mark in key areas like measurement and data standardization. At Cannes, Albertsons pushed for more data transparency by proposing a retail media framework that aims to “create common definitions and standards among retail media networks (RMNs)” for metrics like ROI, conversion rates, and more. The framework serves as a call to action for the industry to come together and discuss how we can better enable retailers to compare their data across the media activation workflow. We expect to see more on the adoption of Albertsons framework and RMN standardization in the months to follow. 

5. Purpose-driven campaigns continue to gain traction, especially in social impact and sustainability. 

Purpose-driven marketing remains prominent as campaigns for a cause generate brand equity and maintain audience attention. A study by Porter Novelli found that 78% of survey respondents are more likely to remember a brand with a strong purpose. While Dove took home a 2023 Grand Prix award for its campaign called #TurnYourBack aimed at combatting false beauty standards, ‘Working with Cancer’ also won for its global campaign focused on erasing the stigma and insecurity of cancer at work. 

Along with social impact, sustainability became one of the most talked about issues at Cannes as CleanCreatives called on agencies to stop working with fossil fuel companies. Sustainable media also came into play as the same ANA report revealed that not only are made-for-advertising (MFA) sites wasting value advertising dollars, but they’re also contributing to large carbon footprints. Cannes brought valuable attention to the report and began to discuss ways to make sustainable media buying more appealing. When it comes down to it, people want to buy from brands that are making a difference in areas like social impact and sustainability. 

Overall, the 2023 Cannes Lions served as a reminder of how fast the advertising industry can change as new technologies come into play. A few things you should consider in the coming months: AI continues to evolve as new capabilities emerge. Retail media networks are expected to gain more traction given the insights retailers can provide to advertisers. Chief marketers are erring on the side of caution to stay authentic, while purpose-driven marketing still resonates the most with audiences. And when in doubt, lean on fun creative and nostalgia to help make your next brand campaign successful.  

Recently, Lindsay Teague, VP of Advanced TV Solutions at Cadent led a fireside chat with Mike Fisher, Executive Director of Investment Innovation at GroupM during the spring Brand Innovators Media Buying Summit. Their discussion focused on the change in consumer TV and video viewership, how to reach these audiences as their behaviors shift, and the importance of accountability across the end-to-end media buying transaction. Learn more about GroupM’s approach to fluidity, emerging consolidations within the TV space, and targeting and measurement.  

Watch the full discussion below.