The Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, held last month in the south of France, is known for world class innovation and provocative industry conversations. The biggest names in marketing come together every year to celebrate creativity and to engage in meaningful conversations about the future of marketing, often centered around trendy industry topics. In 2022, it was the metaverse and web3. Last year, the Croissette was buzzing with chatter about balancing AI with creativity. While AI was still certainly still a part of the conversation, the focus on purpose was front and center at Cannes this year.
From the rise of women’s sports to investing media dollars in value-driven ways, marketers were talking about how we can all use our platform to promote positive social change. Our leaders from Butler/Till had the privilege of highlighting our work in this area through several speaking opportunities throughout the week. Overall, our key takeaways were:
- The path to gender equality is not linear, and it is important for all of us to stay focused on the ultimate goal in the face of setbacks.
- We can promote equity in our industry through business practices like programmatic buying, directing investments in ways that remove barriers for underrepresented groups.
- Equity is more than just a social initiative; it is also the path to the best business outcomes in the work of our industry.
We co-hosted our first panel discussion with our partners at HUMAN on Unpacking the Paradox of Women’s Progress. Our President & CEO, Kimberly Jones, moderated this thought-provoking conversation, which featured our CMO, Amanda DeVito; HUMAN’s VP of Strategic Accounts, Lauren Irvin; Audigent’s CRO, Gina Cavallo; Index Exchange’s CMO, Lori Goode; COO and Founder of Advertible, Priti Ohri; and Getty Images’ SVP of Creative Content, Rebecca Swift. This group of strong female marketing leaders discussed the reality that any kind of positive change is not going to be linear. There will be setbacks and times that feel like we are moving backwards, which is why we all have to play the long game when it comes to gender equality in our industry. This group inspired the audience with their stories of adversity and progress, leaving everyone feeling optimistic about the role we can all play.
Next up was a panel that we co-sponsored with our strategic partners at Audigent about Unlocking New Pathways for Purpose-Led Investment. Our own Amanda DeVito moderated the conversation with Audigent CMO, Dave Rosner; Group Black SVP of Sales, Ashley Banks; My Code Media General Manager, Damian Benders; and Butler/Till CSO, Scott Ensign. This panel explored the topic of pointing programmatic advertising dollars toward publishers and partners owned by purpose-led and underrepresented groups. The panelists talked about how this is not an easy task given the dynamics of programmatic auctions and supply paths. Ensign talked about how Butler/Till and Audigent have partnered to identify publishing partners that are employee-owned, minority-owned, B Corporations, and women-owned/led. This effort is not always straightforward and sometimes requires manual work and verification. Banks and Benders added that this is not just about social good, making the point that a truly diverse publishing community will yield better business outcomes for brands over the long term.
The last of our three purpose-oriented speaking opportunities was a panel hosted by Infillion. This panel was focused on what our industry owes to diverse-owned media. Hosted by Infillion’s CMO, Laurel Rossi, this panel featured an impressive lineup of industry leaders, including Index Exchange CMO, Lori Goode; Mirror Digital CEO, Sheila Marmon; Direct Digital Holdings CEO, Mark Walker; Group Black CGO, Cavel Kahn; and our own Kimberly Jones. This panel turned into a lively discussion about the benefits and challenges of using programmatic spend to support a diverse group of suppliers in our industry. There was a lot of healthy debate about the role of direct buying versus programmatic when the goal is to remove barriers and promote equity in the digital advertising industry.
Overall, our crew left Cannes 2024 feeling inspired about the progress our industry is making towards equality and energized about all of the things Butler/Till can continue to do to fulfill on our enduring purpose to Create Connections and Make a Difference.
Contributions: Scott Ensign
