Some describe Cannes Lions, the pre-eminent Creative festival in the world, as akin to the Oscars of Advertising. Albeit it is across a six day festival of high-powered executive networking, showcasing of the latest in creativity and ad technology leadership as well as the obligatory evening parties that any major festival and awards event held in the south of France would imply.
2014 marks the 60th anniversary of the event, which was first held in 1954. This year, there will be some major trends and themes attendees and watchers around the globe should pay close attention to. Take the time to see what thought leaders say about these trends and thus the future of advertising.
1. Unlocking Customer Data
Brands are rightly very protective over their customer data as it is the basis of their business, their unique competitive advantage, and a source of information that represents the trust between brand and customer. At the same time, marketers have long known their best new customer revenue comes from their current customers as well as those that most look like them.
Advertising technologies and agencies that can best help advertisers unlock their customer data in both a powerful and secure way with new offerings for a 2014 world and consumer view (and conversely not a 2008 world view) will be the folks to pay attention to this year.
2. Mobile
With advertising platforms like Facebook rocketing past the 50% traffic and revenue marks from mobile in recent times, Twitter reaching almost 80% of their traffic from mobile, and LinkedIn on the verge of passing 50% traffic levels, it is not so much the growth of mobile, but a full blown mobile era. The IAB also recently reported that for the US, 86% of proportional time is spent in mobile apps versus the mobile web (up from 81% and 72% the two preceding years).