It’s been one week since the highly anticipated Cannes Lions 2024—the event of the year for advertising and creativity. We are excited to present our top five takeaways from the event, revealing the industry’s priorities for the year ahead.
Navigating the post-cookie era
One of the pivotal discussions at Cannes Lions 2024 centered around signal loss and identity resolution. The industry is grappling with the impact of third-party cookie deprecation, driving a move toward alternative identifiers such as Unified I.D. 2.0 (UID2) and ID5, and contextual targeting. This shift aims to uphold accurate audience targeting while addressing privacy concerns through authenticated forms of identity. Brands and agencies are actively exploring these new strategies to replace traditional cookie-based methods with stable, privacy-compliant solutions.
First-party data providers are also seeking data onboarding solutions to navigate this transition. They need streamlined integration processes, comprehensive ID-matching capabilities, and transparent pricing structures.
Fortified by our roots in offline data and significant investments in our Graph, and our newest offering, Third-Party Onboarding, you can count on Experian’s solutions to maintain strong signal coverage in a cookieless world so you can have uninterrupted, effective marketing.
Unifying targeting across TV platforms
Another focal point at Cannes Lions 2024 was the challenge of navigating TV fragmentation. Advertisers strive for unified targeting across diverse TV platforms, including connected TV (CTV) and traditional linear TV. They emphasize integrating data sources and ad servers to reach audiences across these platforms. CTV continues to stand out in conversations as a crucial and expanding area for advertising, offering new opportunities for targeted campaigns and broader audience engagement.
We’re fueling the expansion of CTV advertising through our signal-agnostic Graph, which seamlessly integrates CTV IDs, universal identifiers such as UID2, IP addresses, and mobile ad IDs (MAIDs) for targeted campaigns. Our newest offering, Third-Party Onboarding, also provides connectivity to more than 10 TV destinations.
Transforming marketing with AI
We would be remiss not to mention the hottest topic at Cannes Lions 2024, the transformative power of AI within data and identity. Discussions highlighted AI’s pivotal role in revolutionizing marketing strategies by enhancing campaign planning, dynamic optimization, measurement, and analytics. AI is not just a tool; it enables marketers to work smarter and faster. With real-time data enrichment, AI will empower marketers to manage large-scale campaigns with unprecedented efficiency and precision.
Marketers envision a future where AI seamlessly integrates into every aspect of their strategy, from understanding and predicting consumer behavior to automating personalized engagement. They see AI as the key to unlocking new levels of precision and efficiency, allowing them to adjust real-time campaigns based on consumer interactions and preferences. This vision includes using AI for deeper audience insights, ensuring that every marketing touchpoint is relevant and impactful.
Striving for strategies for proven ROI
Discussions on measurement at Cannes Lions 2024 focused on how measurement metrics are evolving to keep pace with industry changes. Cross-device, multi-touch attribution, and outcome-based metrics like consumer lifetime value and conversion rates are becoming more important. Accurate measurement is critical for demonstrating campaign impact and optimizing future marketing efforts.
These developments reflect a shift toward more sophisticated measurement practices to optimize marketing strategies and prove tangible ROI.
Through our Consumer Sync solutions, you can improve your attribution quality to understand the true path to conversion by linking all digital touchpoints to a single person.
Creating integrated consumer experiences with retail media networks
Retail media networks (RMNs) are becoming more integrated and connected. Their goal is to provide consumers with a unified online and physical store experience and create a comprehensive marketplace where retailers can work together and use shared data to better reach and engage with their audiences.
“Throughout the conversations, it’s been clear that there’s a lot of demand and interest in building and growing retail media networks. What strikes me is that Experian products, both across identity and data, can be a big support to help grow and fill in these gaps.”
budi tanzi, vp, product
Discussions at Cannes Lions 2024 emphasized how collaborations with technology providers and industry groups can help set measurement standards and ensure transparency. These partnerships can enable RMNs to expand their reach and compete with larger advertising platforms, driving industry growth and innovation.
Experian offers comprehensive solutions for RMNs. Our Profile Insights and Enrichment tools offer valuable customer behavior insights, driving smarter inventory management. We enhance ad targeting beyond item-level purchases with accurate data and syndicated audiences, aligning with broader media strategies. Third-Party Onboarding enables expansion beyond owned and operated inventory, supported by our Graph for enhanced connectivity.
“Data providers are excited to eliminate digital hops in their data flow using Experian Third-Party Onboarding. Third-Party Onboarding is uniquely set up to reduce friction for third-party data and the ecosystem in general.”
adam kobus, director of data partnerships
Experian events at Cannes Lions 2024
This year, we hosted a kick-off happy hour, content studio, and members of our team joined various panels across the Croisette. Here’s a recap of our week at Cannes.
Experian’s kick-off event with Audigent and LG Ad Solutions
To kick off the week, we co-hosted a happy hour with Audigent and LG Ad Solutions. At our sold-out event, attendees enjoyed a live performance from St. Lucia.
Content studio
We interviewed 27 thought leaders across the industry in our content studio. Our interviews covered topics like:
• Signal loss
• Connected and linear TV
• Data collaboration
• Future of addressability and personalization
• Retail media networks
• And more
We’ll be sharing more from our content studio over the coming months. Follow us on LinkedIn or sign up for our email newsletter for the latest updates.
Panel participation
The Experian team participated in four panels throughout the week across the Croisette:
- Scott Kozub, VP, Product Management, joined the Brand Innovators panel, “Future of media,” where he discussed how media companies can adapt their content and distribution strategies to cater to changing consumption habits as media becomes more fragmented across devices and platforms.
- Kimberly Gilberti, Chief Product Officer, joined OpenX’s panel, “Unlocking addressability: Navigating the post-cookie era,” to discuss the prevailing strategies for achieving addressability in a cookieless world.
- Budi Tanzi, VP, Product, participated in Audigent’s panel, “Curation in regulated industries,” where they talked about why curation is effective in regulated markets like finance and health.
- Rachael Donnelly, Chief Marketing Officer, joined The Female Quotient in the Equality Lounge for their panel “Emotional agility: Leading beyond the double standard,” where they explored the power of diverse storytelling and its impact on audience engagement, brand building, and the bottom line.
Let’s keep the momentum going
As we wrap up another exciting week at Cannes Lions, the discussions have shown us the potential for innovation in signal loss, TV fragmentation, AI, measurement, and retail media networks. These topics pave the way for a more connected future in advertising. Which trends are you most excited about? Let’s continue the conversation! Reach out to us, and let’s dive deeper into these topics together.
We understand that customers may be experiencing uncertainty with their marketing strategies with Oracle’s exit from advertising. Experian is one of Oracle’s primary data providers powering their audiences. We can help marketers easily make the switch from Oracle audiences to Experian audiences without changes in advertising effectiveness or efficiency.
We have mapped Oracle audiences to Experian audiences to make it easy for you to switch your campaign targeting to Experian. Reach out to your account representative or our audiences team for information about audience mapping and finding the most relevant Experian audience for your campaigns.
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The political winds in the United States shifted sharply to the right earlier this month with Republicans making gains across the board. While political party affiliation was a strong indication of a candidate's success in the election, we wondered: Can the political leaning of a TV show's audience determine the success of the program? The answer is yes. Experian Simmons examined the political party registrations of viewers of over 700 television programs measured in the Spring 2010 Simmons National Consumer study. We found that registered Republicans and Democrats, indeed, have different preferences in entertainment programs. But especially noticeable was the preponderance of highly rated Nielsen programs at the top of the Republican list. Not all shows that skew Republican are ratings darlings, of course, but programmers should take note of this fact if ratings are their foremost goal. Republicans: When looking at programs on broadcast TV, we see that Republicans tend to gravitate towards reality shows that center on some sort of competition. In fact, Republicans are 32% more likely to watch The Amazing Race on CBS than the average American adult. They're also 24% more likely to watch American Idol on Fox and 18% more likely to watch America's Got Talent on NBC. The Simmons data provides some evidence that it's the competitive angle of these shows that is attracting Republicans. Specifically, Republicans are fully 29% more likely than the average adult to watch the results show of Dancing with the Stars on ABC and just 17% more likely to watch the non-results episodes of the same show. Republicans tend to gravitate towards reality shows that center on some sort of competition. When it comes to cable entertainment programs, Republicans tend to prefer lifestyle programs on HGTV and TLC. Republicans are also found in high concentrations among many adventure/documentary show audiences, like Ice Road Truckers on History and Deadliest Catch on Discovery. And finally, big families are big draws for Republicans with 18 Kids and Counting and Jon & Kate Plus 8, both on TLC, attracting more than average concentrations of Republican viewers. Top indexing Republican NETWORK programs (non-news, non-music) Republican Index Top indexing Republican CABLE programs (non-news, non-music) Republican Index THE AMAZING RACE (CBS) 132 PROPERTY VIRGINS (HGTV) 125 DANCING WITH THE STARS RESULTS SHOW(ABC) 129 MODERN MARVELS (HISTORY) 121 MODERN FAMILY (ABC) 124 COLOR SPLASH (HGTV) 120 AMERICAN IDOL (FOX) 122 UNSELLABLES (HGTV) 120 V (ABC) 122 LEVERAGE (TNT) 118 THE BIG BANG THEORY (CBS) 119 18 KIDS AND COUNTING (TLC) 116 THE GOOD WIFE (CBS) 119 DEAR GENEVIEVE (HGTV) 116 THE MENTALIST (CBS) 119 WHAT NOT TO WEAR (TLC) 116 AMERICA'S GOT TALENT (NBC) 118 DINERS, DRIVE-INS & DIVES (FOOD NETWORK) 115 SURVIVOR (CBS) 118 HOUSE HUNTERS (HGTV) 115 DANCING WITH THE STARS (ABC) 117 INCOME PROPERTY (HGTV) 114 DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES (ABC) 116 OPERATION REPO (TRU TV) 114 NCIS (CBS) 115 WHITE COLLAR (USA) 114 HUMAN TARGET (FOX) 114 ICE ROAD TRUCKERS (HISTORY) 112 LIE TO ME (FOX) 114 PAWN STARS (HISTORY) 112 THE BACHELOR (ABC) 114 SAY YES TO THE DRESS (TLC) 111 ANTIQUES ROADSHOW (PBS) 113 DIRTY JOBS (DISCOVERY) 110 CASTLE (ABC) 113 MYTHBUSTERS (DISCOVERY) 109 HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER (CBS) 113 JON & KATE PLUS 8 (TLC) 106 THE BACHELORETTE (ABC) 113 AMERICAN LOGGERS (DISCOVERY) 105 EXTREME MAKEOVER: HOME EDITION (ABC) 112 IN PLAIN SIGHT (USA) 104 NCIS: LOS ANGELES (CBS) 112 THROWDOWN WITH BOBBY FLAY (FOOD NETWORK) 104 TWO AND A HALF MEN (CBS) 112 DEADLIEST CATCH (DISCOVERY) 103 FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS (NBC) 111 MAN VS. WILD (DISCOVERY) 103 CELEBRITY APPRENTICE (NBC) 109 THE SMOKING GUN PRESENTS:WORLD'S DUMBEST (TRU TV) 103 Democrats: On the left side of the broadcast dial, we see that registered Democrats tend to be drawn to crime and legal dramas like Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU, both on NBC. We also see higher concentrations of Democrats tuning into broadcast shows featuring female characters playing central or leading roles, such as Brothers & Sisters on ABC, Medium on CBS, 30 Rock on NBC and the Good Wife on CBS. The Good Wife, actually, has higher than average concentrations of both registered Democrats and registered Republicans. Given that the program is about the wife of a politician, it's not such a surprise that registered voters from both sides of the aisle tune in. We also see higher concentrations of Democrats tuning into broadcast shows featuring female characters playing central or leading roles. On cable, we see high concentrations of registered Democrats tuning into character-driven dramas, like Dexter and United States of Tara, both on Showtime. Democrats also flock in disproportionate numbers to cable reality shows. But unlike the competitive reality shows favored by Republicans, Democrats prefer observational reality shows where they get to peer into the lives of celebrities or unique and extraordinary people. Top indexing Democrat NETWORK programs (non-news, non-music) Democrat Index Top indexing Democrat CABLE programs (non-news, non-music) Democrat Index FLASHPOINT (CBS) 145 TYLER PERRY'S MEET THE BROWNS (TBS) 189 HOMETIME (PBS) 143 HOUSE OF PAYNE (TBS) 181 90210 (CW) 140 REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER (HBO) 165 WIFE SWAP (ABC) 136 SNAPPED (OXYGEN) 162 AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL (CW) 135 SHERRI (LIFETIME) 153 NOVA (PBS) 133 HAWTHORNE (TNT) 153 LAW & ORDER (NBC) 132 LIVE FROM THE RED CARPET (E!) 149 SMALLVILLE (CW) 131 DEXTER (SHOWTIME) 147 WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? (NBC) 130 UGLY AMERICANS (COMEDY CENTRAL) 147 BROTHERS & SISTERS (ABC) 127 KOURTNEY & KHLOE TAKE MIAMI (E!) 146 PRIVATE PRACTICE (ABC) 127 TODDLERS & TIARAS (TLC) 145 MEDIUM (CBS) 126 UNITED STATES OF TARA (SHOWTIME) 144 TRUE BEAUTY (ABC) 126 MEET THE NATIVES (TRAVEL CHANNEL) 144 AMERICA'S MOST WANTED (FOX) 126 BRIDEZILLAS (WE TV) 143 30 ROCK (NBC) 126 TOP CHEF MASTERS (BRAVO) 142 VICTORY GARDEN (PBS) 126 WOMEN BEHIND BARS (WE TV) 142 THE GOOD WIFE (CBS) 124 THE BOONDOCKS: ADULT SWIM(CARTOON NETWRK) 142 ONE TREE HILL (CW) 124 TABATHA'S SALON TAKEOVER (BRAVO) 140 NEW YANKEE WORKSHOP (PBS) 122 DOWN HOME WITH THE NEELYS (FOOD NETWORK) 140 LAW & ORDER: SVU (NBC) 122 BAD GIRLS CLUB (OXYGEN) 138 MASTERPIECE (PBS) 122 SCARE TACTICS (SYFY) 136 COMMUNITY (NBC) 122 MILLION DOLLAR LISTING (BRAVO) 135 BIG BROTHER (CBS) 121 MODELS OF THE RUNWAY (LIFETIME) 135 GOSSIP GIRL (CW) 120 TORI & DEAN: HOME SWEET HOLLYWOOD (OXYGEN) 133 FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS (NBC) 119 DESTINATION TRUTH (SYFY) 132 For more information about the in-depth consumer behaviors, attitudes, lifestyles, brands and media measured in the Simmons National Consumer Study, visit our website.
Frugal living seems to have become a more common trademark of the American consumer in the last couple of years. Since the beginning of 2008, 20% less and 35% less US adults report to have purchased merchandise at the upscale stores Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s respectively. By contrast, 8% more and 62% more US adults report to have purchased merchandise at Marshall’s and Ross Stores, respectively. Discount stores appear to be weathering the recession better than some of their full-price counterparts, as they carry first-quality designer merchandise at competitive prices, often advertised at up to 70% below department store prices. However, many of these designer discount retailers would be in a difficult position without the existence of department stores, since the designer discount business model is primarily based on purchasing close-outs from the very department stores that they compete against. Discount stores appear to be weathering the recession better than some of their full-price counterparts Since the beginning of 2008, an average 54% of US adults shop around a lot to take advantage of specials and bargains. Also, from January 2008 to August 2009, 7% more US adults tend to hold out on buying things until the go on sale and 13% more head right for the clearance rack when they enter a store. In conclusion, the past 2.5 years have seen the American consumer become a more serious discount shopper – a trend that is likely to continue in this current, uncertain economic environment.