‘Don’t walk past the Gutter Bar’: The unofficial Cannes Lions survival guide, written in hindsight

Cannes Lions has a way of making experienced professionals do spectacularly stupid things. Here’s what the veterans wish they’d known:

Noor Naseer, vp of media innovations and technology at Basis

Have a talk with yourself before you step onto the Croisette: for one week, otherwise rational adults will become strangely obsessed with who got invited where, who’s on the yacht, who’s at the hottest dinner, and whether they’re on the list. Don’t get sucked into the high school dynamics of it all. The people who get the most value out of Cannes aren’t chasing validation; they’re building relationships. Five days from now you’ll be back home worrying about deadlines, family, pets, and why your summer utility bill is outrageous — and the party everyone was talking about today is forgotten. The value of Cannes isn’t being seen at the right party, it’s leaving with ideas and relationships that still matter once everyone is back on Zoom.

Simon Stone, GM International at LoopMe

Don’t walk past the Gutter Bar on the way home anytime after midnight (especially if you have early morning breakfast meetings) as you will get sucked into a late night of drinking and will struggle to escape before 3 a.m.!

Continue reading this article on digiday.com. Sign up for Digiday newsletters to get the latest on media, marketing and the future of TV.

,Read More

WTF is agentic commerce? | How brands can make loyalty and promotions agent-ready

This WTF guide, sponsored by Talon.One, explores how brands can make their loyalty and promotions agent-ready, as agentic commerce evolves from a theoretical concept into practical applications, and AI agents begin to handle the end-to-end shopping journey for consumers.

Agentic commerce has quickly become a hot industry topic, as the technology evolves from a theoretical concept into real-world applications that commerce teams are actively testing and deploying. Major technology companies such as Google and OpenAI are racing to embed AI agents into their search, browsing and checkout experiences, and those agents are expected to soon handle the end-to-end shopping journey for consumers.

This marks a fundamental shift in how shoppers discover, evaluate and purchase products. By 2030, agentic AI is projected to account for 15%–25% of total U.S. e-commerce, according to Bain & Company — an indication that businesses won’t truly be omnichannel unless they have incorporated agentic shopping experiences. 

Continue reading this article on digiday.com. Sign up for Digiday newsletters to get the latest on media, marketing and the future of TV.

,Read More