June 20 2023 - Cannes Do It

👋Happy Tuesday all. Outside of Cannes news, another light day. No fuss, let's get into it –

Grand Prix Winners

• Uncommon’s ‘A British Original’ for British Airways wins Outdoor Grand Prix
• Lebanon’s AnNahar newspaper wins Print Grand Prix at Cannes for second straight year
• Working With Cancer Pledge’ by Publicis wins Cannes Health Grand Prix for Good
• Partners Life’s crime drama campaign wins Health and Wellness Grand Prix
• Dentsu Creative’s ‘Scrolling Therapy’ for Eurofarma wins Pharma Grand Prix
• New Zealand telecom provider Skinny’s guerilla radio campaign wins Radio & Audio Grand Prix

• According to a report by PwC, the total revenue from video games and esports in the U.S. was $54.1 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach $72.0 billion by 2027, with a compound annual growth rate of 5.9%. Traditional games now account for only 26.7% of the total revenue, while social and casual gaming sectors are rapidly growing. Factors driving the growth include the maturity of the gaming industry, increased advertising revenue, cross-platform experiences, deeper content, and bundling strategies. The report also highlights the dominance of mobile gaming, the decline of physical game sales, and the rise of gaming subscription services. Furthermore, the esports sector is expected to grow, particularly in media rights revenue.

• A study conducted by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) reveals that the programmatic media ecosystem suffers from significant waste, amounting to as much as $20 billion. The report places much of the blame on advertisers, stating that they prioritize cost over value and fail to properly manage their investments in programmatic advertising. It highlights the presence of "made for advertising" websites, which account for 15% of the programmatic web market and often feature low-quality content, fake news, and intrusive ad formats. The study also emphasizes the lack of data rights in buying contracts, leading to overpayment for inventory. The report recommends that advertisers take a more active role in managing their media investments, establish direct data access contracts with supply partners, prioritize viewable and brand-safe programmatic buys, and eliminate low-quality websites. The second phase of the report will explore the programmatic media supply chain in more depth, addressing topics such as cost analysis, ad quality, and transparency.
• Xbox Game Studios head, Matt Booty, believes that the audience for AR and VR gaming is not yet large enough to warrant the development of an Xbox headset. Booty stated that Xbox games need around 10 million players to be considered successful, and currently, the audience for AR and VR is "not quite there yet." This aligns with previous statements from Xbox boss Phil Spencer, who emphasized Xbox's focus on the software side of AR and VR. While Xbox has collaborated with other companies and allowed streaming of 2D games to VR headsets, they have not committed fully to VR development. Additionally, Booty mentioned that cloud gaming is still a small market, and Xbox is not currently building anything specific for it, but they recognize the need to stay involved with the technology.
• Meta AI has introduced Voicebox, a generative AI model for speech that demonstrates state-of-the-art performance in generalizing across speech-generation tasks. Unlike previous models that required specific training for each task, Voicebox can synthesize speech in various styles, modify existing samples, and generate new content. Voicebox is based on the Flow Matching method, enabling it to learn from raw audio and transcripts, resulting in more diverse and natural-sounding speech. It can be used for tasks such as text-to-speech synthesis, cross-lingual style transfer, speech denoising and editing, and diverse speech sampling. While the model and code are not publicly available due to potential misuse, audio samples and a research paper detailing the approach and results have been shared.

• PepsiCo launched Starry, a new lemon-lime beverage aimed at capturing the attention of Gen Z, now has a new social media strategy focusing on TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram. Michael Smith, senior director of Starry brand marketing, said, "On each platform, we’re able to activate in highly creative and irreverent ways, engaging authenticity with our fans." The brand collaborates with influencers and has utilized digital out-of-home ads during NBA events to target basketball fans. The rebranding from Sierra Mist to Starry reflects the broader shifts in appealing to a Gen Z audience, emphasizing vitality and authenticity.
• Magna, the forecasting unit of IPG Mediabrands, has revised its advertising growth outlook downward for both the U.S. and worldwide in 2023. The U.S. growth forecast was adjusted to 2.5% from the previous estimate of 3.4%, while the global ad-growth forecast was lowered to 4.6% from 4.8%. The slowdown in advertising spending during the first quarter of 2023 and economic uncertainty were cited as contributing factors. Traditional media formats and mature markets are expected to face challenges, but innovation in cross-platform capabilities and brand-safe addressable solutions is helping to attract brands.
• Pixar's latest film, "Elemental," had a disappointing opening at the box office, earning only $29.5 million, the worst in the studio's history. This follows the underperformance of last year's "Lightyear," raising concerns about the health of the Pixar brand. Additionally, there are worries about Pixar's creative spark, as the studio has experienced layoffs and expanded into television production.

• Sir Martin Sorrell and HP’s Tara Agen on the power and influence of AI on the Digiday Podcast at Cannes
• 'The Flash' disappoints at the box office on debut
• TBWA\Media Arts Lab Elevates Lucia Orlandi to Executive Creative Director
• Messi Making Inter Miami Debut On July 21
• ChatGPT & Bard produce free Windows 11 keys
• Why Brands That Deliver Excitement Outperform
• TikTok and Cost Cuts at Cannes
• AI May Eliminate Some Jobs, OpenAI Executive Says
• The Best AI Apps to Try Now

How AI Has the Advertising Business Excited – and Worried

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