Data + Privacy

For marketers today, the traditional playbook isn’t cutting it anymore. Clients expect marketers to deliver hard business outcomes – and fast. With AI reshaping creative and media workflows, finance teams slashing “nonessential” spend and boards demanding accountability, the role of a marketer has morphed from a brand steward to a growth operator. Holding companies are […]

YouTube accounts are uploading recent Hollywood movies, racking up views while advertisers (and sometimes creators) remain in the dark. Plus: Could Cloudflare’s AI bot blockers provide a salve for digital media’s traffic declines?

For much of the digital advertising era, the industry has raced to the bottom on price and quality. But in the past five years, more advertisers have been explicitly incorporating media quality into their measurement and buying practices. As buyers increasingly prove that high-quality media delivers better value, even at premium prices, the market for […]

Enterprise B2B marketers are now emphasizing revenue-focused KPIs over vanity metrics such as clickthrough rates and lead volume, according to a study from B2B marketing specialist 2X and management consultancy Avasant.

We sat down with McKinsey & Co. partner Robert Tas to discuss the report findings, reasons for the CMO-CEO disconnect, how successful companies are handling customer growth and the biggest lessons for CMOs moving forward.

Programmatic advertising is experiencing a dramatic shift. Conversational and agentic AI are here, and their effects are already being felt.  Microsoft announced the shuttering of its DSP in May, stating that the current DSP model no longer aligns with its AI-powered priorities.  As ad tech barrels toward automation, companies of all sizes along the supply […]

Early last Wednesday evening, I found myself in a closed courtyard off the Croisette in Cannes at an exclusive event co-hosted by a publisher and a tech company. Who am I and why was I there? I’m just a dude with a passion for interesting tech accompanying my girlfriend as she navigates her industry’s largest […]

The FTC approved the Omnicom-IPG merger, but with a brand-safety caveat: The agencies cannot create agency-level blocklists of any media that’s political or ideological. With Ad Fontes CEO Vanessa Otero, we unpack the consent order’s ramifications.

In 2025, the Cannes Lions festival entered its third era of creativity.   The first era focused on the creative itself: the work that inspires consumers to change their behavior. Then media entered the mix, and the creativity tent grew to include how publishers, platforms and brands cultivate consumer engagement. This year, it was clear that […]

From Cannes Lions, our editorial team discusses the mix of perspectives on the ad industry’s application of AI: the opportunity, the hesitation and the predictions of how it will disrupt marketing.