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10 minutes of expert insights every weekday. Your morning ritual for staying ahead in retail media.
Cannes Day 3 - LL, KM, CL
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[00:00:00] well, the Cannes Festival of Creativity is officially over for 2025, but everyone traveling home over the weekend is probably still writing up their notes now during the event, I was lucky to catch up at the end of each day with my friend and head of the Digital Shelf Institute, Lauren Livak, as well as fellow retail media industry commentator Colin Lewis to process the Rapid Fire Insights and spot some patterns that might otherwise get lost in the can chaos.
[00:00:37] So today I'm sharing a recap that Lauren. Colin and I recorded on Wednesday of last week covering everything from B2B retail media to the Ad Tech sophistication gap. Now, I want to point out that this recording is actually part of Lauren's podcast called The Unpacking the Digital Shelf [00:01:00] Podcast, and I suggest if you enjoy this conversation, she's running a recap of all of our conversations from the week over on that show.
[00:01:08] So certainly go and check out. Unpacking the digital shelf. Now let's listen into our conversation.
[00:01:16]
[00:01:18] Lauren Livak: Hello everyone. Day three of Cannes. We made it. We're halfway through. I'm Lauren.
[00:01:24] Colin Lewis: I'm Colin.
[00:01:25] Lauren Livak: I'm Kiri, and we are here to give you our recap for what we learned today. All right. Kiri, you wanna kick us off?
[00:01:31] Kiri Masters: Yeah. So we were all at in in attendance at the Miracle Cabana today, and there were two research reports that were shared.
[00:01:39] One from BCG, Daniel, Daniel, Gus, Gus. Uh, you got that right when you introduced him. I couldn't believe him. Difficult
[00:01:47] Colin Lewis: pronunciation correct. For once.
[00:01:49] Kiri Masters: Well done. So, um, from BCG, he presented six questions for scaling retail media outside the us. So I'll just share two takeaways from this. Um, [00:02:00] the top sided reason for retailers to invest in retail media was to tap into net new funds, particularly from the brand budget.
[00:02:07] So, you know, a lot of the criticism of retail media is that it comes, it's, oh, it's just shopper marketing, or it's just trade marketing moving over, and retailers already understand that to be successful, they can't just be robbing Peter to pay Paul. They need. Be tapping into that brand budget. And one thing I thought was really interesting from BCGs proposed solutions here is to actually have within your retail media sales team, a team or I guess at least one person that deals with brand marketing, someone who speaks that language.
[00:02:40] And this is something that I've heard from, uh, from the industry is that, you know, within retail media network teams. Not everyone has a a media sales background and especially not really a brand marketing background, so you really need someone who's able to talk that [00:03:00] talk
[00:03:00] Lauren Livak: to translate between the teams so that you're making sure you're going towards the same end goal.
[00:03:04] Colin Lewis: It's the single biggest problem I see when I'm talking to retailers. They don't realize they're in the media business and then the people they're talking to don't realize they're in the marketing business. Yeah.
[00:03:12] Lauren Livak: Yeah. And I really loved what he, he was talking about roles and org structures and how you have to have the right structure to communicate on the brand side and the retailer side.
[00:03:21] I'm super passionate about that and I love that you've done a lot of content on that. You've done a lot of research around that, and it really makes a lot of sense. Right? You need to, to your point, ki you need to interpret and translate, but you also have to know who owns the budget. Yeah. You need to know who owns the decision.
[00:03:35] Yeah. And you have to have. Both parties come to the table on the retailer and the brand side to do that together.
[00:03:39] Kiri Masters: You know, I see a lot of people move over from a, you know, they, they run a RMN or they're in a senior role at an RMN. They're moving to the tech side because the tech vendors understand, okay, to sell our technology to retailers, we need someone who used to be at a retailer.
[00:03:59] [00:04:00] Retailers need to understand, oh, to sell media, we need someone who has. Been, uh, in, in, in media and bought and sold media in the past. So I, I don't know. I think we are gonna get there eventually.
[00:04:11] Lauren Livak: The other thing I really liked about that talk was he talked a lot about collaborations and partnerships, and that's a big theme for me at can this year, right?
[00:04:17] Like, we're all here retailers, brands, agencies, tech providers, like we all need to work together to collaborate. And you talked a lot about that as success for retail media. What do you think, Colin?
[00:04:28] Colin Lewis: Uh, collaboration can mean multitude of things, and I always say when we're talking about collaboration, we need to be much more specific about what that is because your version of what collaboration is different to my version.
[00:04:38] So I always think it like roads and responsibilities, races, being quite specific on that, but also realizing that that particular approach may be useful for this year, but it may change again for next year. I'm building in the flex business. Flexibility is obviously difficult for the individual because they're, you know, it's their job and you're saying, oh no, you need to be flexible.
[00:04:56] Lemme who wants to hear that? So it's a very interesting world, uh, I found [00:05:00]
[00:05:00] Lauren Livak: Colin, what were your takeaways today?
[00:05:02] Colin Lewis: Um, well I had two big, um, three big things happen to me today, but one was, I had a long. Well, I was gonna say coffee. It was an ice cold coffee with Steam de Deman, who's the head of Amazon advertising in Europe, who is a really great guy with the very exotic Belgian name.
[00:05:18] So we just call him Steam and uh, he, uh, is a great guy. And we were discussing ad tech and detail. They need a great insight. He said, you know what? Marketing directors are going to need to understand ad tech. And this guy's got an amazing background. And he said, I'm pretty good, but even today he says, I was at some meetings and I got schooled myself.
[00:05:36] So marketers need to understand ad tech and how it's. Look together. The second big thing I did was, um, I went to the Nectar 360, uh, summit, which was fantastic, like a huge step on last year, which was a huge step up in the previous year. Um, and they launched Nectar 360 pollen and it is something that's very close to my heart.
[00:05:56] So it's basically a combination of [00:06:00] audience insights, media planning, activation, optimization, and me measurement in one single platform. And you can do it in onsite, offsite, in store. So regular readers of my content will know that I talk about the likes of Amazon Marketing Cloud. Insights Walmart's into a a, an detail.
[00:06:17] 'cause when I talk to people, they don't really get what's going on. And actually, when I see what nectar I've just done with pollen, it's basically a, a thing that joins everything up that enables you to get insights, activate campaigns and everything, and roll in AI into it. That is the feature.
[00:06:32] Everybody's gonna have to have one of these, regardless.
[00:06:36] Kiri Masters: Oh,
[00:06:36] Colin Lewis: and the other thing I did was, uh, went down to uh, just meet Joe, who's the head of Lowe's, um, from the Lowe's marketplace as well, and Joe Cano and uh, he's just speaking right now. Very, very interesting what Lowe's are doing. 'cause they're building, uh, sorry, uh, DIY, uh, business in the us, the second largest after Home Depot.
[00:06:58] And when you hear what they've been doing with [00:07:00] marketplaces and how that scale their business and how they've been using that, particularly in B2B trade. That was the interesting thing. Oh, that's interesting. Because you're like, okay, yeah, consumer, you know? No, no. Tapping into the tradies, as they say in Australia and tapping into their needs through an app, online delivery.
[00:07:18] You're like, okay, I see that. That's gonna be amazing. And then layering retail media over that as well. But in the B2B context, very interesting.
[00:07:25] Lauren Livak: I think that's a great point. There's been more B2B this year than last year. Would you agree? Ooh,
[00:07:29] Colin Lewis: yeah, for sure. Yeah, it's been, you can see the maturity, the conversations that we are having here now.
[00:07:35] You are, they're very different to last year because people kind of know, I know what this is, and now there's another layer and another layer to add in the whole time.
[00:07:43] Lauren Livak: Agreed. The other thing, Kiri and I were able to sit and watch Andy chassis,
[00:07:48] Colin Lewis: the creative of the year. Yeah.
[00:07:49] Kiri Masters: Media man. Media, I'm sorry, media person.
[00:07:51] The year, that was a, that was a mistake on my side when I first mentioned it. Other day, media person of the year.
[00:07:57] Lauren Livak: Yeah. So we heard him speak, but one of the things we [00:08:00] both loved that he said is speed is a leadership decision. So he was talking about being able to fail and test and learn and move quickly and be able to help your consumers and move faster.
[00:08:12] And that really struck both of us. Ki and I looked at each other because that's, you were running,
[00:08:15] Colin Lewis: you were running through the auditorium at the same time, huh?
[00:08:18] Lauren Livak: Yes. We were running to our next meeting at Cam. No, because. That's a huge message for both the retailers who have to, who are moving a bit slowly sometimes to get to where they need to go, and also brands who take a long time to make change because they're bigger and larger and they need to be more comfortable with failure and test and learn.
[00:08:34] So that really struck me, right?
[00:08:35] Kiri Masters: If Amazon at its scale can do it, can do that, then yeah. So it is a decision.
[00:08:42] Colin Lewis: Talking to Ste a couple of months ago. The guy we met, I met today from Amazon advertising. He had a very interesting insight. I said, Ste, is this like, is this working in Amazon? Is that really like a high stress, feels like a high stress thing looking into the outset?
[00:08:54] And he said, no, no. We have a very sort of rational approach to the world. You've got your set of KPIs and you deliver [00:09:00] around your KPIs, not outside of the KPIs. And you're like, right, okay. And he said, yeah. So it's actually, yeah, it's, you work hard, it's high pressure, but it's not, you know, what do I do next here?
[00:09:10] So they have a very rational approach, which, you know, when you think about this leadership thing. On how they approach, um, the, the way of communication, which you've got to write things down. You can't do a PowerPoint. It's a very rational approach. So you can see why they're winning.
[00:09:25] Lauren Livak: Yeah, I agree. And they have a, uh, no bureaucracy email address that they created where people could email in and they could say, at Amazon, they could say like, where was their bureaucracy?
[00:09:34] And they changed over 400 different processes because of that. So they're really like very focused on being able to be efficient and move with speed.
[00:09:43] Colin Lewis: Cool.
[00:09:43] Lauren Livak: And then last thing I feel like I have to mention, Kiri spoke on a panel today at the Women of Retail Media Collective, and it was awesome and there were a bunch of amazing female leaders, but one of the things that I really loved that someone said is lean into what differentiates you.
[00:09:57] And I feel like that is a theme. For the [00:10:00] future with AI too, right? Because you need to lean into what value you bring outside of tech, the connections you bring, who you are as a human. And I just really loved that and I thought that would be a good one to bring up.
[00:10:11] Kiri Masters: That's a great one. And I think it, it also applies to.
[00:10:15] Retailers and brands as well. Yeah. And particularly what, you know, I I see with the retailers and the way that they're building their RMNs is le yeah. Leaning into what makes you different, your audience, what the USP you have for the, for your advertising partners. Um, I think it's a great, great takeaway and using creativity to be
[00:10:39] Lauren Livak: able to do that.
[00:10:40] Go ahead, Colin.
[00:10:41] Colin Lewis: One of the things that I get asked to do coaching every now and then, uh. And the line I used, which I learned from somebody who coached me, was this line is, what did you come from the factory with? So for the individuals out there, it's like, what? What's the thing you're naturally good at that you find kind of easy that everybody else kind of finds hard?
[00:10:59] So the [00:11:00] line i'd, I'd leave you all with. Is like, you know, if you're talking about uniqueness and you're talking about all this other thing, a very simple question to ask yourself is, what's the thing you find easy to do that everybody else finds hard? What? You know, this team here we find speaking and talking like this.
[00:11:14] Reasonably straightforward. Lots of people don't, so what did you come from the factory and work on that.
[00:11:20] Lauren Livak: I love that. Great, great way to close. All right, can day three? We will be back tomorrow for day four.