Ad tech already came for media agencies; now it is coming for creative agencies.
At the Cannes Lions festival in France this week, where the AdExchanger team recorded our podcast, agencies and platforms contemplated a future in which generative AI is part of the creative process. Major platforms, from Google to Amazon to Yahoo, are adding generative AI to their media buying tools. Should creatives approach generative AI as an opportunity? Is it a technology they must master to survive?
For now, most generative AI applications showcased across the Croisette and in the Palais focused on simple but powerful automations, like resizing a creative, replacing the background in a product photo or spitting out multiple variations of an ad. But generative AI is going to improve. Opinions only differ about how much of the creative process AI could automate, speed up or replace.
After recapping the mood around generative AI, managing editor Allison Schiff shares how the conversation flowed around retail media. As new entrants like United Airlines, PayPal, Expedia and Chase spin up their own solutions, retail media is getting more crowded than a beachfront Cannes party. Plus, no amount of rosé could make people in ad tech forget the looming cookie deadline. Schiff shares why its constant delay has given rise to cocktail party conspiracy theories.
