video intelligence (vi) CEO and Co-Founder, Kai Henniges Chats About Key Themes for Adtech from the Cannes Lions 2018

Video is turning into a solid tech stack for modern B2B marketing teams that are willing to invest more in delivering relevant experiences in shorter time. Cannes Lions: The International Festival of Creativity demonstrated why marketers rely so much on video technologies to drive their revenue.

Video Is Ubiquitous, It’s Always On, and Ever-Present.

At the event, we spoke to video intelligence’s Co-founder and CEO, Kai Henniges.

Kai shared:

Adtech at Cannes 2018

Whilst it’s true that there were fewer ostentatious displays of excess than usual at this year’s festival, this doesn’t tell the whole story for those in adtech. Vendors, publishers, and platforms were certainly in attendance, but business was being done in private, more intimate settings away from the Croisette.

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The advertising technology sector could do itself a favor by being less aggressive in its branding, and integrate itself with the other elements of the festival. Whilst on the adtech yachts champagne was being (quite literally) sprayed, elsewhere I spoke with photographers, producers, and creative teams. They were all mingling.

Now adtech has established itself as part of the festival, it needs to be more open to the other areas of the industry, and might just find that there are lessons to be learned, and business opportunities too. We should treat Cannes as an opportunity to integrate into the wider media and advertising industry, that’s where the future lies.

It will be interesting to see how the approach to more focused events that convert will translate to Dmexco in three months time. From what I hear, that will be a quieter event too, and maybe that’s no bad thing.

The First Post-GDPR Cannes: A Summarized Month of Disruption

Cannes took place in the immediate aftermath of GDPR, too soon to fully know the effects. It’s clear though that this is just the beginning; ePrivacy will arrive next year and force another re-assessment. Many agree that by treating audiences with more respect we’ll build a better advertising ecosystem for everyone.

GDPR (along with adblocking, banner blindness, and general distrust) is a symptom of us forgetting about user experience. Advertisers and publishers alike should be thinking from an internet user’s perspective and look to enhance their journey – not interrupt it.

Meanwhile, publishers are maturing; alliances are forming everywhere as publishers realize that the real competition is the big tech platforms and not each other. Companies like ourselves must take the lead in demonstrating that our products provide value, and improve the user experience.

GDPR was forced to exist because of short-termism, let’s work with publishers in the long-term, and look at how video can be used to enhance the online experience for users.

Context Is Everything. The vi Takeaway

For vi, Cannes is more about listening than anything else. We spend the time with publishers, hearing out their vision for the future. Cannes is really a huge dialogue on a wide range of issues.

Too often technology is in-your-face and aggressive, but we’d rather talk about our success in the context of the wider industry. After all, we believe context is everything. The presence of so many companies from Europe at Cannes shows that it’s still the best place for this dialogue to happen.

Video advertising continues to grow, with announcements from Instagram and YouTube Premium proving it aptly. These platforms create the right environment for video, and our product, vi stories, also adhere to this mindset. We think about the way your message is received, rather than just getting it there.

The publishers we talked to in Cannes are convinced that contextually matched content works as the source of their video inventory. The video intelligence technology is now there to enable automated matching of video to text, so it’s clear the time for contextual video is now.

2018 Trends: Brand Safety, User Experience, and Targeting

We’re entering a phase where video is ubiquitous; it’s always on, and ever-present.

If we look ahead we can see that user-created and live-streaming video continues to grow. All the social media platforms see that very clearly. The new product offerings reduce barriers to creating and sharing video.

For advertisers, that creates new opportunities to reach the audience, but we’ll need to agree on the value of these new formats, as well as tackle the inevitable brand safety challenges. We’ve seen this conversation take place around influencers, but bit-by-bit, we’re all becoming creators.

Context remains at the core of the conversation, affecting brand safety, user experience, and targeting. Based on the discussions we had in the south of France, expect contextual content delivery to grow, and contextual targeting to surge.

Thank you, Kai, for sharing valuable insights from Cannes Lions 2018!