June 2023

Cannes Today -- Twitter and Meta make pitches | Ad Age Special Report June 2023

June 20, 2023

Cannes Today — Twitter and Meta make pitches, Omnicom hooks up with Google AI and Grand Prix latest

By E.J. Schultz

Welcome to Day Two of Ad Age’s Cannes Today newsletter. For real-time updates, follow our live blog. And see all our coverage here. Plus, click here for a recap of Day One.

Twitter is beachless but bullish and Meta hearts AI

Twitter gave up its beach and new CEO Linda Yaccarino is not in the south of France; she is apparently sipping cold beverages elsewhere. But the platform owned by Elon Musk still sent some ad sales folks to Cannes where they are trying to convince advertisers the company cares about brand safety, Ad Age’s Garrett Sloane reports.

Twitter today announced it is talking with ad viewability and verification firm Zefr. Meantime, Chris Riedy, Twitter’s head of ad sales, tweeted that more than 75% of 2022’s Top 100 advertisers have returned to paid media on Twitter.” And Tim Perzyk, VP of marketing and research at Twitter, used the platform to solicit Cannes gatherings, saying, If you’re not already meeting with us, give us a shout.”

Twitter competitor Meta — which does have a beach — is plugging its brand safety tools as a strength, while also touting plans to serve more ads into Reels. And the Facebook owner is talking a lot about AI, like just about everyone else. Get all the details of Meta’s Cannes sales pitch here.

NBCU’s new global play

Yaccarino’s former company, NBCUniversal, tried to gain some of its own Cannes buzz by announcing a global expansion of its One Platform, which in partnership with Comcast sibling FreeWheel will now allow brands to manage global linear and connected TV campaigns in a single buy across markets in Europe, Asia, Australia and the Americas. Ad Age’s Jack Neff got the details on the strategy from NBCU President and Chief Business Officer Krishan Bhatia, who positioned it as a way to appeal to growing demand from brands to manage media planning and buying with greater scale across regions.

Read More in Ad Age: https://​link​.adage​.com/​v​i​ew/5f…

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