AI, meet ROI. MiQ Sigma is designed to unify your data, media, and audiences in one AI-powered advertising platform. Get deeper insights + better control.
Happy Friday, and long time, no see! It’s the last day of the festival, and we’ve still got a lot of ground to cover—much like anyone who had back-to-back engagements on opposite sides of the Croisette.
On Thursday, I left my Mercedes hat at home and headed back to Sport Beach to see McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown, and CMO Louise McEwen speak about building the McLaren brand on and off the track. It was an interesting discussion, especially given that McLaren is among the oldest and most historic teams on the grid, but went 26 years without winning a Constructors’ Championship before ending the streak last year.
Of course, I couldn’t end the week without talking about women’s sports, so I had lunch with Stagwell brand consultancy Redscout’s CEO Ivan Kayser and CMO Ashley Shaffer to talk about their work with teams including Seattle Reign FC. I also sat down with Stephanie Martin, the chief marketing and communications officer of League One Volleyball (LOVB), and Rosie Spaulding, president of LOVB’s pro division.
LOVB announced a new ownership group for its Austin team this week that includes Spurs Sports & Entertainment, and Spaulding told me sponsorship interest has been strong. The pro league had 30 brands on board before it even played its first season this year, she said, with more to be announced—and, ideally, even more to come as a result of conversations in Cannes.
“Our fan base is female-forward, very digitally oriented,” Martin said, adding that “people really want to connect with” that kind of consumer.
Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t put off talking about AI any longer, and I discussed some of its potential use cases for gathering and implementing consumer data for personalization with Mark Abraham, North American leader for Boston Consulting Group’s marketing, sales, and pricing practice. Unsurprisingly, he noted that AI was a topic CEOs were expecting to learn more about throughout the week.
MVP(s) of the day: VaynerX, for cocktails and macarons to end Day 4, and the Female Quotient, for an inspiring sports panel featuring Olympic gymnast Jordan Chiles, US Women’s National Soccer Team head coach Emma Hayes, and F1 Academy driver Alisha Palmowski. I guess I was a little starstruck (or exhausted, or dehydrated, or all of the above), because I walked out of the Female Quotient’s event space without my laptop. Special shoutout to the FQ’s chief commercial officer (and former Morning Brewer) Jason Schulweis for the save.
Least valuable player: Me, again, for losing my laptop. I also made a few other rookie mistakes this week, including thinking I wouldn’t get blisters (I did, even in sneakers) and not packing enough clothes to allow myself 2–3 showers per day. Also, everyone who RSVPed to events you didn’t make it to…So, basically, all of us.
Make sure to keep reading Marketing Brew in the coming weeks for more stories about all the sports marketing talk that went down in the south of France. Now, time to do what I’ve been dreaming of since the beginning of the week and finally go for a swim.
Read the full article here
