A week at Cannes: Reflection on what moves our industry forward

Every June, Cannes Lions draws the world's advertising decision-makers to the south of France to strike partnerships and swap insights on how to navigate our rapidly evolving industry.

In past years, I've chosen to stack my schedule with panels, happy hours, and vendor meetings. This year, I wanted to be more intentional, so I — like many other leaders I spoke with during the week — focused on creating space for organic conversations to help move the needle for our business.

Here are a few themes that consistently surfaced in those conversations and resonated with me the most.

Surfacing undervalued audiences

At its core, Cannes has always been about helping brands understand and reach the right audiences, and many of the most meaningful conversations I had this year centered on that challenge.

One of my favorites from the week was with Elizabeth Lindsey, Global President, Brands & Properties at THE TEAM, a global sports, music, and entertainment company, on how female sports fans are a massive missed opportunity for marketers. She noted that while 72% of women are avid sports fans, only 4% feel like brands really get them. Moreover, brands that market to fans of women's sports typically treat the audience as a monolith rather than capitalizing on their varied identities as parents of young athletes, community leaders, and corporate decision makers.

As more varieties of sports become available on streaming services like Xumo Play — from the Professional Women's Hockey League, to tennis, lacrosse and soccer — brands have a unique opportunity to connect with this passionate and economically influential fan base in ways they couldn't before.

Female sports fans are just one of the many types of unique audiences that brands can reach through Xumo. And with our announcement of expanded contextual signals in FAST, marketers will be able to reach them in the highest engaged moments.

 

Simplifying the demand path

As a publisher with premium inventory, the monetization landscape has never offered more optionality. With our own sales team in market, it's crucial that we work with complementary demand partners who can extend our reach into areas where they have more differentiated expertise.

This year, the DSPs (demand side platforms) led much of that conversation — leaning into direct partnerships with publishers and creating opportunities to go to market together in more integrated ways. Many DSPs are also evolving to specialize in more complex areas like pharma or leveraging unique data assets to drive more targeted outcomes.

For publishers, this expanded ecosystem unlocks exciting new ways to collaborate. And with the support of agentic tools like Swivel, we're better equipped to grow the value of these partnerships, freeing our teams to focus on what we do best: building new relationships.

FAST is having a moment

While FAST has been around for over a decade, it's experiencing a meaningful resurgence right now, driven by growing audiences and higher quality content appearing on FAST services including Xumo Play. Agencies are taking notice, developing dedicated FAST strategies for their clients and assembling curated marketplaces designed to better access this expanding inventory.

Across many of our conversations, including those captured in an Ad Age video series, a consistent theme emerged: FAST has evolved well beyond the "long tail" perception that once defined it. Today, it stands as a primary destination for viewers, offering original programming, live sports — and culturally relevant moments, including the World Cup matches Xumo carried in June. Most importantly, audiences are actively choosing FAST versus passively discovering it.

What makes FAST compelling right now is its performance. It delivers highly engaged audiences and strong ROI, all while maintaining an attractive price point.

As we summed it up in the Ad Age series: FAST truly delivers more for less.