“It's funny how all of us treated Cannes as if it were training to be a Navy Seal or hiking death valley. C'mon people-- chatting about media and marketing while on yachts and plying each other with pink wine, free tote bags and finger foods does not exactly equal the Trail of Tears.” - Ross Siegel, MediaLink

Somewhere along the way, Cannes Lions went from a festival of creativity for the people who make ads into an Vegas-like conference for those that sell, distribute, measure and programmatically arbitrage them.

Almost all of those companies push out a piece of news the week before or during Cannes; each emanating a sound heard within respective echo-chambers. All of it is slathered in performance jargon and captures a fraction of mindshare.

Then, there is big news everyone hears and most need time to comprehend and decipher how much it will impact the market. This year, perhaps fittingly, the biggest news in advertising came from the companies that sell the most products; Amazon and Walmart.

Most people heard about Amazon ads deals with Roku and Disney that tie up inventory and big, rich, authenticated data. But how integrated and what it actually changes is TBD.

Roku, especially needed that lifeline because of the other big (if unsurprising) news, from Walmart, that its Onn TV brands, AKA, the biggest source of Roku’s OS reach, will soon be all powered by VIZIO’s OS.

What this exactly means for shoppable media, for networks driving tune in, for customers that want more from the biggest screen in the house is also, TBD. In case you’re wondering, below is the TV device market in North America.

Meantime, stay tuned this summer as we roll out many of the conversations we recorded in Cannes.

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