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Share on XFrom decoding consumer intent to redefining trust in the AI era, this year’s Cannes Lions Festival made one thing clear: advertisers are navigating more signals, faster than ever before. But with speed comes the opportunity to act with more intelligence for better outcomes.
IAS was proud to host and join conversations around unifying data signals, ethical AI, adaptive leadership, and so much more. Here are a few of our top highlights from the Croisette.
Breakfast Keynote: AI, Signals, and the Future of Advertising
IAS COO Marc Grabowski kicked off WPP’s Cannes Lions 2025 presence with an opening keynote, setting the tone for a week centered around context and connection.
The keynote touched on the connection between brands and sports fans and why it’s essential for brands to interact with passionate audiences authentically and in the right environments. Grabowski explained that in a fragmented media landscape, using AI-driven super signal aggregators to understand and unify signals at scale enables brands to meet fans in the right context, with opportunities for deeper fan engagement across screens and platforms.
From Signal to Scale: Driving Business Transformation Through AI & Data
With IAS, Paypal, and Adweek
AI is no longer a future-facing concept—it’s already reshaping how advertisers operate at scale. In a panel co-hosted with Adweek and Paypal, IAS CEO Lisa Utzschneider opened with a clear picture of just how far the technology has come.
“Three years ago, we were classifying one year of video data a day,” she explained. “And today, we classify 40 years of video data every single day.”
Utzschneider explained how that acceleration has fundamentally transformed how IAS delivers media quality at scale and emphasized that AI powers the majority of IAS’s products, including multilingual capabilities that classify TikTok content across 90 languages.
She also emphasized the dual role IAS plays in the ecosystem: “At IAS, we’re in the business of trust,” Utzschneider said. “As a third-party verification company, the brands and publishers deeply trust us and our ability to help them find quality media to drive higher ROI. We’re processing over 280 billion web events every single day.”
Reading the Signal: Decoding Sports Fans Across Every Screen
With IAS, NBA, Lenovo, Assembly Global, and Joakim Noah
“Signals are so disparate, and being able to make sense of the noise is crucial” is how Marc Grabowski, COO of IAS, opened the conversation at Stagwell Beach—and it set the tone for an energizing panel on authenticity, fan engagement, and the evolving role of signal-based media buying.
Joined by Ajit Sivadasan (Lenovo), George Aivazoglou (NBA), Rick Acampora (Assembly Global), and NBA champion Joakim Noah, the group explored how sports brands and players are meeting fans where they are—across screens, formats, and global moments.
As fan attention remains invaluable, contextual intelligence is the key to connecting authentically—and confidently—at scale.
Signal vs. Static: Standing Out in CTV
With Publica by IAS, PMG, and Philo
The CTV landscape is exploding with content and inventory, but a key challenge buyers face is separating premium content from the noise.
In this panel, Publica by IAS’s Cameron Miille and Kristen Corey joined Mike Treon (PMG) and Reed Barker (Philo) to discuss key ways for buyers to reach what they are truly looking for: granular data, brand-safe environments, and signals of premium value for true CTV success in 2025 and beyond.
Performance and Brand Equity in the New Media Landscape
With IAS, AXA, BNP PARIBAS, and Mediaplus France
As the digital media environment grows more complex, brands are rethinking what performance actually looks like. In this session, IAS’s Clement Bascoulergue led a conversation on how brand equity and contextual alignment are increasingly tied to outcomes—not just brand protection.
Speakers Marine Gissy (AXA), Chrystelle Edeline (BNP PARIBAS), and Serge Njimefo (Mediaplus France) shared how investing in suitable environments and transparent metrics is proving to be a long-term brand builder. The conversation also touched on how consumers are more likely to engage with brands that show up in environments they trust—and how signal-based suitability can bridge the gap between performance marketing and brand reputation.
The Adaptive Leader: Navigating an Era of Perpetual Disruption
With IAS, LG Ads, JPMorgan Chase, Proximic by Comscore, TripleLift, and Microsoft Advertising
Change is the new constant. In this leadership-focused session, IAS CPO Srishti Gupta and executive panelists Katherine Yager (LG Ads), Tracy-Ann Lim (JPMorgan Chase), Angela Rodriguez (Proximic by Comscore), Toccara Baker (TripleLift), and Kya Sainsbury-Carter (Microsoft Advertising) explored what it takes to build resilient, responsive marketing organizations in an age of AI, automation, and evolving consumer expectations.
The discussion highlighted how leaders are building flexibility into their strategies—from agile measurement models to real-time brand safety systems. The takeaway? Leadership today requires the ability to interpret fast-moving signals, adapt with confidence, and prioritize long-term trust alongside short-term results.
Bias at the Speed of Light: Building Inclusive AI for the Future of Media
With IAS, WPP, and XStereotype
As 90% of the internet may be AI-generated by next year, brands face a new challenge: building AI that performs not only accurately, but ethically. In a standout session on inclusivity in AI, IAS CPO Srishti Gupta spoke with Larry Adams (XStereotype), LJ Louis (WPP), and Dr. Daniel Hulme (WPP) on whether automation is amplifying bias—or opening new pathways to fairness.
From Louis’s insights on identity signals beyond demographics to Adams’s push to move beyond “diversity optics,” the message was clear: inclusive design must be intentional, continuous, and built into the foundation of how AI systems make decisions.
Top 3 Cannes Takeaways
The conversations at Cannes Lions 2025 underscored how much the digital media space is shifting—and how brands can rise to meet the moment.
1. AI isn’t the future: it’s the foundation.
AI is no longer a buzzword. It’s real, tangible, and everywhere. Businesses are leaning into AI in a big way by bringing new products to market that accelerate content creation. But despite these strides, there’s still debate about the impact of AI on human creativity and whether or not it supercharges brand identity or dilutes it.
2. Brand safety is a necessity.
With marketers managing campaigns across more platforms, formats, and geographies than ever before, brand safety is no longer just a checklist—it’s a strategic imperative. Add the exponential growth of user-generated content and the creator economy, and it’s clear that context is crucial.
3. Keywords are antiquated.
Marketers want deep, AI-powered content classification that sees beyond the surface and across the live feeds of highly dynamic environments, giving them advanced measurement at the post-bid level and huge opportunities to optimize before the bid. This kind of transparency isn’t just useful—it’s essential.
We hope to connect with you in Cannes next year!
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