Cannes Lions Preview with MediaLink's Michael Kassan

is at the center of the room. Michael Casson is the CEO of Media Link Company, dedicated to connecting the major players in the space for dealmaking and more. Thanks for coming in. This is why it's always great to connect with you, because you've seen it, over seen it all over decades in this business. But I'm curious, as you head into can what do you think is going to be sort of foremost on the minds of marketers and media industry people. So, Andrew, it's great to join

you today. UM. The only thing I'd say to edit a bit of that lovely introduction. Thank you. Um. We look at it as marketing and media, but we also look at it as a broader base. We look at it as the intersection of marketing, media, advertising, entertainment and technology, and that's sort of the want of Media Link as a company. We we like to believe that we were fortunate enough to find that intersection. The Can Lions is really a manifestation of that. It's it's life imitating art.

It's the personification, if you will. It brings together marketing, media, advertising, entertainment and technology. And over the last few years there's been an addition. We see the investor community, We see the private equity players showing up there as well, in in larger numbers these days, because as they're looking at investments, they figure you might as well be where the action is. As I think, you know, because we've chatted about this before.

I'm a Hamilton's officionado. So we like to think of can as the room where it happens. Uh you know, the five blocks, if you will, on the clasette where it happens. But all those players are converging. I think, um this year, as usual, the center of the Can Lions festivals around creativity. That's the thread White people go there. And I think it's worthwhile to give a little bit of history of how they Can Lions started. That's what

it was originally. It was a festival to celebrate creativity, and so you have all the creative agencies there, the stock names that you know mcann, Ericson and B B d O and d dB and etcetera. Ogilvie m. About twenty years ago, I happened to be in the South of France on holiday. And it's a great story. It's kind of a Wizard of Ozmo. When I was sitting at the pool and I saw a bunch of people

from the advertising industry, from the creative side. And I was running a large media agency back then, and I said, in my Dorothy and the Wizard of oz mooment, I said, and you were there, and you were there, and you were there, like why are all these people here in South France? And they said to me, well, it's the can Lions and and you know, to put it in context, I was running the largest media agency in the world at the time and I said, oh, I've heard about that.

Because the media side was not included. It was strictly the creatives. And I said to my wife that day, I said, you know, honey, I'm gonna take a ride into can We went on tea, but I said I'm gonna take a ride into Can to see what this is about. And I walked around and I thought, what the hell the media people should be here, and so you know, I think I was mission. I made that my mission, bring the media people, because we pay for all this stuff. You know, the media buying was where

the money was. The creative was where Don Draper hung out and had three martinis for lunch. In Can it would be three roses, but um and so traditionally again it was creative. Then the media folks came, Then the clients came. And it was Procter and Gamble that was the first client to actually say, wait a minute, if our agencies are going there to see, create of and

share creative, we should be there. And like in most things, once Procter and Gamble did it and through the gauntlet down and un lever, it was obvious that the clients would all start coming. And then the digital media companies started coming, and it was Microsoft and Yahoo and Facebook and Google and you know, et cetera, and then everybody started coming. So that's the progression and the continuum of Can.

How it's played out, it's almost seems to me like it's kind of CS is the beginning of the year bringing together all these entities you've described, and then this is sort of the midpoint of the years bringing it again. And it's a forcing function. You know, so often you hear people say, well, do I really need to go to CAN or do I really need to go to c S. After all, I can see all those same people in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, l A. Sure you can see them, but you know, CAN or cees

those acts forcing functions. You're there and we've also seen and this was one of the things that media Link identified early. It's efficient when when you have in CAN five days seven days released Sunday to Saturday. Um, I'm not good at math. I think that's seven days, but um, you know you have a week where the entire convergence of all those industries come together and the senior players are there. There's efficiency in that you can see everybody within a span of you know, a couple of days,

within a couple of blocks. And similarly at CS and so for us it was efficiency on the one hand and the other hand, opportunistically, when you get all those people together, you can make stuff happen. I would imagine and I would imagine there's a lot to make happen at a time in the media business where I mean, let's not you know, overdo the cliche media business is

always in a state of flux. But right now, my god, I mean it's disruption intensity level like perhaps it's never been seen well using flux and trying to keep it clean. I'd say, that's got a flux. It's got a flexcapacitator. Wasn't that the back to the future, you know, Christopher Lloyd de flux capacitator. I want to see if I can say that fast five times. I'm not going to try because I don't know where I'll end up, but

we'll have to edit it. But yes, and I think we're at a point in time in in in those convergent industries, the greatest amount of chaos I've ever seen in my career is happening now. And it's saying something because you have been around for decades and you've been through some tough period absolutely, and I think this is the highest degree of chaos I've ever seen. And and you know, sort of a cluster of everybody trying to figure out who's on first, and and and what the

what the priorities are. Last year, what we talked about and the year before was everything that revolved around words that begin with the letter T. Transparency. The issue around transparency and advertising has been a big issue, the issue around trust. There was a breakdown and trust between agency

and client and publisher. So you have another word that begins with T, techno oology and obviously the you know the importance of technology and rapid pace of change, and talent because so many industries there's abundance of talent and so many industries there's a dearth of talent. So at that intersection that you know, if you look at it as transparency, trust, technology, and talent, you see where I'm going. The coincidence of all those words beginning with T. I'd

say this year there's some other words. Their teas play a big part in it. And that was never my favorite letter of the alphabet, by the way that it seems lately to have you moved up in importance. And those words would be D T C or as the acronym for direct to consumer and O T T over the top. So a lot of teas showing up and this is not at the front of it, just not

at the front. But but I think if if I had to pick a topic that I think is on everyone's mind this year, it's understanding the psyche and understanding the methods and the differentiation for marketers as it relates to dealing with client average or marketing and advertising in the traditional sense using the gatekeepers and the networks and the cable and the platforms, or going to erect to the consumer. Now you still need help to do that. And I will get political for a moment and tell

you where I see such an interesting analogy. And I said this three years ago. I wish I'd have said it publicly. I said it privately. Um, My politics will be obvious in a moment, but perhaps, but I think our current president is the first president ever and maybe one of the greatest examples of three things that seem to be on the minds of media companies today, DT C, O, T, T and skinny bundles. Okay, I believe Donald J. Trump was elected president with a skinny bundle. It's the only

thing about him that's skinny. And that skinny bundle, in his case, wasn't five channels, it was three issues. He found the three issues that the consumer if you will the voters wanted and variation, immigration, security, jobs. That was it I did. He didn't bring us five channels, he brought us three. He brought it direct to the consumer, and he brought it over and he brought it over the top, on the back of Twitter, on the back

of social media. So I really think if you look at that as a framework for where the world is going today, it's a great I think. I mean that's so, but you know, I think it's a great way to make the point. That's what Disney has to deal with today. That's what Warner Media has to deal with today. That's what Netflix deals with. That's what Hulu deals with. Think about all the companies that Comcast, the Apple and Apple. You never forget Apple in a converse ation around dealing

director consumer. It's what Steve Jobs saw when he when he launched iTunes. I remember him saying what he realized was the ultimate customer wasn't back in the day for Music Tower Records or HMV or Virgin Megastore. It was Andrew Wallenstein or Michael Casson. He went direct. He said, you want that song, you don't want the whole album.

He understood a skinny Bundle and and and so if you look at that and you and you, you know, use politics as a as a backdrop, and you look at what's happening in the real world in terms of what Disney and Warner and Comcast and Apple and Netflix and Hulu, etcetera. Are dealing with. I think that gives you a good picture of why marketers are looking at the world now as two headed monsters brand building, warm and fuzzy commercials that build the brand and actually calls

to action in direct to consumer. Look at Peloton, look at some of the brands that have just been built from nowhere direct to the consumer. It's it's it's nothing

short of extraordinary. What I wonder, though, is what your marketing clients think of this new wave of direct consumer uh, you know, whether it's Disney, Apple, you know, would they prefer to be in the same world of you know, broadcasts and cable channels or does this new sort of tier of distribution open up opportunities with data and so

on that they're craving. Well. Interesting question, obviously, because the the inextricable link for a marketer to a content distribution platform is how we all grew up We grew up in a world where I'm I'm old. So I grew up in a world where I had Channel two, four or five, seven, nine, eleven, and thirteen, and I thought that was free because we took a rabbit here on the you know, on top of the television, or an intent on top of roof, and you got it and

you didn't have to pay for it. Well, you did. The quid pro quote was advertising, and you had to make you made a commitment. There was a quid pro quote. The consideration. I'm a lawyer, so I think in terms of the consideration for the transaction, the consideration was you'd be available to listen to and or watch the commercial message that was delivered to you on the radio or

on television. Now, of course we never knew if you didn't get up to go to the kitchen or go to the bathroom or whatever and miss the commercial, and that would be a breakdown of the consideration. But we took that risk famously, John wanna make her? A hundred plus years ago, a department store operator in the East Coast said, uh, and again, this is one of the most overused quotes in advertising, But fifty percent of my

advertising dollars are wasted. The question, of course, is which fift Now we have a better shot at answering that question today. So on the one hand, marketers are thrilled to have more accountability, more trend parent seem more trust

in the numbers. On the other hand, in the world of O T T and s VOD subscription video on demand, the breakdown of where advertising can play a role is dangerous and it's a threat to these folks because as people have talked about the advertising industry the marketing industry, it's a trillion dollar industry, and that trillion dollars is spent on people utilizing commercial messages to deliver information about the products or the goods of the services that they

want you to buy. Well, if that has been done traditionally on the back of content magazines, radio television. You never picked up a magazine that was all ads. You picked up a magazine that was editorial and adds you won't listen to the radio and it was ads and music television the same. And now if it's s v O D and again they're you're making an assumption there that everybody can afford another subscription fee. It's a very questionable.

And that's a very questionable assumption because we tend left coast right coast to say, sure, another seven dollars a month, no big deal. Lots of people to have another seven dollars a month is not affordable exactly. And you know the recent numbers that Warner is throwing out with there's maybe fifteen to seventeen dollars a month. You know, we're not in a world where everybody's got unlimited money for additional subscription, so I'm not sure how all that's going

to work out. Advertising has been the ability to grease the skids. Advertising has been the ability to get the content and and not have to pay for it in money. I would I would submit pay for paying for it with your time and attention is a more valuable commodity. But that's because I'm in a position where I'm fortunate that I can afford the extra seven dollars. So to me,

the money isn't the issue. To me, the attention is the issue, and at the end of the day, that's what it to be for everybody, but not everybody has the luxury of that choice, right I. I wonder whether we are in for quite a free for all. Once all these direct to consumer services are out there, I simply don't believe that consumers are going to spend for more than a few of these at most. And that's going to create a lot of carnage. I mean, how do you see it? Absolutely, carnage is going to be

the word of the day. People are gonna choose based on the simple equation. I believe he's of use user interface all of that, But it's about the content, stupid, it's the old. It's the old. It's about the content. You know, That's what it's about. And that's why you can't bet against what you know Bob Iger and Kevin Mayer are doing over at Disney. It's about content. It's you know, you look at their library and you go, is somebody gonna pay six a month to be able

to get that access to all things Disney? Yeah? I think they will same argument at seventeen dollars a month. That's gonna be interesting. Yeah, you know, uh so so yeah, there'll be a lot of carnage. And I think, you know, to the victor's go the spoils. But in truth, I think it's going to be driven by what it should be driven by. Content. Yeah, well, I think the user interface and all those things that make it easy to get and price point, price point, and yeah, the the

disparity of everything between seven and seventeen. It's gonna get interesting. But I also wanted to ask, you know, what we were talking about. Spot a vot is a whole other ball game, something that's also been interesting to watch. Given just the sheer amount of controversy everywhere from YouTube to Facebook about what content is appropriate for these platforms. It feels like this is just a never ending nightmare for these companies. And I was curious, especially as you sit

on sort of the Madison Avenue side of this. Uh, do you see the stature of these companies, the importance of these companies from marketers diminished by all this. So, you know, it's interesting We've been chatting for ten minutes or so, and that's the first time we mentioned Facebook or Google and you can't have a conversation about this, and they should have been in the first round of this well and and but but to your point, that just tells you how how crowded the field is. I mean,

you had to suggest Apple, I didn't say them. And now we both just realized we hadn't said Facebook and Google. Hard to imagine a conversation without that. And by the way, Amazon, so you know, fang is no longer the acronym. What was that? Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google. You now have to expand it. You've got to put Disney into that. You've got a orner in that, You've got comcasted that you've got I wonder if that pronounces out to a

coherent acronymic. Probably not. Yeah, you know what, it would be cluster and you can finish and you can finish

the that's a two worded uh monster. But you know, I think there's an interesting point to make their Andrew about platform I've been a big believer and if you're talking about content and and and the type of content, I think we have an unfair advantage with the platforms because I think the platforms are trying to separate themselves as being different than media companies, but yet they want to act like media companies, but they want to be

called platforms their media companies. You know, the analogy I've drawn is if you go back to the famous wardrobe malfunction at the Super Bowl. If you recall, as I do, CBS was subject to serious fines by the FCC and a potential of even a loss of their license for a quote wardrobe malfunction with Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake. And you think about brand safety on the quote platforms, they're subject to no scrutiny like that, and yet their

media companies. Why is it a fair fight? If you know, the traditional broadcasting cable networks are subject to standards and practices, and the quote unquote platforms are not well they are those are now driven by the advertisers. The advertisers are saying, we want to know we're in brand safe environment. We don't want our commercial message running next to Johadas beheadings. Okay, you know Joean Ross at CBS a couple of years

ago at an upfront presentation did a great piece. She put up a picture of a horrible example of a cruise ship sinking, followed by an ad for Royal Caribbean and and and her joke was, this ship doesn't happen on CBS. Okay, play on words, of course, but that is a real issue around brand safety now. I think the primary platforms that are in question on this, Facebook and Google are doing all they can to deal with that.

But we're just coming out of this recent example with the Nancy Pelosi um uh interview where they manipulated the video to you know, and and Facebook saying, hey, not our problem. I don't agree with that. Again, politics aside somebody's problems. Somebody has to own that. And and you know, pay attention, folks, because the regulators are gonna, you know, what we don't do, the regulators will do for us.

And my biggest fear in that context is this is such a highly technical area that the regulators aren't educated and the and the staff on Capitol Hill are not educated to the nuance. And so I'm afraid in the context of regulators getting involved in this, this will be like what happened in financial services. Sarbanes Oxley was an overcorrection based on Enron. Enron was a horrible circumstance with massive fraud and just dirty players. Sarbanes Oxley was an

over correction to that. What I hope does not happen in the regulatory environment we're in today is any overcorrection. Nobody wants big Brother, whatever that means these days, telling us what, where, who, ian when. But we also know that left to their devices. Excuse the pun. The platforms are not necessarily doing everything that we want them to do. So on the one hand, you're saying it seems like regulation is required. On the other hand, you're saying, the

potential for over regulation is quite high. So so how do we win here and how do you think this is going to play well? I think we need to to to you know, um, I'm gonna you know, remember and I said this earlier. I practiced law for the first ten years of my career, Andrew, so I'm going to give you a lawyer's answer. What we need is a Goldilock solution. This is too hot, this is too cold. We've got to find just right. Yeah, okay, so we

need we need that. I don't know the answer to that, but I'm I'm happy to say that I'm in can versations on both sides of that trade, from a regulatory perspective as well from the platforms. I'm using the term I I just you know, kind of threw down, but um to hope fully find that right solution. But it's a challenge and and my fear goes very directly to

the overcorrection and the potential for that. So to bring the conversation full circle is can lie in a place where these conversations will be had front and center, you know, example, a mutual friend of ours and Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman with what they're doing with Cueby, they're coming to Can. Jeffrey is going to be awarded the Media Person of the Year award, which is quite a feat in that a couple of years ago at the Can Film Festival

he received the Palm Door. So Jeffrey will be the first person in history to be awarded both the Palm Door and the Media Person of the Year. Happens to be the same city and Can, but it's two different industries coming together. So I think that's a great um you know, example of how the industries really are if one person could be both recipient of both of those awards, and Jeffrey will be the first person in history to

do that. And but separately at the Can Lions, we're giving the Media Person the Entertainment Person of the Year war to Lauren Michaels. Lauren Michaels has never been in Can for the Lions. I'm guessing he'll have been there for the film festival. I don't know that, or maybe he'll been have been there for MIP or one of the TV festivals. But Lauren Michaels is coming over this year, uh and he'll receive the the the Entertainment Person of

the Year Award and not splitting hairs. But you know, I don't think you can find somebody in in our lifetimes that's had a bigger contribution to the entertainment business than Lauren Michaels. Certainly in spawning talent. There's no question he's peerless and that regard. You know, it's like the old and you're a student of Hollywood, so you'll appreciate it.

The famous Louis B. Mayer picture that agreed that appeared back in the third These where it was the Tiered Tables, and it said more stars than there are in Heaven and it had excuse me, Clark Gable and you know, Shirley Temple and whoever the you know, Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepper and the stars of of that era were all at MGM and the and the caption said more

stars than there are at Heaven. If you created that same picture today and put Lauren Michael's as the Maestro and the people who have come through the doors of Saturday Night Live over the last what forty six forty seven years? I think, thank you, I've bet a year too many, but yeah, I think you know, a year

or so ago, but plus or minus. But think about it, you'd have a couple of tiers of tables you know, so way back and and and those people you know have impacted cultural you know, their cultural phenomena what Saturday Night Life turned out to be. So again, it's convergence in Can this year entertainment. You've got every one of the entertainment companies they're in Forest, Disney, Comcast, CBS, all the cable players, they're all there. And its tech companies

as well. I remember a time we had quite a presence Snap, Facebook, Google, Alphabet, every Microsoft, everyone is there. It truly is the melting pot of those industries. Others get pieces of that. But advertisers don't go to the Can Film Festival, and point of fact, there's no reason for them too. They creep into mip or mipcom because it's television, and you could argue that they do want to know more about that. But the crossover to the

Can Lions is nothing short of extraordinary. Now, in full disclosure, Andrew, as you know, three years ago, I sold Media Link to a company called Essential, and Essential also owns the Can Lions, but we were operating with the Can Lions as partners, as we still do now we're sister companies, but we've operated as partners for most of the last

fifteen years. So that that's something I always like to at least disclos is that, But that has no bearing on the commitment or involvement that we've had in Can for so many years. That was just a nice coincidence. Um, I feel like I'm about to ask you to pick between you know, which child you love the most. But in terms of the centrality in the conversation for all these industries that we're talking about, has can exceeded where C E s is uh curious, So I always love

Sophie's choice. Um, you know, in terms of which child you love the most? From a Media Link perspective, it's interesting. CS obviously is the grandfather of all of this. A hundred and fifty thousand people converging on Las Vegas, and there used to be a winter show in Chicago and this, you know, and and and then move or a summer show rather in Chicago and the obviously the winter and

the January show in Las Vegas. Media Link was really instrumental in bringing the marketing community to ce S. What we identified was again a benst the backdrop of efficiency and all that and calendar beginning of the year to your point, but we saw the need as we redefined let me back up for a moment, as we redefined

the role of the chief marketing officer. And what we saw was working with Mark Bennioff actually at Salesforce many years ago when he started investing in the marketing cloud, we saw the convergence happening where a traditional chief marketing officer would make marketing decisions and a traditional chief technology or chief information officer would make technology decisions. You know your I T department. You wouldn't think of your I T department as being involved in marketing. You think of

your marketing department. The marketer of today and the I T professional of today. Think about it. Marketers today are making more technology decisions than ever, and technol and and and and marketing people are making more technology decisions, and technology people are making more marketing decisions because of the

rise of technology and marketing science. CS was a great place to bring that to life because you had all the tech and if the marketers got there early and we're able to understand and have dialogue with the tech creators where marketing messages were so important because if you're going to transact business on your phone or on your device, then marketing needs to be more integral in the design and in the development of technology. So for us, we

saw that as an opportunity to bring marketing in. So when you come to CE s now Andrew, which I know you have, the C space was something we created alongside the Consumer Electronics or now the Consumer Technology Association, originally called Brand Matters. You're familiar because Variety was a big supporter of Entertainment Matters. We created Brand Matters about

ten years ago to bring the marketers to CES. So I feel a very strong proprietary interest in what happened at CES because I didn't just glom onto that and go there. We actually brought that interesting at at CAN it existed obviously, like c S, all the marketers were there. We were leaders in bringing media there, and then we clearly played a role in bringing the others there. What I think is unique and special about Can is it really is truly that melting pot that I alluded to earlier.

It brings everything together marketing, media, advertising, entertainment, technology, and now finance. I've never really understood the distinction, but now you've kind of laid it out there, I totally get it. And and look, I appreciate I will not be at Can this year, but I'm sure i'll see you again at the very least and sees, if not sooner. Looking forward to seeing how CAN goes from afar And I thank you for coming in today life. It's always a pleasure.

This has been another episode strictly Business. Tune in next week for another helping a scintillating conversation with media movers and shakers, and please make sure you subscribe to the podcast to hear future episodes. Also leave a review in Apple Podcast let us know how we're doing. M