Key Takeaways from Cannes Lions

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1:10Try it for your research. Try it for getting variations of your titles, your ideas. It's one of my favorite tools on the internet right now for our creativity. And now back to the show. What's up, everyone? Welcome to this episode of the Colin and Samir show from Cannes. On the road in the south of France. In the middle of Colin's honeymoon. That is true. Live from my honeymoon. So this is an audio exclusive episode this week because we're sitting here in a hotel room in the south of France. Colin is in the middle of his honeymoon, but we'll be back this week for VidCon. Then he's back out on the road to a wedding, but we'll be back on YouTube soon, but we'll be audio exclusive this week and next week.

1:52All right, let's kick things off.

1:58All right, our last night in France. Hello, everyone, or bonjour. Bonjour. So we are here in France at the Cannes Lion Festival. This is our last evening here. It was our first time here at Cannes Lions. We've been invited multiple times, but it always overlapped with VidCon. And we typically had obligations at VidCon. But this year, for the first time, CanLions and VidCon came to an agreement to not do it on the same week. That's real, by the way. That's real? That's real, yeah. So that people like us could attend both. I appreciate it. I really appreciate it. It's the last night, and I will say, I hope to come here every year.

2:39This is incredible. This is amazing. So we should give some context as to what is CanLion? Why are we here? So CanLion is actually an award show. Part of it is an award show that recognizes excellence in advertising. So there are major agencies and companies who are being awarded for ads. One of the ones that's being talked about a lot this week is Michael CeraVe for the CeraVe skincare. And they used Michael Cera. I'm sure you saw it. That's like the talk of the town this week. So a huge part of it is actually bringing the advertising world together in one place and recognizing excellence in advertising.

3:22Yeah. So it follows the Cannes Film Festival. Yes. The Cannes Film Festival was a few weeks ago. And then this advertising festival happens. And over the years, what has happened is obviously when a ton of advertisers are in one place, then the sellers are also going to be in this place. right? The sellers of media placements, the people who want advertisers to buy advertisements on their networks and eventually now today on their platforms. So you look at platforms like TikTok, platforms like Spotify, platforms like Instagram, platforms like YouTube, every platform is present here. And - Netflix is getting into ads.

4:03Netflix has a big presence this year. Yeah, you're right. So everyone who engages in the world of advertising is here. And as the platforms have come, obviously now the creators are starting to come. And this was a year that I think was the most well attended from the creator standpoint. We had, you know, Yes Theory was here. Alex Earl was here. David Dobrik was here with Snap. Josh Richards. Josh Richards. Yeah, there was a select group of creators here. Not a ton, but it was the most well attended that Can has ever been from a creator perspective. And we actually came with our partners at Spotter.

4:42And what's really exciting about being here with Spotter is that we have been able to speak on a number of panels on their behalf. So we spoke at the Wall Street Journal House, which was really cool and ended up actually having the best coffee. We went back every day. Wall Street Journal House was really fun. We also did a panel with AdAge alongside Mark Hustavet, who's the president at Mr. Beast. And these panels, like what we were discussing here was this conversation that it's really interesting that we're still having it. But in a space like this, where the advertising industry comes to congregate, there's still a lot of education and explaining to do about the world of YouTube.

5:19Like, why should you advertise on YouTube? And then more specifically, are YouTube creators really sophisticated programmers? Meaning, are we making sophisticated programming? When you line us up next to, you know, what's on Prime video with Amazon, what's on Hulu, what's on Netflix, is the audience really the same? And I think YouTube typically gets lumped into social media, right? Not in the same bucket as Hulu. And there's a term called AVOD, which is advertising-backed video on demand. That's what, you know, Hulu is. When you watch a Hulu show and you see an ad before it, that's AVOD. But the reality is that's also what YouTube is.

6:04And now the biggest thing that we were talking about was connected TV viewership. You know, on our channel, we have almost 30 % of our viewers are watching on connected TVs and they're watching for an average of 42 minutes. So if an ad plays before that and in mid-roll breaks during our episodes on a connected TV, that is advertising back to video on demand the same way that another streamer would be on a connected TV. Yeah. And being on these panels and getting to voice that in front of all these, you know, CMOs and brands and people from agencies that are deciding where to put their money is something that's actually really special.

6:46Like it's something that we take a lot of pride in as YouTube creators, as people who love this community and believe in it, to be able to get up on stage and bring up, honestly, a lot of our friends, a lot of spotter creators, uh, talk about their businesses and how sophisticated they are in the way that they've built their audiences and their communities, uh, is a cool opportunity. And like you were saying, it's something that we actually have been doing for years, like 10 years ago, building the lacrosse network. We were going in to rooms at Nike and pitching them on the value of how YouTube creators were different, right?

7:18Right. And innovative and how they were building really deep connections with their audiences. Yeah. We've been YouTube evangelists for a really long time. And now, like you said, we get to talk about our friends and bring up a lot of our friends' content. And the thing that we brought up the most was making the parallel with creators who are making repeatable formats, repeatable formats in the 22 to 30 minute range, right? So you'll get like what, even what Ryan's doing, Ryan Trahan doing with one-star reviews. That is a format that's like a TV show and he does it over and over. Or you look at Dude Perfect with stereotypes.

7:54They just release their like father's day dad stereotypes. That's a format. They do that format and tens of millions of people watch that format. And I think CMOs would understand it a little bit better if those shows were on Hulu or something like that. Sure. Yeah. Something about the nature of YouTube being this democratic place where anyone can upload, I think can sometimes confuse CMOs. And it is relatively a new thing here, uh, with the rise of connected TV viewership specifically. and one of the takeaways one of the things we kind of realized was that I think that the greater advertising industry at least here at can sees creators as influencers I think it sees them as kind of like one in the same yeah I think our effort here was to truly showcase how sophisticated creators are and in fact they are making repeatable formats these are not you know this is not like the stereotypical influencer of one person traveling the world, taking a photo and like hashtagging ad on Instagram, right?

8:53Like these are like a lot of creators who've built out sophisticated media companies with repeatable formats that are very trusted. Yeah. I think about like hot ones gets brought up a lot in these conferences and in these conversations as like a really premium YouTube show. But you think about some of these advertisers when they talk about how they want to engage with digital content, I don't think they would loop hot ones into their influencer marketing strategy. I don't think they would consider that, influencer marketing. Agreed. And so a lot of the effort that we're making while we're here, we made this week, the effort we're trying to push is that to suggest that there are more hot ones out there.

9:37There are more formats that people are making. There are more sophisticated creator companies. And the reason why we're doing that, you know, in partnership with Spotter while we're here is because the creators that Spotter works with typically fall into that category, right? They work with creators that are making formats that are sophisticated media companies, like a Dude Perfect, like a Mr. Beast, those type of companies. So the creators that they are then curating are like the, is this a French term, creme de la creme? Yeah, probably, right? The creme de la creme. And so essentially, as marketers are looking and saying, who do I work with?

10:19Where do I spend my money on YouTube? Curation becomes incredibly important, right? And data-backed curation of like, hey, look, we're in, we, meaning coming from spotters perspective, they're invested in these creators. So they can turn to an advertiser and be like, look, we put our money here. Like we believe these are legit, the top creators on the platform. They're making great content, great formats, and they're attracting a lot of attention. If you're going to work with creators, here's the group. That was a lot of the conversation in some of the rooms that we were in. We got to be in some meetings with Spotter and then with CMOs from different brands and with agencies.

10:58And another thing that we kept, first off, it was really fun, right? Like you and I love like a good creative brief. We were sitting with one agency who represented a car company. Oh yeah, that was fun. And we got to just like riff for 30 minutes. Super fun. Which creators could do what type of content formats And that to us is like one of our favorite things. But something else that we've been trying to instill and like put in the ears of marketers is this idea of using YouTube creators in the creative assets that run on YouTube. Yes. In the pre-roll and in the mid-roll. A lot of times when you're watching YouTube, I'm sure you notice this, you know, you, you know, this cast of characters on YouTube that you watch and you know, and then an ad plays and it's, you know, a car commercial ad that would run on Hulu or TV.

11:43and it kind of has nothing to do. It doesn't feel native to the YouTube experience. And that makes sense, right? Like if you're Chevy and you're making one commercial and you spent$10 million making this commercial or whatever, maybe that's too much. Maybe not though. Maybe not. Yeah, they're high. So let's say you spent$10 million making a commercial. Are you going to say, well, that's just our TV commercial. We're going to make a specific YouTube commercial. It's a hard sell. But I think what our suggestion is, like the reason why we're here is because we not only are we a part of the platforms, right?

12:18Like we make the content on YouTube that then advertisers are buying ads again. So it makes sense for us to be here. But we also engage directly with a lot of these brands. We're doing integrations on our channel. There's an opportunity for us to make advertising that, you know, feels like YouTube. Feels like YouTube. And I think that is a huge evolution of where the creator brand relationship can go. You know, sometimes for us, it makes sense to do advertising in the way we do it because we are a talk show. But we talk about this a lot that like the 60 to 90 second integration for creators is a format that's borrowed from the radio.

12:55When it's put into like a travel video, it's very interruptive to the story, right? Like to break and be like, okay, now let me tell you about Squarespace while I'm in Vietnam about to go try some food. And Slip creators do it really well, but it is a huge challenge. It's a big challenge. Now, if Squarespace comes to that same creator and says, can you make me a 30-second asset and then I can run that as paid media across YouTube, that is already happening. I don't want to suggest that that's not happening, but I think happening with the big players. Now, when we talk about the big players, let's play a little game about how much companies spend on advertising in a given year.

13:36Now I've looked, there's a couple different numbers, but they're all around this region. So we're going to go with these numbers, but the number one spot in 2023, Comcast. Now they own Xfinity, NBC, Telemundo, E. They also own Universal Pictures. They also own Universal Theme Parks. So just to give you sense, this is a massive holding company, IP holding company. How much did they spend in advertising in 2023? Six billion? Yeah, 6.2 billion. Okay, I mean, full disclaimer, I heard you say that before we started recording. That's very annoying. That's not a game. But I think I did say it to you.

14:17So you can't tell someone the answer and then do trivia with them. Lesson learned. Yeah, that's a gripe. Procter & Gamble, number two. So Procter & Gamble owns Charmin, Crest, Don, Donnie, Febreze, Gillette, Pampers. You want me to answer this one too? Yeah, but I'm annoyed, but do it. 4.8 billion? Yeah. All right. I didn't know you were going to retain that information when I told it to you. Come on. AT &T, number three? 4.7 billion? No, come on, man. 3.8 billion. 3.8 billion? Okay. Amazon, 3.7 billion. General Motors, 3.5 billion. Verizon, 2.9 billion. Ford,$2.7 billion. Alphabet,$2.6 billion.

14:57Samsung,$2.5 billion. We're talking billions and billions and billions. And honestly, walking around Cannes, it feels like there are billions and billions of dollars being thrown around here. Everything looks so expensive. Everything is so expensive. I got here, you know, a week ago and I texted you before you arrived and I said, I think San Francisco just bought all of Cannes. Like the entire beach. There's these beach clubs along the beach that are normally reserved for like guests of all these hotels, these beautiful hotels on the beach. But they've been bought out by Meta and Google and Spotify.

15:36And like Spotify has an entire concert theater. And you can get sushi. Which was great. For free. Yeah, yeah. Whenever you want. And it's really good. Yeah, yeah. I mean, this is truly the - And there's yachts all over. Yeah, there's yachts. And there's parties on the yachts. And all the hotels are booked out. And it's truly one of the craziest things I've ever been a party. We have yet to go to a yacht party. Yet to. But people are going. Yeah, people are going. I think, but those numbers, basically what I'm saying is in the top 10 advertisers, there's not one that is spending under$2 billion.

16:15And the ad industry is massive. It is massive, massive, massive. The scale of this industry that we're all in is really big. The interesting thing is that in the fragmented world of independent publishers like us, independent creators, to make a successful business as a creator, you're actually just chipping away at a very small sliver of this industry, which then comes back to the conversation that the biggest thing I think I've learned this week is that the ad industry is a very small business. industry has a, you know, a line item in their plan for influencer marketing. And that is where we fit still into like an experimental subcategory of advertising here for most of these big advertisers.

17:03And for that to grow is going to take a long time, but it's going to take creators coming to Cannes and creators being a part of this and that story being told over and over. Yeah, I really felt and got the sense here that we are, and I say we as in creators and sort of like the creator advertising industry, the new kids at this party. Totally. This feels like a festival at a party that is like steeped in history in like the way that advertising has always been done. It feels very like Mad Men, like a continuation of Mad Men and creators feel like they are like the new kids at the block here. And the most talked about name is Mr.

17:43Beast. I think that's like the name that comes up a lot that everyone can kind of like agree on of like, oh, yeah, I get your world. I see where you're coming from. But yeah, I agree with you. I think the big effort is going to be to continue to come year after year to hopefully have companies continue to bring out creators to speak and to meet some of these CMOs and agencies and start to build those relationships and kind of catch up. I will say that I think the variance in types of creators is very hard for the ad industry to understand, like the nuances of all these different types of creators, right?

18:18Like a TikTok creator versus a YouTube creator versus a podcaster versus an Instagram creator. Like it's just too fragmented for everyone to understand. I think it always will be. Yeah, and it always will be. The only thing I think that the advertising industry here cares about is like massive cultural relevance and significance. If you can make a big moment happen, you brought up on one of our panels Ryan Trahan with his Joyride candy and becoming the number one selling candy in Target and talking about Joyride Day and all of that. And that is real impact that I think the advertising industry here understands.

18:54right and they again to bring up the michael serravi thing like that commercial that campaign which went viral yeah that is what matters like that's the currency and i think if creators can make continue to make those types of moments happen like i think hot ones obviously you brought it up like it gets clipped and it becomes this culturally yeah super culturally relevant thing. Um, that's where I think if we can continue to make those sort of headlines, this industry will continue to pay attention. I think the ad industry trades on cultural relevance and FOMO. Yeah. Like of course results is important.

19:36Like results. This whole week trades on FOMO. It's like, are you on his yacht? Are you the one out? Did you get invited to this party. Yeah. But, but I think like the, the Michael CeraVe thing, right? Like it's, that's, there's cultural relevance. There's a level of like, like, uh, you know, validation through winning an award, doing some different, uh, it's, it's, it's all storytelling, um, just as almost everything is in the world. Um, but I will say that podcaster to the ad industry and podcasting, I think trades at a higher premium than, you know, uh, TikToker or YouTuber or, um, you know, another, another type of creator.

20:18I just have no, and maybe it's because podcasting has been around for a longer period of time, but it did feel to me. And the other, the other hypothesis I have there is that being at Spotify and speaking, uh, at Spotify as, you know, hosts of a show, hosts of the Colin and Spears show. What's interesting is hours later, um, Benson Boone is on the stage performing music and podcasting go really nicely together because they're consumed on audio platforms. And I think that's why there's a cultural relevance to the medium that is different from, from other types of creator content. I think it also has to do with the fact that a lot of these CMOs and people at these agencies, you know, truly like they're in their forties and fifties.

21:07Yeah. They listen to podcasts, they read books, they read newsletters and they listen to music. They don't. That's true. At least as far as I know, scroll TikTok all the time. They're not like active consumers of TikTok. They're not active. They may watch YouTube, but they're not maybe as plugged in as some like younger demos. Right. And I think like podcasting and written content and music is what they spend a lot of their time consuming. So I think that's why also I think here it comes at a little bit of like it's more of a draw, right, to have like a podcaster speaking at a panel. I think, though, that still the thing that is the most important, like the learning here from this conversation of we are continuing to get into a world where there's more and more creators.

21:53so you if you do not stand out will be just generally in the world of okay i need to spend on creator marketing or influencer marketing how an advertiser thinks about that but differently when you think about some of the creators who are here like alex earl or jay shetty the way advertisers in the the industry looks at them are just as singular like there's jay shetty Not there's a podcaster, you know, like he has a brand that has heavily transcended the term. Same with Alex. I think they have brands that have transcended the terms. And I think that is the goal. That is the gold standard when you are a creator, you are like, how do I make sure that when I arrive at something like this, if I come to Cannes, I'm not just a creator.

22:41I'm not part of the creator side of Cannes. I am my own independent brand when I walk in a room. Yeah, I would agree with that. I think there's something we've been talking a lot about is like, you know, the availability of views right now. Views are very available. As a creator, you can study algorithms, but brand is not. It takes, you know, you were speaking with Jay Shetty this morning and you were telling me about how intentional he is about his company and his brand. And I think Alex is the same way. A lot of those creators inspired us to really think deeply about our brand and what we stand for and how can we be consistent and be singular.

23:23Yeah. What were some of the most fun parts of this week for you? I really just kept pinching myself. I'm so grateful, thinking about it was only like four and a half, five years ago, maybe less where you and I really thought this career was not going to work. Yeah. And we're calling it quits essentially. And now to have a reason to come to the South of France for work is such a, it's a, it's something I never thought I would do. And I told you this earlier, but like it was late last night and you know, we're watching justice perform at the Spotify beach. Yeah. And my brother texted me, he was a developer.

24:04He texted me like a building he's working on. because it's the middle of the day there. And I just texted him back like a video of me at Spotify Beach listening to Justice. And then there's a drone light show in the sky on the left. And he just texts me back and he's like, your life is crazy. And it's one of those pinch yourself moments where it just feels like, man, outside of the cool conversations we're getting to have, what a cool moment. Yeah, life experience. Life experience, yeah. And to be here and like, you know, right when I touched down, the first person I ran into is Paul Rabel. you know we've known Paul for years over a decade and it continued to be like that like you would turn a corner and again you'd see Jay Shetty or you'd see someone else and there's just all these people that we know from our time in the industry and it feels really special and like it feels very right to be here you know yeah I think also I had like very long meaningful conversations with a lot of creators and one of which was Adam Faze last night, who has a brand called Gymnasium.

25:08He makes short form shows. He's kind of modernizing MTV, right? Like he has a show called Boy Room, I think it's called, where like, you know, this comedian goes into a room and like basically remodels like a boy's room. It's kind of like Room Raiders. Yeah. Right? He has a show called Bodega Run, which is like supermarket sweep kind of in New York. Okay. And he's making these branded shows on TikTok, looking at them as like short form, vertical, repeatable shows. And the way he's thinking about building this studio is so interesting. And it's so exciting to me to sit down and have these conversations in the corner of Cannes, where you look around at the industry and it almost feels like you have like a secret.

25:57it you know you're like i think we're doing a thing over here that in 20 years or 30 years these people will be some of the main executives in the industry you know like i was looking at them and i was like you really you really have a very strong commitment to good taste in storytelling. Like he really, really cares about capturing attention in the right way and doing it in a way that's cool and that's interesting and new and unique. Is it always going to be TikTok short form? I don't know. Are we always going to be YouTube long form? I don't know. But I think collectively the group that's here right now of creators is really committed to solving storytelling problems for a long period of time.

26:51And it just got me excited to have that conversation and to recognize like how much people are innovating and trying new things. And all right. So for people who want to understand what, what it's like here, like what's a typical day at Cannes? Typical day is you start out with a series of panels. That's really what largely what the days are. It's like panels and speakers and there's interesting activations. For us, it's been, uh, actually being on these panels and getting to speak in front of people towards the afternoon we've been fortunate to have some meetings with different cmos and agencies uh along with spotter and get to kind of advocate for creators and for what we do and then at night there's always a plentitude of options like it's a dude i feel like i keep getting called out for like my vocab but wait wait first it was the pressing goes episode hold on hold on plentitude is not a word.