Embarking on our inaugural journey to the Possible event, we entered with high expectations, anticipating an experience akin to the renowned Cannes Lions, the pinnacle advertising gathering in France. Being this was our first time attending (and the second consecutive event from its debut last year) we had high expectations. It did not disappoint! From building our strategic plan for the conference, the sheer size of the speaker and attendees list read like a who’s who of some of the media industries biggest hitters. The conference producers said the aim of the conference is how to make CMOs more effective in their roles. We believe that with the myriad of topics for CMO's and their teams (as well as anyone else with a premium badge or higher) with the additional of all the adtech on offer for every day to day challenge in the marketeer's life, this seems like a legitimate claim to CMO's, reflected in how many were in attendance.
After attending a few sessions and several meetings throughout the conference, here are some of our takeaways.
- Seems most if not all speakers talk about the need to do things differently. It’s almost like it’s the opening line for any speaker. We need to make unique creative and do things different than what everyone else is doing. When meeting these people after and offering them something different, they seem to lose the confidence they had on stage and offer many reasons why they do what everyone else does.
- There was a lot of talk about in-housing. This is the brand owner divesting agency functions like creative, planning and buying to in house teams that they hire from the agencies. This movement poses a major threat to the agencies however brands on stage when to great lengths to assure agencies in the room that their roles and businesses are not in danger.
- Is the role of the CMO antiquated? There was ample discussions of whether or not there is a need for the role of CMO. This role rarely leads to a CEO path, and some believe this often a figurehead role that can be more effectively broken down into smaller roles. Many sessions with CMOs and the show in general was focused on how to make the CMO’s role and day to day production more effective and valuable. Leaders Bring the Weather.
- Gary V was brilliantly honest and to the point. His point was traditional media practitioners are in jeopardy of being disruptive by young, hungry brands and agencies that truly want to do things differently, that leverage and measure social differently and traditional brands and agencies are going to lose the long game by not being active and invested enough in the 10 top most scaled social platforms.
- Retail media is outperforming standard media practices and by including the entire funnel, will disrupt traditional media, leading to small and mid tier networks to really struggle, die off or consolidate.
- Due to how full and developed the agency tech stack is, smaller/upstart adtech providers will find penetration to be extremely challenging.
- Brands are also going under a movement of consolidation, making spends more effective and efficient by batching similar products together.
- AI will disrupt, but more so as a tool for good than a replacement for jobs.
- We all have to work harder for change. We can’t be satisfied with the status quo, we have to be aware that change is hard but better.
- There are so many possibilities that connected tv offer (control, transparency, frequency, effectiveness). CTV pricing is not competitive with other formats.
- Gary V is an awesome speaker!
This was a huge event, dubbed the Cannes of US, and it fell this way. So many brands wanting to learn and discover what is possible from people like us, the name of the conference fits the atmosphere. The Kidoz/Prado team got tremendous value and there is a compounding effect from being seen by some of the largest brand leaders from conference to conference. Conference producers predict next year will be even bigger and better. We will be there.
Ryan Lexer
