
Once a year, the leaders from advertising agencies, global consumer brands, digital platforms and others across the media ecosystem gather in the south of France for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Through panel discussions and interviews, the different media players explore what's keeping marketers up at night, and what's being done about it.
During this year's festival, Megan Clarken, Chief Commercial Officer, Nielsen Global Media, emphasized the importance of data and diversity. Additionally, she and other Nielsen executives were vocal throughout the week on where they think the advertising industry is heading, with key themes emerging around the expanding definition of TV, making addressable TV possible and the power of big data.
THE CONVERGENCE OF TV & DIGITAL ADVERTISING The rise of digital video and the fragmentation of the media industry have left brands looking for consistent metrics and measurement of advertising across both digital and linear video. As a result, independent third-party measurement is becoming increasingly crucial to understand the effectiveness of advertising campaigns.
Digital Players & Platforms Want To Compete with TV
Megan Clarken, Chief Commercial Officer, Nielsen Global Media: What we actually see happening is that the digital-first players and the digital platforms for premium video have decided that all of the data that they have is just confusing the advertiser. So they want to compete against TV, and so they're moving across to be able to compare to TV.
Expanding Streaming Video On-Demand (SVOD) Content Ratings Across Platforms
Megan Clarken: Everyday [the clients of SVOD players] want to know whether or not they're getting what they paid for or what they're being paid in terms of their content, and they want it to be done by a third-party independent player.
MAKING ADDRESSABLE ADVERTISING POSSIBLE While digital players are looking for measurement that makes them more comparable to TV, traditional TV entities are increasingly interested in the personalization digital presents. Therefore, addressable advertising-reaching individual households with customized TV ads similar to those in the digital space-has become top of mind for many marketers. Not surprisingly, measurement will play a key role for advertisers in this space globally.
Addressability Is Finally Here
Vikram Somaya, Chief Data Officer, Nielsen: I think there are finally real ways for programmers to bring addressability to television. A lot of the issues had been, certainly from the sell side, 'How did this actually work with measurement on which everything was transacted?'
Nielsen Prepping Platform For Addressable TV, Ad Decisioning
Kelly Abcarian, General Manager, Advanced Video Advertising, Nielsen: First and foremost, measurement is the bedrock of what Nielsen provides to the marketplace and what we'll continue to do. We're really focused on how we unlock addressable in a way that brings standardization across all those impressions.
Nielsen O'Grady Plans New UK Addressable Offering
Matt O'Grady, International Commercial Leader, Nielsen Global Media: Nielsen is investing greatly in addressable. Addressable TV shows great promise. TV is going to be sold with addressable, over the top and data-driven linear TV. And we have solutions that we're planning to roll out for all of them globally.
HARNESSING THE POWER OF BIG DATA Digital has created more data than ever before, but not all data is the same. The quality of the data is incredibly important. For brands and advertisers eager to leverage new technology like machine learning and artificial intelligence, good data is necessary to create valuable insights.
How Panels Improve Big Data
Dave Hohman, EVP & Managing Director, Demand-side Media, Nielsen: Panels at Nielsen are being used, and I think will continue to be used as a sort of a source of truth. When you're looking at big data sets, they can have a lot of noise or bias in them, whether intentional or not.
Machine Learning Speeds Up Action
Linda Dupree, CEO, Nielsen Catalina Solutions: We've been working on machine learning and artificial intelligence for the last five years, with a lot of testing and rigor. And in the next few months, we're adding machine learning to our targeting products, as well as to our measurement products.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
01/04/2026
January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION
Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...
26/02/2026
Final quarter revenues increase 7% year-on-year, with accelerating momentum in the second half
Space Services grows revenues by 6% year-on-year and records hig...
25/02/2026
With the Olympic Flag officially handed over to the organisers of the next Winter Games and the baton passed from Milano Cortina 2026 to French Alps 2030, the I...
25/02/2026
From a studio overlooking the Dolomites to workflows routed through Milan and into Salford, the BBC delivered a lean and mean operation for its Winter Games c...
25/02/2026
Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) Sports is managing a huge network of channels acros...
25/02/2026
From its base in the northern Italian town of Cortina, Warner Bros. Discovery (W...
25/02/2026
In addition to 16:9-to-9:16 intelligent cropping for live video, Inference autom...
25/02/2026
Longtime rivals Floyd Money Mayweather Jr. (50-0, 27 KOs) and Manny PacMan P...
25/02/2026
The WNBA's Portland Fire and NWSL's Portland Thorns announce a groundbre...
25/02/2026
Multi-angle coverage, on-demand access to ultra-high-resolution video are provided for replays and clips across multiple distribution channels
The NHL and Cosm...
25/02/2026
The implementation standardizes an integrated workflow connecting ultra-high-res...
25/02/2026
Targeting a younger audience, creator-led network's Access Granted series hi...
25/02/2026
Alpha, the project's systems integrator, assisted in the workflow transformation
Tipping off the second half of the 2025-26 home schedule against the Houst...
25/02/2026
OCVIBE, the 100-acre mixed-use development transforming the area surrounding Hon...
25/02/2026
It's never been easier to customize your Spotify listening experience. Last year, we introduced more control over the way your playlist sounds, giving Premi...
25/02/2026
Hip-hop thrives on constant reinvention, with bold voices and fearless experimentation continually pushing the genre's boundaries. Every era brings new lead...
25/02/2026
L3Harris technicians recently completed a major mirror refurbishment for the U.S...
25/02/2026
This new offering helps solve for the need to move beyond traditional audience d...
25/02/2026
Gold-standard Gracenote content metadata will power Samsung's LLM-enabled entertainment search discovery experiences and more
NEW YORK February 25, 202...
25/02/2026
Afrobeats Icon Tiwa Savage Joins Forces with Berklee to Empower African Talent In collaboration with Berklee Global, the Tiwa Savage Music Foundation will hos...
25/02/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
25/02/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
25/02/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
25/02/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
25/02/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
25/02/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
25/02/2026
Arch Platform Technologies, a leading platform for creating and managing cloud workstation infrastructure, and Wacom, the world's leading manufacturer of in...
25/02/2026
Today, AWS is announcing AWS Elemental Inference, a fully managed AI service that automatically transforms and maximizes live and on-demand video broadcasts to ...
25/02/2026
As the only private television broadcaster serving Italian-speaking Switzerland, TeleTicino has long been committed to delivering authoritative, locally focused...
25/02/2026
In 2025, Magyar Telekom continued the consistent execution of its long-term stra...
25/02/2026
Joe Wilkinson and Joe Marler reunite for a tongue-in-cheek campaign exploring the hilarious extremes of modern loveWednesday 25 February 2026
Mix Tapes to Vide...
25/02/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Releases Exclusive Video and First Images From Brazil ...
25/02/2026
Harmonic's XOS Advanced Media Processor Leverages AI-Powered Encoding to Deliver Exceptional Video Quality to Alcom Customers SAN JOSE, Calif. - Feb. 25, 2...
24/02/2026
TNDV, a division of Live Media Group, delivered broadcast and live event product services for Passion 2026, marking the company's 17th year supporting the a...
24/02/2026
Ryan Schaber has had a front row seat to both the dynamics behind the Kraken's now-extended broadcast affiliation with TEGNA and its impact on the broader s...
24/02/2026
All Women's Sports Network (AWSN) announces the debut of women's professional boxing on its fast-growing television platform in partnership with Hall of...
24/02/2026
The NFL and StatusPRO, a sports entertainment and technology company that combines AI and performance data with emerging technology to create experiential conte...
24/02/2026
Pro League Network (PLN), a next-generation sports media and entertainment compa...
24/02/2026
Sportel Asia returns to Singapore for the first time since 2018 on March 24-25 and Agn s Marsan, Executive Director of SPORTEL Asia, says the return to Singapor...
24/02/2026
Join ARRI for a conversation and Q&A with Sports Cinematographer Domenick Satter...
24/02/2026
Veritone, Inc announces a renewal of its agreement with U.S. Soccer to license a...
24/02/2026
Commitment to innovation at network, conference, and institutional levels have i...
24/02/2026
The new RSN, which will produce 140+ games a year, arrives after the Braves exited Main Street Sports and FanDuel Sports Network earlier this month....
24/02/2026
CBS Sports and Concacaf today announced that CBS Sports will be the exclusive En...
24/02/2026
Official Venues Unveiled for Festival's Milestone Colorado Debut in 2027...
24/02/2026
Life needs music. So does the afterlife. That's why Spotify has partnered wi...