I cover creators at Like & Subscribe, a standalone Ankler Media newsletter, and I’m on the ground at Cannes Lions this week. I wrote about Cannes Lions Day 1, including Janice Min’s Q&A with Roku’s Charlie Collier, and listed 14 must-meet power players at the fest. I’m natalie@theankler.com
The heat wave in France swelters on, but record temps haven’t slowed down the activity along the Croisette. Creators — and here that means everyone from Kevin Durant to Eva Longoria, who are both talking up brands all week long — are out in force. In the last 24 hours I’ve run into Dhar Mann, caught a glimpse of Jenna Lyons and watched Summer House’s Kyle Cooke DJ an NBC cocktail party, where his co-star Lindsay Hubbard succinctly summed up this year’s fest: “It’s hot AF.”
After a full day of programming on Tuesday, which I’ll debrief you on below, Team Ankler retreated to the hills today for a swanky private lunch at Villa Bagatelle co-hosted by CEO Janice Min, Whalar co-CEOs Jo Cronk and Emma Harman and myself. Mediterranean views and a very welcome cool breeze welcome some of the most in-demand people at the fest, including NFL CMO Tim Ellis, creator Adam W, FOX’s head of creator studios Billy Parks and NBCUniversal chief business officer Liz Jenkins, who took a break from the hustle-bustle to break bread. Over grilled sea bass and summer strawberries, financial literacy creator Mia McGrath told me she traveled to Cannes with her management firm, Whalar Group-owned Sixteenth, a decision that’s already paid dividends thanks to the connections she made at brand activations along the Croisette — which she’s been documenting on her Instagram all week.
One year after creators first fully stormed the Croisette, there was a palpable feeling among attendees that this is the year the real work begins. Whalar’s Cronk and Harman, who got ahead of Cannes Lions with the big news of their sale to Accenture Song (whose global social lead, Heather Hosey, also joined for our lunch), will be leading that charge. They know firsthand that deep partnerships can be forged beachside at the fest; indeed, Cronk told attendees that last year’s Cannes Lions was where the two companies first kicked off conversations. I look forward to reporting soon on all the deals being struck this year.
Now, before I head to the ADWEEK Creative 100 Reception that Janice is co-hosting with ADWEEK CEO Will Lee, here are the highlights from The Ankler’s busy day on the Croisette — including Janice’s conversations with Netflix’s Amy Reinhard and FOX Entertainment’s Rob Wade and a news-making Vice Studios panel. Plus, Claire Atkinson’s dispatch from Lions don Michael Kassan’s annual du Cap bash.
Vice’s Scripted TV Play
Three years after filing for bankruptcy, Vice Media was back on the Croisette as new CEO Adam Stotsky, fresh from celebrating his one-year anniversary in the role, and recently installed Vice Studios president Amy Powell unfurled a slate of new projects in development.
Powell joined me on stage at The Impact Lounge to announce one of those series, scripted comedy Work Husbands based on the real-life relationship between head of UTA Next Gen Ziad Ahmed and his longtime business partner Nate Jones. They’re billing the series as a workplace comedy for Gen Z, one that will explore the way our jobs bleed into every facet of our lives, including our relationships.
“We’re really excited… to tell a story that really allows us to uncover the complex moment that Gen Z is navigating,” said Ahmed.
Vice Studios, which is behind Gangs of London, also has a scripted project in the works from Pablo Torre and a planned adaptation of Anika Jade Levy’s novel Flat Earth. The company’s new slate offers the first taste of the future direction under new leadership, including owner Fortress, which acquired Vice out of bankruptcy. Meanwhile, onetime Cannes Lions regular Shane Smith (he of the late-night parties and Hotel du Cap cigar bar) spent this year away from the hustle and bustle of the Croisette following the release of a new Vice News interview filmed in Tehran and produced in collaboration with Andrew Callaghan, Claire learned after my panel wrapped.
Paramount and Amazon veteran Powell says Vice wants to work with storytellers with deep connections to their source material. “It’s really important to the DNA at Vice,” she told me. “We want the actual voices to tell the stories themselves.”
With Work Husbands, Powell has Gen Z in her line of sight. Ahmed and Jones are experts at translating that generation’s tastes for Hollywood and brand clients, after all. “We know a ton of writers and talent that we want to bring into this process that will make sure that it resonates with this community because it’s built by that community,” Jones said.
The self-described cinephile said it’s a misconception that young people don’t go to the movies or watch TV. “I think television is actually probably one of the things that unites us most right now,” he said, pointing to Heated Rivalry and Love Island as hits among his cohort. Now it’s his turn to make the next Gen Z watercooler show.
Summer House, Netflix, Fox & Brands’ Next Stage
My Vice panel was just one episode in a packed afternoon of programming at Impact Lounge. Janice kicked things off with a conversation about the new entertainment economy with FOX Entertainment CEO Rob Wade and FOX Creator Studios Head Billy Parks. Wade was just as mum on the pending Fox-Roku deal as his soon-to-be-colleague Charlie Collier, Roku Media’s president, whom Janice interviewed on Monday.
But Wade had more to say about why FOX is investing in creator-made content for social platforms, telling Janice that he first began looking into how to team up with creators two years ago, then tapped digital video veteran Parks earlier this year to drive the strategy. “Often legacy media companies have had real trouble buying into the needs of the creator economy,” Parks said. “The way in which Rob… talked about building an actual business on the internet that wasn’t focused on moving creators from where they matter the most and where they have the most powerful connection with their audience and just try to port them somewhere else as a No. 1 goal was a great first step.”
I touched on another hot topic later in the day when I interviewed MediaPlacement CEO Britt Johnson, Netflix VP of Global Brand Partnership marketing Magno Herran and SharkNinja SVP of Global Entertainment and Culture Strategy Laura Dyer about how brands can find their way into one of the most premium environments around: film and television. “Where we are right now, I think is one of the best places we’ve ever been,” for the relationships between brands and Hollywood, Johnson told me. “We’ve been doing this for almost 29 years now… and I feel like we’ve got writers, we’ve got producers, we’ve got studios, everybody wants to find the right fit for brands.” The abundance of opportunity has led to some interesting deals, like Netflix’s recent partnership with State Farm that saw spokesman Jake appear in season two of Running Point and the two companies team up on a series of co-branded advertising spots. “We had a really fun chat at the upfronts,” Herran said of how the deal came about, calling it a “holistic conversation” from the start.
Sometimes deals start big, other times they start small. Dyer says she sent her company’s CryoGlow LED masks to the writers on season three of Nobody Wants This and was pleasantly surprised when series star Justine Lupe posted herself wearing the product. Now they’re hoping for an integration in the upcoming season. Though that was a low risk opportunity for the brand, SharkNinja’s not afraid to swing big, like it did to get its logo into F1 last year. “Just take risks,” Dyer said. “What’s the worst that can happen?”
Taking risks is something the duo in my other panel yesterday, Summer House and In The City star Lindsay Hubbard and Bravo & Peacock unscripted chairman Frances Berwick, understand well — and they also know what can happen when everything blows up. After a relationship between two stars of Summer House sent shockwaves through the entire cast and the show’s audience, Berwick knew what to do. After all, she’d been through this before with Vanderpump Rules. “At first we just offered support, and then we leant in,” she told me, explaining that production was able to film a special “Aftermath” episode that aired after a three-part reunion.
Ratings for Summer House have climbed every season since it started in 2017, a rare feat for a reality show, and the interest around the latest season coincided with a big boom in viewership for Bravo on streamer Peacock, where the cable network clocked its best quarter to date. “This is entertainment that is a self-care movement,” Berwick said, noting that viewers relate to the stars of her shows. “I basically spent my entire 30s on Summer House,” said Hubbard. “There’s a big long journey that we live in life, and to be able to capture these pivotal moments is highly relatable.” Will we see more of those moments on the season of Summer House that’s about to start filming? “I have always been a Hamptons girlie,” Hubbard teased. “I have some weekends free.”
Fandoms were also central to a conversation I moderated earlier in the day at Collins House, where The Real Housewives of New York star Sai De Silva told me she felt like a superstar the first time she appeared at BravoCon, and Alan Bersten and Emma Slater of Dancing With the Stars say they’ve noticed a real shift in the audience as the show has surged in the ratings in the last few years. Now when young people approach them, they don’t just say their grandmas watch the show, but that they’re watching too.
Over at the other end of the Croisette, Janice spoke to Netflix president of advertising Amy Reinhard, who as Claire reports, shared with the crowd at Brand Innovators’ Beach Stage that 65 percent of new members are choosing the ad-supported plan which is currently 250 million monthly active users. Netflix, said Reinhard, is different from other streaming rivals because it puts the viewer experience first and prioritizes lighter ad loads, frequency capping so viewers don’t get sick of the same commercials on repeat. Netflix also thinks hard about when to drop in breaks, and all combined, it’s working to show high completion rates, as much as 98 percent for many spots.
Reinhard also hit on the hot topic of the fest, “performance.” Watching a show is one thing; advertisers want to know what part of their ad budget is working to drive sales and awareness. To that end, she told Janice that the company has built a tech stack to provide detailed performance measurement to their ad partners.
Thanks to everyone who joined us for these great conversations on the Croisette — watch Ankler socials for more, and look for the full videos of all our panels on our YouTube later this week.
Decadence at the du Cap
When your party kicks off the week at Cannes, the dilemma is always: Stay late and have fun or be sensible and get home early? It should come as little surprise that Michael Kassan decided to extend his schmooze well into the night as DJ Questlove spun the tunes at Kassan’s annual high-level executive get-together at the posh Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc. Party co-host Bob “MTV Daddy” Pittman, however, opted to hit the sack in favor of a morning visit to the gym.
The dinner and afterparty put on by Kassan’s 3C Ventures and audio giant iHeartMedia — with co-sponsors Condé Nast and Capital One — was, as ever, thick with ad industry pros and a plethora of young California guys in sneakers with start-ups and deal thirst.
Among those making the trip to the executive dinner, co-hosted with Disney, were: Piers Morgan, Paris Hilton, Jeffrey Katzenberg, WPP chief Cindy Rose, PR supremo Richard Edelman and Gap Inc. CMO Fabiola Torres and chief entertainment officer Pam Kaufman.
Kassan’s soirée is a must-have invite on the Monday of Lions, a day ahead of the UTA bash he used to oversee (in the same location) when he ran MediaLink for the agency. The party kept going after dark with guests Baby Face, Miguel and Rachel Zoe along with a host of media and marketing executives who mingled with the likes of Vox Media’s Jim Bankoff and digital ad entrepreneur Joe Marchese and his film exec wife Christie. They chatted with Horizon Media founder Bill Koenigsberg about Marchese’s latest investment — the Alpine aperitivo Doladira. — Claire Atkinson
It’s not all vertical anymore. Instagram is testing out horizontal video on its big-screen TV app.
Podcast executives wooed Ina Garten with bags of candies and jars of homemade pickles before she decided to bring her new podcast, Happy Hour With Ina Garten, to Vox Media.
Hot Ones host Sean Evans is headed to Netflix with a new series, Hot Ones: Extra Heat, where he’ll bring his famous spicy chicken wings to special Netflix events like MLB’s T-Mobile Home Run Derby.
UTA is all in on creators… and so is CAA. Both agencies have big presences here at Cannes Lions — and put their creator businesses in the spotlight ahead of the fest.
MrBeast once again topped Forbes’ list of most powerful influencers, which also included cover star Dhar Mann, Steven Bartlett, Alix Earle and Drew Afualo.
