Q&A WITH NICK TROIANO
Nick Troiano, CEO of Cadent, which uses data driven-solutions to connect brands with TV audiences across cable, broadcast, and digital media, looks forward to Cannes Lions every summer. “It’s a great event in general for advertising and for the creative side, because great commercials create great results,” he says. “But what’s really unique about it, is that the quality and level of attendees is really unbelievable. It’s a unique opportunity to meet many of the top agency heads, and the top media players, from networks to agencies and also partners.” He’s not complaining about the surroundings of these annual meet-and-greets either. “It’s a beautiful and a casual environment,” he tells us. “It’s on the water, it’s 80 degrees, and most of the folks that we see every day in suits and ties or in offices with no windows are outside actually enjoying sun and having great conversations about work.” We caught up with Troiano about the future of advertising and what excites him about the direction we are headed.
Advertising is going through interesting changes right now. Do you still see TV advertising as being effective?
Yes. A great commercial delivers the perfect result for an advertiser. It’s engaging, it creates a certain response. That response could be brand loyalty or it could be changing a behavior. TV has obviously gone through a massive transformation in terms of media inflation, audience fragmentation and multi-platform viewing, but television in traditional sense – reaching consumers on a mass media – it’s still a 70-billion-dollar industry. We think the change is actually great. It creates new opportunities. The use of technology and data, which obviously benefits Cadent, is creating great opportunities for what people call “new television,” or what the new TV environment should look like.
Are you thinking about linear programming or anything that you can watch on a screen?
Both, actually. From our perspective at Cadent, we touch both. Traditional linear television is still very, very powerful and is still going to be a powerful medium for advertisers, but at the same time, we all know that audiences are moving to other platforms.
Are you concerned about audience fragmentation?
From our perspective, our client really wants to reach the largest high-value audience or targeted audiences they can. Fragmentation creates a problem if those platforms and those audiences are not able to be reached in a consistent or simplistic way for an advertiser. But most of our business is based on making it simpler and easier for advertisers to buy audiences across any platform. That’s where technology and automation come in. It’s what we have thrived on over many years in terms of aggregating distributed supply and making it easier for advertisers to buy.
What excites you about the direction we’re headed?
I think there is a tremendous amount of noise in the marketplace around the use of data, especially the use of data on television, and I think we’re really excited about bringing a solution to the marketplace at scale that is a very compelling compliment to a large-scale digital strategy for an advertiser or a brand. Meaning, television is right now dominated by a traditional buying strategy based on existing legacy systems, but we all know that marketers are demanding better accountability, better optimization, better ROI. I’m excited because I think Cadent is uniquely positioned to bring data-driven capability to traditional television at scale now. Not in three years, but now.
What do you think is the future of advertising?
A lot of people talk about the use of data and platforms to deliver an ad to the right person at the right time, but they don’t talk about the right ad to the right person at the right time. And the reason why they don’t talk about the first piece – the right ad – is because creative still hasn’t gotten there. That’s what I get very excited about: the ability to leverage all that great sight, sound and motion and creativity of advertising, but deliver it in a personalized message is certainly the future. And I think we see the benefits of it today, we just haven’t gotten there yet with the technology.
TODAY’S GOLD WINNERS OF THE CANNES LIONS AWARDS: PHARMA HEALTH AND WELLNESS
Pharma Gold Prizes
“The Hearing Test in Disguise”
Cochlear Hearing Implants
CHE Proximity, Melbourne.
Revolver/Will O’Rourke Sydney
Australia
“Change Gout”
Grunenthal
Langland, Windsor
Jam3, Toronto
United Kingdom
Young Lions Health
#MeToon
Gerardo Saavedra, Felipa, Mexico City
Emiliano Salmon, Felipa, Mexico City
“Project 84”
Calm
adam&eveDDB, London
W Communications, London
UK
“Prescribed to Death”
National Safety Council
Energy BBDO, Chicago
PHD, Chicago
Ketchum, New York
m ss ng p eces, New York
USA
“Imaginary Friend Society”
Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation
RPA, Santa Monica
USA
“Sip Safe”
Monash University
Y&R Melbourne
Australia
“Black Supermarket”
Carrefour
Marcel, Paris
Prodigious/Iconoclast/Nightshift/Gum/DMBM, Paris
France
Grand Prix:
“Corazon – Give Your Heart”
Montefiore/Organ Donation
John X Hannes, New York
Serial Pictures/Exile Editorial, New York/Active Theory
Barking Owl, Los Angeles/A52 Santa Monica
USA
Lions Health United Nations Grand Prix for Good
“Blink to Speak”
Asha Ek Hope Foundation
TBWA/India, Mumbai
India
Healthcare Agency of the Year
Havas Lynx Manchester
Healthcare Network of the Year
FCB Health
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Work like you don’t need your job. If you work in fear of losing your job you won’t disrupt. If you’re disruptive, someone will hire you – I will hire you,” Vineet Mehra, Global CMO of Ancestry.com
TOMORROW AT CANNES LIONS
Business is only picking up on the second day of Lions. Panels include what’s coming next in branded consumer experience and how diversity is both a values issue and business imperative. We’ll hear how AI and VR will shape the future of Hollywood and about data driven creativity as the new innovation model. Be sure to set your dial to Cynopsis!
