‘King of Cannes’ Michael Kassan on AI disruption a – Business News
Michael Kassan isn’t known as the “King of Cannes” for nothing. The founder and chief government of strategic advisory firm 3C Ventures has been coming to Cannes Lions for 26 years – and remembers when the occasion was simply an awards ceremony with a few events thrown by advert businesses.
With Kassan’s help, the occasion has roared by way of the ages bringing creatives, entrepreneurs, media manufacturers, tech giants and celebrities to the French seaside city.
Kassan spoke to The Post in regards to the evolution of Cannes Lions, the challenges dealing with the industry and how 3CV works with purchasers to thrive in as we speak’s fast-paced, ever-changing surroundings.
Kassan mentioned AI could make organizations sooner, however velocity solely helps if the group is aware of the place it’s going. {“file_id”:4839456,”custom_field_id”:13,”value”:”John Salangsang”,”created_at”:”2025-04-30 16:16:57″,”updated_at”:”2025-04-30 16:16:57″}
Q: You based 3C Ventures in 2024, after having spent a long time advising the largest media and advertising corporations. What gaps within the market has 3CV been uniquely positioned to fill?
Michael Kassan: Leadership groups have at all times handled complexity. What feels completely different as we speak is the tempo of change and the degree of interconnectedness throughout the business, a lot of it accelerated by AI.
Technology, shopper conduct, media, commerce, expertise, and economics are all evolving concurrently, typically in ways in which affect each other. A choice in a single space can rapidly create implications throughout a number of others.
That’s the place 3C Ventures is available in. We constructed the firm round an operator’s lens — a group of seasoned executives who’ve run companies, managed growth, and delivered outcomes by way of transformation. We don’t view strategy because the end line. We spend as a lot time targeted on implementation, partnerships, and execution as we do on the advice itself. In a market the place so many selections have develop into interconnected, our position helps leaders translate insight into motion and create tangible business outcomes.
Q: What particular industry issues are your purchasers asking you to help resolve?
MK: The query we hear most frequently is easy: “What should we do now?”
That can imply a lot of issues. It can imply rethinking an company model, building an AI plan that connects to the business, evaluating a media or technology associate, sharpening a go-to-market strategy, designing a higher advertising group, or determining the place a model ought to show up in tradition.
There’s a lot of complexity within the market proper now, and a lot of language that sounds more subtle than it’s. Every company is being bought a platform, a dashboard, a transformation or a promise of effectivity. Our purchasers need help separating substance from theater.
They wish to know what issues, what can wait, who they need to trust, and how to show a strategic alternative into one thing that works inside their business.
Q: Your company balances advisory work with investment alternatives and strategic partnerships – what kinds of alternatives and partnerships do you search for, and why?
MK: We search for alternatives the place the need is evident, the management is robust, and the business has a cause to matter.
partnership ought to create momentum for either side. It ought to help a company attain clients, construct credibility, open a new market, strengthen a product, or speed up growth in a method it couldn’t do alone.
We’re particularly focused on companies that sit on the intersection of technology and human conduct. That’s the place the market is transferring. The best corporations on this space perceive the instruments, however additionally they perceive people: how they spend time, what earns their consideration, what builds trust, and what makes them act.
Technology can get you into the dialog. Trust and execution keep you there.
Bob Pittman, CEO of iHeartMedia, Kassan and Rita Ferro, president of Advertising Sales at The Walt Disney Company, on the VIP feast hosted by iHeartMedia, 3C Ventures and Disney during the Cannes Lions Festival at Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc final yr. Getty Images for iHeartMedia
Q: Which sectors within media, advertising, sports activities, leisure and tech are you most bullish on by way of the lens of 3CV?
MK: I’m bullish on companies that sit close to consideration, commerce, id and tradition.
Commerce media is one of probably the most attention-grabbing areas as a result of the space between discovery and buy retains shrinking. Consumers can see one thing, contemplate it and buy it in the identical surroundings. That adjustments the position of media and adjustments what manufacturers need from companions.
Sports even have monumental momentum. In a fragmented media world, sports activities nonetheless delivers reside consideration, neighborhood, emotion and scale. That mixture is uncommon, and entrepreneurs perceive its worth.
I’m additionally focused on creator-led companies, fashionable measurement, id infrastructure, AI-enabled workflows and firms that help entrepreneurs make higher choices with the info they have already got. The common thread is usefulness. The market wants a clear set of instruments, companions, and concepts that resolve actual issues.
Q: What does 3CV have deliberate this yr at Cannes Lions?
MK: For us, Cannes has at all times been about convening. Bringing entrepreneurs, media executives, founders, creators, athletes, leisure leaders, technology corporations, and company leaders collectively in a single place to create alternatives that wouldn’t in any other case exist. New partnerships are fashioned, strategic relationships are strengthened, concepts are challenged, and business will get executed.
This yr, 3C Ventures has an expanded presence anchored by PLAGE 3CV, our flagship seaside vacation spot for the week. We designed it as a place the place significant conversations result in significant outcomes: half hospitality and networking, half thought management platform, and half assembly ground for business development.
(L to R) Kassan with Pittman, musician Questlove and Rich Bressler, CFO of iHeartMedia eventually yr’s iHeart, 3CV and Conde Nast after-party on the New Pavilion at Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc. Getty Images for iHeartMedia
PLAGE 3CV hosts curated hospitality experiences, together with The Chef’s Table, an intimate eating collection with Michelin-starred visitor cooks and perfume workshops, Le Bistro, our Mediterranean-style beachfront pop-up, and each day joyful hours hosted by Zeta Global.
At the middle of it’s CONVENE at PLAGE 3CV, our programming collection. The week covers tradition, commerce, creators, fandom, sports activities, AI and the altering relationship between manufacturers and shoppers. We have leaders from corporations throughout the ecosystem becoming a member of us for conversations designed to be full of life, particular, and helpful.
We additionally hosted the annual 3CONVENE Executive Dinner with Disney, at Hotel du Cap on Monday night. Later that evening, we co-hosted the iHeartMedia After Dark Celebration with Condé Nast and Capital One, additionally at Hotel du Cap, with a particular DJ set by Questlove.
For us, Cannes is about proximity. The more fruitful conversations hardly ever occur accidentally, however they do need the proper setting.
Q: What are the largest points entrepreneurs are speaking about at Cannes Lions this yr – and what topics are nonetheless getting too little consideration?
MK: AI will dominate the week. So will commerce + retail media, sports activities, creators, measurement,, and the evolving company model. Those are all important. But for me, the more attention-grabbing query is how corporations need to change in response.
Last yr’s VIP feast hosted by IHeart Media, 3C Ventures and Disney at Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc Getty Images for iHeartMedia
AI could make organizations sooner, however velocity solely helps if the group is aware of the place it’s going. Loads of corporations nonetheless have decision-making constructions, approval processes, expertise fashions, and associate ecosystems constructed for a slower market. That’s the half that deserves more consideration. The technology dialog is forward of the working model dialog.
Marketers are additionally pondering arduous about trust. Consumers are transferring by way of more channels, more platforms, and more kinds of content material than ever. The more profitable manufacturers will use technology to develop into more related and more helpful, whereas nonetheless feeling human.
Q: AI is reshaping each facet of promoting and content material creation. Which areas of the industry are most weak to disruption and which have develop into more useful and benefited from AI?
MK: Every dialog about AI begins with effectivity, and effectivity issues. AI will make many duties sooner and cheaper: manufacturing, reporting, versioning, evaluation, optimization and elements of planning.
The bigger shift is round worth. For a long time, a lot of the industry was constructed round producing issues: plans, studies, belongings, decks, content material, suggestions. AI will increase the provision of all of that. When provide will increase, worth strikes towards the issues which might be more durable to automate.
Judgment issues more. Taste issues more. Originality issues more. The skill to ask the proper query issues more. The skill to grasp a model, a buyer, a cultural second and a business drawback on the similar time turns into extremely useful.
AI will change the mechanics of creativity and media. It can even make great human judgment simpler to identify.
Q: How do you suppose the position of the fashionable CMO has modified over the past 5 years – and what abilities matter most?
Kassan mentioned this yr’s convention shall be all about AI. Rene Hernandez
MK: The CMO position has develop into one of probably the most difficult jobs within the C-suite. Just a few years in the past, the job centered on model, media, growth, and buyer expertise. Those tasks haven’t gone away. Now, the CMO additionally wants to grasp information, technology, AI, commerce, privateness, measurement and how advertising connects to the broader business model.
The best CMOs are “translators”. They can sit with the CEO and speak about growth, with the CFO and speak about returns, with the CTO and speak about systems, with inventive groups and speak about concepts and with shoppers by way of the work itself.
That requires vary. It additionally requires curiosity, as a result of the job retains altering. The CMOs I like most don’t faux to have each reply. They know how to ask higher questions and construct groups that may keep studying.
Q: We have already seen a ton of media and promoting consolidation lately, and more is predicted. What separates profitable media acquisitions from offers that look good on paper however finally fail?
MK: Most acquisitions make sense on announcement day. The story is often clean: scale, effectivity, complementary capabilities, expanded attain. I believe the arduous half begins after the press release.
acquisition wants a clear view of how the mixed company will create more worth for purchasers, clients, expertise, and shareholders. That means management alignment, cultural match, a actual integration plan, and a clear understanding of which capabilities matter most.
Cost financial savings can assist a deal, however that may’t be the entire story. Long-term worth often comes from higher merchandise, stronger expertise, higher distribution, higher information, sharper strategy, or a more compelling market place.
Deals are financial transactions, however corporations are human systems. The numbers might get a deal signed, but it surely’s the people who decide whether or not it really works.
Kassan mentioned Cannes began as a pageant to rejoice great promoting, however as we speak it’s a world gathering round consideration, tradition, technology, leisure, commerce, and business. Ella Pellegrini
Q: Television goes by way of a main disruption as viewers proceed to flock to streaming and social media platforms – in the event you had been in charge of a main TV community, what steps would you are taking to higher place your company for growth?
MK: I’d start by increasing the definition of the business. A significant TV community has programming, expertise, mental property, reside occasions, promoting relationships, viewers trust, and cultural relevance. Those belongings can journey throughout many environments if the company builds for that actuality.
The precedence can be creating a stronger viewers business. That means investing in franchises, reside programming, sports activities, creators, and codecs that may transfer throughout streaming, social, reside experiences, and commerce.
I might additionally prioritize stronger information and promoting merchandise. Marketers need premium environments, however additionally they need higher concentrating on, higher measurement, and clearer outcomes.
Consumers don’t suppose in channels anymore. They suppose in moments, exhibits, personalities, clips, video games, and conversations. So meaning media corporations need to construct round the way in which people truly behave.
Q: If you had been launching a media or advertising company from scratch as we speak, what would you prioritize first: technology, expertise, information, distribution or one thing else – and why?
MK: I’d begin with expertise and a clear cause to exist. Technology issues. Data issues. Distribution issues. But great people make the important decisions about how these items come collectively.
The instruments develop into obtainable to everybody over time. The benefit comes from judgment, creativity, velocity, relationships, and the self-discipline to focus on a actual buyer need. A new company as we speak must be constructed with technology and information in its basis, of course. But the primary query I’d ask is: who is that this for, and why will they care? If you’ll be able to reply that clearly, you’ll be able to construct. If you’ll be able to’t, no technology stack will prevent.
Q: You’ve been to Cannes Lions for over 25 years. How has the pageant advanced and what do you continue to stay up for yearly?
MK: Cannes began as a pageant to rejoice great promoting. Today, it’s a world gathering round consideration, tradition, technology, leisure, commerce and business.
The viewers has expanded dramatically, and the conversations have expanded with it. You nonetheless have the inventive neighborhood, which is important to Cannes, however you even have platforms, publishers, athletes, creators, founders, leisure corporations, businesses, entrepreneurs, and technology leaders all in the identical place.
What I nonetheless get pleasure from is the power of the week. You can really feel what the industry cares about earlier than it exhibits up in a formal report. You hear which questions keep coming up. You see which corporations have momentum. You meet people who finish up shaping your yr.
Cannes is intense, but it surely stays profoundly helpful as a result of it compresses the industry into one week … And no one is complaining in regards to the backdrop.
