This guest blog was originally published on Airship.com.

The demand for personalized messaging is on the rise, yet consumers are becoming increasingly cautious about when, how and why they share their personal information with brands. Consumers want brands to know them (“cool”), but not too much (“creepy”). As first-party data takes center stage, it’s crucial for brands to strike the right balance between relevance and privacy.

The Cannes Lions “Personalization and Privacy” panel saw Airship Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer Thomas Butta, Infillion CMO Laurel Rossi, and VaynerX EVP, Zubin Mowlavi, engage in a stimulating discussion, moderated by Bain & Company Partner Maureen Burns. The panel focused on the effective tactics and approach necessary for brands of all sizes to continually optimize relevance and customer experience, while respecting privacy. The conversation also featured the unveiling of new research by Airship that delved into 11,000 global consumers’ preferences regarding brand interactions — ranging from the most useful forms of personalization to the factors influencing app retention and deletion.

Here, we’ll explore the evolving dynamics of personalized messaging and privacy, while considering the challenges marketers face achieving this delicate balance.

The Potential — and Limits — of AI.

The realm of AI and machine learning present an opportunity to not only avoid the unsettling practice of intrusive, blunt retargeting, but also to discover individuals who share similarities with our initial target audience and may genuinely appreciate the experience we have in store for them.

Infillion’s Laurel Rossi said that by engaging with consumers during the next phase of their purchasing journey and eliminating an unnecessary step, we not only save them valuable time and attention but also ensure that they receive the relevance they desire.

The untapped potential of AI is often overshadowed by its association with “creepiness” — when the consumer feels virtually “stalked” by the brand.

Creep Factor? No, You Can’t.

Burns posed the question to the panel, “Is it creepy if it’s really relevant?”

According to Airship’s Thomas Butta, consumers are open to receiving information related to their stated interests. He emphasized, though, that potential problems arise when you cross a boundary with privacy.

Rossi argued that the concept of relevance extends beyond traditional personalization and through to deep personalization. The goal is to identify the true value-add and moments of delight awaiting consumers along their journey. The thinking goes, consumers will appreciate the means if the ends are marvelous and meaningful.

VaynerX’s Zubin Mowlavi noted that it’s usually desirable to be at the forefront of marketing and technology, but this particular area is an exception: here, it’s crucial to align with consumer expectations and not exceed them.

When people perceive their phones to be listening to them and they receive unexpected content, that’s when the unsettling aspect arises — the creep factor. As brands, it’s vital to refrain from exceeding consumer expectations simply because you can, given available technology.

How, When, Where — Best Practices in Privacy & Personalization. 

Butta emphasized that brands that effectively implement personalization strategies achieve an impressive 30-45% retention rate from their initial app downloads. How? By focusing on the how, when and where of both privacy and relevance.

After download, brand leaders promptly query users about their interests and assist users in establishing communication preferences in terms of timing, frequency and preferred channels. By prioritizing these best practices, successful brands are able to strike a balance between personalization and privacy — ensuring a positive user experience, while respecting individual preferences.

Optimizing for Conversion: Rethinking Metrics and Consumer Engagement.

According to Rossi, consumers are highly vocal about their aversion to ads and go out of their way to ignore approximately two-thirds of them. As brands, our primary objective should be to capture consumers’ attention. For an app, the way to do that is by providing consumers with a superior experience. If a customer genuinely does not desire ads, we should offer them the option to opt out.

In real life, practices are different. In light of deteriorating macroeconomic conditions, the industry has gravitated towards inexpensive media, overly fixated on generating clicks. And, as Rossi highlights strongly, this approach is not getting us anywhere.

Mowlavi emphasizes the criticality of optimizing for the right metrics, as many marketers tend to prioritize engagement and marketing KPIs that may not necessarily influence actual purchases. Successful brands, on the other hand, prioritize optimization that extends all the way to conversion, whether at a macro or micro level, across different channels. Simply optimizing for clicks, without considering meaningful outcomes, leads to superficial engagement. The focus should be on identifying the consumers who generate the highest lifetime value — understanding their product usage patterns and the underlying drivers. By concentrating on these cohorts and optimizing accordingly, rather than fixating on clicks and engagement on external platforms, brands can achieve more meaningful and impactful results.

According to Butta, there is a growing realization that a significant portion of email usage is wasteful. At the same time, many marketing cloud platforms rely heavily on email as a primary channel.

Interestingly, consumers are willing to share their email addresses as the most prominent piece of data. However, when it comes to communication, email is often the first to be ignored, particularly among younger generations — of whom, 81% or more ignore email marketing they’ve subscribed to at least half the time or more. This is partly due to the prevalence of disposable or fake email addresses. Promotional emails are typically dismissed as such, while transactional emails or those providing genuine value are considered “good” emails. The result is inefficiency and wasted effort in the realm of email marketing.

Brands are being forced to rely on internal (zero- and first-party) data rather than external (third-party) data. This is what consumers want as well. They want the relationship to be with the brand, not with third parties who are trying to get to them.

No-code Solutions Allow Marketers to Drive Moments That Matter.

According to Butta, the potential of the mobile app lies in its always-on reach and the continuous conversation it fosters. Marketers — or at least, those who are eager to expand their capabilities — have historically relied on developers to improve app user experiences — and they represent a scarce resource.

However, with the shift from HTML to native and the emergence of no-code solutions, non-technical professionals can now actively create meaningful moments and accomplish much more. Drawing inspiration from the app’s ability to provide continuous experiences, marketers can apply their insights without being burdened by time constraints imposed on developers. This paradigm shift empowers marketers to take charge and make a more significant impact in driving greater value creation.

Butta suggested that brands can enhance their effectiveness by reacting promptly to consumer feedback, which may be direct via surveys or app store reviews, or observed from data on their behaviors. By responding directly, rather than relying on intermediaries like developers, brands can establish a more immediate and direct connection with their audiences.

Understanding Consumer Experience and Loyalty.

According to Butta, the essence of brand interactions lies in the experiences we have with them, and the app serves as the center of these experiences. We’re all consumers, he reminded the audience, and our lives revolve around apps from morning to night — and for many types of apps, total time spent is inverse to value and usefulness provided. The foundation of value-exchange between consumers and brands rests upon respect and reward, and these experiences shape our expectations and preferences.

By recognizing this and ensuring exceptional experiences within the app, brands have the opportunity to cultivate customer loyalty. While downloading an app is a significant step, ensuring users return to it is a whole other game that hinges on delivering relevant content that provides genuine value — from discounts to time-saving solutions.

• Mowlavi emphasized that, with the advent of AI-generated content, there’s the danger of inundating consumers with content.
• Burns highlighted that a crucial challenge in the coming years will be creating a digital frontline within physical stores that consumers will be eager to engage with.
• Burns also pointed out that many brands are unaware of the missed opportunities and untapped potential by not utilizing apps for direct sales.
• Others noted brands need to consider how to interact with consumers across multiple touchpoints — from CTV to mobile devices to in-store shopping.

Collectively, these insights underscored the importance of leveraging digital strategies, respecting consumer preferences, and seizing purchase potential through well-designed and engaging app experiences.

Learn more about global consumer preferences, across countries, generations and income levels, and what exactly brands should be doing in Airship’s latest report, The Mobile Consumer 2023.

In a recent panel discussion at the Infillion Garden in Cannes, Laurel Rossi sat down with Kristi Argyilan, SVP of Retail Media at Albertsons, to discuss the transformative power of retail media networks. The conversation delved into standardization, data privacy, and the industry’s future. While summarizing the entire discussion won’t do justice to the depth of insights shared, here are the key takeaways on the evolving landscape of retail media networks.

Background and Vision: Kristi Argyilan began by sharing her journey, emphasizing her passion for creating engaging advertising and delivering it to the right audience at the right time. “I’ve always been looking for a better way from a media perspective because you see all this really rich content, but getting it in front of the right person at the right time seems to be somewhat elusive.” She expressed her quest for a “win-win-win” scenario, where brands, retailers, and customers all benefit from targeted and relevant messaging, saying “most importantly, that the customer wins, that they’re seeing the content and the messaging that they’re interested in.” Argyilan’s expertise in the creative agency and media spaces eventually led her to Target’s Roundel, where she recognized the immense value of retail media networks in providing customers with the information and engagement they desire.

Empowering Women in the Industry: Laurel Rossi took a moment to address the role of women in the industry and sought Argyilan’s perspective. Argyilan acknowledged the changing expectations of leadership styles and highlighted the natural inclination of women to bring everyone along and foster collaboration. She shared valuable advice with women in the industry, encouraging them to trust their knowledge and embrace vulnerability as a strength. “First off, trust what you know. So many times we’re quiet for multiple years…because we’re not quite sure we got it right. And so we listen and we’re like, they just said what I could have said 15 minutes ago. And then the other piece is trust that being vulnerable in the workplace is actually a strength, it’s a superpower and it’s the way that people really buy into you as a leader.” According to Argyilan, vulnerability is essential for building trust and connecting with the younger generation entering the workforce.

Understanding Retail Media Networks: The discussion then shifted to the definition and differentiation of retail media networks from traditional shopper marketing. Argyilan explained that shopper marketing originated from in-store circulars, signage, and point-of-purchase displays. However, as shoppers became more digital and loyalty programs generated valuable data, retailers recognized the potential to evolve. “It suddenly became apparent with our websites and our apps that we were starting to sit on the makings of a media company.” 

Hyper-Relevance and Consumer Respect: Argyilan highlighted the unique advantage of retail media networks, providing hyper-relevant data on consumers’ behaviors and preferences, both online and offline. But she also stressed the importance of respecting consumers’ time, attention, and privacy while delivering personalized advertising. She stated, “If we promise hyper-relevance and respect to the consumer, we can build stronger relationships.” This approach fosters trust in the industry and strengthens customer connections.

The Power of Local and Customization: Albertsons is an example of the value of being a local-centric retail media network. The industry gains immense potential by customizing marketing efforts to meet the needs of specific communities and integrating online and offline channels. Argyilan explained, “The idea of being able to take the media and sales data and bridge that gap… that is where we are going.” Bridging this gap opens up new opportunities for retailers and advertisers alike.

The Landscape and Standardization: With the emergence of various retail media networks, the topic of standardization became crucial. Argyilan acknowledged the complexity faced by advertisers in dealing with different platforms and emphasized the need for standardization across networks, noting, “We’re hearing loud and clear from our clients that it is too complicated to have to figure out how each of us does our thing… they’re hiring people to try to normalize us and they shouldn’t have to do that.” By streamlining processes and metrics, retail media networks can offer advertisers consistent and comparable results. Collaboration and removing friction from the engagement process are key to fostering stronger partnerships between retailers and advertisers. She stated, “We have to get our act together. We need to standardize the industry, align different networks, and make it easier for advertisers to compare results and measure effectiveness.” Retail media networks can gain greater trust and investment from brands by simplifying the engagement process.

Challenges and Opportunities: The panel concluded with a discussion on the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for retail media networks. Argyilan expressed the importance of continuous innovation and balancing the enhancement of the base business with an aggressive innovation agenda. Efforts are underway to leverage first-party data, build targeted audiences, and integrate with programmatic platforms for seamless ad placement. Collaboration among retail media networks and the industry as a whole is seen as crucial to achieving widespread progress and making the market more accessible and transparent. 

The panel discussion at the Infillion Garden at Cannes provided valuable insights into the world of retail media networks and the need for standardization. Kristi Argyilan’s journey, coupled with her vision for creating win-win-win scenarios, emphasized the potential of retail media networks to revolutionize advertising and customer engagement. As the industry evolves, collaboration, innovation, and standardization will pave the way for a future where retailers, brands, and customers can all reap the rewards of personalized and effective marketing strategies.

While new technologies and capabilities were a hot topic at Cannes Lions, meaningfully advancing diversity and inclusion in the industry—at long last—was another center-stage issue at the festival.

For all the talk over the years about the need for more diversity in media and advertising—in the campaigns we produce, the media we buy, and the people we hire—it was encouraging to hear that hard work is underway to make our ads and companies more reflective of our world. In a series of panel discussions called Inclusion Cafe, hosted by Infillion and our partners, participants acknowledged that the images created by our industry—as well as the people who are hired and promoted within it—can help change global perceptions. 

“Media introduces a narrative, a way of life, and exposes people to things that they may not otherwise be exposed to in their lives,” said Alex Kennedy, EVP of Commercial Strategy at My Code Media, who noted that portraying Black people in positions of power and leadership has been important for changing people’s impressions. 

It certainly works that way in business. As the saying goes, you can’t be what you can’t see. Leveling the playing field in the industry remains a hot topic—and is clearly a must-do. Women in advertising and marketing continue to say they need to see other women in lasting leadership roles if they are going to have high expectations for their own careers. And it’s good for business: “Growth comes from innovation, and the only way you get innovation is through diversity—diversity of thought, diversity of gender, diversity of generations,” said Viviane Paxinos, CEO of AllBright.

How to make sure our campaigns and our workplaces reflect more diversity?

Embrace authentic—and incremental—change. While it’s critical to move beyond superficial “checking the box” initiatives, it’s not difficult to weave representation of more diverse audiences into advertising storylines and scenarios in incremental and authentic ways, noted Tristen Norman, Head of Creative Insights, Americas at Getty Images. That might mean something as simple as putting a same-sex couple at a dinner table holding hands. “We’re building a muscle; we’re a pilot light, not a firework,” said Norman. “This is a lifelong, career-long investment and change that advertisers, marketers—wherever you sit within the industry—have to make.”

Demonstrate opportunity and scale. At Essence Ventures, Chief Revenue Officer Pauline Malcolm is seeing marketers commit to supporting the Essence Festival and other events the company produces. “We really want to ensure that the brand partners that are coming in are really investing into that community and not just doing ‘one and done’ at the festival,” she said during a panel discussion about why featuring diverse voices in media plans is good for society and business. 

Often, media outlets need to educate partners about the scale of an audience and the opportunity to companies that still see media platforms aimed at diverse audiences and other groups as “niche.” “Everyone assumes ‘you can help me reach a diverse audience,’ but it’s important to give them an idea of the whole scale,” said Christian Facey, Founder & CEO at AudioMob. 

Marketers and media outlets need to understand that “Black culture drives pop culture, and pop culture drives GDP,” said Lynnwood Bibbens, Founder and CEO of ReachTV.

Be comfortable with accountability. You can’t manage what you don’t measure. GLAAD, the LGBTQ+ media advocacy organization, and Kantar at Cannes launched an Advertising Visibility Index that will establish benchmarks for the industry to assess the quantity and the quality of LGBTQ+ representation in advertising with the goal of improving visibility. “Advertising is light years away from where TV and film are in terms of LGBTQ representation,” said Rich Ferraro, Chief Communications Officer at GLAAD.

Embrace the challenge. In the workplace, changing hiring practices, creating training programs, and making accommodations for people who need them can be daunting. But as I’ve seen through my work with Creative Spirit, a nonprofit that matches employers with job candidates who have intellectual and developmental disabilities, these efforts are necessary—and worthwhile. Others have noticed this as well. 

“Most managers have not been trained nor supported to work on the ‘human’—and not just the work,” said Monique Nelson, Chair at UWG. “The process is only as good as your training of the people—and some people learn differently. Actually, everyone does…. What are we doing to make sure that all of these organizations can support the difference that’s coming?”

If diversifying the people we hire, the folks we put in our C-suite, and the work we produce is difficult, that’s okay. As Julia Boorstin, author of When Women Lead noted: “When something feels hard, it makes you smarter,” she said. “Companies will be better for embracing that ‘hardness.’”

A few years ago, it looked like ads might not make a clean jump from the classic TV spot to the booming new medium of streaming video. For one, all the attention was on ad-free (at the time) subscription services like Netflix. And the fact that much streaming content is accessed on-demand means that viewers have become accustomed to fast-forwarding through video ads or taking a break while commercials play, knowing they aren’t at risk of missing any of the content they wanted to watch.

But in 2023, AVOD is booming. Just ask Innovid, which serves over a billion digital video ad impressions per day. “We’ve seen the shift of impressions into ad-supported from a user time spent perspective,” said Dan Mouradian, VP of global client solutions at Innovid, at a panel this week at Cannes Lions 2023. “We’ve seen, through that time period [of Q3 2022 to Q1 2023], about a 25% increase in users spending time with ad-supported content…Consumers are choosing the ad-supported model.”

Mouradian was speaking on a panel co-hosted by Innovid and Infillion at Cannes Lions 2023, commemorating their new partnership to bring Infillion’s interactive CTV ads seamlessly into Innovid’s technology. He was joined by Lauri Baker, SVP Strategic Partnerships at Infillion; Darren Sherriff, VP of Advertising Solutions and Business Strategy at FOX; Dan Riess, EVP and Chief Growth Officer at TelevisaUnivision; and Shane Ankeney, President of Havas Media Group NA. 

Moderated by IAB president David Cohen, this panel addressed the question: How can publishers take advantage of this new AVOD trend and ensure it lasts?

The AVOD Paradox: It’s TV, But You Can’t Advertise Like It’s TV

One thing has become very clear over the past few years: Consumers think of CTV as just TV now. They don’t mentally differentiate whether they’re watching live broadcast TV or a stream from Amazon Prime TV or Hulu. As Darren Sherriff of FOX said, “From a user perspective, they turn on their TV and they don’t care if it’s their cable box or they go to an app, they still want to see that live sporting event, live news, whatever it may be.”

But there’s a twist here. While consumers may think of CTV as just TV, their expectations for advertising have changed. You can blame ad blockers, ad-skippers, or subscription services – either way, it’s clear that consumers don’t put up with TV commercial breaks like they used to, and advertisers that seem to be shoving a message down their throats will be met with revulsion and negative brand perception. To boot, publishers that enable this kind of ad overload may see consumers backing off from their platforms. Subscription churn is high, and the 20th-century viewer has plenty of other options.

“The concept of programming today where every four minutes, five minutes, six minutes, you have to stop and spend a minute or three minutes watching commercials – we have to create a different commercial experience in this new digital economy,” Lauri Baker said. “It can’t look like old linear commercial modeling.”

That imperative is at the core of the new Innovid-Infillion partnership. Infillion’s TrueX ads require a user to proactively opt into the interactive experience, and then require a minimum amount of time spent interacting with the ad to then move back onto the content. 

Getting Real About Consumers Choosing Ads

First of all, advertisers need to understand that the reason consumers are flocking to ad-supported streaming services isn’t because they’re thrilled to see the ads. It’s because they want to save money.

“I don’t think we ever underestimated the cheapness of the American consumer,” Havas’ Shane Ankeney said. “If we give them an option that is less [expensive] and will be ad supported, then that will continue to grow.”

To that end, it’s crucial for advertisers and publishers alike to understand that advertising is a transactional relationship, and that consumers expect ads that will be high-quality and unintrusive. Ad loads that feel excessive don’t respect the transaction that those consumers have agreed to.

“I feel like we keep trying to apply old models to new media and it drives me nuts,” TelevisaUnivision’s Dan Reiss said. “It’s like when you first think about mobile and it was basically a big giant internet page on your phone, you’re trying to scroll around, [and] it’s a horrible experience. We ultimately figured it out, kind of, [but in TV] we still are applying the old model. Ad pods are a perfect example. That’s how we did it for decades in linear television, [but that] doesn’t mean that is how we could or certainly should do it today.”

“My gut tells me that [consumers] would all prefer no ads, but from a cost perspective, everyone will appreciate ads, or at least accept ads, because it gives them [the] opportunity to enjoy great programming,” Lauri Baker said.

But those ads have to be worthy of appreciation. Which brings us to the other heated topic at hand…

Pushing CTV to New Creative Frontiers

Here’s the great thing about advertising on CTV, and streaming in general: You can do a whole lot more than you would’ve done in a 30-second linear TV spot. Publishers’ user interfaces can facilitate rich interactivity that doesn’t just engage consumers like never before, it can also tap into signals about whether they’re paying attention to the ads on their screen. (And, to plug the Infillion-Innovid partnership, now they can do it with one fewer tech integration.)

When asked to talk about the best ad they’d ever built for CTV, the panelists overwhelmingly turned to campaigns with memorable interactive features – and also a respect for users’ time and attention. “Everybody knows the ‘Share a Coke’ campaign,” Innovid’s Dan Mouradian said of the legendary Coca-Cola tagline. “We rendered users’ first names onto the bottle, and it was in partnership with a publisher that was passing us that information, so it was all opted-in information.”

TelevisaUnivision’s Dan Reiss gave a plug to QR codes. “For whatever reason, QR codes are very effective for us,” he said. “They’re a little more respective of the consumer journey, because people can hold onto them and not buy right away, which is how people want to try something out and look at it a few times.”

Lauri Baker talked about an opt-in ad that Infillion’s TrueX had deployed on behalf of Amazon Echo. “The consumer could actually speak to the television through their remote and engage with the commercial that way. They could turn the lights on, they could play with the fish in the fish tank,” Baker explained. (It was the first-ever CTV ad to use voice control.) Baker explained that, in general, lightweight interaction like that drives more engagement on CTV. “We’ve found, at least at Infillion, that anything playable drives engagement – so, quizzes and polls.”

That’s because CTV isn’t “lean-back” in the same way that linear TV was. “We’re completely leaned in, we’re engaged, we have the remote in our hand,” Mouradian said. “By enabling these interactive experiences, you’re presenting an option to a consumer to have a better ad experience overall.”

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) has become a mainstay of panel programming at advertising industry conferences, and Cannes Lions is no exception. But with events spread along the entire Croisette all week, finding actionable conversations about DEI isn’t always easy – especially as a small nonprofit or advocacy organization. That’s why Infillion had the idea to create “The Inclusion Cafe,” a series of talks with partner organizations like Glaad, Creative Spirit, and Group Black, to elevate voices advocating for meaningful inclusion in the industry from representation in ads to profit and growth.

At Cannes Lions, programming typically kicks off on Monday morning. And this year, the Monday of Cannes fell on Juneteenth, a U.S. holiday that honors the day in 1865 that – a full two years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation – slavery officially ended in Galveston, Texas and 250,000 Black Texans were freed. To acknowledge and elevate the importance of Juneteenth – even thousands of miles from the U.S. –, Infillion worked with The AList, a collection of BIPOC C-suite executives committing to activating their social capital to drive real, sustainable change. The AList curated the kickoff talks at our Inclusion Cafe with two discussions, Cultivating the Future of Blackness in Media, and This is About Business Growth for Brands. These conversations became wellsprings of ideas for how to support and amplify Black voices; promote authentic, Black-owned content; and invest more in Black creators. Diverse narratives offer important and unique perspectives, and they’re also good for business: According to McKinsey & Co., companies with diverse and inclusive workforces are 35% more likely to outperform their competition.

Thinking Long-Term and Building Diverse Ecosystems within the Creative World

The panelists on Monday agreed: Blackness is not a monolith. There is an enormous wealth of diversity and creativity within the community. Black creators, artists, athletes, and celebrities have played a pivotal role in shaping industries like fashion, music, film, the arts, sports, entertainment – and are frequently the trendsetters defining cool and pushing into new media. Even so, Black creators need more support from the industry overall to help amplify Black voices and content across the current media landscape.

Alex Kennedy, EVP of commercial strategy at My Code Media, emphasized that agencies can stay relevant through the construction of Black ecosystems by hiring Black creatives and multi-culturally focused people to build teams and create content: “When companies reach out to us, make proactive attempts to connect, and then pay us well, that makes an impact because it puts money into the ecosystem.”

Marissa Nance, founder and CEO of Native Tongue Communications, noted that by investing in young Black people and creating pathways for them in the creative arts, engineering and STEM professions, we can promote more equity. “When young people have a seat at the table,” she says, “they can encourage the industry to cut down on bias, and Black folks will see themselves in the content being created.”  

Nance’s company is helping creatives build ecosystems by launching the BIPOC Creators Wealth Academy to teach young talent the importance of asset and wealth management, “so we can create wealth, keep wealth, and build wealth. Creating on TikTok is one thing, but, but how can we monetize it, and then learn how to keep and invest that dollar rather than spending it?”

Be Accessible and Help People Connect with Your Content

Of course, the more widely accepted and consumed any content is, the better. Nikki Fowler, CEO of Glitter Magazine, reminds us that Black-owned media doesn’t always have to mean “Black-focused.” She adds that when Glitter initially started working with agencies, they were unsure of how to work with her and lacked understanding that while inclusivity means Black spaces, it also means, “open to everyone.” Glitter’s business model has always been built around inclusivity and making everyone feel welcome by saying, “you can sit with us.”

When it’s easy for brands to engage, content will be widely distributed, and from Pauline Malcolm’s point of view as the Chief Revenue Officer of Essence, that has been what has occurred. The company’s annual Essence Festival has seen a rising profile thanks to its streaming partner, Hulu, and will be streaming again nightly in 2023 from June 30 through July 2.

The festival continues to make a huge impact in New Orleans, where it brought hundreds of millions of dollars ($327 million) into the local economy last year. Black women are tastemakers and trendsetters, but they don’t always see the value of the things they create, so when Essence enters into partnerships with other companies, they make sure our creators get paid what they are due.

Another major emerging area of content that is widely distributed to all consumers is audio in the form of podcasting, which is still growing. Gary Coichy, CEO & Founder of Pod Media, says that audio can be very intimate, as “people are listening while they drive their cars and work out at the gym.” This one-to-one connection to the material brings with it trillions of dollars in buying power, and it has only just begun. 

Ultimately, there are a multitude of ways that Black creatives are working to shape the media landscape and grow their businesses. They’re taking risks. They’re creating their own channels and meeting audiences where they are with truly authentic content that resonates, and they are shifting perceptions of Black people in the media by focusing on the things that matter. 

Black creators are influencers who highlight and represent the vastly different aspects of the larger Black community, and they’re learning how to put money into the black creative ecosystem. As Pauline Malcolm said,“When we come together, we tap into bargaining power with media agencies. We’re bigger together if we all go to the table.”

Thank you to each one of our incredible panelists for contributing to this conversation:

Cultivating the Future of Blackness in Media:  Alex Kennedy, EVP of Commercial Strategy at My Code Media; Dexter Santos, VP of Player Services at the NFL Players Association; Joe Michael Nickson, Chief Creative Officer at ConCreates; Marissa Nance, Founder & CEO at Native Tongue Communications; moderated by Tiffany Black, Chief Content Officer at Epiphany Content & Media. 

This is About Business Growth for Brands: Bonin Bough, CSO & Co-Founder at Group Black; Christian Facey, CEO & Founder at Audiomob;  Gary Coichy, CEO & Founder at Pod Digital Media; Lynnwood Bibbens, CEO & Founder at ReachTV; Nikki Fowler, CEO at Glitter Magazine; Pauline Malcolm, Chief Revenue Officer at Essence Ventures; Regina Gwynn, Co-Founder at Black Women Talk Tech.