Advertising has more data, targeting, platforms and measurement than ever. Yet one question keeps surfacing: Are those capabilities actually helping marketers build stronger businesses?
In this installment of Media Monitor: Conversations at Cannes, Guideline Chief Product Officer Steve Silvers sits down with Justin Lebbon for a candid discussion about where media investment is flowing—and what those shifts could mean for advertisers, publishers and the wider media ecosystem.
The conversation begins with the growing concentration of media spend among a small number of global platforms.
Justin argues that this concentration has consequences beyond advertising efficiency. As more money moves away from local publishers, less funding remains for journalism, locally produced entertainment and the businesses supporting content production. Canada, New Zealand and other markets provide examples of what can happen when large portions of digital advertising revenue leave the local media economy.
That leads Steve and Justin into a broader conversation about social platforms.
Social media remains valuable for communication, discovery and community, yet concerns around transparency, content quality, younger users and advertiser accountability continue to grow. They discuss emerging regulation, restrictions on social media access for children, and a question advertisers may increasingly face:
Do you actually know what your media investment is accomplishing—and where your advertising is appearing?
From there, the conversation turns toward effectiveness.
Years of increasingly granular attribution and performance measurement have encouraged marketers to optimize around clicks, CPMs, conversions and other immediately measurable outcomes. Justin argues that this can create a short-term feedback loop in which marketers optimize what is easiest to measure rather than what creates future demand.
Advertising, in his view, should help businesses and categories grow.
The economic environment adds another dimension. Higher capital costs and greater pressure on profitability mean marketing investments face closer examination from finance teams. If marketers cannot demonstrate how advertising contributes to business growth, the risk is bigger than a reduced media budget: leadership may begin questioning the investment itself.
Steve and Justin close by discussing a possible shift back toward fundamentals—better marketing education, stronger measurement, quality media, demand generation and creative work that connects with people.
The tools have changed. The fundamental business question has not:
What is the advertising supposed to accomplish?
In this episode:
- Why media spend is increasingly concentrated among major platforms
- What that concentration means for local publishers
- The economic role of local media
- Why locally produced journalism and entertainment need sustainable funding
- Transparency across digital and social advertising
- Growing scrutiny of social platforms
- Social media and younger audiences
- Why advertisers should test the incremental impact of platforms
- The limitations of bottom-of-funnel measurement
- How cheap CPMs can distort media decisions
- Brand building versus performance marketing
- Why attribution can create false confidence
- The economic pressures changing marketing decisions
- AI-generated content and declining content quality
- Why advertising effectiveness matters beyond individual platforms
- The role of marketing education
- Why demand creation is returning to the conversation
- The relationship between media quality, creative quality and business growth
Media Monitor: Conversations at Cannes is a special summer series featuring conversations with leaders across media and advertising.
Also subscribe to the regular Media Monitor podcast, released Wednesdays, for data-driven discussions about where the media market is heading.
If you’d like access to the benchmark report or want to suggest a topic for the next part of the programmatic series, reach out to press@guideline.ai.
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