The Complete Feed

Day 4 closes out Signal & Noise’s first Cannes Lions with conversations that capture where marketing is headed next. From AI agents and ad fraud to transparency, identity, enterprise transformation, and publisher innovation, Rio Longacre, Brett House, and Krish Raja speak with leaders from Dstillery, CHEQ, Stagwell Marketing Cloud, Chili Piper, Credera, and more to wrap up an unforgettable week at Cannes Lions 2026.

In this episode of Signal & Noise, Vanessa Otero, Founder and CEO of Ad Fontes Media and creator of the Media Bias Chart, joins Rio Longacre and Brett House to explore trust, misinformation, media fragmentation, and the future of journalism. The conversation examines social media algorithms, AI-generated content, local news decline, brand safety, CTV advertising, and whether objective journalism can survive in today’s polarized information ecosystem.

The independent infrastructure era may be ending. In this "Signal Break," we unpack one of the most consequential AdTech deals in years: Publicis Groupe acquiring LiveRamp. Joined by Bob Walczak and Krish Raja, we break down what this deal really means for identity, clean rooms, publishers, UID2, systems integrators, and the future of the open internet.

Connected TV is increasingly being sold as though it should perform like Google and Meta. But television was never designed to capture intent in the moment. Its power lies in building familiarity, emotional resonance, and mental availability over time. In this essay, David Nyurenberg argues that forcing CTV into performance marketing frameworks misunderstands what makes television uniquely valuable—and risks undermining the very qualities that make it effective.

Who wins and who loses when media buying goes agentic? AdCP isn’t just a new protocol—it’s a shift in where media decisions happen. As allocation moves upstream from auctions to agent-driven negotiation, DSPs, SSPs, publishers, and agencies all face structural disruption. This isn’t about better automation. It’s about control—and a fundamental reshaping of how the market operates.

The current market is full of adjacent providers and short on anyone willing to own the full chain between product value and commercial execution. What fills that gap is not just strategy and not just execution. It is GTM Intelligence. By GTM Intelligence, I don't mean RevOps dashboards, sales intelligence, or pipeline inspection tools. I mean the decisioning layer that determines what matters, what deserves focus, what the market needs to hear, and where the commercial

The agency model is splitting. Some holdcos are evolving into integrated operating companies built on data, platforms, and AI. Others remain loosely connected portfolios of services. As media becomes automated and margins compress, the winners will be those who own the infrastructure behind marketing — not just the execution in front of it.