After another week under the sun at Cannes Lions 2025, one thing is abundantly clear: our industry is done talking about possibilities — it’s ready to act. From speaking engagements to packed suite meetings, and even stateside through our “Can’t Cannes” activations, the appetite for change was real — and we were right at the center of it.
A front-row seat to innovation
Experian made a powerful impact across the Croisette, partnering with Audiostack, Basis, Infillion, IQVIA, Magnite, NextRoll, Odeeo, OpenX, The Female Quotient, and the Unplugged Collective x The Digital Marketer, to contribute to some of the week’s most insightful conversations. Our thought leaders were everywhere—on stage, in studio interviews, at executive roundtables—offering a clear voice on retail media growth, pharma advertising disruption, AI innovation, and identity-driven personalization.
Three themes that defined the week
1. AI gets real
If 2024 was the year of AI buzz, then 2025 is the year AI found its footing. Conversations shifted from “what if” to “what now.”
While the promise of AI was front and center, conversations with clients and partners highlighted that we’re still in the foundational phase. Real-world applications—from creative optimization to predictive segmentation—are gaining traction, but long-term value will depend on robust data architecture and trustworthy identity frameworks.
MiQ and PMG debuted AI-integrated platforms that demonstrated how AI can automate creative, optimize budget allocation, and personalize media in real time. AI has moved from sidekick to strategist.
“Last year it was all about AI, but in a very general sense. This year, it’s about specific applications — a clear sign AI is evolving from a talking point into product.”
Budi Tanzi, VP, Product
2. Outcomes > impressions
Outcomes may have been a buzzword at Cannes, but as several industry leaders pointed out, simply saying “we drive outcomes” isn’t enough—it risks sounding like table stakes. In today’s performance-driven environment, what matters is how companies define and deliver those outcomes in unique ways. The most compelling conversations weren’t about generic promises, but about clear strategies: challenging assumptions, leaning into strengths, and making specific choices that tie data, media, and technology to measurable impact.
“By using consistent identity across planning, activation, and measurement, marketers can connect ad exposure to real-world outcomes—whether that’s an online conversion, an in-store visit, or a new customer relationship.”
Chris Feo, Chief Business Officer
3. Curation isn’t just a tactic
Curation is quickly becoming the industry’s preferred approach to cutting through complexity. As marketers contend with signal loss and inconsistent inventory quality, the shift from broad access to intentional activation is gaining momentum. At Experian, we see curation not just as packaging, but as strategic alignment—where identity, data, and inventory come together in purpose-built environments that reduce waste, enhance safety, and drive performance.
“Supply-side data activation and optimization, aka “curation,” is an alternative to the traditional approach to data activation. Unlike the traditional DMP-to-DSP activation flow, curation allows buyers to leverage supply-path data more directly. The upshot? Improved performance and pricing for media agencies and brand advertisers.”
Drew Stein, Managing Director, Audigent
Bringing the Cannes experience stateside
Not everyone can make it to the South of France—so we brought Cannes to them. Our “Can’t Cannes” events in the U.S. offered local clients a first-class experience filled with insights and networking, minus the jet lag.
Final takeaways
This year’s festival made one thing clear: real progress requires more than innovation; it requires integration. And that’s where Experian is focused—connecting identity to activation, and data to outcomes, in ways that are practical, scalable, and privacy-resilient.
If I had to sum it up?
- AI is progressing from abstract to application
- Curation beats clutter
- Partnership is power
- And everyone’s aligned around performance
We’re grateful to have been part of these conversations and even more excited about where they’ll lead next.
Let’s continue the conversation
If you’re exploring how to connect identity to performance, or simplify the way you activate, measure, and grow, we’d love to talk.
Latest posts
Tapad, now part of Experian, technology now powers Lifesight's real world intelligence platform with cross-device and reach expansion in the Asia Pacific Region SINGAPORE, Nov. 20, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Tapad, part of Experian and a global leader in digital identity resolution, today announced a new partnership with Lifesight, a leading provider of real world intelligence for advertisers in the Asia Pacific region (APAC). With the combined offering of The Tapad Graph, Tapad's global, privacy-safe digital cross-device solution, and Lifesight's real world intelligence platform, brands and agencies across APAC can benefit from better consumer targeting, expanded reach for targeted audiences and web-to-mobile footfall attribution. Through this multi-layered offering, Lifesight's brand and agency partners can access an omnichannel view of consumers' paths to purchase, thereby enabling them to increase the reach, measurability and ROI of their advertising campaigns. Rohit Maheswaran, Co-founder of Lifesight commented, "The consumer journey is getting increasingly more complex with ever changing digital and physical world behaviours, making it difficult for marketers to make strategic marketing spend decisions. That's why it's our mission at Lifesight to empower the brands and agencies within the APAC market to achieve better targeting and measurement capabilities, and our partnership with Tapad will help further this cause." Abhay Doshi, Head of APAC at Tapad added, "The Tapad Graph, which enables a unified view of consumers across their multiple digital devices, has a reach of 1 billion devices across the APAC market today. Paired with Lifesight's consumer insights of more than 500 million unique devices, this valuable partnership will offer the market extended consumer reach and prove beneficial to brands and advertisers across APAC who have historically struggled with resolving attribution." To learn more about Tapad and our digital identity resolution capabilities, visit www.experian.com/marketing/consumer-sync About Tapad Tapad, Inc. is a global leader in digital identity resolution. The Tapad Graph, and its related solutions, provide a transparent, privacy-safe approach connecting brands to consumers through their devices globally. Our one-of-a-kind Graph Select offering enables marketers the flexibility and freedom of choice to correlate devices to varied objectives, driving campaign effectiveness and business results. Tapad is recognized across the industry for its product innovation, workplace culture and talent, and has earned numerous awards including One World Identity's 2019 Top 100 Influencers in Identity Award. Headquartered in New York, Tapad also has offices in Chicago, London, Oslo, Singapore and Tokyo. About Lifesight Lifesight is Asia's leading real world intelligence company that helps marketers understand, target, and measure consumers based on their real world behaviour. Lifesight's robust platform and data solutions power business decisioning, audience activation, footfall measurement, and in-depth location analytics for leading brands and enterprises. The company is headquartered in Singapore with a rapidly expanding footprint in the Asia Pacific region operating in India, Malaysia, Indonesia, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. To learn more, visit https://www.lifesight.io/. Contact us today
NEW YORK, Oct. 24, 2019 /PRNewswire/ – Tapad, part of Experian and a global leader in digital identity resolution, today announced a new partnership with Retargetly, a leading independent full stack data company. The partnership combines Tapad's cross-device identity resolution technology with Retargetly's robust data toolset, allowing brands and agencies using Retargetly's platform to seamlessly access an expanded audience across devices, without compromising precision. In addition to reach expansion, Tapad's global, privacy-safe digital cross-device solution, The Tapad Graph, enables Retargetly's brand and agency clients a more holistic digital customer journey analysis, and efficient campaign capabilities like frequency capping and online attribution. At the same time, Tapad will be able to extend its presence into the LATAM region, tapping into Retargetly's existing regional footprint. "Combining The Tapad Graph's technology with Retargetly's platform will enable customers to make holistic, data-driven decisions that increase the ROI of their campaigns," said Chris Feo, SVP of Global Data Licensing and Strategic Partnerships at Tapad. "We can now offer advertisers the value of both technologies to optimize their marketing initiatives across the globe by creating seamless experiences across multiple devices and channels." Understanding a consumer's cross-device journey is a marketing necessity. A recent study showed that 75% of consumers expect a consistent experience from brands1. With the number of devices per individual rapidly increasing, digital identity resolution becomes essential to create that streamlined experience consumers crave. "Similarly to Tapad, our goal is to offer marketers a suite of products that can increase the ROI of their campaigns," said Juan Amuchastegui, Head of Product at Retargetly. "In order to achieve this, marketers need digital cross-device identity resolution to gain attribution, acquisition and reach expansion capabilities. We chose Tapad as our partner because The Tapad Graph has differentiated global scale, and privacy-safe measures, which we knew would benefit our clients' campaigns." Santi Darmandrail, Managing Director at Retargetly added, "Across the Americas our clients choose to work with us because of our scale, our precision, and our unique approach to what data can do to transform business outcomes. In that scenario, partnering with Tapad and integrating The Tapad Graph onto our platform was really a no-brainer and we are beyond excited to be making that available for our more than 700 clients across the region." To learn more about Tapad and our digital identity resolution products, visit our identity solutions page. About Tapad Tapad, Inc. is a global leader in digital identity resolution. The Tapad Graph, and its related solutions, provide a transparent, privacy-safe approach connecting brands to consumers through their devices globally. Tapad is recognized across the industry for its product innovation, workplace culture and talent, and has earned numerous awards including One World Identity's 2019 Top 100 Influencers in Identity Award. Headquartered in New York, Tapad also has offices in Chicago, Denver, London, Oslo, Singapore and Tokyo. About Retargetly: Retargetly is the leading independent data solution from Latam. Their proprietary platform processes over 25 billion data events a month and transforms them into actionable analytics that drive business results across the board. The recently launched Retargetly Audience Platform (RAM) is the number one data exchange in Latin America, with over 1000 active buyers and millions of dollars traded every year. Regargetly provides services across Latam and has offices in Buenos Aires, Mexico City, São Paulo and New York. For more information, visit www.retargetly.com. Contact us today
NEW YORK, Oct. 16, 2019 /PRNewswire/ – Tapad, part of Experian and a global leader in digital identity resolution, and The Trade Desk, a global advertising technology leader, partnered to integrate The Trade Desk's unified ID solution in April 2019. The Trade Desk's unified ID solution's objective is to serve as a standardized cookie ID to help marketers reach more of their audience on the open internet. After an initial six month period, Tapad reports significant adoption rates and enhanced customer results since their joint integration in April. As a result of the partnership, client brands, agencies, DMPs/ DSPs, Data Providers, Mobile Networks and Measurement/Analytics Providers, saw increased match rates up to 38% and more global coverage without compromising precision. With this combined offering, Tapad's global, privacy-safe digital cross-device solution, The Tapad Graph, connects brands with consumers over 4 billion devices globally. "There is a need for digital identity solutions outside the walled gardens that can accommodate the need for both precision and scale," said Chris Feo, SVP of Strategy and Global Partnerships at Tapad. "Through our partnership with The Trade Desk, we are empowering companies to have a comparable digital identity resolution across the open web as compared to the walled garden environments." Over 25 companies who license The Tapad Graph, such as Annalect, Semasio, Retargetly, and ThinkCX, have also included The Trade Desk's unified ID solution as a key identifier in their graph output. "The vast improvement in scale that Tapad has seen illustrates the value digital identity resolution products can bring for brands," said Nate Gawel, General Manager of Data Partnerships at The Trade Desk. "We're looking forward to continuing work with Tapad to prove that the open internet can deliver the very same benefits many reserve for large platforms." Adoption of the unified ID solution allows all parties across the supply chain (SSPs, DSPs, DMPs and data providers) to utilize The Trade Desk's cookie footprint to increase their own cookie coverage across the global independent internet. For more information, please visit The Trade Desk's unified ID solution site, or https://www.experian.com/marketing/consumer-sync to learn more about Tapad's digital identity resolution products. About Tapad:Tapad, Inc. is a global leader in digital identity resolution. The Tapad Graph, and its related solutions, provide a transparent, privacy-safe approach connecting brands to consumers through their devices globally. Our one-of-a-kind Graph Select offering enables marketers the flexibility and freedom of choice to correlate devices to varied objectives, driving campaign effectiveness and business results. Tapad is recognized across the industry for its product innovation, workplace culture and talent, and has earned numerous awards including One World Identity's 2019 Top 100 Influencers in Identity Award. Headquartered in New York, Tapad also has offices in Chicago, London, Oslo, Singapore and Tokyo. About The Trade Desk:The Trade Desk™ is a technology company that empowers buyers of advertising. Through its self-service, cloud-based platform, ad buyers can create, manage, and optimize digital advertising campaigns across ad formats and devices. Integrations with major data, inventory, and publisher partners ensure maximum reach and decisioning capabilities, and enterprise APIs enable custom development on top of the platform. Headquartered in Ventura, CA, The Trade Desk has offices across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. To learn more, visit thetradedesk.com or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. Contact us today