‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ Rules Box Office With Behemoth Marketing Push

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Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom debuted at number one at the domestic box office, riding high on nostalgia, mass appeal and Universal’s most expensive marketing campaign to date.

Universal’s hit dinosaur franchise earned $150 million domestically over the weekend pushing Incredibles 2 down to second place. Ahead of its debut, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom relied heavily on its star, Chris Pratt to promote the film on social media with pre-recorded interviews. He may be riding high on a string of successful movies, but Pratt’s charming personality isn’t the biggest star on screen.

“People love dinosaurs,” Karie Bible, box office analyst and film historian at Exhibitor Relations, told AListDaily. “Let’s face it, [the Jurassic Park franchise is] pretty much the same story every time with ‘life finds a way,’ but people [of all ages] love to watch it. It’s what they call a four-quadrant where [a film reaches] every demo—something that studios definitely look for. That’s not easy to find.”

Universal reportedly spent a whopping $185 million to market Fallen Kingdom, making it one of the studio’s biggest-ever marketing and publicity campaigns to date. The most powerful part of the campaign, Bible noted, is the ubiquity of it all—wherever audiences have gone over the past few months, chances are good that Jurassic World marketing was there.

“There’s no way that you can possibly miss it, even if you don’t watch TV. It’s absolutely everywhere,” said Bible. “Basically if you open your medicine cabinet, there’s going to be a dinosaur that pops out at you.”

Universal staged several takeovers, including Kings Cross Station that included a giant T-Rex and Raptor installation, gyrosphere, VR and more. Hundreds of “Blue” the raptor statues were installed across the world in movie theaters and shopping malls.

In the film, dinosaurs are being transported off the island, so Amazon helped out with a marketing campaign called #AmazonFindsAway. The brand delivered a T-Rex to Hollywood, California where it was unboxed live on social media.

TV spots aired during key sporting events like the Super Bowl and World Cup, the first of which marked a first-time partnership with Jeep for the Jurassic franchise. Doritos delivered giant chips to members of the press and supermarkets have been filled with specially-marked packages of everything from candy to waffles.

But, sometimes the most powerful marketing tool is nostalgia. Jurassic Park celebrated its 25th anniversary this year that included theme park events, social media blasts and fan contests.

The timing of a release doesn’t hurt, either. A blockbuster usually begins to drop off in its second week, but Bible expects Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom to hold its box office course over fourth of July weekend.

MWC Shanghai 2018 Focuses On Tech and Marketing Trends Impacting Mobile

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The annual GSMA Mobile World Congress Shanghai is set to kick off this week from June 27-29 at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre. Executives from around the world will convene to discuss technological and marketing trends that are shaping the mobile space.

This year’s event will include more than 600 participating companies and it is expected to attract over 60,000 attendees. Keynote speakers include AT&T Business CEO Thaddeus Arroyo, Viacom International Media Networks president & CEO David Lynn, and Sunil Bharti Mittal, the founder and chairman of The GSMA. New speakers include Dentsu Aegis Network China CEO Susana Tsui and China Mobile chairman Shang Bing.

“We’ve expanded the number of programs and events at Mobile World Congress Shanghai, featuring everything from sports and fitness to service robots to the intersection of art and innovation, and beyond,” GSMA chief marketing officer Michael O’Hara said in a statement.

In addition to a showcase of service robots, Internet of Things (IoT) joins artificial intelligence and 5G data connections as one of the main themes of the event, as we live in an ever-more connected world. GSMA Intelligence released a report in May stating that the global IoT market will be worth $1.1 trillion in revenue by 2025 as the market value shifts from connectivity to platforms, applications and services. Additionally, the number of global IoT connections via both cellular and non-cellular will reach 25.2 billion by 2025.

Advertisers may be especially interested in the Marketing Excellence Summit, which takes place on June 28, and addresses the telecom industry’s problem with creativity when it comes to marketing and advertising. Panels include Innovation and Technology to Marketing and Marketing in the Mobile Age, the latter includes speakers Josh Ong, director of global brand strategy & communications at Cheetah Mobile and Amanda Woolverton, CMO of Ericsson Asia. Panels will discuss cost-efficient ways companies can continually engage with customers at every touchpoint by increasing campaign frequency, engagement and distributing promotions across multiple digital channels and measuring marketing performances.

Additionally, the Women4Tech Summit is debuting at this year’s Shanghai conference, following its successful launch at MWC 2017 in Barcelona. Senior level speakers and panelists will discuss ways to ensure gender equality in mainstream work environments while sharing advice for broadening gender diversity. The GSMA developed the Women4Tech program to “address gender diversity in the mobile industry,” designed to increase female leadership in the digital age to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. Activities will include speed coaching and networking sessions, special tours and more.

Mobile World Congress Shanghai will also feature a range of partner programs developed by leaders from across the mobile ecosystem. They include The 42nd Asia Pacific Mobile Operators Conference, the GTI Summit Shanghai 2018, six Huawei-hosted events held through the three-day conference.

“We have a very exciting event lined up,” O’Hara said in the statement. “We are looking forward to bringing the mobile world together in Shanghai.”

Digital Game Sales Top $9.1B In May; ‘Pokémon GO’ Surges For Summer

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Global video game sales rose 25 percent year-over-year in May to an estimated $9.1 billion, according to the latest figures by SuperData Research.

The worldwide digital game market saw continued growth on mobile, driven in part by “battle royale mania” sweeping the globe. For example, NetEase’s battle royale title Knives Out didn’t make the charts in April but held the number five spot in May.

Pokémon GO Gears Up For Summer

Pokémon GO enjoyed one of its best months ever in May. Niantic’s hit AR game generated $104 million last month, an increase of 174 percent year-over-year. The player base increased to the highest level since the game’s peak in 2016, SuperData noted, just in time for the usual summer bump that comes when warm weather meets Pokemon hunting outdoors.

As a result of its large engagement in May, Pokémon GO rose three spots on the mobile charts to number four.

Sony Proves That Single-Player’s Still Got It

Detroit: Become Human launched at number six on the console charts in May in terms of digital sales, selling 291,000 digital units at launch. For a brand-new, console-exclusive IP, this is a solid reception, SuperData notes.

While multiplayer and battle royale sweep global platforms and drive revenue, Sony proves once again that single-player isn’t dead. In April, God of War sold an estimated 2.1 million digital units at launch, becoming the largest console exclusive digital launch to date. Kratos’ father and son tale slipped three spots to number five in May.

Fortnite Players Pump The Brakes

Epic Game’s Fortnite hit a new high in May, bringing in a whopping $318 million across all platforms in May—and increase of seven percent from April. The game may have held its number one spot for console (earning an estimated $200 million) but SuperData senses a slow down. Mobile and PC revenue came in flat compared to April, the analyst firm noted.

The Force Is Weak With Star Wars Microtransactions

In April, EA reintroduced paid add-ons to Star Wars: Battlefront II after months of backlash over its original model at launch, which was perceived as “pay-to-win.” Cosmetic purchases can be purchased with Crystals, earned through gameplay or purchased with real money. This time, however, DICE assured fans that in-game currency can only be redeemed for cosmetic items. Credits are earned through in-game activity and can be redeemed toward appearances, as well.

Star Wars: Battlefront II additional content in May fell short of the levels seen across other top games this year.

Players Name ‘Enjoyment’ And ‘Trust’ As Top Reasons To Spend In Games

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While gamers in the US, UK and Germany spend more time on mobile games, they are more likely to spend actual money on consoles, according to findings by Newzoo and ACI Worldwide.

A new whitepaper entitled “What Turns Players Into Payers” presents the habits and spending motivations of 2,051 gamers between the ages of 18-40 that play at least two hours per week on any platform across the US, UK and Germany. Players in these countries account for nearly 30 percent of global games market revenues in 2018.

More than 90 percent of respondents in all three countries play mobile games, making it the most popular segment in this study. Respondents also spend the most time on mobile, with 33 percent of mobile gamers playing for more than six hours a week.

However, gamers proved to enjoy a wide variety of platforms—over 70 percent of gamers play games on mobile, console and PC. In fact, despite spending more time on their phones, Newzoo found that gamers are more likely to spend money on console.

“Mobile gamers have always had access to a huge variety of free gaming content across genres, ranging from casual to midcore,” Newzoo senior market analyst Tom Wijman told AListDaily. “Despite the fact that a relatively small share of mobile gamers pay for games, there is a small group of them who pay significant amounts, helping drive up the revenue. Console gamers on the other hand, have access to less free content and have historically always paid a premium price tag for their games. Although this will change as more and more free-to-play (F2P) console titles are being released, the spending culture on the two platforms is very different.”

When asked why they are inclined to spend, 39 percent of gamers cite enjoyment as their main reason. Redeeming a gift card or treating themselves tied in second place at 27 percent. The least popular reason for breaking out the wallet was “frustration” at just nine percent—showing that players aren’t just paying out of necessity.

Among gamers, spending preferences vary by age and platform. For example, players aged 30-40 that spend at least $5 per month are more likely to spend money on console and mobile, at 73 and 58 percent, respectively. Younger gamers between the ages of 18-29 spend less on mobile titles at 55 percent, compared to 72 percent on console and 71 percent on PC.

PayPal is the most popular method of payment across all segments, followed by pre-paid/gift cards. Apple Play is the least-preferred across all age groups. Trust is the most important factor to gamers, followed by the quickest service. In Germany, however, offering a seamless experience was nearly as important as trust according to respondents.

“PayPal is known as a trusted online payment method that has been at the forefront of digital transformation. It carries strong brand value and trust, is very well known in all countries and very easy to pay with,” Andy McDonald, vice president of merchant payments at ACI Worldwide told AListDaily. “That’s what gamers want—quick and hassle-free payment options. A generation of players as well as publishers have worked successfully with this payment method which is available cross-border, and provides brand recognition and security for its users.”

Its reputation may help PayPal hold its number one preferred spot with gamers, but other payment methods are on the horizon.

“Research reveals that gamers are certainly becoming more accepting of other alternative payment methods,” added McDonald. “Google Pay and Apple Pay in particular, and even cryptocurrencies are viewed favorably. Preferences might change quickly and businesses in the sector need to be prepared for that in order to stay ahead of the game.”

Highlights From Cannes Lions International Festival Of Creativity 2018

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The annual Cannes Lions Creativity Festival is a time for inspiration, education and celebrating pioneers that blur the lines between art and marketing. AListDaily was on hand to witness the full power of the festival this year, where professionals from across the globe came to learn, network and change the industry forever.

Sessions covered topics from problem-solving to exploring new mediums—all the name of marketing inspiration.

“Your job as a marketer is to make something famous,” Niels Schuurmans, CMO of Paramount Network told AListDaily. “Any great brand has to strike [an] emotional core for it to mean something—for you to want it.”

Last year at Cannes, diversity and female empowerment drove conversation, debate and awards. In 2018, that movement not only continued but increased in calls to action.

Unilever used this year’s festival to double down on their Unstereotype Alliance; a coming together of powerful consumer brands who, in their own words, “seek to eradicate harmful gender-based stereotypes.”

“Cannes is an important point for us to stop, reflect . . . we definitely use this moment to learn and get better,” said Aline Santos, EVP global marketing and head of diversity and inclusion at Unilever.

Cannes Lions is an experience in itself, but brands like Pinterest and Spotify brought installations to help visualize and interact with their platforms. Pinterest erected touchscreen interfaces where delegates could browse Pinterest and a real-life wall of Pins allowed guests to discover and take ideas with them, such as where to eat.

Others, like Google and Twitter, took over entire stretches of French coastline to engage delegates. Spotify, which won Media Brand of the Year sponsored its own beach to host meetings and a concert.

“It’s a great way to build relationships with our partners, hear what’s top of mind for them and really collaborate to find new ways to work together,” said Danielle Lee, global head of partner solutions at Spotify.

Want more? Read all our Cannes Lions coverage here.

 

Cannes Lions Behind-The-Scenes: Pinterest’s Eric Edge

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Pinterest, which has made recent strides in video advertising, made its presence known at Cannes Lions this year with interactive experiences and sessions that discussed inspiration, hands-on marketing and how technology is impacting the future of creativity.

AListDaily caught up with Eric Edge, head of global marketing communications at Pinterest to talk about the challenges and benefits of personalization in marketing.

Pinterest uses artificial intelligence to learn what users like and adapts to show results in real time. Edge stressed the importance of meeting consumer individuality without changing a brand’s core message.

“‘Brand’ is a very interesting concept,” he said. “Just because you want to personalize content for people doesn’t mean you have to change your story. You can have a solid brand story and very, very solid brand architecture and tweak that a little bit based on who you’re talking to. At its very core, you’re telling the same story—you’re doing just it in a way that’s more relevant and personalized for the audience you’re talking to.”

In the case of Pinterest, it’s a visual platform but its users collect ideas (“Pins”) and go out and purchase or try those ideas as well. Edge says that being able to speak to users on a personal level applies to everything in the marketing space and should not be ignored.

“It’s easy to talk about everything else that’s happening in innovation and technology but at our core, humans are visual people and that’s going to drive things forward when it comes to search or discovery in the future,” said Edge.

Edge served as a juror on the very first Social and Influencer Lion award panel this year—an honor that he called “better than a master class” on social media marketing. He predicted that after seeing the campaigns at Cannes Lions this year, the idea of personalization will go beyond technology.

“At [the] very core of social is personalization. It’s going to define the way that marketers think about their marketing strategies, whether it’s on platforms like Pinterest or even mainstream traditional media like TV. They’re going to think about personalization in an entirely new way and we’ve seen that in a lot of the work this year.”

Robot Fraud Could Comprise Up To 90 Percent Of Campaign Clicks

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Beware the rise of the robots, as a study from Dianomi indicates that up to 90 percent of clicks generated by some campaigns do not come from humans. But, even though Dianomi warns advertisers to be vigilant of robot clicks and to never pay for them, it also explains that not all robots are necessarily bad.

The report identifies eight different robot types, with the most commonly benign being Feed Fetchers, Search Engine Bots and Commercial Crawlers (spiders used to extract authorized data on behalf of digital marketing tools). Malicious robots include Impersonators, Hacker Tools and Scrapers (bots used for unauthorized data extraction). According to the study’s findings, humans account for 48.2 percent of users, while the bad robots outnumber the good ones at 28.9 and 22.9 percent respectively.

“While the number of robot traffic we detected in 2018 is only 32 percent, down from 60 percent in 2017, that figure varies greatly by month and, as recently as April 2017, was as high as 85 percent,” Dianomi states the report, which goes on to state that robots have averaged 38 percent of clicks since 2013. However, that number varies significantly from year-to-year, and even more wildly from month-to-month.

Robot clicks by publisher varied from 2 to 100 percent from 2013 to 2018, and that’s after disqualifying publishers that generated less than 10,000 clicks during that time. There doesn’t seem to be much correlation between the size of the publisher in terms of clicks delivered and the percent of robot clicks. The same trends appeared when Dianomi looked at publishers that delivered 100,000 clicks.

As for the cause of the bot epidemic, Dianomi cites the Association of National Advertisers’ bot fraud report, which states: “Behind every big bot problem, someone is paying a traffic source,” after observing that sourced traffic has 3.6x the amount of fraud as non-sourced traffic—suggesting that some publishers are buying traffic from questionable sources and are getting robot clicks.

Both the ANA and Dianomi found that bots are becoming much better at mimicking human behavior or at least working with them. In its 2016-17 study, the ANA found that 75 percent of fraud came from computers that had both human and robot users on them at the same time. Dianomi wrote that bots are showing greater sophistication, such as having a browser’s built-in user agent, which performs tasks like optimizing a website to better work on a device, to spread clicks over a longer period of time and over several IP addresses.

Dianomi recommends that publishers carefully measure the amount of robot traffic that may have been delivered when buying clicks. There are standard ways that benign robots identify themselves so that they can be programmed to know where not to click.

Malicious robots that don’t obey these rules can also be detected because they still act in ways that are not humanlike, “like measuring ad viewability of display advertising, measuring the number of robot clicks is critical to achieving ROI on your ad spend,” states Dianomi.

The report has four tips for combating bot fraud:

  1. Use a third-party platform to analyze the clicks
  2. Automatically void any clicks coming from high-risk IP addresses.
  3. Ask your ad partners to provide full transparency of the clicks with time, IP address, user agent and other data, and whether they have validated or voided them.
  4. Check any IP addresses generating click and impression counts over thresholds for any hour, day or week based on monthly and daily reports.
  5. For extra certainty, clicks can be passed through a captcha provided by Google, and the user may need to authenticate if the platform deems the click as suspicious.

Cannes Lions Sessions: Confidence Can Change The World

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In every turbulent time throughout history, positive change has been borne out of confidence, and that driving force can be applied to everything, from personal goals to marketing campaigns.

During Cannes Lions on Friday, in a session called “The Strange Power of Confidence,” three delegates shared personal and professional experiences that produced more confidence in the world around them.

Susan Somersille Johnson, chief marketing officer of SunTrust, began her career as an engineer before she became a marketer. Johnson said that math and science build confidence because they are based on facts, but marketing was intimidating because her work would be judged on human perception and opinion.

Johnson was moved, however, in SunTrust’s commitment to helping US citizens achieve “financial confidence.” The bank researched how citizens felt about money, and after interviewing 195,000 people learned that a majority of Americans worry about their financial situations.

SunTrust found three principles that can lead to financial confidence that can be applied to other situations as well. The first step to confidence is to know what matters most in your life.

“When your priorities are clear, your confidence doesn’t waver,” said Johnson.

The second step is to get educated—using the tools available and learning from those who have experienced and conquered the same problem. The third principle, Johnson explained, is the importance of leaning on a friend.

SunTrust launched an initiative called “onUp” that debuted during the Super Bowl. The program now has over 3.4 million participants.

OnUp was produced by Scott Goodson, founder and CEO of StrawberryFrog. His marketing experience has taught him that advertising can do more than sell products—it can start a movement.

“Movements are about experience, having a mindset, action, trying something new and having the confidence to start something new,” said Goodson.

StrawberryFrog worked with Jim Beam, a legacy spirits brand that was in need of a brand facelift. Bourbon had long been associated with older men sitting around smoking cigars, but that didn’t match the current audience. In response, Goodson and his team wanted to change the way consumers looked at Jim Beam and bourbon in general, so they created a movement called “Make History” with a young female spokesperson (Mila Kunis). And it worked.

“The movement was about change, which was really necessary because [Jim Beam] is a 223-year-old brand that had gotten a lot of dust on it.”

A brand’s leader may have a vision for the product but a mere advertising campaign may not be enough to inspire passion down to the ground-level of a company. A mandate from the top of an organization can demand change, but people can choose not to engage or just work somewhere else, Goodson explained, while a movement can inspire trust, creativity, passion and confidence among employees.

“You can apply the principles of a social movement to mobilize the masses and create confidence to create positive change.”

David Oyelowo is an actor and producer that portrayed Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., which required a lot of confidence. Oyelowo joined Johnson and Goodson on stage to share how confidence plays a major part in any life pursuit, especially acting.

Oyelowo shared how he learned confidence by learning, preparing and working with seasoned professionals. like Daniel Day-Lewis and Tom Cruise.

“I don’t think confidence is something that is innate for us as human beings,” said Oyelowo. “When we are born, we come into this world anxious. It’s something that is learned. That, as far as I’m concerned, is to do with preparation. As an actor, the success of that role is entirely dictated by the level of preparation I apply to it.”

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., he said, was a prime example of someone who gained confidence in the face of adversity by drawing on what was important to him alongside intense preparation.

Top 50 iOS Games Take 76 Percent Of Revenue, But Most Don’t Last Long

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A new study conducted by Apptopia analyzed the top 50 Apple App Store games in the US using data gathered from 2014 to 2017. The results paint a stark picture of the gaming app market, with the top 50 games taking in 76 percent of the total revenue, leaving all others to fight over the remaining 24 percent.

On average, the top 50 grossing games retain their positions for 27.7 days, and in those years, only 14 games from 10 publishers managed to take the number one spot, and an elite three—Supercell, Machine Zone and Bandai Namco—had multiple number one games.

About two-thirds of the games studied dropped off the list within five days, with a third of titles lasting a single day. Only six games stayed among the top 50 throughout all the years studied: Game of War: Fire Age, DoubleDown Casino Slots & More, Big Fish Casino: Slots & Games, Slotomania Slots: Vegas Casino, Candy Crush Saga and Clash of Clans. The three top genres among the 25 games with the longest consecutive streaks on the top 50 list are casino and puzzle, with a four-way tie between arcade, role-playing, simulation and strategy.

“Since we’re talking money, it’s no surprise that three of these are casino games,” wrote Apptopia.

Meanwhile, non-casino titles such as Game of War: Fire Age invested $40 million into a massive advertising blitz in 2014, with Kate Upton becoming the chief spokesmodel who starred in the famously risqué Superbowl XLIX trailer and helped propel the game to the top of the charts. In comparison, Candy Crush Saga began its rise by focusing heavily on social media, as it was originally launched as a Facebook game that quickly caught on. Developer King continually engaged with that user base, which included about 1 in 23 Facebook users in 2017, who in turn spread the word and invited others to play when Candy Crush Saga launched on mobile devices.

Although it’s hard to believe, Clash of Clans had a slightly slower start, and developer Supercell couldn’t afford to spend much on marketing when it launched. The developer had to rely heavily on free marketing and some degree of luck while constantly improving the game, particularly when Apple’s editorial team chose it to be a featured game on the App Store. Having it be fun, addictive and unique helped a lot, but the fact that the game helped highlight key features like retina screens probably made it more attractive, too. Supercell then used the influx of money to invest heavily in marketing, particularly through ads on Facebook where Supercell could filter its audience to target gamers of specific age ranges and income levels. Clans also had a Super Bowl ad that played alongside Game of War‘s, and now the game brings in more than $5 million a day in revenue.

Ranking among the top 50 is no small feat, and staying there is even more difficult, and doing so means tremendous rewards. Over 800,000 games were listed on the App Store during the multi-year period, and 2,624 of them reached the top 50. Of those games, 119 stayed in the top 50 for over 100 days, 38 remained for over 500 days, and only 15 managed to stay on for over 1,000 days. The few games that managed to stay on the list for longer than a month saw considerable returns, with in-app purchases totaling around $750,000 per day for top five games, while top 10 games brought in about $340,000.

The study only measures in-app purchases and does not take into account potential advertising revenue. However, Apptopia notes that all the top grossing games have something in common: balance between player gender.

“The top grossing mobile games got there because they understand how to incorporate game mechanics and themes that people of all ages and sexes can enjoy,” wrote Apptopia COO Jonathan Kay in a blog post. “While identifying a niche can be lucrative, the serious money is made by catering across demographics.”

But the good news is that, depending on the size of your company, being ranked outside of the top 50 can still be quite lucrative. Mobile gaming continues to grow, with data from MediaKix showing that the number of active mobile gamers has grown to 2.1 billion worldwide, totaling over $50 billion in revenue, which is expected to hit $72 billion by 2020. Games also comprised about 80 percent of all app revenue in 2017.

The Age Of Personalization And The Return Of The Brand

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Marketing and advertising are standing on the precipice of a great new era—the age of personalization. For many, this coming together of technology and creativity will open new doors, allowing them to have closer and more rewarding relationships with their customers, but for the unwary or the careless, this age will strip you of trust and equity at an alarming speed.

Personalization was everywhere at Cannes this year. From artificial intelligence to help designers work more intuitively to augmented reality powering customer service in China, more and more the connection between people and their devices is becoming wider and profoundly deeper.

You didn’t need to look much further than the festival’s concierge service. Built and powered by LivePerson in partnership with Apple, this simple yet highly effective tool could be easily downloaded by scanning the QR code with your iPhone’s camera. From there, users can ask the AI anything they want to know about Lions, from what room the next talks were taking place to where they could grab a soda.

“The most remarkable thing is that even though we are handling thousands of queries a day, the whole operation is run by three people sitting right below our feet,” LivePerson’s CMO and EVP of Enterprise, Manlio Carrelli, told us when we visited the company’s nerve centre on a yacht moored up next to the Pavilion. “It’s an incredibly powerful tool and will change the way brands can talk and interact with their customers.”

However, while new technology might be making these exchanges more commonplace, the age of personalization is as much about changes in customer behaviour as it is about ever more insightful bots and algorithms.

More and more, the line between digital and IRL is becoming blurred. As the great communication revolutions of the last ten years become more widely accessible, it’s getting harder and harder to tell where people’s online and offline lives meet. Our relationship with the media, our families and the way we live our lives is beginning to change at a fundamental level, and thanks mainly to smartphone technology, the distance between brands, celebrities and even governments and their followers, fans and citizens is becoming tighter.

Increasingly, rather than being the passive, rational actor described in most economic textbooks, the consumer is becoming a smart, well-informed agent, who, thanks to the wealth of information given to them via the online world, knows a lot more than marketers usually expect they do.

COPA90, a UK-based media network that creates content for soccer fans, is a great example of this. Growing from a YouTube channel to one of the main authorities on world football in the space of a few short years, the company has succeeded in closing the gap between the superstars and their fans by concentrating on a editorial policy of inclusion, diversity and understanding.

Speaking on the CNN beach, just before France was due to kick off against Peru in a vital World Cup Game, James Kirkham, the company’s head honcho told the small invite-only audience that the key to success was understanding your audience to a profound degree.

“The modern football fan is very switched on, and if you respect them, then they usually respect you,” he said. “I can remember when we ran one of our first partnerships with Hyundai. On the first video, there was a comment from a fan saying, ‘why the f— is COPA working with Hyundai’ and literally 30 seconds later another fan commented ‘because, that way they can get the money to give you all this other great content.’ We didn’t get any other bad comments after that.”

If there is one thing Cannes has shown us over the last five days, it’s that the modern audience is becoming an impressively savvy beast, and you disrespect it at your peril. We now have a generation of people who have grown up with social networks and have a instinctive grasp of how the internet and communication works. In some ways, the advertising industry’s education of the consumer has come full circle and people these days can spot algorithms, point out bots and if you don’t speak with a genuine and entertaining voice, they’ll find you out pretty quickly too. The days of just phoning it in are over.

Bizarrely, and slightly counter-intuitively, what all this innovation is leading to is the return of the “brand” to its prominent position at the top of the marketing tree. Big data might be able to let organizations know more about your audience than ever before, but the rise in personalization means that this is becoming a two-way street. As much as a company might know about their consumers, you can bet that the consumer knows as much as the company in return. Just having a logo and a cartoon character increasingly won’t cut it any more, and those brands that have rich identities, strong values and are unafraid to talk to their customers like peers rather than mere users are the ones that are going to win in the next ten years.

All this is why Cannes Lions has become more vital than ever, as it celebrates and takes stock of the roles that advertisers and creativity play in our society.

If there has been one takeaway from this year, it’s that, as the barriers between customer and brands fall away, the specializations and silo-mentality of the marketing industry must also start to come down. It’s not okay for organizations to talk down to their customers, and the closed-off mindset has to got to go. Companies need to become more aware of the image they are presenting both internally and externally, and this includes everything from producing socially-relevant ad campaigns to the diversity and inclusion of their own workforce and office culture.

Because, if the way things have been going recently are any indication of things to come, the idea of internal and external communications won’t exist for much longer. Thanks to technology, the places to hide dirty laundry are becoming fewer and fewer by the hour. What the advertising and marketing industry needs is its own version of Glasnost. The age of personalization needs to be followed by the age of openness.