Apple will rub shoulders with some of the most influential advertising industry heavyweights by attending what is described as the biggest global gathering for professionals in the industry. Apple will make its presence known at the festival in a rare move, according to industry sources who spoke to Business Insider.
The festival in question is the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, a renowned annual gathering for professionals in the creative communications and advertising industries and the largest of its kind. The event – held at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès – will span a week between Monday, June 19, to Friday, June 23. The article speculates that Apple’s festival presence could signal a big advertising push to be announced at WWDC 2023.
Apple has apparently booked a considerable number of rooms at the Carlton Hotel in Cannes, according to the article. The company’s executives will arrange and hold lavish meetings in the hotel to discuss its latest services, including Apple TV+ and Apple News, in a bid to promote the “broadening Apple advertising offering,” adds the article.
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However, Apple is said to face significant obstacles when it comes to luring advertisers to its platform. Apple’s services subscribers and reach isn’t as profound as its competitors, such as Disney and Netflix, and as such, the company will be forced to be more flexible when it comes to negotiations. Apple’s strong stance on privacy will also be a major point of contention, especially as the company’s App Tracking Transparency framework limits advertisers’ collected data from users.
Business Insider notes that Apple has previously attended the festival, albeit at a much smaller and discrete scale. One of its executives, Tor Myhern, is set to speak at the festival in a 30-min session titled “Unboxing” on Thursday, June 22. Myhern joined Apple in 2016 and serves as the company’s VP of Marketing Communications. Myhern’s session will focus on the collaborative nature between advertising agencies and their clients and how a thriving relationship is formed between the two.
The news comes as Apple is looking for more growth opportunities for its services business. Services, including Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, and more, have enjoyed stellar growth in the last few years. Apple’s services raked in nearly $21 billion in revenue during the fiscal Q2 2023 quarter, representing almost 21% of the company’s total revenue.
