About the latest episode of variety‘s podcast, Strictly Business, features top leaders from NBCUniversal, IBM, State Farm, Autodesk, and Coinbase in conversation with Todd Spangler to compare notes and talk shop on marketing, technology, and consumer trends. variety Business editor. The conversation was recorded from June 22nd to 25th at the Canva Creative Cabana space at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
Dara Treseder, CMO of Autodesk, and Cat Ferdon, CMO of Coinbase, compare notes on how to reach audiences and how they’re harnessing the power of AI at the next generation of digital giants.
Treseder found that an overwhelming number of people (82%) are “comfortable with using AI in general life, maybe a little too comfortable. I don’t think AI needs to be a therapist, but only a third feel comfortable using it in their field. Meanwhile, an increase in jobs that use AI as a prerequisite is 2. “Therefore, there is a mismatch between job seekers and available jobs.” [Autodesk] We just announced a $350 million commitment focused on preparing the next generation and job seekers for work in this age of AI across design and manufacturing, including architecture, engineering, construction, product design, manufacturing, and media and entertainment. ”
Feldon detailed how crypto exchanges have become one of the biggest brands in the emerging world of non-traditional finance and banking options. She pointed out that AI has been built into Coinbase from the beginning.
“Coinbase is very agent-oriented, our CEO and founder. [Brian Armstrong] It’s been very public about it. “So we’ve been working all last year on developing workflows and using that to optimize everything across marketing. But at Coinbase, we believe very strongly that AI can help you achieve creative outcomes faster, but AI is not meant to replace human creativity,” Feldon says.
Jonathan Adashek, IBM’s senior vice president of marketing and communications, provided perspective from one of Big Tech’s most enduring brands. The brand is increasingly focused on helping large enterprises build systems that help them get the most out of their AI investments. For Big Blue, it started by seriously incorporating AI into their workflows. That has been transformative, Adashek says.
“Our creators were spending 80% of their time working on derivative assets, so they weren’t really being creative. They were just doing grunt work. Yeah, and that’s not their passion,” says Adashek. “We were able to bring that number down to about 40%. And we did something with the Sphere in Las Vegas, which turned it into a giant fishbowl and used AI to help with creative design and concept. We thought it would take 15 to 16 days. It took two days, but the creators who were involved say they got more ideas because it got them thinking about new things. As an organization within IBM, we and automation and corresponding process improvements, we have taken $4.5 billion out of our annual spend over the past three years and plan to spend an additional $1 billion this year.”
Mark Marshall, chairman of advertising partnerships at NBCUniversal, and Christine Cook, chief agency sales and marketing officer at State Farm, have done a lot of business together over the years, and it’s clear from their conversations. Cook explains why events like NBCU’s BravoCon fan gathering are the kind of cultural events that State Farm needs to have a presence in to reach the next generation of consumers.
“It’s about connecting around common interests and relationships and your passions. And that’s what BravoCon brings us,” Cook says. “That’s a really powerful thing because the audience is actually the story. They just exist and are very engaged. And we learned a lot because in the early days when we worked with BravoCon we were creating branded spaces. Then we evolved into creating things like memorable experiences. We created a way for fans to interact and feel something in the moment. BravoCon was really good for us overall.”
With the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Games just two years away, Marshall spoke about NBCU’s plans to further elevate its coverage beyond the heights achieved at the 2024 Paris Summer Games at Hometown Events.
“The last U.S. Summer Olympics was in Atlanta. [in 1996]. That year, NBC aired 186 hours of programming. We will produce nearly 8,000 hours of programming in 2028,” Marshall explains. Watch your favorite sports live on Peacock, or listen to Mike Tirico’s soothing voice tell you the day’s events and the stories behind them at night. What we’re starting to learn is that fans love watching sports, but what they really love is the storytelling that tells the story. [the athletes and teams] I’ve reached that point. That’s the story we’re telling now. And at NBC, we infuse that same strategy into everything we do across the NBA, MLB and NFL. ”
