If you go to any major advertising conference, you’ll probably see Michael Kassan holding court in a restaurant. Kassan, the CEO of 3C Ventures, sits in the same seat as dozens of executives come and go to meet him.
It takes place throughout the year at different restaurants in different cities, with one common theme: Kassan offers the wisdom of his 50 years working in the advertising industry.
He spoke with The Current’s Zach Wang at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity about the pressures government agencies are feeling from AI, the toughest conversations he’s had recently, and what drives him.
Although the work is done in the palace, many power players are actually on the beach. Where do you think power and influence is occurring today?
Many years ago, many of us enjoyed a great show called Mad Men. The “madman” was replaced in power by the “mathematician”. Mad Men was probably more famous for its creative work. By “mathematicians” I mean the people who buy media.
And if you think about that transition, it was mathematicians who became important. Not in a literal sense, but what drives the success of Madman’s work is better creative, more strategic media placement, and working across different platforms.
When I started coming here, there was no social media. When I started coming here, there was no digital media. This shift is important, and the idea here is that the importance of data in our industry should be less gutsy and more strategic.
Can you talk about some tough conversations you’ve had with clients or partners? What are people thinking?
Well, Advent is not a strong enough word given the explosive transformation we are witnessing in real time through the lens of AI. People with good reason are worried about their jobs.
And will my job be replaced? These are real-time, difficult conversations in agency-client relationships, and in a week like this where all the major advertising agencies and major clients are here, this is obviously very important.
So I think there were some tough conversations as a client in the top-to-top meetings. Brands in particular are looking to ramp up their efforts internally. …The survival of the agency will not be easy, but the survival of the agency should not be threatened.
Agencies have a huge opportunity to adapt through operating systems and operating models.
what i was listening to [WPP CEO] Cindy Rose sat down with Campaign to talk about the changing agency model. Time and resources were dead, she controversially said.
Well, let’s give Cindy a proper cheer. Cindy is coming into this business from the outside, which is a good thing because in this case, she’s taking client input. She brings fresh perspective from her experience at Disney and Microsoft.
I entered this industry 35 years ago with fresh eyes, and I think Cindy is doing the same. So this comment makes a lot of sense. Because she sees it through her clients’ eyes. “I don’t care about your time or materials. I want to get you the results you need. What were the results? And I’ll be happy to pay you more depending on the results.”
We have improved the precision and ease of marketing in advertising. For years, people have asked me, “Michael, do you think marketers will pay a premium for targeted advertising?” I said, “Well, I don’t know if that’s going to be a premium, because whatever you’re charging me is a fair value if you can actually say that I achieved the goal that I wanted.”
I don’t know if it’s premium. Maybe I’m paying a premium for something that wasn’t delivered because I’m paying for it at all.
What keeps you going?
In my career, which has spanned nearly 50 years, there have been three important technological moments.
First, it was the introduction of mobile phones and the wireless devices that we carry around with us.
I think the second era was the era of PCs and the Internet. And I think AI has the most legs and the most opportunity for disruption and the transformation it requires.
For me, I couldn’t stand by while this was happening. I couldn’t do that. I didn’t have it in me. And many years ago, my wife, who I’ve been living with, said to me, We have been happily married for 52 years. She told me years ago that she married me, for better or worse, but not for lunch. So I had to do something.
