Published July 13
Go to any major advertising conference and you’ll see Michael Kassan holding court at restaurants. Kassan, the CEO of 3C Ventures, sits in the same seat while numerous executives filter in and out to meet with him.
This happens throughout the year at different restaurants in different cities with one common theme — Kassan offering wisdom from 50 years working in advertising.
He spoke with The Current’s Zac Wang at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity about the pressure agencies are feeling from AI, the toughest conversations he’s had recently and what keeps him going.
The work is in the palais, but a lot of the power players really are on the beach. Where are you seeing power and influence accruing right now?
Years ago, many of us enjoyed a wonderful show called Mad Men. “Mad men” have been replaced in terms of power by “math men.” Mad men were probably more famous for the creative output. Math men, if you will, is a reference to people who are buying media.
And if you think of that transition, what became important was the math men. And I don’t mean that literally, but what drives the success of what the Mad men do, the creative is better, more strategic media placement, different platforms in which to operate on.
When I started coming here, we didn’t have social media. When I started coming here, we didn’t have digital media. That shift is critical, and that’s where the idea that the importance of data in our industry to be more strategic, less gut.
Could you take me into a tough conversation you’ve had with clients or partners? What’s on people’s minds?
Well, look, advent is not a strong-enough word with the explosion of transformation through the lens of AI that we’re witnessing, real time, people with good reason are nervous about their jobs.
And will my job be replaced? Those are real time and hard conversations to be having in the agency client relationship, which is obviously very important in a week like this where all the major advertising agencies are here and all the major clients are here.
And so those top-to-top meetings, I think, have had some tough conversations as clients. Brands particularly are looking to do more in-house. … The life of an agency isn’t going to be easy, but the life of an agency shouldn’t be threatened.
There is massive opportunity for agencies to be adaptable through their operating systems and the operating models.
I was listening to [WPP CEO] Cindy Rose speak with Campaign, and she was talking about the change in agency models. Time and materials, she said, controversially, is dead.
Well, I’ll give Cindy a shout-out that’s appropriate. Cindy’s coming into this business from outside, which is good in this case, because she’s bringing a client’s view. She’s bringing a fresh perspective from her experience at Disney and Microsoft.
I came into the business with a fresh set of eyes 35 years ago, and I think Cindy is doing the same thing. So that comment makes a lot of sense because she’s looking at it through the client’s eyes, going, “I don’t care about your time and materials. I want to drive the results that I needed. What was the outcome? And I’d be happy to pay you more based on the outcome.”
We have gotten better in precision and addressable marketing in advertising. People have asked me over the years, “Michael, do you think marketers would pay a premium for targeted advertising?” I said, “Well, I don’t know that it would be a premium because if you could actually tell me you delivered the target that I wanted, then whatever you’re charging me is fair value.”
I don’t know that it’s premium. Maybe I’m paying premium for the stuff that didn’t deliver because I’m paying for it at all.
What keeps you going?
In the arc of my career, which has been about 50 years in business, there were three critical moments technologically.
First would it be the introduction of mobile telephony and our wireless device that we carry around, our mobile phone.
I think second would have been the PC and internet era. And AI being the one that I think has the most legs and the most opportunity for disruption and the transformation it requires.
For me, I couldn’t sit on the sidelines when this was happening. I just couldn’t do it. I didn’t have that in me. And years ago, my wife told me something that I’ve lived with, and we’ve been happily married for 52 years. She said to me years ago that she married me for better or for worse, but not for lunch. And so I had to be doing something.