A Talent Agencys Advertising Tieup Is Paying Off At Cannes

A Talent Agencys Advertising Tieup Is Paying Off At Cannes

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This year, the Cannes Lions Award of the Year was awarded to comedian, actor and brand entrepreneur Kevin Hart. Another contributor to the festival is Alex Cooper, host of the NSFW podcast.

It's not entirely clear how they'll win "Entertainer of the Year" or how hot podcasts will get high spending on advertising executives. But they have one thing in common. They are clients of United Talent Agency. Eighteen months ago, UTA acquired MediaLink, an advertising consulting firm. And MediaLink, known for its cables in the advertising industry, has CAN cables.

The company's paying clients, including many of the world's leading advertising consumers, have held more than 700 meetings at MediaLink Beach. Customers can access the main party on the Tuesday evening of the festival, organized by another MediaLink partner, at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc (with Hart & Cooper). The company seems to be paying everyone, brands, tech companies, media, and one of them is paying for the privilege of hosting the party.

"MediaLink has been accused of going into everybody's pocket," founder Michael Casson said in an interview Monday. "And we're proud of that. Because we do full transparency and openness. And so I don't think it's a fight."

Or, as Cassin's favorite saying goes, "No conflict, no interest."

Max's attitude

UTA, one of Hollywood's top three talent agencies, competes with private equity firm CAA, which was recently bought by rival ICM and owns Ari Emanuel's conglomerate agency. 160over90 is the creative agency of WWE. (Endeavor bought and sold a stake in leading creative agency Droga5.)

UTA has brought in Hollywood influencers like The D'Amelios, musicians like Post Malone and Lizzo (who played Tuesday night's party), and athletes through Rich Paul's KLUTCH. At least since Michael Ovitz won Coca-Cola in 1990, MediaLink's $125 million bet on Hollywood talent and advertising is finally coming to an end. And here, at least in Cannes, where the power of MediaLink is widely known and sometimes well demonstrated, the bets seem to be paying off.

Kasson told Semaphore that UTA is partially responsible for GM's 2023 Super Bowl ad, with GM (UTA's entertainment and culture marketing client), Will Ferrell (UTA's client) and Netflix co-promoting the ad.

For UTA, MediaLink's relationship with CMOs has given talent agency clients greater access to senior executives who offer more opportunities and higher returns.

"This gives us a big seat at the table as the creative economy grows and brands look to rely more on creators and influencers," UTA's CEO said Tuesday at Le Majestic restaurant. “And because Michael is the most trusted name in the world, being able to talk to people and being able to talk to our customers about what brands they want and how they interact with brands is a real relationship builder.

After creating media figures from Reese Witherspoon to LeBron James, personal brands, companies, Zimmer, Hart's clients are not only corporate spokespeople, but increasingly business figures as well.

"What we're really trying to do is build multiple relationships longer than 30 seconds and create a true creative collaboration between creators and brands that can bring real value to both parties," Zimmer said.

Debate section

Ken Oleto wrote in his 2018 book, Frenemies in the Advertising Business. It's hard to find a dominant role for Cassin in other areas, but its strength in relationship marketing is creating a quiet buzz. Media companies that don't pay for the MediaLink pipeline risk being shut out of the deal. Agencies that rely on Cassan are outraged by what one agency executive called Tuesday the "MediaLink situation," a corporate role between the company's CEO and the agencies it hires to produce and distribute its ads. Enable sampling:

broke up

  • According to Ascential's annual report , MediaLink brought in $44.5 million in 2020 and earned more than $13 million in Ascential's public offering . Cassano has developed a good relationship with the previous owner, who runs Cannes Lions, and the executives are at MediaLink Beach this week.

  • The acquisition is "part of UTA's ongoing strategy to expand its business at a time when traditional revenues are under pressure from a volatile economy and industry consolidation," the Wall Street Journal reported in 2021.

  • The UTA acquisition is ongoing. This week it was bought by the British company James & Co., according to Deadline.

Don't call it femme-vertising, make it Cannes advertising industry [a] written off every week

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