Lab Weekly — 06/20/2025
Cannes news round-up; New podcast episode; Plus, the latest news about WhatsApp, YouTube, and more must-know news and stats
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The annual Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity took place on the French Rivera this week, bringing top brands and advertisers together to showcase their most creative and innovative campaigns, network with industry leaders over glasses of rosé, and debate the future of advertising in a rapidly changing media and tech landscape.
This year, the key debates and announcements unsurprisingly tend to be centered around AI, specifically, how generative AI tools can be incorporated to supercharge the existing ad tech ecosystem and the creative process.
Meta announced a new patch of generative AI tools to its Advantage+ platform for advertisers, including a new image-to-video tool on Facebook and Instagram that stitches together up to 20 product photos into a promotional video clip. It is supposed to enable small and midsize businesses to produce high-quality video without external production resources.
Meta also enhanced its Business AI with new voice features that allow users to interact with AI agents through voice commands directly within Facebook and Instagram ads. Business AI will roll out AI-generated prompts and quick FAQ buttons for ads to encourage interactions. All these new additions joined Meta’s growing suite of automated tools, including a text-to-image generator launched in May 2024 and an image-to-GIF tool that debuted last October.
In addition, Meta also confirmed its $14 investment in Scale AI (which we covered in last week’s newsletter) at Cannes, signaling its ambition to become a foundational player in global AI infrastructure. Meta says Advantage+ Sales Campaigns deliver an average 22% boost in return on ad spend (ROAS), while Meta GEM, its generative recommendation model, improves conversions by up to 5%.
Not to be outdone, TikTok, freshly off another U.S. ban extension, announced updates to its AI-powered creative tools, which will also be available on Adobe Express and WPP Open. Major updates to TikTok Symphony, its suite of generative AI ad tools, included Symphony Image-to-Video, which transforms static images into dynamic video content, allowing brands to repurpose assets and generate multiple creative variations effortlessly; Symphony Text-to-Video enables advertisers to produce TikTok-style videos from simple text prompts, streamlining the process of content generation, testing, and iteration; and Symphony Showcase Products, which uses AI-generated digital avatars to present a brand’s product in a native TikTok-style video.
Meanwhile, other AI players are taking a more lowkey approach. Digiday reports that AI companies like Perplexity are holding off-the-main-stage meetings with advertisers and quietly exploring the viability of AI-native advertising models. Still, much of the Cannes chatter — heard and overheard — fixates on AI’s ability to generate content faster or reduce production costs.
The big platforms are clearly listening and adjusting their talking points as well. After Mark Zuckerberg raised some eyebrows for suggesting AI might more or less eliminate the entire advertising ecosystem from creative to measurement, Meta leaders have since adopted a more measured tone, emphasizing AI as a tool for collaboration rather than replacement. In an interview with The Drum, Meta’s global business head Nicola Mendelsohn clarified that AI is scaling — not replacing — creativity, allowing brands to test more iterations and choose what works the best for them. Similarly, TikTok mirrored this talking point, with Andy Yang, Global Head of Creative and Brand Products, emphasizing that this approach isn’t about replacing creativity but accelerating it, combining machine efficiency with human storytelling.
Other Notable Cannes Announcements
In the world of streaming content, media companies are expanding the ad inventory and unifying the ad-buying tools through partnerships, a tactic evident in this year’s Cannes announcements. Disney and Amazon expanded their collaboration, allowing advertisers to target audiences across Disney+, ESPN, and Hulu using Amazon’s browsing, streaming, and purchase insights. Similarly, Amazon struck a deal with Roku, enabling advertisers to buy inventory on both the Roku Channel and Prime Video through Amazon’s ad-buying platform.
Meanwhile, Netflix broadened access to its ad-supported tier by adding Yahoo’s demand-side platform as a partner. In the post-streaming wars landscape, media owners are leaning into interoperability and scaling to make their ad ecosystems more appealing to brands. Netflix also continues to expand its international footprint, as it strikes a landmark deal with France’s TF1 for its linear TV content. Starting summer 2026, Netflix subscribers in France will be able to access all five of TF1’s live broadcast channels alongside on-demand content. It’d be fascinating to see if such hybrid content offering expands to more territories.
In addition to the new partnerships, Amazon introduced new performance insights for live shopping campaigns, enhancing measurement tools across its growing media network. Amazon Live offers brands an interactive format to engage shoppers through creator-driven storytelling, with 66% of Amazon Live viewers saying they’re inspired to purchase by influencers they follow, per the company’s press release.
Elsewhere, Reddit debuted two new ad tools designed to help brands better understand and tap into the organic conversations happening on its platform: Reddit Insights is a social listening tool that gives marketers access to conversation summaries, links to relevant posts, and top subreddit activity related to specific topics or brands. Another new ad tool is the Conversation Summary Add-on, which allows brands to display positive user sentiment or standout posts directly beneath their ad creative. Previously, Reddit provided these insights manually; now, they’re available in a scalable, self-serve format for advertisers. Also, don’t miss the Reddit partnership with CVS’s retail media network, as covered in our podcast’s latest episode this week.
In case you missed it… Apple WWDC 2025 Recap: AI Hype Seen Through the “Liquid Glass”
Apple’s AI strategy re-focuses on delivering quality-of-life improvements across shiny new UI design. Read our recap to learn more about what Apple’s latest software announcements mean for brands and marketers.
Airbnb’s Rebranding & What It Says About the Service Economy
The issue with scaling local services and experiences, and how AI might play a part in Airbnb’s future
The Dream of The Next Big Thing, Powered by Gen AI
How OpenAI, Meta, Google are trying to make it happen, and where does that leave Apple
Episode 172: The Evolution of Retail Media Networks (Ft. Parbinder Dariwhal from CVS Media Exchange)
This week on Floor 9, we’re diving deep into the fast-changing world of retail media networks with Parbinder “Parbs” Dariwhal, VP, General Manager of CVS Media Exchange (CMX). With 72% of purchases now beginning within retail ecosystems and average U.S. consumers seeing 47 retail media ads daily, it’s clear we’re in a new media era — one driven by data, co-creation, and in-store innovation.
Parbs joins hosts Ryan and Adam to break down how CMX is redefining retail media through partnerships with platforms like Reddit, leveraging interest-based conversations to drive brand advocacy. We also explore the collapsing purchase funnel, the rise of in-store formats like audio and end-cap screens, and the importance of transparency and first-party data in an age of “creepy” personalization.
Listen now to learn why the future of retail media is collaborative, measurable, and surprisingly immersive.
If you enjoyed the episode, please consider giving us a five-star review on Apple Podcast. Follow the Lab on LinkedIn and on Medium for our latest insights. Thanks for listening!
WhatsApp introduced new ads for its Updates tab, in status and channels, as well as channel subscriptions. marking the first time ads have appeared inside the messaging platform. However, these updates won’t be live in the EU markets until at least 2026 due to ongoing privacy concerns and regulatory discussions. Elsewhere, marketers now gained a new channel to reach the 3 billion monthly active users worldwide on WhatsApp.
YouTube launches open call to connect brands with creators [AdWeek]
YouTube announced it is making it easier to hire creators with brands with a new “open call” feature on YouTube BrandConnect. Creators can respond to a creative brief with video content, which brands can then review, approve, promote and measure.
Max will show autoplaying video previews suggested by AI [The Verge]
While the autoplayed preview is now live in the U.S., Max is also reportedly developing an AI-assisted tool that will soon help automatically identify “standout” moments from content to populate these previews, streamlining what has traditionally been a manual editorial process. For streaming platforms, using AI to surface the most compelling and relevant scenes can reengage lapsed viewers, especially in a scroll-heavy interface.
Barbie-maker Mattel teams up with OpenAI [Reuters]
While many reports jumped to “Talking AI Barbies,” there’s no clear indication on what Mattel is actually planning to do with OpenAI. Considering the fallout from the last time they put AI in a Barbie, the company is likely treading carefully with user privacy and transparency in mind.
- U.S. knowledge workers are embracing AI tools at an accelerating speed. The use of AI at work is accelerating. In the past two years, the percentage of U.S. employees who say they have used AI in their role a few times a year or more has nearly doubled, from 21% to 40%, per the latest Gallup survey. Frequent AI use (a few times a week or more) has also nearly doubled, from 11% to 19% since Gallup’s first measure in 2023. Daily use has doubled in the past 12 months alone, from 4% to 8%.
- In the month of May, Americans watched more video on streaming services than through cable and broadcast networks, marking the first time this happened over a full month, a new Nielsen report found. When comparing TV usage in May 2021 and May 2025, it’s clear that streaming has been the dominant viewing format with a usage increase of 71%.
- Grow a Garden, a farming simulation on Roblox popular with Generation Alpha, broke its own record for concurrent users over the weekend with 16.4 million active players on Saturday, the New York Times reports,
If you find our insights valuable and would like to have a deeper conversation on technology and media innovations, or need to sound smarter in a client meeting or a pitch, please feel free to reach out to Chelsea Freitas, our VP of Strategy, at chelsea@ipglab.com.
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