Netflix Goes Big at Cannes With Help From Bridgerton and Squid Game

CANNES, France— “What’s harder to survive, Squid Game or Cannes Lions?” asks a black and white billboard on the rooftop of Cannes’ JW Marriot hotel, home to Netflix’s activation at the festival.

It’s only the second time the streamer has officially shown up for the annual creative gathering, rubbing shoulders with marketers and encouraging them to shift budgets to its ad tier, which now counts 40 million monthly active users.

And after a buzzy upfronts season—where it announced plans to build an adtech stack and surprised everyone by scoring the rights to the NFL Christmas Day games—its president of advertising, Amy Reinhard, is even more determined that Netflix will not just survive but thrive at Cannes.

“This is my first Cannes, and what stands out to me most is the creativity here. As much as we’re a tech company, our intersection with creativity is our lifeblood,” Reinhard told ADWEEK. “You see all these prolific brands here, too, so it’s good for us to stand amongst them.”

In its pitch to advertisers, Netflix is betting on its content and creative chops, and its space is a shrine to its series.

There are immersive activations throughout, ranging from an Emily in Paris Boulangerie, a Squid Game challenge, a Bridgerton garden and more. Parties throughout the week have included appearances from the likes of Janelle Monáe and Kaytranada. There’s even a sports lounge featuring NFL and WWE branding.

Besides one open afternoon, the space has been closed to the public, reserved for execs, guests and the press. Reinhard said the activation had to be social so fans could “touch and feel” Netflix.

Fielding questions from clients

EMarketer estimates that Netflix’s nascent ad business will pull in $1 billion in ad revenue in 2024, but a stroll down the Côte d’Azur shows competition for these dollars is stiff. Amazon and YouTube have gone big with their activations, while Disney used the festival to announce plans to open up its ad platform to a wider range of advertisers.

Reinhard said her “secret sauce” to stand out from the Cannes crowd has been teaming up with Netflix’s CMO, Marian Lee, who helps bring Netflix’s brand story to life when pitching to senior marketers.

After the string of upfront announcements, the exec has also been using Cannes to field questions from clients and would-be clients.

“We’re getting asked a lot about our tech roadmap and what our plan is there, and we’re seeing a lot of interest from clients in being closer to the content—so they want to know more about our integrated marketing experiences,” she explained.

It’s understood Netflix will roll out its adtech server by 2025, weaning itself off Microsoft’s adtech, which currently powers its digital ad serving. Microsoft will remain a programmatic partner for Netflix, with The Trade Desk, Google’s Display & Video 360 and Magnite also joining the roster starting this summer.

Though there have been ads on Netflix for around a year-and-a-half—and Netflix has been adding partners for advertisers to measure and verify the impact of campaigns, including companies such as Affinity Solutions, DoubleVerify, EDO, TVision and Nielsen—the streamer still lacks some technical capabilities that are table stakes for most of its competitors, ad buyers recently told ADWEEK. This includes tools like advanced targeting and buying inventory in biddable programmatic contexts.

Netflix’s ads plan is still a work in progress, with co-CEO Greg Peters noting ahead of the TV upfront that the streamer has “plenty more” to do to “realize the potential.”

For now, Reinhard said upfront negotiations are still in very early stages and moving slower than usual, but she expects more activity in the weeks ahead. Meanwhile, clients want a definitive timeline for the streamer’s ad tech stack.

“This all came together so quickly. We’re working through the intersection of all of those things. For instance, programmatic and measurement are closely linked,” Reinhard said. “Before we [announce] bits and pieces about each thing, we need to make sure we [lock down] the integrated story.”

She said there would be an update on the roadmap in the coming “weeks to months.”