A busy week in Cannes never disappoints! It’s great to be state-side but as I look back at what we revealed, as well as looking at the road ahead, I am thrilled at what an extraordinary week it was. Frank Holland started out the week by unveiling our "Visionaries" video, sharing our view on advertising’s next chapter. Over and over during the week, discussions centered on the importance of pivoting the ad industry towards the end customer experience. The theme of the Visionaries video is: looking at the future with fresh eyes and taking bold steps. It imagines a future where digital experiences are integrated into the fabric of our everyday lives. You could see that future dawning on the beach at Cannes this year.

Whether talking about innovation coming to Xbox via SmartGlass and NuAds, discussing the possibilities for Skype, or sharing the innovation coming from MSN as we continue to re-ignite what digital content experiences can be, it was clear that the innovation Microsoft is bringing in a simple and seamless way to its consumer platforms is a very exciting proposition. My colleagues and I were thrilled to give our clients a hands-on view into what’s coming via our Experience Center. It was amazing to see their reaction and their excitement of what Microsoft is bringing to market!

What’s Ahead…

While looking at what is ahead and the simplicity we are working to bring to creative management, I’m excited to share that Chrysler will be the first advertiser to pilot our Polymorphic ads solution, designed to simplify multiscreen advertising. As you may remember from my conversation at Advertising Week 2011, Polymorphic ads address a critical need in the marketplace by helping marketers overcome the hurdle of scaling ads across multiple devices. We know that brands find more success when they tell their story across devices, while doing so in a coordinated and seamless way. The challenge today is that launching multiscreen campaigns is too difficult and time consuming. Polymorphic ads are designed to streamline this process and help brands to focus on telling their story rather than campaign implementation. The benefits of Polymorphic ads only increase as an advertiser adds more screens to a media plan and as we continue to evolve what creative experiences can be with the powerful pallet that the Windows 8 Metro Style offers. 

After introducing the concept last year, we are happy to announce a multiscreen campaign for Chrysler’s FIAT that will span MSN, Windows 8 and Xbox. The pilot campaign will launch later this summer. We look forward to sharing the results when they become available. In the meantime, we created a video that illustrates our vision for Polymorphic ads with Chrysler’s FIAT as our pilot partner.

My conversations this week with marketers, media and creative agencies continued to inspire me to think about what’s possible within the Windows 8 Metro Style design. Collaborative conversations and partnerships are at the foundation to the experiences we’re creating in Windows 8, and bringing creative industry expertise into the design process is essential to creating a new way forward our industry. Just check out the momentum and early concepts of Windows 8 ads in apps that we shared on Tuesday in Cannes, which will include our partnership with creative agencies to bring this vision to life.


The dialog with our partners before and at Cannes has been inspiring, educational and motivating. It’s a luxury to have the industry’s most creative minds in one place. It is a great opportunity to not only showcase advertising’s next chapter, but to collaborate with the very agencies and marketers who will be building on Microsoft Advertising platforms in the years to come.


Cannes sets the course for what is to come in digital advertising, and this year’s event further solidified what we already know: that digital marketing is deeply integrated into the fabric of how we live our lives. It was another great event filled with innovative and creative ideas. This glimpse of what is to come for our industry will certainly keep us all energized and carry us through to the rest of the year. Stay tuned! 

Jennifer Creegan – General Manager Display Advertising Experiences at Microsoft Advertising