The divide between Michael Kassan’s earlier agency, MediaLink, and his new child 3C Ventures appeared particularly stark at this 12 months’s Cannes.
Final 12 months, Kassan and MediaLink had been lately divorced, 3CV had simply been introduced in ADWEEK, and MediaLink charged into the week-long occasion with the energy of Kassan’s connections, most notably iHeartMedia, who introduced Lenny Kravitz to the famed and unique MediaLink bash at Le Grill on the ultra-luxe, ultra-expensive Lodge du Cap-Eden-Roc.
On the time, Kassan stood on a balcony above the soirée, the place he had a way more non-public gathering.
This 12 months, he held a Monday dinner on that very balcony, 24 hours earlier than MediaLink had scheduled its personal “dinner” under at Le Grill. I exploit the time period “dinner” loosely as a result of it has all the time been a group of hors d’oeuvres to seize by the fistful so that you don’t slur your phrases too badly as you schmooze with high execs.
This 12 months, Kassan’s dinner was a bona fide sit-down, sponsored by Disney and iHeart—firmly aligned with Kassan and bringing Questlove to DJ an after-party of over 400 individuals, per 3CV. Each Disney advertisements chief Rita Ferro and iHeart CEO Bob Pittman welcomed the 240 dinner company with a couple of opening remarks.
Kassan’s energy to attach individuals with the highest decision-makers was very a lot in impact. Milling round his dinner had been Walmart’s chief progress officer, Seth Dallaire, Google’s president of the Americas, Sean Downey, and Mattel’s chief model officer, Lisa McKnight, for example. It was a dinner overloaded with energy gamers, and due to that, the networking felt concentrated. Additionally, as a result of it took an interminable period of time between programs, individuals tended to stand up and mill about searching for dialog and maybe bread.
The MediaLink dinner had extra individuals, with 650 company, barely greater than final 12 months, in accordance with a spokesperson.
By the way, I’m posting the numbers as a result of I believe individuals are curious, however I don’t imagine evaluating the attendance of 3CV and MediaLink is a extremely great way of evaluating the success of both.
In my opinion, the MediaLink dinner this 12 months didn’t have the chief energy that Kassan tends to deliver. As a substitute, UTA activated its roster of celeb shoppers. Some, like Josh Duhamel and Paris Hilton, had advert companies or ad-adjacent companies to pitch, however others, like Patrick Schwarzenegger, didn’t. The MediaLink dinner had its share of advert business brass—X CEO Linda Yaccarino confirmed up for each, for example—nevertheless it wasn’t wall-to-wall with decision-makers.
So, primarily based on two complete dinners, it feels that MediaLink’s position within the business goes to alter, whereas Kassan’s position, via 3CV, is prone to stay what it all the time has been. Executives are fiercely loyal to the person. In speaking to a handful of individuals conversant in each 3CV and MediaLink, if you’d like the ear of individuals with energy within the advert business, you’re employed with Kassan and 3CV. MediaLink, nonetheless, has a deep bench of consultants who may help advise on a product and go-to-market technique.
That’s to not say that MediaLink can’t put you in contact with a decision-maker, or that 3CV doesn’t have inside enterprise consulting chops, however that was the divide that was articulated to me a couple of occasions all through the previous few days.
Yet one more factor about Kassan and Cannes: He famously introduced a whole lot of adtech cash to the pageant virtually a decade in the past. Now, he’s supporting a whole lot of AI corporations—he touted Alembic Applied sciences a couple of occasions on stage, together with at his personal hearth at ADWEEK Home. As AI in promoting and advertising matures, it wouldn’t shock me if there’s one other spherical of corporations—and their cash—pouring very visibly into the Cannes Lions within the coming years.
