Cannes 2012: Future prospects in digital media: Levy, Pritchard & Levinsohn

The Publicis Groupe chairman, Maurice Levy took to the stage to discuss the future prospects in digital media with P&G's (Procter & Gamble) global marketing and brand building officer, Marc Pritchard and Yahoo!'s newly appointed interim chief executive officer, Ross Levinsohn.

After Martin Sorrell, it was Maurice Levy who took to the stage. He was accompanied by P&G's (Procter & Gamble) global marketing and brand building officer, Marc Pritchard and Yahoo!'s newly appointed interim chief executive officer, Ross Levinsohn.

Levy started the discussion with a pun-intended remark, saying that his PR agency had advised him not to ask any uncomfortable questions on resumes and false degrees. For the uninitiated, Yahoo!'s ex-chief executive officer, Scott Thompson and Levinsohn's predecessor had resigned after a scandal around a false degree.

After the witty comment, Levy got back to some serious business and asked Levinsohn to share the initial challenges he had faced when he took over.

Levinsohn stated that he has spent a lot of time listening to the employees, which was important. He accepted that the employees needed clarity and part of his job was to redefine and provide a direction.

He said, "Any company which has been around for sometime has a lineage and that held true for Yahoo! as well."

He found it fascinating that Yahoo! employees still believe in the colour purple and that included people who had quit Yahoo!. He was trying to establish the attachment people had with the company.

Next, Levy asked the P&G head to define Yahoo! from his perspective. According to Pritchard, Yahoo! was a technology-driven media company. "We believe that a successful Yahoo! is good for P&G as well as the industry." P&G has an exclusive contract with Yahoo! and uses it extensively for digital needs.

Pritchard said, "When we asked Yahoo who they were - Yahoo!'s answer was that they were a content and media company but still hadn't been fuelled by the technology."

"We both have consumers in mind and the digital world is perfect for us," said Pritchard.

Levinsohn then went back to his early days, disclosing that his first job was with P&G production, which was into sponsor-created programming. He said, "After years, we are doing the same thing - finding out ways to weave the brand into the content."

Levy then urged Levinsohn with the statement that digital was not driven by just numbers, there was a trendy aspect to it as well. Levinsohn, who has been into boxing, reminded Levy that there were several momentum shifts in boxing, so once the boxer survives those moments, his chances of winning the match increase. He said that even Yahoo! has to undergo these phases and to be relevant, it will need to have substance.

"The good part is that we are not just sustaining, we are also growing," Levinsohn remarked.

Offering a piece of advice to Levinsohn, Pritchard said, "I like to believe that all digital brands are likely to be successful in future." He mentioned that P&G had a relationship with all leading global digital brands.

But, according to him, the key differentiation the future will be creatvitiy. He said, "Technology can be matched but not creativity."

He advocated that all digital media brands should work in collaboration and that according to him would be mutually beneficial for all.

He said digital brands have access to huge data but that data has to be created in real time.

Levinsohn agreed that they are working towards an interest graph but without steeping into the privacy of the consumers. He said, "Consumers tell us what they like and what they don't. Besides, we can also make out from what they read, what mails they send and what e-commerce transactions they do."

The challenge will be to collate all this data together in a meaningful way.

When asked about mobile, Levinsohn accepted that Yahoo! made a mistake of entering it quite early but now, the company is again looking at this space seriously.

Referring to a question asked from the audience, Pritchard said that the various sizes of screens, be it television or smartphones, will be merged in the near future. And, he doesn't see any reason why this can't happen.