How a top CMO keeps up at Cannes Lions

Shachar Orren — co-founder, CMO and CRO of video tech platform EX.CO — is helping publishers find ways to monetize video, a vital part of a modern media company’s business.

A former journalist, who spent nine years working for Israel’s largest daily newspapers, Orren understands the challenges that publishers face as new technologies disrupt the industry.

For this year’s Cannes Lions, Page Six chatted with the exec at Stagwell’s Sport Beach about how she advises publishers to grow their businesses in a media landscape filled with digital disruption.

Q: How’s your Cannes going so far?

Shachar Orren: It’s very sweaty, and it’s only 11a.m. so where’s it gonna go?

Q: It’s going to get worse and worse, and then Band-Aids will be involved for your feet.

SO: I wore sneakers. I’m smart. I’ve been here before and I’ve learned a lot of lessons for sure.

Q: I wanted to talk to you about your company. For those who don’t know, what is EX.CO and what do you do?

SO: EX.CO is a video platform for publishers and media groups. We work with some of the biggest media groups in the world and help them manage their video strategy — everything from video content to video monetization, and really everything they need to run a successful video strategy on their sites.

Q: Do you find that your clients are more traditional publishers, or is it just everyone coming to you for advice on the newest technologies?

SO: It’s really everything. A lot of them are publishers who are making [a] big transition into the digital space, and want to grow, and didn’t have any video content before at all, and really want to learn it from scratch… Some of them are advanced and they just say, “Our video could be making a lot more for us.” That’s where we can give them a lot of advice on technology.

Q: Say I’m a legacy publisher who wants to grow my business and revamp my video. What [in my business] would you look at first?

SO: First thing is what are you looking to accomplish? What are your goals? Is it growing revenue? Is it having more video content? Is it having video content on more pages? I’m sure you know producing video is so expensive, and today there are so many ways with AI [artificial intelligence], and other ways, to just get more video and pages. It’s the content that people love to consume the most, and it’s also what advertisers pay the most for… so we help publishers just grow video across their site.

Q: AI is very buzzy here.

SO: We use AI and machine learning across all of our technology… starting from what video to recommend on which page based on the content of the page, the sentiment of the content of the page and… just make that automated. As well as our yield engine that helps publishers grow revenue. It is using AI mechanisms to decide which demand partners to call in the auction… very complex, we won’t get into it — but we really use AI in various ways. I feel like you have to say we are doing something with AI to sound cool, and we are there.

Q: Do you do anything with ecommerce?

SO: I feel like a lot of publishers are going into e-commerce now. A lot of publishers are looking for ways to diversify their revenue, and e-commerce is a big part of that. Video comes into play there, so recommending products through video, helping people decide what they want to purchase… Yes, we [are] helping publishers with that.

Q: Are consumers using e-commerce more in video now than in the past and do you find that it’s the consumer who has evolved, or is it the technology, or both?

SO: I think it’s both… consumers are looking for places they can trust that can recommend something to them. In the age of AI, finding a true recommendation is hard to find. A publisher — especially a reputable one — that’s where you can find recommendations you can trust. That’s why publishers are successful with their ecommerce strategies.

Q: We are going into an election and publishers and advertisers are a little cautious about what this is going to look like. How do you work with them both?

SO: An election year is challenging. We work with a lot of news publishers. That’s one of the sectors that we specialize in. Especially in an election year, a lot of advertisers, as you’ve said, are wary of having their ads next to hard news content. We try to be a liaison between the demand and the supply side of the business and show the demand side that the news inventory is actually what is going to be the most engaging this year. It’s going to be the most trustworthy content. People want to consume information that’s verified and that’s actually where they want their ads to be versus user-generated content in other places.

Q: Are advertisers warming up to news or are there certain advertisers working in the news space more?

SO: I think it’s definitely not easy. There are certain vertices within advertising like advertisers in the financial sector, in the medical sector that are more easy going into news sites, but we feel that there is progress and an understanding that it is not as scary as it seems.

Q: There aren’t that many women in the C-suite in media and advertising. I know you work to promote female executives. Could you tell me about that?

SO: [Our company] does a lot to promote more women in media and ad-tech. As you said, there’s never enough, I feel. We are hosting a women’s meet-up this year in Cannes, and we have a Slack group for women in the media and ad-tech industry that is kind of just talking throughout the year. We try to have as many places where women can meet and talk. I feel like that’s how we win.

Q: As a female executive, how did you navigate the industry?

SO: I actually started my career as a journalist. I had a very non-traditional path — from journalist to technology for journalists, which was an unexpected move. I tried to talk to as many women as possible especially for ones that are looking for the next moves in their career.

Q: What do you think is the biggest challenge for publishers and advertisers right now?

SO: I think definitely monetizing news sites is a big one and just staying relevant in an age where social media and all that AI-generated content is out there… We are believers in real journalism. We really want to help publishers be as independent as they can, and owning their own revenue is such a big part of that.

Q: What else do you have planned while you are here this week?
SO: My calendar looks insane. I have five meetings every hour, pretty much. I have no idea what I have planned, but my calendar will tell me in 15 minutes. A lot of meetings!