3C Venture’s Michael Kassan talks media M&A and how to survive the long days and nights at Cannes Lions

Michael Kassan, the unofficial King of Cannes, is back at Cannes with his new company, 3C Ventures. The founder and Chief Executive of the strategic advisory firm has been coming to Cannes Lions for 25 years – which is nearly one-third of the conference’s 72-year existence.

3CV kicked off Cannes with its inaugural Convene dinner hosted by 3C Ventures, iHeartMedia, Disney at Louroc restaurant at Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes Monday night. It was followed by Convene After Dark, an after-party, hosted by iHeartMedia, 3C Ventures, Condé Nast, which took place at a newly-constructed venue on the hotel’s property, giving two big events to start the festival.

The company has also launched 3CV Plage, a new space on the beach where marketers, media execs and advertisers are discussing some of the biggest issues facing the industry throughout the week. 

Kassan spoke to The Post from Stagwell’s Sport Beach Tuesday about how the conference has evolved, what’s on the horizon for the media and advertising industries and how to survive the long, hot days and raucous, booze-filled nights of Cannes Lions.

Q: I was at 3CV’s executive dinner and your party last night. Please tell me more about your new company, 3CV, and what you have planned for this week in Cannes?

Michael Kassan: We had some fun last night, and 3C in its inaugural visit here to the Cannes Lions, kicked it off, I think, the way we like to with all of our friends and partners and a good cross-section of this industry. And the way I always describe Cannes Lions is the intersection of marketing, media, advertising, entertainment, sports, and technology. I think, you know, the Latin I learned when I was in law school many, many, many, years ago was “recipes loquitur,” which in Latin says it speaks for itself. So all one need do is look around on the Croisette and I think it speaks for itself.

Q: How did you think last night went? Will you do the same thing next year? Have you had a chance to even think about it? 

MK: I think we changed it up a bit. I’ve been coming to the Cannes Lions for about a quarter of a century now. My first visit here was 25 years ago, so I guess that’s not about a quarter of a century. I was good at math. That is a quarter century. It’s changed dramatically, and I think you always have to iterate. The tongue-in-cheek joke is, I guess, in Cannes, Monday is the new Tuesday.

Q: How has Cannes Lions evolved over the years?

MK: It’s interesting. When I showed up, kind of accidentally, my wife and I were on holiday, we’d always been in this part of the world in the third week of June, coincidentally, for, you know, 35 years. And one day I was sitting at the pool at our hotel and it was a moment like Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz.” When, if you remember, of course you do, when she woke up and said, and you were there, and you are there, and you’re there looking at all the farm hands, which turned out to be the, you know, the characters. And I was sitting at the pool and I saw a bunch of folks from the creative side of the industry. And at that time, I was running what was then the largest media agency in the world. And I only say that to underscore the surprise when I said to them: “Why are you all here?” 

And I turned to my wife and said: “Why don’t we go into Cannes tomorrow and check out this thing?” And I got here and this was and it continues to be a celebration of creativity. I think if I’m able to say this with a bit of immodesty. I think what I did was I saw the opportunity to build a conference around the Festival of Creativity. 

What I learned … is there are events that are conferences or [there are] festivals and they’re different. And I understand the nuance now. And if you look around the Croisette, as I said earlier, it’s clearly a conference. And that conference still surrounds a celebration of creativity. I think Cannes Lions today is the perfect intersection of everything coming together at one time. It is probably the most efficient week of the year because everyone’s here that you want to see. And there’s always the answer that you get from people when they say, well, “I could see you in New York, I could see you in LA, I can see you Cleveland,” but you don’t. And here it’s a forcing function. 

Q: What kinds of issues are you talking about at Plage CV this week? What are marketers really focused on this year? 

MK: There are probably four main issues this year. AI is overwhelmingly the number one topic on everyone’s mind. Up and down the Croisette and it’s from every aspect just how is it going to play [out in your business] and what’s going to happen? What does this do to labor? What does this do to the way I do what I do? It’s the technology of yes because it will impact everything we do in every aspect of our life number one so the top issue would clearly be that. 

I think the second issue is the emergence of what many call retail media networks what I’ve started to call commerce media networks because they’re no longer the province of just retailers. When you have companies like Lyft and Uber and Chase Bank and Best Buy. Best Buy is a retailer so you could call it a retail media network but it’s based on commerce.

Third is clearly the emergence of the influencer and the creator economy. [The fourth topic], I think is the M&A market and what’s going to happen as we are  waiting for the Omnicom IPG merger to close, God willing, and I Ihink there’ll be more to come. The holding company landscape, I suspect, will not look the same at Cannes 2026. 

Q: How will the Skydance-Paramount merger impact the media landscape, assuming it happens? 

MK: Well, it already has. Paramount’s already made some decisions on who their media partners are going to be. That was announced about two weeks ago, so we’re already seeing some impact there, and that’s even prior to this deal closing, which hopefully it will. And I think once that deal closes, and I do believe it will and I think it should, I think that it will unlock massive changes in the streaming marketplace.

I just think the way you’ve got WarnerBros. Discovery having spun off the cable assets and Comcast having spun off its cable assets…it readies you for different kinds of transactions and I do think once the Skydance Paramount deal closes, you’ll see a lot more activity in that regard because like commerce media networks. I’ve always subscribed. To a philosophy that if you find circumstances where you can use the following three words in a sentence in the right way, someone will make money. And those three words are consolidation, fragmentation, and efficiency. If you can find me a fragmented circumstance that can be made more efficient through consolidation, someone will do well. If you look across the landscape today with the emerging commerce media or retail media networks, there’s too many of them. I think there’ll be consolidation. I look at the streaming situation exactly the same. So, I think you’ll see some of the streamers come together. And I think the Paramount deal is an unlock for that. 

Q: As a Cannes veteran, what are your tips for people going through this week? How do you be efficient while surviving the grind of going to all of these events late at night and getting up in the morning for meetings and panels?

MK: It’s really hard, but what I’ve always told my teams when we hit the ground at the beginning of Cannes, part of my game day speech to the team has always been that glass of rosé in your hand is merely a prop. It’s not there for you to drink. It’s there for you to hold and be social. That’s the best lesson I can give you, number one. Number two, dress light, it gets really hot, and take it all in. Smell the roses, make sure you take it all in. Do spend time looking at the work because at its core, the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, is around the work.