In today’s fragmented media landscape, consumers are bombarded with ads, leading to frustration and fatigue. On the Next In Media podcast at Cannes 2026, industry leaders discussed a critical challenge facing advertisers: the damaging effects of excessive ad frequency and the strategic shift required to solve it. The consensus? It’s time to prioritize precision over persistence.
The core of the problem lies in a siloed approach to media planning. As Doug Rozen, President of Cadent, pointed out, a single platform like Hulu might be bought by five different internal teams—digital, local, national, and programmatic—all unaware they are targeting the same audience. This redundancy is what drives the frequency issue. Rozen advocates for a unified strategy: “If you have one plan against one audience, you should get to a unified reach and frequency that… will help make the customer experience better.”
Compared to contextual, by focusing only on connected TV requires moving beyond just connecting with a viewer and toward understanding the context of their consumption. Rozen argues for a new mindset: “Contextual TV is better than connected TV… because you’re not focusing on the context, you’re just trying to get to the person, you’re missing the value.” By focusing on the “why” behind the view, brands can deliver more relevant and effective messages.
Solving this isn’t just a strategic challenge; it’s a measurement one. Sean Odlum, CPO at Tinuiti, noted that optimization on a platform as vast as YouTube is “candidly a really difficult problem” that many brands and agencies struggle with. True optimization can only happen with accurate measurement, which is the first step toward delivering a more precise and less persistent advertising experience.
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Check out more content from Cannes!
The quotes featured in the blog post are from the Next in Media podcast hosted by Mike Shields. You can check out this year’s Cannes episodes on our YouTube channel here [LINK] to hear even more from industry experts.