Vodafone KPIs - strategic issues

As search-driven ambient discovery retreats, the inbox is becoming a top-of-funnel acquisition channel as well as a retention tool. Substack's value to publishers is infrastructure that gets content into inboxes, and email addresses into publisher databases.

The right strategy depends on the business model: paywalled publishers risk cannibalisation and use Substack as a funnel, while ad-funded publishers and broadcasters use it for parallel, personality-led brands.

Audiences attach to voices, be that an individual or a publication that talks like a real person. That attachment makes audiences portable, and that portability gets exercised when the economics justify it

In Q2, Netflix grew revenue 13% YoY (£12.6 billion), while narrowing its whole-year forecast between $51.0 and $51.4 billion. This was accompanied by an 11% lift in operating income ($4.2 billion). Advertising revenue continues to be on track to double this year to $3 billion.

Recent attention around Netflix’s engagement challenges helps to highlight that the streamer faces the same headwinds faced by all providers of long-form video, amplified by a net viewing loss from the push towards advertising.

As a counter to this, Netflix has a number of initiatives now to diversify its offering and increase engagement: some seem likely to stick and augment while others seem peripheral and value-skewing.

AI was the story of Cannes, both growing the market with new formats and cannibalising it. Not all AI increases to production are monetisable, creating disruption though the fundamentals of building engagement and resonance are unchanged.

Major platforms are still the main winners as supply ownership becomes key for differentiation. Agencies, adtechs, and commerce media are converging in function but diverging in approach as AI blurs the value chain.

Creative is at the centre of tensions between AI-led mass-market automation and human-centred bespoke connection. Platforms are defending SME audiences with end-to-end integration as agentic AI poses both opportunity and threat.