At Cannes Lions, the Variety Studio hosted Josh Feldman, CMO, Global at NBCUniversal, and Natalie Schwartz, head of global brand marketing and partnerships at Canva, to discuss…
Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
At Cannes Lions, the Variety Studio hosted Josh Feldman, CMO, Global at NBCUniversal, and Natalie Schwartz, head of global brand marketing and partnerships at Canva, to discuss how technology companies and entertainment media corporations collaborate to promote their products and programming.
At the start of the conversation, Feldman referenced how NBCU was able to break through the ever-expanding media landscape, through the introduction of BravoCon, and NBCU’s implementation of partnerships with “Bravolebs,” which has garnered the attention of the channel’s dedicated fanbase.
“BravoCon really broke through the clutter because here you’re taking this collection of really beloved IP, but you’re bringing brands along for the ride in a multitude of different ways.” Feldman briefly touched on how those tactics could appear, referencing a cooking partnership between Lay’s potato chips and stars of the “Real Housewives'” franchise.
Schwartz added how the partnerships develop from the brand perspective, referring to a previous partnership with Showtime’s “Billions,” and Canva’s goal to demonstrate for audiences and consumers can use Canva in the workplace. Schwartz even hinted at upcoming programming integrations, “We are working on integration with ‘Abbott Elementary’ demonstrating how Canva can be used in the classroom, which is a huge use case for us.”
As Schwartz and Feldman discuss how pertinent these partnerships and integrations are to their separate companies’ growth, the two executives also divulged they won’t shy away from the use of artificial intelligence.
“I am very pro-AI. At Canva, we’ve been embracing it for several years now,” said Schwartz. “We see AI as a tool to supercharge creators. There’s always going to be a need for human intent. I’m not worried about AI taking people’s jobs. I feel like that’s a narrative that’s been very front and center recently, and I think it’s just another amazing tool that lets people spark creativity. I think it’s going to push the whole industry forward. I’m excited about it.”
Feldman quickly agreed, explaining how he doesn’t think it “replaces humans when it comes to the world of creativity.” Adding, “in the world of creativity, AI is a tool that’s just going to be able to enhance totally what we do and utilize it in different ways.”
The NBCU executive also brought up the company’s previous use of AI for “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.” “We created a metaverse gaming experience for ‘The Tonight Show,’ because Jimmy was a gamer and he was really, truly interested in it. He was able to take this iconic IP that’s been around forever, and bring it to a brand new audience in Fortnite,” said Feldman. “That was just additive to what he does. It doesn’t replace what we’re doing. So using AI to just enhance the experience is going to just continue as we move forward.”
Watch the full conversation above.