CMO Confidential | Shiv Singh, CEO Savvy Matters: "Why Cannes Can't – Things That Aren't Covered at the Big Soiree"
Podcast: CMO Confidential
Host: Mike Linton
Guest: Shiv Singh (CEO Savvy Matters, Co-Founder AI Trailblazers, Former CMO LendingTree)
Date: September 16, 2025
Episode Overview
This episode dives beneath the glitzy surface of the Cannes Lions Festival to explore the real and often unspoken challenges the marketing world faces in 2025. Mike Linton and Shiv Singh dissect the issues that the festival doesn’t cover: the rise (and risks) of AI, why the CMO role is increasingly broken, the true power of big tech, the distorted marketing landscape, and whether Cannes is even relevant or responsible for most marketers today.
Shiv Singh, drawing on his extensive CMO experience and fresh off the release of his book "Marketing with AI for Dummies," lays out “The Five Marketing Truths You Won’t Hear at Cannes,” challenging the industry to embrace uncomfortable realities—especially around AI, the shifting influence of big tech, and the urgent need for marketers to become technologists.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
1. AI Is Killing (and Reshaping) Marketing Jobs
Timestamp: 03:05 – 05:48
- Transformation Beyond the Hype: AI's impact on marketing is "far greater than even the hype may want us to believe." It’s not just automating tasks—it’s fundamentally changing the notion of creativity and strategic work.
- Job Displacement: Performance marketing jobs are being optimized end-to-end by AI, and even creative roles are being redefined by new tools.
- Strategy and Planning: Quoting Joe Fuller (Harvard Business School): “Knowledge workers are the most at threat in the AI era...we’re increasingly moving away from presentations being our deliverables to agents and bots as our deliverables.”
— Shiv Singh (05:17)
2. The CMO Role is Broken
Timestamp: 05:48 – 10:06
- Escalating Scope, Fewer Resources: CMOs are asked to do more with less, with job definitions widening as authority blurs—”65% of a CMO’s role overlaps with another C-suite executive’s role.”
— Shiv Singh (07:33) - Chief Alignment Officer: “My role is not the Chief Marketing Officer, I’m the Chief Alignment Officer because all I do every day is spend my time aligning.”
— Shiv Singh (07:17) - Complexity from Platforms: The proliferation of “walled gardens” (unique metrics/algorithms per platform) makes it virtually impossible for CMOs to demonstrate performance to the C-suite:
“The walled gardens have been killing the CMO’s job...add in AI and retail media networks and it’s even harder to demonstrate marketing’s value.”
3. Big Tech Controls Marketing & Budgets Are Distorted
Timestamp: 11:33 – 15:34
- Tech as Kingmakers: Instead of CMOs, companies like Meta, Google, TikTok now dominate Cannes—and, by extension, the direction of marketing itself.
- Metrics as a Sales Lever: Tech platforms market themselves as the only channels worth spending on: “If you can’t measure it, you shouldn’t actually do it.”
— Mike Linton (13:25) - Zero-Click Era: The shift to AI-driven search ("zero click") means consumers increasingly stay within platforms, never landing on brand sites—making it even harder for brands to engage and measure performance.
4. Cannes is Not for Everyone / Is Cannes Just Self-Indulgence Now?
Timestamp: 15:34 – 24:52
- Perception Gap: Seen from the outside, Cannes is “the ultimate self-goal” for marketers’ reputation in the corporation—optics undermine credibility.
"If I were to tell [my company] I went to the South of France for a week drinking rosé for a conference, they'd laugh in my face and be like, we don't believe you were getting any work done whatsoever."
— Shiv Singh (17:27) - Missing Substance on AI: Despite all the AI hype, Cannes had “no real conversation” on the practical, foundational questions—like which LLM to use, agentic AI frameworks, or how to rebuild marketing with AI.
- Misplaced Focus: Marketers at Cannes celebrate "return to fundamentals" and creative awards, but miss the business and technology transformations driving real change.
“It borders on the immoral, in a sense, that the world’s biggest marketing festival has so little business and tech substance given we’re on the cusp of superintelligence.”
— Shiv Singh (24:52)
5. AI Is Making Us Less Intelligent
Timestamp: 24:52 – 28:26
- Cognitive Offloading: With every task AI takes over, marketers' own capabilities start to degrade—like over-reliance on Google Maps eroding our sense of direction.
- Dependency Concerns: “AI becomes my boss because I can’t do anything without it.”
— Shiv Singh (27:37)
6. How Should Marketers Respond? Practical Advice
Timestamp: 28:26 – 38:28
- Understand AI Deeply: Marketers must become technologists—know the tech, foundations of LLMs, determinism vs. probabilism, and how AI agents work.
- Quote: “Marketing as a function cannot survive anymore without marketers being technologists at the same time.”
— Shiv Singh (29:42)
- Quote: “Marketing as a function cannot survive anymore without marketers being technologists at the same time.”
- Learn to Code: Even basic "vibe coding" becomes the new language of marketing communication.
- Look to the Future of Superintelligence:
“Superintelligence means we each have something at our fingertips…a hundred times more intelligent than any human being or the human species in combination.”
— Shiv Singh (32:05) - Organizational Redesign: Start from scratch with “AI-native” org design—every task and workflow should be assessed for AI/Bot automation first.
- Weekly Innovation Sprints:
“When new tools come out, give your team a one-week assignment to play with it and report back. Make experimentation a cadence.”
— Shiv Singh (35:08) - Push Marketers into Tech: Encourage marketers to shadow tech teams—a fourth of the marketing function should spend time with technology.
- Embrace Solo Entrepreneurship:
“Think of yourself as having superhuman powers. Go develop a side hustle—using these tools could transform your career.”
— Shiv Singh (37:47)
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
- “The CMO role overlaps with two-thirds of another C-suite executive. It’s mind-blowing responsibility.” (07:33)
- “The optics of Cannes are terrible…in construction or financial services, just being in that location, you’re losing equity within the corporation.” (17:27)
- “If I were the CEO of Cannes, I’d move it to San Francisco. Because what was missing in Cannes this year was real substance around AI.” (17:41)
- “Superintelligence is in our line of sight…for every marketer, you have to prepare for a future that’s coming much faster than we all think.” (32:05)
- “Push your marketers into technology…sometimes it’s taking the hard message, telling them, don’t aspire to be like me—aspire to be like Sam Altman or Satya Nadella and learn that language.” (37:03)
Section Timestamps
- 03:05 – AI’s Real Impact and Job Transformation
- 05:48 – The Broken CMO Role
- 11:33 – Big Tech as Kingmakers & Budget Distortion
- 15:34 – Is Cannes Out of Touch?
- 24:52 – AI's Effect on Human Intelligence
- 28:26 – What Marketers Should Do Now (Deep Tech Learning, Coding, Org Redesign)
- 34:32 – Practical Advice & Weekly Innovation
- 37:47 – Solo Entrepreneurship & AI as Empowerment
Final Thoughts
This episode challenges listeners to move beyond surface-level marketing conversations and reckoning with the deep structural changes AI and technology are bringing to marketing. Shiv Singh calls for radical transformation—personally and organizationally. Marketers, he argues, must become technologists, embrace weekly experimentation, and be ready for a future where human and machine intelligence are deeply intertwined.
“It’s not all frightening. It’s not all scary. Embrace this as a transformative future.”
— Shiv Singh (38:23)
For More:
Catch the full episode of CMO Confidential on Spotify, Apple, or YouTube. Explore topics like AI bots as customers, synthetic influencers, and reimagining marketing strategies for the AI era.
Stay safe out there!