- 3 months ago
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00:00Thank you everybody for joining us today here on this yacht, which is a nice change of pace for me,
00:07you know, given my life on a personal jet.
00:11But no, we're truly fortunate to be here in this beautiful place, on this beautiful day, and I don't throw
00:16this word around lightly,
00:18but we have three real thought leaders here in this space to talk about, from data to decision,
00:25how technology is transforming operations across media, sports, and entertainment.
00:30Now that's a mouthful, we'll unpack it for this session, but let's go down the line and introduce who we
00:36have, Michelle McGuire from Deloitte.
00:39Tell us what you do at Deloitte.
00:42Yeah, so nice to see everybody. It's always lovely to be in the south of France with my friends and
00:46coworkers.
00:47It's beautiful. Thanks for having us, variety.
00:50I'm Michelle McGuire, as you mentioned. I'm the Chief Data and AI Officer for our partnership with the Olympics and
00:56Paralympics,
00:56where we are using AI to transform how the games are delivered, whether that's operational efficiency,
01:03making it faster, better, more for fans and for athletes.
01:06We're using technologies like AWS to help drive impact in the operations of the games.
01:12All right. We have Pete Wood, EVP of Consumer Platforms and Services at Sony Pictures Entertainment.
01:19Pete, what's your purview?
01:21I'll also say thank you to Variety for having us today.
01:25I wish it was air-conditioned here in the south of France, but we'll make do.
01:28So, yeah, I'm EVP of Platforms and Services at Sony Pictures Entertainment.
01:33My 20th year at the studio, so maybe next year I'll get a watch.
01:37Yeah, look, my group runs all of our direct-to-consumer targeted services across Sony Pictures Entertainment.
01:45What that means today is, as we think about building better connectivity with consumers
01:50and making sure that we can deliver all of our content to all devices around the world,
01:55that isn't a one-size-fits-all model or business anymore.
01:58And so what my group does in partnership with both Deloitte and AWS is figure out how we reach more
02:03consumers,
02:04most importantly, with the least amount of friction and the most amount of relevance.
02:07So very good to be here.
02:08Yeah, that's the goal here.
02:10And then Ruba Borno, VP of AWS Specialist Partners and AWS Marketplace.
02:16What does that all entail?
02:19So thank you again for having me.
02:21Just like everyone else, I'm really excited to be here,
02:23and it's always very timely to talk about the topics that we have covered today.
02:27In my role, my team is the go-to-market specialists,
02:31who are the technical pre-sales and post-sales teams.
02:33Our partnerships, which includes partners like Deloitte who deliver innovation that we jointly then provide to customers,
02:40and then the AWS Marketplace, which is a discovery procurement platform that our customers can go to.
02:46Think of Amazon.com, but for IT.
02:48Nice.
02:49Okay.
02:49Well, let me kick it off.
02:51Michelle, I'll start with you.
02:52We're seeing growing consumer openness to AI-generated experiences, right?
02:57Personalized highlight reels, custom content, recommendations.
03:00What are the most compelling opportunities?
03:02What are the biggest wins?
03:04I mean, low-hanging fruit, if you will, right on the horizon.
03:07Yeah, and at Deloitte, as you know, we've spent a lot of time doing research around how AI is impacting
03:12the organization,
03:13but what we've arrived at is AI is not going to replace the humans.
03:18It has to be machines and humans working together in harmony to really deliver impact,
03:25and so that impact could be personalized experiences, whether they're online or in-store, in-person in the case of
03:32sports.
03:33So really engaging fans in a way that historically wasn't possible because the technology wasn't there.
03:40So think real-time segments around personalized groups and audiences.
03:46You're seeing it today in all things World Cup.
03:49Fans are engaging in person, in towns.
03:52It's really sports, I feel like, is going to be where you'll see it the fastest in terms of how
03:59AI is changing the game,
04:00with media as a fast follow, in terms of how we can engage both the technology and the humans in
04:07the loop to transform that end-to-end fan journey.
04:11Yeah, and Ruben, we talked about this before, but it's really like a change management situation, right?
04:19What is the level of resistance or embrace to AI in the ecosystem that you work with?
04:26So I actually really like sports as an analogy as well, not just as a benefactor of all of this
04:32innovation, but as an analogy.
04:33And I liken it to any innovation in sports that has led to multiple world records being broken because of
04:40that technical innovation.
04:41So think in tennis when wooden rackets were replaced by titanium rackets or when steel poles were replaced with fiberglass
04:48poles and pole vaulting and 19 world records were broken
04:51or when the new suits came out for swimming and then a whole bunch of Olympic and world records were
04:57broken.
04:58You don't sit there and say that the tennis racket is now the tennis player.
05:02You don't say the pole vault is the pole vaulter.
05:04It's not replacing the human.
05:05It superpowered the human who was using it.
05:08And then they were able to compete.
05:10And then the interesting thing is if you're not using those new tools, you really actually can't compete anymore.
05:16It sets a new standard.
05:17Right.
05:18So you'll be left behind if you don't move forward, right, Michelle?
05:22Yeah.
05:22With any technology advancement, I've been doing IT for 30 years, and there's always something new, right?
05:28There's always, you know, there was the internet and then there was SaaS.
05:32And to be honest, AI is just the next technology.
05:35And people always fear it initially, and then they learn to work with it in a way that compels us
05:41forward to break records, to change how we do business.
05:44I will say one difference in this one and others, and with AWS, I mean, we were at the start
05:49of the cloud transition.
05:50That was a very much bottoms-up transition.
05:53I mean, you had engineers, developers, like, swiping their credit card and then using our cloud services, and it really
05:58democratized access.
05:59In this particular technology transition, because the best benefit comes from rethinking workflows end-to-end versus, like, optimizing, you
06:08know, each sub-process, it does require a top-down push.
06:11And that's what we're seeing is a really big driving factor of success.
06:15Yeah.
06:15You've got to set the goals, and you have to enforce the goals and the milestones.
06:21But, I mean, I think this conversation is separate from the fear that we're seeing in Hollywood, which is creatives
06:27think that AI is going to diminish them.
06:30I mean, that's probably a separate conversation.
06:32We're talking about business optimization here, right?
06:35Yeah.
06:35Yeah, I think they're very different subjects, right?
06:38I mean, if you go back to – we had this conversation earlier this week, which is, if you go
06:43back 20 years ago, the way that we reached and engaged consumers was plastic on shelves, on DVDs, in retail
06:49stores.
06:50And technology and the Internet enabled us to actually find better ways to engage consumers.
06:55It was better for the planet because there was no wastage, but also better for consumers because there was better
06:58access.
06:59AI is just another way of enabling better workflows and efficiencies through the process.
07:04What it absolutely does not do, it doesn't replace what the creators are doing, which is creating amazing, compelling content
07:09around our brand's IP and our franchises.
07:12And so we're really clear about how it's used and when it's used, and we are a human-led company.
07:17Yeah, I have to be.
07:18And protecting that, I think, is critical.
07:20Yeah, you would just – it would harm the brand if you did anything other than that, right?
07:26And, well, you know, Sony's pictures, as you mentioned, has worked with both Deloitte and AWS on your tech and
07:33consumer platform strategy.
07:34What have been the most valuable lessons along this journey?
07:40Many lessons, some that I can talk about, some that I can't.
07:43I would say the most valuable ones have been, again, the efficiencies of partnering with technologies that exist within the
07:50ecosystem of AWS.
07:52You know, why try to build something for the first time that AWS and their partners have done 1,000
07:57times before?
07:58We pride ourselves on being an entertainment company under PIM by technology, but we're very clear that there's not need
08:03to be solely Sony's technology.
08:06And so the last few years, as we looked at enabling over-the-top direct-to-consumer services at scale,
08:13AWS allows us to do that really effectively.
08:16Today, we have services in 83 countries.
08:19And what are those services?
08:20Well, we have a few different services.
08:23So, you know, Crunchyroll is part of the Sony family, and we work very closely with Crunchyroll within Sony Pictures.
08:28Under my purview and responsibility, Sony Pictures Core, that is live and enabled and embedded across all of our TVs
08:35in 83 countries.
08:36And it's also integrated into our PlayStation devices.
08:40And that's about delivering premium experiences to Sony consumers on Sony devices.
08:44That's a big footprint.
08:45It's a big footprint.
08:46And, again, this is for us about trying to deliver very unique creator stories to our consumers and our devices,
08:55right?
08:55This is not us in the fight, in direct-to-consumer with everyone else.
08:59We have done a very good job, I think, of partnering with everyone in the industry, and that will continue
09:04to be our strategy.
09:05But, you know, finding new communities, and you talk about Crunchyroll, that community and the single home of anime didn't
09:12exist 10 years ago, right?
09:14We identified that medium as a company, and now it's one of the most successful and fastest-growing subscription services
09:20on the planet.
09:20Well, yeah, and the Internet made that possible.
09:22Yes.
09:24So, Michelle, trust, you know, it's often a concern when it comes to AI-generated content.
09:29What does the data tell you about consumer acceptance?
09:33Where do transparency and labeling fit into that conversation?
09:37Yeah.
09:37So, we have a framework at Deloitte called Trustworthy AI, and so, as with all things consulting, we have a
09:44framework by which we measure and look at things like transparency and engagement and, obviously, trust in terms of how
09:53people view and engage with, whether it is written content, video content, automatically generated content.
10:01And what we find is that, generationally, people have the ability to recognize content that is AI-generated.
10:10Obviously, with a younger generation, they have an easier time doing so.
10:14My mom and the boomer generation maybe sometimes struggle with...
10:19My father-in-law brought me a really cute video once of a child being picked up out of an
10:24elephant cage and all the people cheering.
10:27Wait, that's not real.
10:30And he was like, look at how sweet.
10:32And I was standing there with him, and I was like, Mike, that is AI-generated.
10:37And he was like, how do you know?
10:38And we go through the, look at the crowds.
10:41AI struggle with crowds.
10:42Look at the child.
10:43He's not moving his arms.
10:44Look at the elephant.
10:45There needs to be some discernment on the part of the user relative to AI when it comes to automatically
10:52generated content.
10:52And I think to your point earlier, you know, this is, it's an additive thing that, you know, doesn't replace
10:58what we've long known.
11:01And, you know, it just changes things and, from a business perspective, can really accelerate things, make things more efficient,
11:08and so on.
11:10Ruby, I wanted to ask you, you know, that is one of the big questions about making existing processes more
11:15efficient using AI.
11:17But what are some examples of an organization asking the question, what is possible that wasn't possible before, using this
11:25particular kind of technology?
11:26I think that's absolutely the right framing.
11:29The opportunity ahead is so great.
11:31And I'll just give a stat that I learned recently that I found really exciting about just how much upside
11:36there is here.
11:38Only 14% of companies have a unified profile of their customer.
11:43So, if you think about the possibility there that companies can unlock in targeting their customer.
11:49And, by the way, consumers want things that are relevant to them.
11:53Absolutely.
11:53They want a personalized experience.
11:55We see that time and time again, whether it's in retail, whether it's in media, whether it's in sports.
11:59We see a lot more engagement when the content is personalized to the consumer who is viewing it.
12:05And so, if you can actually bring that data together and then provide insights to the vendor or the partner
12:12to then be able to add value to the consumer, that's where the things get unlocked that couldn't have been
12:17done before.
12:18And I'll just give a couple of examples.
12:20One example in the B2B space, we have a customer, MercadoLibre, who creates ads platform that has an ads platform
12:30in Latin America.
12:31And what they've been able to do is personalize ads per country for their small and medium businesses vendors who
12:38now can compete with large stores providing content that is that quality.
12:43And that's something that could have never been done before.
12:46In the film space, we worked with Customer Innovative Dreams, and they created a three-part series with Sir Ben
12:53Kingsley and with one of our partners, Luma AI, which is an AI competency partner of ours.
12:59And they were able to create this three-part series filmed in over 40 virtual locations in one week.
13:06There's no way you could have done that before without this technology.
13:09I don't see how you can argue that that's a bad thing.
13:14I mean, the devil is in the details here, for sure.
13:18I was just going to jump in.
13:19I think it's come up a couple of times.
13:21It's about creating relevance for your customers.
13:24I was looking at some reports the other day that the average consumer spends something in the region of 10
13:29to 12 minutes every night trying to decide what to watch.
13:32In my household, if you ask my wife, it's 45 minutes.
13:35The scary statistic is actually one in five consumers actually gives up.
13:39And so when you look at the inefficiency and the time that is wasted because decisions that are put in
13:44front of you are done through a small subset of what is relevant to the overarching service ecosystem, but not
13:51necessarily personal to the consumer that's behind the screen.
13:55Delivering better experiences, and that goes from both the content itself and discovery of content, but then back into the
14:02advertising, right, to make it actually relevant.
14:04So instead of that ad break being that moment in time where you run to the restroom or you go
14:09and get a glass of water, you stay because you're engaged and you're removing the friction of that experience of
14:15interruption.
14:15Yeah, the Deloitte research shows that it's 82% of consumers prefer a personalized experience, whether it is an ad,
14:24whether it is video content.
14:2682% of folks want it to be more relevant for engaging with what you have to offer, whether it's
14:32advertising and product recommendations, or to your point, it's finding content as you're sitting down to choose what to watch.
14:39And again, digital platforms and data make that possible, where you don't have this just giant wet blanket of TV
14:45that everything goes to everybody, right?
14:48That's not how it has to be.
14:49What were you going to say?
14:50No, I mean, I was going to build on something that P said earlier, which is our only non-renewable
14:55resource is time.
14:57And what we're finding is that we're able to compress a lot of things to be able to use our
15:01time to deliver more high impact, interesting things, ask questions that we couldn't ask before.
15:07And I love that some of the work that we've done with Deloitte and Sony Pictures Entertainment is all about
15:13bringing the data together to provide a unified view and then be able to take action on it that couldn't
15:18have been done before in a way that maintains some governance and security and privacy requirements.
15:26So we built a service called AWS Clean Rooms that the teams here have used.
15:30And Pete, I'm happy to have you kind of talk through that because it's your teams using it.
15:33Yeah, no, I won't talk in detail.
15:35I think you hit upon a few different subjects, but trust is essential for everything, right?
15:40So making sure you put the right relevant content in front of consumers, but then feeling trusting in sharing that
15:47data with you in a way that you are presenting to them stories that are relevant.
15:51We spent a lot of time with both AWS and Deloitte really thinking about how you do that in a
15:57safe, secure environment.
15:58And Clean Rooms is one of those technologies.
16:01What I love about Clean Room as a concept is it's a way to compliantly share data that is CCPA
16:11compliant, GDPR compliant, that enables the personalization that we're talking about, right?
16:16So how do I look to see where I have shared data, engage it?
16:20And when I don't, how do I create an audience that is compliant that I can go activate?
16:25So even if you're anonymous to me, I'm able to understand a little bit about your behavior in a way
16:30that is meaningful, that creates content, that engages audiences, that respond.
16:35And, you know, AWS is that foundation.
16:38And just one thing to add on that.
16:39One of the reasons that we created that service is that we saw that to deliver a business outcome to
16:44a customer like Sony, it requires multiple partners to work together.
16:48Now, you don't always want to provide all of that data.
16:51You want some of the information to be anonymized.
16:53And this is a safe way to share information across partners.
16:56And what we've seen is that it requires, at times, four or more partners to deliver a business outcome.
17:02So now we have a capability to actually bring all those partners together and be able to deliver a better
17:07insight to every single one of them in their area of expertise.
17:10So, Pete, just, you know, high level, what have been the results from, you know, this particular project?
17:16Have you seen, where have you seen the biggest lift, right?
17:20Well, I'll comment more broadly just on all things Clean Room.
17:24I think overall the research shows that you get higher lift engagement return on ad spend, obviously.
17:32So your ROAS is higher because you default no more.
17:35You would expect that, yeah.
17:36Right.
17:37You default no more about your audience and you're predicting, basically, how and where they're going to engage.
17:42And that is, you know, across all Clean Rooms, however, we have experience with AWS and others.
17:47But I feel like from a personalized ad perspective, there are ways in which to create personalized audiences, data science,
17:55leveraging bedrock and other tools, right?
17:58From a traditional data science perspective that you don't technically need a Clean Room.
18:02You can use it when sharing data compliantly.
18:04But the traditional propensity modeling using SageMaker and some of the other tools from AWS enable you to generate segments
18:13and audiences that are personalized.
18:15Right.
18:15I think the other thing on consumer experience is it's allowing us to unlock ecosystems, right?
18:21We had a historical world where individual apps and surfaces were unique in their own right.
18:26And so trying to deliver better experiences, whether that was in content, personalization, recommendation, they were sort of these individual
18:33spaces, right?
18:34We believe in diverse distribution.
18:36If you look at the way that we work across the industry, we literally partner with every major streaming platform
18:41and service and every single business model from fast distribution to AVOD to subscription to live linear.
18:47And so being able to use the diversity in our distribution and also use that as a way of providing
18:53better consumer experiences, but also better commercial outcomes in the targeted advertising for our brands, like that we think is
19:00important.
19:01So you get that view across the whole partner ecosystem too?
19:06Or that's possible?
19:09There's elements of it that would be possible if you own the surface.
19:12No, okay.
19:12Then there's an exchange between the companies.
19:14I got you.
19:14But the technology would enable that, but as we talked about, having the right partnerships in place and making sure
19:21that it's in a trusted, safe environment is the work that AWS and Deloitte help us do.
19:25All right.
19:26Well, we have just a few more minutes, but I'll close it out with this.
19:30What would you give media, sports, entertainment leaders one piece of advice as they navigate?
19:37Think about these topics.
19:38What's that piece of advice?
19:41In a few words.
19:42Ruba, why don't we start with you?
19:43I'm happy to start.
19:43I think the number one thing is tackle the most difficult problem first.
19:47Oh.
19:48Because if you tackle a difficult problem versus low-hanging fruit, it solves your figuring out your data foundation.
19:54You have to get your security and governance in place.
19:56You have to figure out your change management processes and what you're going to do about the people side of
20:00change.
20:01And then the rest becomes a lot easier.
20:03Don't be afraid of hard things.
20:05Absolutely.
20:05Yeah.
20:06Pete, what's your closing words?
20:09Focus on the content.
20:10I mean, look, you can have the best technology in the world, but IP franchises and stories are the thing
20:15that people really want to get to.
20:17And so finding the best ways to create amazing, compelling content and tell those stories and then have the folks
20:23around here figure out how to deliver it.
20:25Like, that's how we think about business.
20:26Good.
20:26All right.
20:27And then, Michelle, you'll have the last word here.
20:28I would say don't be scared of AI and the technology, right?
20:32Start to upscale your folks so they engage with it.
20:35They understand it.
20:36They're getting their hands dirty and using it, whether that's the good old boot camp and training or it's online.
20:42Get in there, figure it out, and then, to Ruba's point, start tackling hard problems.
20:47Make AI your friend, right?
20:49It doesn't have to be this scary thing.
20:52Yeah.
20:52Don't be afraid.
20:53I think the tone is changing on all of that.
20:56Hopefully.
20:56Anyway, brilliant conversation.
20:58I want to thank the panelists.
20:59Ruba Borno, Pete Wood, Michelle McGuire, thank you so much.
21:02Thank you, John.
21:03Thanks for having us.
21:03Enjoy the rest of the day.