It’s been a busy few weeks for Team Pickaxe. Keep reading for insights from Cannes, the Snowflake Summit, Netflix’s latest dump, our new team members, what we’re reading this month, and more.
The Wrath of Cannes
- AI Takes Center Stage: Our very own Andrew Grosso delivered a talk on AI at the VideoWeek Villa, cutting through the AI hype and offering practical insights for implementation aka How to prep for the future without spending $30m and getting fired. Check out the full video here.
- Andrew also sat down with VideoWeek for an exclusive 1-on-1 interview, discussing the importance of “personal training for your data”. You can watch the full video here.
- “Elon Musk, Deepak Chopra, and ,b>Andrew Grosso all talk about AI … with equal levels of blithe disregard for having to know what they’re talking about.” Just kidding, of course Andrew knows what he’s talking about! Joking aside, entertainment trade publication The Wrap quoted Andrew in an article exploring AI’s impact on the industry. Check it out here!
- Data Dominates – data was the common thread running through every conversation.
- AI Gets Real: The AI conversation has evolved from buzzword to practical necessity.
- Measurement Reigns Supreme: Attribution and ROI are more critical than ever.
- Sports Marketing Scores Big: sports (particularly women’s sports) proved its power to captivate audiences.
- Creator Economy Booms: The first-ever Creator Lions award highlighted the growing importance of influencers and content creators across all sectors, from B2B to beauty.
Snow-it-all
In June, we also supported our Snowflake partners at their annual Data Cloud Summit. We hosted a drinks event with our partners at Secoda, and learned about the latest from Snowflake and other big players in data. Here are some of our biggest takeaways:
- Last year’s summit was about how Snowflake was building a metaphorical data “Super Target” – a big platform where you can find every tool you need. This year, there was a focus on bringing partner apps in. The Super Target has been built, and now they want to let partners sell things in the store.
- At last year’s summit, Snowflake had a bunch of exciting releases that were dropped as a total surprise. This year, they dropped some other exciting releases – but we’ve been hearing about them all year. We attribute some of this to the fact that the new stuff involves LLMs and AI, and for the past 12 months, everybody has been forced to talk a lot about what they’re doing with AI so that their stock prices don’t fall.
- Snowpark continues to be amazing, and with the introduction of Notebooks and Streamlit apps, it’s clear that Snowflake wants to make it possible for every data professional to use Snowsight as their “OS for Data”.
Netflix Deep Dive 2: Electric Boogaloo
Get your popcorn ready, it’s time for our deep dive into Netflix’s most recent data dump.
Netflix recently dropped its viewing data for late 2023, and there’s more surprises and drama than the latest series of Bridgerton. From the dominance of movies to non-English language content to the importance of children and family content, Netflix have given us access to even *more* info than before in this report, and the results are fascinating.
Meet the Team - Susmita Ojha
We’re excited to announce the addition of Susmita to our team as a Data Engineer!
What is your role at Pickaxe?
I’m a data analytics engineer at Pickaxe. I’m responsible for building modern data pipelines and transforming the raw data into refined form so that actionable insights can be drawn for further analysis.
What did you do before Pickaxe?
Before joining Pickaxe, I worked as a data engineer consultant for a payroll service company. My role primarily involved working with databases and managing the overall data pipelines—basically, I made sure the data was more organized than my sock drawer.
What do you do in your spare time?
It depends on the season. During summer, I enjoy outdoor activities like hiking, camping, and playing volleyball. Otherwise, I spend time indoors staying updated on the latest technology. Additionally, I love creating cooking videos for my Instagram page, sharing my recipes and tips with my 10 followers
What We’re Reading This Month:
- The AI Boom Has an Unlikely Early Winner: Wonky Consultants (NY Times)
- CMOs Must Improve Financial Literacy to Win Over CFOs (AdWeek)
- The Future of Streaming (According to the Moguls Figuring it Out (NY Times)
- Why Cannes is a Hotspot for Media Data Deals (AdAge)
- As Hollywood Contracts, the Sports Universe is Rapidly Expanding in Unexpected Directions (Deadline)
- AI Chatter – of Both Fear, Optimism – Replaces Brands Buzz at the 2024 Ad Fest (The Wrap)
