Reflecting on her time at #Cannes2026, Alpa Chandan, Vice President, Roundel Media, #TargetInIndia, shares how conversations have evolved from creativity and design to deeper ones around consumer behaviour, culture, technology, data and of course AI. And how even conversations around AI went deep into its role in business transformation.
These shifts closely connect with how Target is using better insights, storytelling, discovery, data, and technology to create relevant, delightful and meaningful experiences for our guests.
Hear from Alpa as she shares her key takeaways from #Cannes and what they mean for Roundel, our retail media network.
Looking back at Khan, what has changed is how the conversations have really evolved. Creativity and design were at the center of most current stage events. Today, the conversation does not just center around those two aspects, but also has invited AI, data, technology, consumer behavior, culture to the conversation. That was what was very, very exciting to see. I came away from Khan thinking about the role that culture is playing in influencing guest behavior. It's not just important to know what consumers are buying, but also important to understand what moments they value in life. What life stages are they at and how do they expect brands to engage with them in those different stages? Its targets key strength. We don't just understand our guest. Behavior, but we also have very strong in our storytelling, our shopping experience and how we are at the center of the culture and the consumer behaviour. My conversation with Sarah Holman from Bobby was a great example of how building communities around the life stages, talking about the benefits and the value of formula for new parents is so much more important than just selling a product. Of course, the eye has to be part of the clan conversation. It's interesting how AI is not being talked only from the lens of productivity and efficiency. The better conversations around AI were how do you leverage it to understand consumer behaviors? How do you use it to improve products and guest experiences? Right. And how do you help teams become greater advocates and greater strategists for the business leveraging AI? That is exactly where Target is. Created and how aligned we are and how the industry is thinking about AI being not just a tech transformation but a true business transformation.
The shift from creativity-led conversations to consumer-behavior ones at Cannes says a lot about where retail media is headed. Retailers that own both the insight layer and the activation layer hold the advantage — that's what makes Roundel interesting to watch.
The shift from creativity-led conversations to consumer-behavior ones at Cannes says a lot about where retail media is headed. Retailers that own both the insight layer and the activation layer hold the advantage — that's what makes Roundel interesting to watch.