CANNES – With the explosion from a finite to an essentially infinite inventory of content, agencies and advertisers have been faced with the challenge of learning how to manage it. The answer is found in mathematics, says Dominique Delport, global managing director for Havas Media Group and chairman and CEO of Havas Media France.

The use of algorithms allows for programmatic marketing. The rapid rise of Google, Facebook and Twitter has been made possible by algorithms such as PageRank (Google), EdgeRank (Facebook) and SpreadRank (Twitter), Delport says.

Mixing audience data with these mathematical mechanisms allows marketers to target the right person with the right message at the right time – which is critical in a time when many are resistant to advertisements and spam, Delport says.

Beet.TV spoke with Delport at the Cannes Lions festival earlier this month after he participated in a panel around programmatic buying organized by the Rubcon Project.  We interviewed him French and have create the translation in captions.