CANNES, France — It’s an ironic quip at this point. Every year for a while, it seemed like someone would predict “the year of mobile” would be next year.

“We can officially say ‘the year of mobile’ was last year,” David Benson, Google’s branding solutions director for northern and central Europe, tells Beet.TV. “If you’re not on mobile, you’re just not there.

“When smarpthones first came out, people said ‘No-one is going to watch a feature film on that’. On my train in the morning, everyone’s watching feature films on their tablets and mobiles.

“Up to about 40% of our (YouTube) watch time is mobile. We only see that going in one direction,” the London-based executive explains.

Benson spoke to Beet.TV’s at the MediaCom suite at the Martinez after his presentation on YouTube.   Please find more Beet coverage of Cannes Lions here.