USA TODAY International Edition
Cannes Lions ad fest kicks off
Past winning ads get a nod at event,
Bungalows emblazoned with company names are being set up waterside in this French Riviera town, stocked with cold Coca- Colas, hot espressos and loads of information on each company’s business capabilities.
Inside a beachfront cabana, ad- effectiveness tracker Ace Metrix has chocolate, cookies and a stack of 116page “BlackBooks” that outline its credentials. A short walk away, at the Palais des Festivals, advertising is everywhere. Brightly colored promotional banners for the likes of AT& T and Microsoft line the entrance. Inside, logos and company information are on walls, stairs and railings.
This is the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity — the ad world’s largest trade show and awards event — and marketers, ad agencies, tech companies and others are primed to showcase their brands to the nearly 12,000 attendees at this week- long event.
Each year, festivalgoers gather in Cannes to view standout ad campaigns, network and learn about the latest creative and technological advances in their industry.
Big- name marketing, media and technology companies such as Omnicom, Time Warner, Google and Facebook will host seminars and panels, dinner parties and late- night beach bashes throughout the week.
Seminar topics include “the new world of online content” and “what connects in comedy.” Speakers include TV host Conan O’Brien, music mogul Sean Combs and photographer Annie Leibovitz.
The festival “is really a networking opportunity,” Clear Channel CEO Bob Pittman says. “People are in the mood to talk and to think out of the box.”
The event offers an efficient means to meet and mingle with clients, potential clients and others, he says.
“In one location, there is an extraordinary number of CMOs ( chief marketing officers), CEOs, agency heads, marketers and people we deal with day in and day out,” he says.
Although the festival officially began Sunday, some judging was underway earlier to select the most creative and innovative entries in 16 communications categories, including TV and movie ads, Internet films, outdoor campaigns and radio commercials.
This year, the festival received a record 35,765 entries from 92 countries.
Organizers are marking the event’s 60th anniversary with an exhibit that showcases past award- winning ads. It includes Coke’s 1971 “Hilltop” com- mercial, which had a diverse group of people singing “I’d like to buy the world a Coke,” the 1959 “Think Small” ad for the Volkswagen Beetle and the 2011 Chrysler Super Bowl ad with Eminem.
At the Palais des Festivals headquarters, an exhibit charting “the evolution of advertising” is open to everyone in Cannes, not just festivalgoers.
From his nearby cabana, Jonathan Symonds, Ace Metrix executive vice president for marketing, reflects on how much innovation and advertising have changed in the festival’s six decades, particularly in the past decade with the rise of the Internet, mobile devices and social media.
“We were still doing dial- up ( Internet access) in big numbers in 2003,” he says. “Who knows what the next 10 years will hold?”