When you hear or talk about the southern French town of Cannes, most people think of the film festival, with the great and the good of Hollywood and Bollywood and beyond, looking glamorous and beautiful. However, if you work in the advertising and marketing communication sector, then the Cannes Lions Festival and Cannes Lions Awards are further up your priority list.
King of the (creative) jungle
Surprisingly to some people, the Cannes Festival and Lions have been around for 70 years. The festival started in 1954 and is the largest, most prestigious, most respected global event for advertising and creative marketing industries.
During those 70 years, it’s grown in such influence and importance that it’s now the go-to event for all aspects of creative marketing. What’s more - if you or your company wins at Lions, then you and your colleagues are part of a very exclusive, often career-defining club.
Global brands such as Apple, Google and Burger King fight it out with the planet’s biggest advertising and creative agencies like WPP, Omnicom, Apple, Interpublic and Publicis for awards across the spectrum of communications excellence.
It’s the place to be
So, what can they win? Well, the awards celebrate creativity, effectiveness, and innovation in advertising and marketing. There are over 30 award categories spanning everything from film production to creative business strategies.
And of course, because of the very nature of the Festival and the Lions, famous faces attend in force. Film and pop stars, sporting icons and of course the world of reality TV are well represented. And why wouldn’t they be?
They are the faces, the physical manifestation and the living ambassadors of multi-billion-dollar brands.
If you’re lucky to attend or even be nominated then don’t stand there just admiring the scenery, glitz and glamour… get networking! If you want that career changing moment, then the Lions is the place to hunt it down and make it happen.
The price of success (or attendance)
But a warning: it’s going to cost you. The Cannes Lions festival is not a budget affair. It can cost hundreds or thousands of Euros to put an entry in, and that’s just for starters.
A premium delegate pass for the whole festival costs around 4000 thousand Euros! But don’t feel too sorry for all those talented creative types: in 2023, the Imarc group estimated that the global value of advertising was $647.3 billion dollars.
That’s enough for a Dr Evil-sized ransom - and then some! Mwahhahaha!
Glamour backed by progress
However, it’s not just the big names that make the news at Cannes Lions. Developments in how the sector is evolving are closely scrutinised.
AI is now reaching into the creative sector with the arrival of a new report from Forrester predicting that 7.5% of advertising roles in the US alone would be taken over by AI technology by 2030. And further technological developments in the creative space are continuing to accelerate.
The tracking, collating and analysis of all forms of data, thought platforms such as Meta, Amazon and Google will continue to drive our purchasing behaviour. Whether we like it or not, we’re constantly being nudged by influential techniques to purchase a certain product, service or experience.
The future of Cannes Lions?
So on reflection, which direction will the Cannes Lions festival take?
It could be argued that the world, as it is in 2024, is so consumed by geo-political turmoil and economic hardship that the cost, possible excess and self-congratulation of certain events have questionable value.
But the fact still remains: some of the most emotive creative campaigns that have touched literally billions of people have won Cannes Lions awards, and it's a festival that will continue to inspire and challenge us.
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