The French city of Cannes is renowned throughout the world because of its annual film festival, but within the advertising community Cannes is synonymous with excellence in creative marketing communications. The city is quiet now, full of European families relaxing on holiday, but the stage is set for an invasion over the weekend of more than 8,000 advertising and marketing professionals eager to not only enjoy the beautiful French Riviera but also view the best communications campaigns of the past year – and perhaps pick up a Gold Lion of their own.
In its 52 year history, the International Advertising Festival (as it’s more formally known) has grown tremendously. What began as a competition for television commercials has now become the competition of choice, with a record 22,102 entries in seven categories and representing 81 countries. The Media Lions are one of the fastest growing categories. Entries have risen 23% since 2004 and have gone from 421 entries six years ago to more than 1,000 in 2005. This is great news for the media industry – creative and innovative media campaigns are one of the fastest ways to get brands noticed and media has risen to prominence at the festival.
In typical fashion, the media professionals are working hard before any of the other disciplines have shown up. Playing a role in this and reaffirming our commitment to developing creative media solutions, OMD U.S. doubled its number of entries to 10 this year, while OMD Worldwide has contributed more than 80 campaigns to the jury.
The Direct and Cyber categories are the other hot categories, recognizing the industry shift to these disciplines. But even as interest in the other specialized categories rise, Press/Outdoor and Film are still the main draws. Entrants in the Press and Outdoor category face incredible competition – there are an astonishing 11,366 entries in all.
Many may be surprised at the continued growth of the more traditional entries given this age of fragmentation and new media, but advertisements need to be that much more innovative and creative to cut through the clutter. And that’s what Cannes is all about – pushing creativity forward.
Over the next five days, the Media Lions jury will be identifying, rewarding and celebrating those engaging, unexpected and effective entries that symbolize not only the creative spirit of Cannes but also where our industry is headed.
The 20 jurors represent every continent and major media market. The premiere holding companies and media agency brands are also represented, balanced by notable independent media agencies as well. They are the best and the brightest from around the world – all experts and leaders in media but each with unique backgrounds and perspectives. What Cannes is able to do so well is bring this diversity together in order to build a collective and unified voice that represents the pinnacle of global media excellence. Regardless of what country you’re from or how big you’re budget is, great media ideas translate and travel across borders.
Day one of preliminary screening is done and if the first day is any indication, this should be a great year for Media Lions.
How did OMD do at Cannes?
Posted by: carmine parisi | June 16, 2005 at 06:25 PM
What a great synopsis of the first DAY. Whoever wrote this deserves a raise. Go OMD.
Posted by: Mike Heid | June 17, 2005 at 04:46 PM
I agree with Mike Heid. Bravo to the wonderful person writing the recaps!
Posted by: April Seroda | June 21, 2005 at 03:21 PM
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Posted by: torokilopok | August 26, 2007 at 03:37 AM