From the front line of creativity
Anyone who seeks creative inspiration in the areas of brand, marketing or business growth or simply wants to witness the transformation in the communication industry needs not to go any further than France. Every year the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the biggest advertising and communication festival in the world, descends on the southern French city of Cannes with the brightest creative minds from across the world and recognises the most creative works with the industry's most prestigious Cannes Lions awards. Agencies and professionals in Bangladesh are also taking preparations for the next year's festival. Philip Thomas, chief executive officer of the festival, shares his thoughts and facts of the event with The Daily Star.
Agencies in the past used to fight with their clients to let them bring creative works. But the clients found that too risky.
Now clients willingly take risks and go for creative works, as they now understand that it is the only way to flourish in a new market, said Philip Thomas.
Globalisation is the second big change.
The event began as a film advertising festival 59 years ago, and was launched shortly after the Cannes Lions Film Festival.
"For many years, it has been advertising only, for TV and cinema. And through 1990 onwards, it grew to include press advertising, and gradually we added things like outdoor, digital etc."
And in the last 4/5 years it has grown in scope from just advertising into something much bigger, encompassing all kinds of communication, he said.
But the core principle at Cannes festival remains the same: celebrating creativity that is the most important competitive tool for business.
In 2012, the festival received a total of 34,301 creative entries and more than 11,000 delegates, which is nearly 20 percent more than the previous year, making it the biggest ever Cannes festival in the history.
"So, we have spotted three significant trends from this increasing numbers of creative entries and delegates," said Thomas.
The first one is client engagements, he said. Clients wish to understand creativity now, and how creativity can amplify the work that they do.
So, many global clients, including Coca-Cola, P&G, Nestle and Unilever, are coming at the festival to learn and feel inspired by the great creative works, Thomas said.
"They want to win Cannes Lions, they want to improve their creativity and this has been a big change."
In previous years, the fiesta was very dominated by the west, the US, Europe, Australia and South Africa, where more winners and delegates are now coming from the emerging countries.
"This year we had a Grand Prix winner from Puerto Rico, the first Grand Prix ever from there. Two years ago, we had a Grand Prix winner from India, and now we have our gold winners coming from Guatemala, Costa Rica, Columbia, Uruguay and the Middle East."
Thomas said he thinks the biggest change in the industry is the diversification of people who are participating in the festival.
"So, it's not just clients and advertising agencies, its mobile specialists, digital specialists, Hollywood studios, music companies, TV companies, TV networks, Google, Facebook, Tweeter, large newspaper groups, branded entertainment specialists, and many more."
Cannes festival is also a great ground of celebration and networking, he said. "We all know the business benefit to it."
But the most significant contribution of Cannes festival is the Cannes Lions awards, which mean a lot to the ad agencies as well as to the clients.
Thomas said the works that came and won Lions at Cannes in 2012 presented the changing scenario of the industry.
One of the Grand Prix winners of this year was a solar energy company's annual report that has a special paint on the pages, he said.
Other big winner of this year was the Nike Fuel Band, he said.
"It's a product. But the advertising is all about behaviour, it's about behaviour of the brand, what the brand wants you to do, it's about behaviour of the consumers."
All Cannes winners are very innovative. "They use technology, they all use human insights and they all are very brave in what they do."
On new categories, he said: "Each year we have to reflect what's happening in the industry. We talked for four years for launching Mobile Content and Advertising category."
He said they were very careful in adding new categories, as those have to be a success for everybody.
"It can't be too early, can't be too late. So we thought this year is the right time for mobile and we expected around 400 entries but we got around 1,000 entries for mobile content and advertising."
On Young Lions, he said it is very essential to bring new talents.
"We have Young Lions competition all over the world and that's one of the most attractive aspects of this festival. And we are very excited having teams from Bangladesh as well."
This year, Young Lions from Columbia won the Design award, he said, adding that anyone can win the award, as all of the young kids are genius.
"This year there were around 45 Young Lions teams from 45 different countries who were selected through competition in their own country."
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