Gearing Up For Cannes

Cannes Trophy

Often dubbed the Oscars of advertising, the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, has grown year-on-year on all counts. Held in the South of France, at the Palais de Festival in Cannes, Lions has become one of the highest honor among marketing and creative professionals. As per the annual report that Lions Festivals’ parent company Ascential published in April 2016, the Cannes Lions Festival generated GBP 42.5 million (USD 61.5 million) in revenue for 2015, which was an increase of 3.7 percent from 2014. This makes it not only the most prestigious but also one of the most expensive awards for the global advertising industry – a case true for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region as well.

While MENA is arguably new to the Cannes party, in comparison to some of the other regions, in the last few years, it has held its own. MENA agencies bring back Lions across several categories. In 2015, agencies from the region brought home 39 Lions, including a joint Grand Prix. Needless to say, the pressure is on for a better performance.

More In 2016
The number of jurors invited from MENA too, while still much lower than the other regions, and in some cases, also individual markets, is higher this year. Five MENA judges are headed to Cannes, and the increase this year is being seen as a significant milestone for the region.

The five jurors include Paul Shearer, Chief Creative Officer at Memac Ogilvy in the Promo & Activation Lions category; Ash Chagla, who recently resigned from Y&R to launch Science & Sunshine as its Executive Creative Director in the Film Lions category; Fadi Yaish, the Regional Executive Creative Director at Impact BBDO, who was named Jury Chair at Crest and will also be seen judging at the One Show, is judging the Print & Publishing Lions category; Kalpesh Patankar Executive Creative Director at Y&R Dubai is juror in the Radio Lions category and Anahita Kheder, who set up FremantleMedia’s Middle East operations and currently the Senior Vice President of the content company, is a juror in Entertainment Lions.

This year Cannes Lions added more to the mix with the launch of Entertainment Lions for Music and Digital Craft. The Festival has also created a clearer categorization of the awards. Branded Content, for instance have been renamed to Entertainment Lions and with the addition of Entertainment Lions for Music has become representative of the work done in this category. MENA is expected to perform well in these categories, given the history of some of the work done in the region.

Lions Festival has also updated categories in Cyber, Design, Film, Media, Mobile, PR, Print & Publishing and Product Design, increasing the opportunities for agencies to enter more work.

Arabian Marketer has taken a look at some of the entries that hot favorites like Leo Burnett, Memac Ogilvy, Impact BBDO, Y&R, TBWA\RAAD and FP7/MENA are taking to the Festival this year.

What’s New
Innovation, entertainment, startups and even health are some of the hot trending topics as the run up to the Festival enters the last lap.

Lions Health is the global annual awards for creative excellence in Pharma and Health & Wellness communications, that will take place on the 18-19 June. The festival has added many new layers to the event in the year with the inclusion of initiatives such as Omnicom Health Group MedTech Expo and R&B’s Lions Health Innovation Hack. There will also be various inspiration seminars to discuss the role that health can play in creativity. MENA agencies have entered in the Lions Health category as well.

Lions Innovation has taken the game up a notch this year. 2016 will be the second year of Lions Innovation: a two day exploration of the newest forces enhancing and enabling creativity, and dramatically reshaping the communications landscape – data and technology. The two big events to look out for are Unilever Foundry and the Startup Village that will see live demos from innovations from across the world. The Unilever-sponsored Foundry 50 will bring 50 disruptive startups to the festival for organized ‘speed-dating’ sessions, networking and the chance to pitch for funding.

Advertising professionals from leading agencies are gearing up to attend the event later this month. In addition to the plethora of knowledge and networking opportunities created by the Festival organizers, various technology-led companies such as Google, YouTube, Twitter, Spotify to name a few and agencies such as Havas Café, OMD Oasis and Ogilvy Studio have created programmes for delegates to benefit from some out-of-the-Palais experience.

Most are however hoping for one thing – bring home more Lions.

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