After a week of parties, awards, beaches and creativity, the Cannes Lions Festival drew to a close on Saturday. It’s been an amazing week for everyone involved in the creative industries, and a time to reflect on the campaigns of the previous year and look forward to the next generation of emerging creative talent.
Here’s a couple of things we’ve seen this week:
Young Lions
The Young Lions competition is a by-invitation-only activity for aspiring creatives from some of the world’s leading media, marketing and advertising agencies. Entry to the Young Lions competition is determined by a creative pitch submission, and thereafter the best 2 creative pairings from each country are invited to participate. Over the course of 48 hours, the Young Lions pairs have to respond to a brief for media, cyber, marketing or print. To help them along the way, Nokia gave the Young Lions Nokia Lumia 800s to film their entry.
This year’s brief was aimed at supporting the charity Movember – the international movement urging men to grow a moustache for the month of November in support of men’s health. You can see all of their entries, along with the winning entries, right here.
President Clinton
We had the opportunity to get in and see President Clinton on Thursday and he didn’t disappoint. A prolific speaker, his talk lasted just over an hour and covered a whole range of topics including the Clinton Foundation, conservationism, the world economy, and the growing importance of social media and other technology in developing countries in highlighting injustice. His point was that the creative industries are in a unique position to inspire consumers and restore confidence during a time of incredible change. You can watch some of his speech here.
The Beach Parties
Each has been grander than the last; starting with the Opening Gala on Tuesday, through to the Young Lions, Microsoft Party, Google party and ending with the Closing Gala on Saturday. Over 2000 guests attended the Closing Gala and were treated to a meal, drinks and full fireworks display on Carlton Beach. I’ve never been given access to such an exclusive party and still been able to get away with wearing trainers…!
All that’s left to say is thanks to everyone at Microsoft Advertising for hosting us (and the Gift Machine) and we look forward to seeing you next year – it’s been fun!