Public Relations stepped right into the jaws of Advertising last week …and came away unscathed, actually enriched.

The Cannes International Advertising Festival – yes, the festival is still called the ‘Advertising’ Festival – recognised the changing dynamics in the industry and introduced the all-new PR Lions this year.

I was invited to be a member of the global jury, participating in a well-established judging process is a well-established template, culminating in a slick award ceremony. I came away with the experience of a life time.

Eight thousand people usually trek to Cannes every year to attend the Cannes International Advertising Festival. Although this 56th year saw ‘only’ 6000r delegates for obvious reasons, the Lions continued to lure the creative genius within the world of communications worldwide.

So much to learn and such little time. The Buzz was all pervasive, people from across the world and across disciplines, super experts sharing super new learnings at super sessions… all superbly impressive within the simply super-duper French Riviera.

There were more young and less middle-aged, more creative and less client servicing, more ad persons and hardly any PR folks – and yet a delightful bonhomie.

What did I learn?

The world has changed – while changing further at an incredible pace.

The idea can come from anywhere – advertising, PR, direct, promotions, you name it. And let’s stop cribbing about it not being a PR idea. The Idea wins.

I also know that Creativity flows from the young and free. So from hereon you are the King of Rock – not MJ.  So let’s see it floowww……

Excellence in execution is key to success – using surround sound – digital, traditional media, email, event, grassroots, you name it.

Traditional PR is alive but often not relevant, insufficient, does not reach audiences as quickly as digital does. Often digital leads, traditional media follows – almost always.

What did judging throw up?

We didn’t win. We didn’t make it to the preliminaries.

Why? Because of the above. And, we didn’t stand out among those who had a simple idea, executed brilliantly.

A great deal to learn.

Australia’s ‘The Best Job in the World’. It also won the PR Lion for the Travel, Tourism and Leisure sector as well as the PR Lion for the Best use of the Internet, Digital Media and Social Media. And if that was not enough, it also bagged the Direct Grand Prix as well as the Cyber Lions Grand Prix in the Website and Interactive Campaigns category.

Out of 400 plus entries that were shortlisted down to 30 plus, the PR Lions were awarded to a total of 15 campaigns (not counting the three won by the Best Job in the World) across the various categories. These included Australia’s ‘Earth Hour’; Japan’s ‘Yubari Resort’ and ‘Love Distance’; Lebanon’s ‘Khede Kasra’; Portugal’s ‘World’s First Ephemeral Museum’ and ‘Selling Hope’; Switzerland’s ‘Zurich’s Being Sold’; Costa Rica’s ‘Bring Back Peace’; Brazil’s ‘One Thousand Casmurros’; UK’s ‘Beautiful Game’ and ‘Pig’s are Worth It’; and USA’s ‘Honey, Let’s Lick the Problem,’ ‘Guiness Rally,’ ‘The Great Schlep’ and ‘Protecting Futures’ .

The jury were selected from 15 countries and Lord Tim Bell from the UK was the President of the jury.

Although none of the 10 entries that were submitted from India could bag a PR Lion this year, I have no doubts that this will change in the coming years as the Lions not only recognise the importance of public relations in the communication mix, they also fill the aspirational need for a well recognised international award platform.

Beyond the awards, the festival was a sea of learning from super sessions featuring super experts such as Steve Balmer of Microsoft, Eric Schmidt of Google, Biz Stone of Twitter, David Plouffe of Campaign Manager, Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General, Fernando Vega Olmos, Creative Chairman at JWT who gave a delightful talk on ‘Mother Crisis’, and many, many more.

The one common element that emerged all through the festival was that creativity does not spell complexity. A fact borne by the winning campaigns, which were all about a simple idea that was executed well to make a real difference.

And the other key learning: there is no hiding from the digital tidal wave more.

For more details on the excitement at Cannes, check out Ashwani Singla’s Postcards from Cannes on his blog. I’d love to hear what insights you took away from the blog.

I landed in Cannes as a member of a jury eager to lend my experience to selecting the best among the best for the inaugural PR Lions. I returned humbled by the learning from the vast pool of creativity, enriched by the knowledge and thirst for more.

(Reproduced with the author’s permission. Thanks, Prema for sharing this with IPRB – Editor, IPRB)

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