Cannes is now a festival of Creative Business

by Daniele Fiandaca, our co-founder

While my career has changed significantly over the last decade, there has always been one constant — the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. An annual opportunity to find out who has been killing it with the work, catch up with some familiar faces from the other side of the world and drink copious amounts of rosé in the beating sun of the French Riviera.

This year my visit was fleeting and for the first time ever I flew in just for our annual Creative Social lunch (80 Creative leaders from around the world catching up away from the hustle and bustle of Cannes) and flew out the same evening. I could not justify spending any more time there simply because I did not have the business meetings organised to justify it. For many Cannes has stopped being a Festival of Creativity but the Festival of Creative business. It is where the leaders of agencies and brands bring their senior team together from around the world, where brands and agencies meet to talk business, where media and tech agencies entertain their way to bigger budgets while recruitment consultants pack their diaries with meetings with clients and prospective candidates from around the world.

However just because Cannes has changed for people like me, it would be short-sighted to suggest that it is any less a Festival of Creativity. What I love about Cannes is it’s restlessness. In just last four years they have added the Innovation Lions, Digital Craft Lions and Glass Lions. And while many cynics just see this as just more excuses to print money, tell that to the 50 Industry innovators who congregated at our latest Innovation Social and debated the latest winners, using it as a platform to discuss the future of our industry. Or to Wesley Ter Haar of MediaMonks who as jury president passionately talks about the impact the Digital Craft Lions on inspiring every digital production company to create better experiences. Or to the winners of the Glass Lions, campaigns, which should inspire the whole industry to deliver more work that provides a positive impact on culture and society.

Both the Innovations Festival and Health Festival seem to be going from strength to strength while the See It Be It campaign continues to support senior female creative talent by giving them a unique experience, which will undoubtedly impact their careers. And lets not forget the extensive education programme that is inspiring the talent who represent the future of our industry.

So while I do not believe Cannes is no longer the place for senior creatives to be inspired (they should come to our CS Globals for that), Cannes’ impact on creativity goes far beyond one week in June and still represents a point in time to reflect as a creative leader on what you are delivering as an agency or brand. As Jon Wilkins, Chairman of Karmarama, put it at our CS Mini Cannes event last month “Going to Cannes always creates a sense of anxiousness as it forces me reflect on what we could be doing better as an agency”.

There is no doubt we will be back for lunch next year. I just hope I have a business reason to stay a bit longer.

This originally appeared in the September edition of Directory Magazine.