Cannes Lions announced that the event will be rebranded (thank you Kiran) from “The International Advertising Festival” to “The International Festival of Creativity,”which reflects the transformation of Cannes Lions over the last few years from being a celebration of creative excellence in advertising to now reflecting creative excellence in all forms of communication-all that with one word, creativity.
The festival was originally known as the International Advertising Film Festival with only TV and Cinema ads being judged. Adapting to the present, in 2011, the international juries will award Lions in thirteen contemporary categories such as Film, Press, Outdoor, Cyber, Media, Direct, Radio, Design, PR, etc.
In a long-winded statement, Philip Thomas, Festival CEO says, “If you view the work and listen to the conversations taking place at Cannes Lions, you realise very quickly that the event has evolved way beyond pure advertising, apart from the welcome attendance of Design, Media, PR, Activation and other professionals from all forms of communications, the winning work at Cannes can no longer be described as being simply ‘Advertising’. Many of the Grands Prix are now being awarded to experiences, technologies, social media, user-generated content, services, events – the options for marketers now are rich and diverse, and we need to embrace that change. It’s important that Cannes Lions offers a global event that is relevant to the industry, and having listened to feedback from many industry leaders, we feel that now is the right time to truly reflect what the Festival has become.”