"The best marketing is built on a deep idea that makes an impact and makes a difference, and everything supports the idea," says Jim Stengel, global CMO of Procter & Gamble, which is being honored as Client of the Year at Cannes this week. "It's getting artificial to break things into silos. I'd like to see more things like the Titanium. None of us sit here and say we're going to launch a new initiative with a great print idea -- it's always what's the idea behind the brand."

Stengel's presence, along with a 40-deep delegation from the world's largest advertiser, is a further symbol of how much Cannes has changed. Once a refuge for creative directors to admire each other's work, even if that work wasn't a client success, Cannes has now become the Woodstock of advertising. Kraft, Unilever and Johnson & Johnson will all have delegations in town.

"Clients come to Cannes looking for a signpost to the future, looking to be inspired," says Mark Tutssel, CCO of Leo Burnett Worldwide and president of the 2008 Titanium & Integrated Lions jury.

That also means more work over play. An all-day client meeting is not unknown, and many agencies use Cannes as an excuse to have their own global executive meetings.

Another uncomfortable truth for Cannes is how digital media is driving the desire for better metrics. Cannes has always stood staunchly on the side of evaluating work on its own, rather than looking to results. This has fed a feeling of disconnect between the high-mindedness of the award show culture and the gritty realities of art in the service of commerce: Advertising is about getting people to buy stuff. Yet that stance, the commercial as pure art, has started to break down. It began to crumble nine years ago, when the festival added the Media Lions, judged in part (20 percent) on the basis of an entry's effectiveness. The introduction in 1998 of an award in interactive, where metrics are more common, has further blurred the line, although technically only the Media competition considers results.

Perhaps subconsciously, Cannes juries have made moves to recognize this. Take Dove "Evolution," last year's Grand Prix for Film. By any creative measure, the Ogilvy & Mather video is impressive. But it is more so because the work captured the imagination of millions of people with its message of authenticity in the face of a superficial culture. The judges knew "Evolution" was a YouTube sensation. How could that not factor into their decisions?

"I wouldn't be able to judge a creative campaign without the metrics," says Sarah Fay, CEO of Aegis North America.