Exclusive: Cannes Lions Says It Will Move Forward With an In-Person Festival in 2021

January is usually when industry executives would be booking their summer flights to the French Riviera. But as Covid-19 continues to surge this month, most of us get nervous at the idea of even hopping in an Uber or taking a trip to the grocery store. While major gatherings such as CES, Sundance and SXSW are going virtual this year, Cannes Lions organizers remain optimistic that advertising's largest event will—after being canceled last year—return to being held in person in 2021. A Cannes spokesperson told Adweek the festival is still scheduled for June 21 to 25. The Ascential-owned festival declined to provide further information on how organizers are envisioning a physical event, and organizers haven’t announced whether they’re considering a hybrid edition or a second Lions Live, which served as a free, virtual alternative to the canceled festival in 2020. Update, Jan. 13: Today, Cannes Lions announced it plans to have juries judge work from 2020 and 2021 in person during the festival, which is now open for delegate registrations. The festival will also offer a digital pass, first introduced in 2016. "While travel is currently constrained, the availability of multiple vaccines offers hope that we can be together in June, even if we need to limit the numbers of delegates who can safely attend," Lions chairman Phillip Thomas said in a statement. "We will continue to carefully monitor the situation, and maintain our regular communications with the authorities in France, but there are many other large international events planned for the same timeline and it's clear from talking to the global industry that everybody is very keen to come together again.” The festival's stance on holding a physical event comes to light at a time when the realistic timeline of in-person events returning is largely dependent on the speed of the Covid-19 vaccination rollout. So agencies and brands tell Adweek they're taking a wait-and-see approach on whether to attend the festival, as countries including the United Kingdom are in their strictest lockdowns yet and the United States reached a record number of daily Covid-19 deaths this month. Even if it becomes safer to travel to and attend in-person events by June, marketers and creatives say they will probably fall on the side of caution. Thinking five months ahead Mike Nevins, CMO at Smart, a France-based ad-tech company, said “the entire industry is pulling for the Cannes Lions to fully return in 2021,” though he expects organizers and prospective attendees will be extra cautious with their final decisions. “While it will be great if the event can unfold in its customary June timeframe, I expect all companies—including Cannes Lions—will carefully weigh the risk versus reward of physical attendance at a very social event with a massive audience, especially given the uncertainty regarding the pace of Covid-19 vaccination in pursuit of herd immunity,” Nevins said. I don’t really think we’ll live in a world where a lot of people will be traveling and it will be safe to get together with loads of other people.—Hermeti Balarin, ecd, Mother London, Hermeti Balarin, executive creative director at agency Mother London, said even if organizers host an in-person festival, he doesn’t see the agency participating in a normal Cannes trip. “That’s our best guess in terms of how we would approach,” he said. “I don’t really think we’ll live in a world where a lot of people will be traveling and it will be safe to get together with loads of other people.” Christine Capone, president at brand experience agency MKG operating in New York and L.A., noted it’s too early to make a decision on whether the agency will attend an in-person festival, but trusts organizers will “make an informed choice based on the success of vaccine availability and implementation at the global level.” If the festival is able to occur in-person, Capone said she would expect organizers to require daily Covid-19 testing for all guests and a formal escalation policy if the festival learned of any positive tests. However, MKG employees would also have to follow their own guidelines. “We will, of course, do our own risk assessment regardless of their decision as well as consult our global partners like Facebook and Google,” Capone added. “We have a Covid-19 safety policy in place at the agency. It is a living document that is updated based on the state of the world. We will expect all attendees from MKG to abide by that policy for this experience should we attend as they would any other experience.” Contract complications Because some who'd intended to have sponsored spaces and activations at Cannes in 2020 postponed rather than outright canceling their plans, they're able to wait and see how the event shakes out, but there are doubts about the crowds they'll see turn out. “You can throw a party, but that doesn’t mean people are necessarily going to come,” said a Europe-based ad-tech vendor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “You only have to look at the biggest companies in the space like Facebook and Google. They’re not even asking their employees to come back into the office until July at the earliest, so it’s unlikely they’ll ask them to travel to Cannes in June.” Those that forked out deposits on renting a yacht—a floating meeting space, hotel and party venue for many on the Côte d’Azur during that week—are highly unlikely to have received a return of their initial 2020 outlay with local yacht brokers, and will likely be hesitant to repeat placing such a bet 12 months later. “You will have a lot of people looking at force majeure insurance, and have their lawyers looking at contracts,” the source said. Looking forward to Dmexco Separate U.K.-based sources told Adweek they were doubtful Cannes Lions will take place as an in-person event in 2021, and that many were starting to turn their attention to Dmexco, an ad-tech conference that takes place in Cologne, Germany, in mid-September—buying them a few more months to await mass vaccination. Albeit, in many cases, companies that had signed contracts with vendors for Dmexco 2020 were able to defer the delivery of the services to the following year. “We postponed everything,” Valbona Gjini, a London-based marketing director at ID5, said “and pretty soon we’ll have to start conversations about what’s going to happen in Dmexco, and see what’s going to happen with the budget that we’ve invested with the booth contractor.” Can Cannes still make an impact going virtual? Balarin said it’s understandable that Cannes organizers haven’t committed to pivoting fully online this year, noting the festival thrives on the physical presence of brands, agencies and real-world connections. However, he said a hybrid physical-virtual festival would likely be the ideal option for organizers in 2021. “I can’t begin to understand what [pivoting online] means for them and the future, if they decide to open that can of worms,” he said. “For everyone who would like to be part of Cannes this year, I would love if there was a way to do so remotely with as much access to what they offer as possible; especially for the talks and ceremonies which, for me, are the two things that define the festival.” We do believe that this desire must be met with caution. We must look to science to make this call.—Christine Capone, president, MKG Capone agreed that Lions could effectively be judged and distributed virtually, but noted the “full immersion of creativity” from events and brand activations is a festival element that can’t be replicated virtually. “To us, there is nothing more impactful and important as experiencing something in-person with other humans. This is even more true now,” Capone said. “We do believe that this desire must be met with caution. We must look to science to make this call. Another setback would be dire for the world at large.”