How Agencies Plan to Spend the Week at Cannes

The French Riviera. Rosé for breakfast. The Gutter Bar. For those in the ad industry, the annual Cannes International Festival of Creativity is always a must-attend event for everyone who is anyone. Yet Cannes is going all virtual this year rather than serve as a conduit for industry executives seeking in-person networking, celebrities and fun. As the event kicks off Monday, June 21, Adweek spoke with more than 10 agencies and holding companies to explore how they plan to spend the week, or more likely, ignore it entirely. While most would only speak on background in order to avoid giving the impression that they’re giving Cannes the "short shrift" as well as disclosing how much they spend on this admittedly decadent “self promotion” channeled as luxury beach cabanas and fancy dinner parties with big-name singers, agencies admit there are just not a whole lot of options for an all-virtual festival. One holding company executive told Adweek its 2021 plans are "pretty basic stuff" compared to prior years. Boat rides, social media and book launches Cannes 2021 is most likely a year to forget, in terms of agency activities. In what is seen as one of the hottest tickets, Wavemaker is joining partner iHeartMedia to host an event for clients on a boat in the Hudson River in New York as a play to bring Cannes to the Big Apple. Although Wavemaker itself will not develop any of its own agency-led events, team members will curate content for internal staff to share news during the week. 72andSunny is bringing the party to those working from home by sending select individuals rosé to promote the shop's new "Sunny Side" ongoing series to discuss advertising trends. Launching Friday, June 25 with the first episode featuring agency co-founder Glenn Cole and Fernando Machado, CMO, Activision Blizzard, students from ad schools will be able to virtually interact with industry leaders as a way to celebrate access and inclusion. As part of this equity and diversity push, the agency will promote the Black-owned winery Brown Estate Rosé within this Instagram live chat. The second show will highlight a female-owned brewery based in Amsterdam named Gebrouwen door Vrouwen beer, though no word on whether lucky remote workers will receive deliveries of this beer as they will with the wine. Cannes, France Jurors and speakers Dentsu is just one of several agencies primarily having its leaders speak at various sessions during the week. Similarly, Publicis is very involved with Cannes this year from a jury perspective, with more than 20 awarding jury members (with an additional 15 shortlist jury members) from across its global network. The Groupe will host a Cannes Daily Digest program for employees via Marcel. This internal one-hour, daily session will feature live interviews with Groupe jurors, who will share insights and trends from their experience, awards recaps to celebrate the performance of our best work and content sessions focused on creative effectiveness, client discussions, and thought leadership. After making its appearance known for the past several years, Accenture is also downgrading from its glorious yacht to merely hype its panel lineup of speakers at Cannes. Omnicom’s PHD plans to act as this year is the same as it always has done by sponsoring a stage as well as launching its latest book titled Shift—which suggests marketing is going through a mid-life crisis—during its presentation on Monday, June 21. As with other years when it comes to speaking gigs, there is no charge for holding a stage event. Cannes organizers request agencies submit ideas and acceptance guarantees a time slot. Agencies only have to cover the out-of-pocket costs for non-agency guest speakers. Celebrating winners on social media Omnicom agency OMD states it will simply post news about any agency winner on its social channels, along with publishing a special Cannes edition of its newsletter for both the internal agency workers as well as clients. DDB Worldwide will also produce daily internal communications, beginning with a DDB Talks recorded panel featuring global chief creative officer, Ari Weiss. The company has added its top ten Cannes submissions to DDB.com and will be live tweeting throughout the week. Notably, agencies will not host large-screen viewing parties for team members because every viewer must have his or her own pass and as one leader joked, “There is no way we would buy one for every employee.” No Sir Martin helicopter ride Familiar Cannes presence Sir Martin Sorrell won’t be flying in on his helicopter this year but he will moderate an On Demand discussion on how the creative industry can play an impactful role in combating climate change on Monday. In addition, with S4 unable to visit the French Riviera this year for its annual meetings at Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in June, the firm will instead host virtual sessions with Adland’s elite to discuss the most pressing themes in the media industry. Sorrell’s S4 colleague and MediaMonks founder Wesley ter Haar will participate in a series of Meet Ups, an attempt by Cannes organizers to transfer the in-person networking opportunities to the virtual world. Each experience for the Cannes Lions Live attendees start with a 10-minute introduction about important or interesting topics before expanding into a broader discussions featuring industry leaders, such as Debbi Vandeven, global chief creative officer, VMLY&R, Josy Paul, chairman and chief creative officer, BBDO India, Nicky Bullard, chairwoman and chief creative officer, MRM. Cannes organizers are replicating one of the Cannes' most popular activities outside of the Palais by introducing a virtual performance with singer Andra Day live at the Miracle Theatre in Englewood at 1pm ET on June 24. Lastly, Cramer-Krasselt admits an all-virtual festival is not much different from other years since team members don’t always attend the South of France gathering, but each year leaders do look at winners to see what the agency can learn from them and what it could do differently. If the firm has any winners this year, however, team members will throw a big celebration, perhaps a big green truck parading the streets of Chicago blasting Def Leppard's “Pour Some Sugar On Me.” Be sure to read all of Adweek’s coverage from this year’s Cannes Lions Live virtual festival. H&M’s Recyclable Clothes Program Wins Cannes Design Grand Prix