How Cannes Lions Aims to Provide Networking and Idea Sharing at This Year's Festival

One of the most important elements of Cannes Lions, the annual advertising festival that usually takes place in the south of France, is the opportunity it offers the international mixture of people to catch up or make new acquaintances. That it has not run for two years, for that reason alone, it is a genuine loss. The virtual presentation of Cannes Lions that will run this year in place of a physical week-long event will feature an online network and meet-up space as the Ascential-owned event aims to facilitate community building within the advertising community. What to expect virtually this year Taking place from Monday, June 21 over five days, the festival will see the return of the coveted industry awards, the winners of which will be announced each day through the Cannes Lions Live website. Alongside this, immersive experiences will be run through the experiential platform SpatialWeb, which has also run virtual events with the likes of Slack, TedX, Gartner and Verizon. It's already been announced that Microsoft has been named as this year's Creative Marketer of the Year. The virtual space will allow attendees to "walk around" and converse in daily meet-up sessions being held with "industry heroes" to build up connections and share ideas. It’ll tell a really interesting story about the pandemic and where we’ve come from.Simon Cook, managing director, Cannes Lions The Immersive Digital Lounge sessions will be supported by companies such as Nielsen, The Female Quotient, WARC and P&G and will feature networking, talks and live Q&As. P&G is also set to host its virtual LifeLab speaker's platform as part of the experience, which will begin with a talk from its marketing leader Marc Pritchard and some, as yet unnamed, celebrity guests. “We’re excited,” Simon Cook, managing director of Cannes Lions, told Adweek. “We obviously didn’t get to put on the awards last year… they are back… and it seems that our customers are really anticipating the results because it’s going to be two years’ worth of work. It’ll tell a really interesting story about the pandemic and where we’ve come from.” Anecdotally, some of the major advertising agency networks told Adweek they have entered fewer submissions than other years for cost reasons, while others have prioritized work from the last 12 months to be “relevant” to judges. That could mean the much-lauded ‘Mouldy Whopper’ campaign from Burger King that looked set to sweep the boards last year loses out as a result, although it has made the shortlist for the Titanium Lion. So important are these awards, that at least one of the networks had been holding regular judging sessions over the last year to determine which work to enter so as not to waste entry fees. A few surprises in store Cook promises “a few surprises” for regular attendees of the festival, which will be broadcast from Cannes. There will be three channels on the platform. One featuring the awards ceremonies and insights around the winners, another that features talks from industry experts as well as celebrities such as Oscar winner Reese Witherspoon, which will run as an on-demand platform, and the third will be the virtual networking element. “It’s going to run a little bit different to the festival itself,” he said, adding that there will be an award show to kick off each day with more running throughout instead of their usual evening timeslots. “We will have the ceremonies like we normally do, but then straight after that we have these sessions run on a dedicated channel, which is exclusively for the awards,” he outlined. These will be hosted by BBC presenter Tina Daheley and will feature deep dives into the winners and talk to jurors, winners and other experts to share stories and learnings. “It's exciting because we never normally get to do that at the festival itself, so hopefully, it will bring some new value to those people who have the chance to tune in.” Lessons from 2021 As to what the organizers have learned from putting together Cannes Lions 2021, Cooks says the team understands the need to be “flexible and adaptable” and it is likely that the digital element will be included for future events to allow Lions to become more inclusive in who can take part in them. June has seen Lions kick off its membership proposition as it aims to evolve its offering beyond a week in France and will likely see smaller local events held throughout the year on its platform and in person, Cook explained, as the company examines what the future will look like for the main Lions brand and where sister marketing festivals such as Spikes Asia and Eurobest will fit. As to how hopeful Cook is that the event will return in person in 2022, he doesn’t want to commit but he said the city of Cannes itself is positive. “It's been a really tough time for the city, but the good news is, is that they're in full support for next year," he said. "We have a great relationship with them and even when we had to make the announcement that we aren't going to be doing it this year, immediately they went to ‘it's going to be great next year.’” The first awards of the week will see the Young Lions winners, which began to be judged earlier in June. 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