Entries to Cannes Lions up 7% worldwide, however Asian entry levels fall around 7%

More than 24,000 entries from 90 countries will be competing for at the Cannes Lions Festival this year, an increase overall of 7% versus last year. This is the 4th highest level of entries ever.

“Cannes Lions reflects the communications industry, and these results tell a fascinating story,” says Philip Thomas, Festival CEO. “Firstly, of course, they suggest that the industry as a whole is recovering from the distress of 2009 (entries to the Festival were down 20% last year) and indeed they show recovery coming not only from places you would expect like Latin America or India, but also countries like Sweden, Turkey, the UK, France and the USA, all of which have picked up considerably. The figures also show different categories showing differing levels of growth. While some traditional sections are down year-on-year, there are significant increases in Media and Cyber as well as in the newer Cannes Lions sections – especially PR and Promo & Activation which have grown by 32% and 43% respectively.”

Press dropped 4.5% on last year to 4821 entries – in 2006 Press entries numbered 7387. Film dropped 7.5% on 2009 figures to 3191 entries – back in 2004 Film entries numbered 5082. Outdoor fell the most this year, down 15% on last year to 3822 entries – in 2006 there were 5282 entries into the Outdoor category.

On the plus side for Cannes this year are the Promo and Activationcategory (up 43%), PR (only 571 entries but up 32% on last year), Cyber(up 18%), and Media (up 17.5%). This year the festival has introducedthe Film Craft category and this looks like a winner with 1110 entriesin the first year.

While the rest of the world increased 7% overall it was a differentstory for Asia, which was down around 7% (282 entries) on last year’sentry levels. In 2009 Asia held strong against many other countrieswith entry levels down just over 10% against the Cannes average of 20%.As a combined region Asia entered 3801 entries this year compared to4083 in 2009.

Asia’s biggest declines were in Singapore (down 170 entries), Hong Kong(down 122 entries), and Malaysia (down 89 entries). Interestingly, in 2009 Singapore dropped just 17 entries on the year before.

India, ThePhilippines, Korea, Indonesia and Chinese Taipei all went up (see chartbelow – the figures in brackets show the previous two years entry levels).

China – 358   (438/467)

Vietnam – 21   (31/32)

It was a different story for Australia and New Zealand with both countries experiencing big jumps in entry levels.

Australia – 1025     (784/822)

USA – 3370 entries

Brazil – 2115

Germany – 1891

UK – 1680

India – 1076

Australia – 1025

France – 898

Spain – 881

South Africa – 793

Canada – 758