Kelly Bennett’s Cannes Diary: Day One
Kelly Bennett, founder and MD, One Plus One Communications in New Zealand is sitting on the PR Lions jury. Bennett, along with many other jurors, is reporting exclusively from Cannes for Campaign Brief.
First day of judging completed, having travelled (no doubt, like many of the other New Zealand and Australian jurors) nearly 36 hours to get here. Cannes is stunningly beautiful, but I’ve seen nothing other than what the drive to the hotel afforded me, coupled with a 30-minute walk around the Hotel Martinez, where I’m staying for the next week.
A press release distributed by Cannes Lions this morning boasted that a record 43,101 (+7%) submissions had been received for 2016. The PR category had 2224 entries, up from 1969 in 2015, and being candid (whilst not wanting to sound critical) only several campaigns have really stood out so far. The quality of the work is exceptionally high, however, so that’s evidence of just how hard it is to win at Cannes, I guess.
What’s interesting at this early stage in proceedings is the regional nuance and characteristics of work from different parts of the world. There are anomalies, of course, but many of the European submissions are self-deprecating, American work is big and brazen, and the Australasian output generally has something uniquely colloquial about it. Interestingly, there have already been one or two really strong Russian submissions.
My fellow jurors and I lamented the fact that so many entries seemed to have been submitted in the wrong category. For example, amazing work with spectacular social metrics ended up being scored lower than it could have been in the Media Relations section.
But it’s still very early days. Stages and pop-up spaces are being erected, signage is being finalised, and very soon more than 12,500 people from around the world will converge on the spectacle that is the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. It’s an honour and a privilege to be here, and I can’t wait to see what unfolds, and which work will win.