Delegates at the 55th Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival may have come along to win a prestigious Cannes Lion award or maybe just to savour the ingenuity of new creative ideas or maybe just to learn something from the 50 workshops and 25 interactive workshops throughout the week. For others it could be to name drop about hearing at first hand media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his News Corp CEO Peter Chernin explain how News Corp became one of the most powerful media conglomerates in the world.
For celeb followers, other big names they can see and listen to at Cannes Lions are legendary US singer Tony Bennett, WPP Worldwide’s Sir Martin Sorrell, Publicis Group’s Maurice Levy, Profero’s Lord David Puttman and AG Lafley, CEO of P&G, the Advertiser of the Year. Sharing the conference podium are some of the biggest media names like AIK KC’s Ron Grant, Microsoft’s Kevin Johnson, Yahoo!’s Hilary Schneider and Google’s Henrique de Castro.
Agencies have also pulled out all the stops to share their research and analysis with delegates and amongst the speakers are Procter & Gamble Greater China President Daniela Riccardi, Saatch & Saatchi China CEO Pully Chau, Draftfcb Worldwide Chief Creative Officer Jonathan Harries, President MindShare Entertainment David Lang, Unilever VP Global media Laura Klauberg, Isobar CEO Nigel Morris, Ogilvy Worldwide Vice Chairman Digital Jan Leith, Wunderman CCO Nick Moore, ZenithOptimedia Worldwide CEO Steve King, Nike Global Director for Brand Connections Stefan Olander, Leo Burnett Worldwide Chairman/CEO Tom Bernardin, TBWA Worldwide Chairman Jean-Marie Dru and Coca-Cola Global Creative Director Ivan Wicksteed.
The organisers have billed Cannes Lions 2008 as the biggest festival to date and expect the number of registered delegates to reach 12,000 from 85 countries. Design has been added as a new category and entries in the 10 categories have reached a record number of 28,284 which represents a 10% increase from last year.
