At this year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, and for the second year in a row, the Grand Prix award for PR was again handed to an advertising agency.
Strange, you might say. The category is only in its third year, but received a staggering 819 entries from across the globe. Despite this, ad agencies dominated the PR category altogether, with five of 10 PR Gold Lions awarded to them, just as they dominated the award the first two years.
See the full list of winners and entries here.
The winner of the grand prize, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne, masterminded the rather spectacular “Break Up” campaign for the National Australia Bank. The campaign not only involved billboards, radio ads, and banners, but also street teams and 60 couples that publicly broke up on Valentine’s Day. And it seems all of it started on Twitter first:
What is the Cannes Lions?
The Cannes Lions festival is a well-respected global event for “creative professionals in the communications industry,” established in 1954, and now in its 58th edition. The festival boasts over 8 000 delegates from 90 countries, attending 7 full days of workshops, seminars, master classes, and keynote talks.
While Cannes Lions was mainly a global meeting place for advertisers (after all, up until this year, it was called the International Advertising Festival), it has intentionally tried to broaden its scope by becoming a “meeting place for brand communicators.”
However, advertising agencies still managed to “eat our lunches at these award and the PR industry has to raise its game,” as Paul Taaffe, CEO of Hill & Knowlton, so deftly puts it.
Blurring the Lines?
So is the advertising industry moving in on the PR industry’s turf? Are they blurring the lines between the two disciplines or merely stepping out of their traditional framework when necessary?
Kat Thomas, MD at One Green Bean, wrote an insightful piece on why ad agencies might have the upper hand in awards like Cannes Lions. She argues that ad agencies are more experienced at putting together submissions that “effectively communicate their achievements.” However, she adds that ad agencies understand that brand communication campaigns must prompt conversations and compel consumers to engage; in other words, they must incorporate PR “thinking”.
Dave Senay, CEO of Fleishman-Hillard and jury president for the PR award, concurs. He believes that being creative and effective in PR need not necessarily come from a conventional PR agency. He says, “We’re in an era where the labels matter less and less. There is a certain amount of isolationism in our industry and the winners will be the ones who reach across the disciplines and grasp hands.”
So what does this say about creating effective campaigns for your brand? If you work in an organization with separate budgets for advertising and PR, separate departments for marketing and communication, perhaps it’s time to consolidate!
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