Cannes: The Best of Times Gets Better

Answer Cannes of courseEveryone in our business is looking for the big idea these days We39re all creatives now And those are my personal memes my primary takeaways from the International Festival of Creativity39s now essential annual gathering in the south of France last weekAs it was last year Cannes 2011 was an invigorating and productive week in which even the extraordinary work being honored in the Palais took a back seat to the serious business getting done everywhere else No surprise why one out of every five people at the Festival was a client many of them Csuite players About 450 companies showed the flagActually Cannes is getting even more vibrantamp8212and vitalamp8212than it ever was when it was just a large and flamboyant international ad awards show and a bunch of really cool beach parties Even more so than last year when I remarked that the event was becoming a mustattend for every serious marketerMaybe too much of a mustattend because this is becoming an onslaught Cannes recorded a nearly 20 rise in attendance in 2011 And while I39ve never subscribed to the quotvelvet ropequot concept the day is probably not far off when Cannes will have to consider whether or not it has become too robustThat being said I think the biggest reason why Cannes has become so important is because attending is like going to Switzerland for a private facetoface with a few thousand of your most important colleagues clients and frenemies Everybody checks their weapons at the Carlton Terrace and buys everyone else a glass of RoseThe Festival is neutral ground a place to talk seriously but in as relaxed an environment as you can possibly find yes I proudly wore the 2011 version of my power pink again this year about the issues of the day and the business opportunities at hand Cannes is Switzerland also because all sides of the ecosystem intermingle all day and night Creatives clients media executives digerati they39re all there Which is where the digital dealing comes inThis year the organizers could just as easily have stretched a banner across the Croisette that read quotWelcome to the Digital Upfrontquot because it was extraordinary how much direct talking was being done between digital sellers and clients All the digital heavyweights were there Microsoft Yahoo Google Facebook Twitter All talking with CEOs and CMOs And as my good friend Jack Myers noted this week in his latest Media Business Report video it begged the question where were the broadcasters and their cable counterparts and magazines Why are they not well represented under the Gallic sun by nowHeady stuff and it39s hot down there too So after a week in Cannes what better way to rest unwind and renew than a good anythingbutold fashioned Shabbat dinner Yes ShabbatThis was the unique event at Cannes and it deserves to be a tradition that happens every yearYampampR CEO David Sable somehow found aamp8212probably the onlyamp8212Kosher caterer in the south of France and got them to drive down from Nice to put on an amazing dinner for a few dozen of his closest Cannes friends It was unbelievable and I39m not just talking about the somewhat challenging Kosher rose the caterer I39m told wouldn39t show up if the wine was treifHere were creatives breaking bread with producers sitting next to clients chatting away with agency executives Jews in yarmulkes from Brooklyn sharing a meal with delegates from Abu Dhabi Talk about a metaphor for the whole weekAnd fittingly the meal was served family styleMediaBizBloggers is an openthought leadership blog platform for media marketing and advertising professionals companies and organizations To contribute contact Jackmediadvisorygroupcom The opinions expressed in MediaBizBloggerscom are not those of Media Advisory Group its employees or other MediaBizBloggerscom contributors Media Advisory Group accepts no responsibility for the views of MediaBizBloggers authors

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Cannes: The Best of Times Gets Better

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Michael Kassan

"About That with Carl Mayer:" Alaina Donnellon (Episode 10: Political Spending) - By Carl Mayer

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