The Awards
Cannes Lions juries are drawn from experts in each field from around the world. Each jury is headed by a jury president. They judge submissions in Film, Film Craft, Media, Press, Outdoor, Cyber, Promo & Activation, Direct, Design, Radio, PR, Creative Effectiveness and Titanium and Integrated.
Other awards include Holding Company of the Year, Network of the Year, Direct Agency of the Year, Media Agency of the Year, Agency of the Year, Independent Agency of the Year, Media Person of the Year, Advertiser of the Year and the Palme d'Or to the best production company.
Advertisements are generally entered by the agencies that created them, although technically anyone can enter any advertising creation, providing it ran within a specified time frame. The jurors are instructed to reward advertising that is deemed most creative both in idea and execution.
In an article in the Guardian in 2009 WPP boss Sir Martin Sorrell said the Cannes Lions awards were too costly to enter. However, a year later, he also admitted that he had made sure that WPP was "very, very focused on Cannes" and wanted to be "the leader in terms of awards at Cannes". In 2011, WPP won the first Holding Company of the Year prize at the Festival. Commenting on this industry recognition, WPP Worldwide Creative Director, John O'Keeffe, said:
"Cannes is the only global, cross discipline show, covering advertising, design, digital, media, promo, effectiveness, and everything else besides. It doesn't aggregate the scores of other shows, so you can't inflate your ranking on the back of just one or two pieces of work. If you are number one at Cannes, you've done it the hard way, the proper way, the only way."
However, recently there have also been suggestions that Cannes Lions should reduce the number of entry sections to better reflect the current state of the industry
Read more about this topic: Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival