“Are you in Cannes this year?” is one of the most common questions on my lips at the moment.
Last week was Advertising Week Europe, for which NDA was a media partner, and what an amazing event it was. Advertising Week always does a brilliant job of bringing huge crowds and putting on a great programme of talks and panels. The new venue, 180, in its second year, really works incredibly well. Even if I personally miss the Bafta days….
The energy of the industry was on full display, with packed rooms, lively discussions, and a real sense that everyone was there. Advertising Week continues to prove just how much face-to-face interaction matters in our industry.
Sitting in the afterglow of Advertising Week, on Sunday morning yesterday, I was once again deep in planning for NDA’s events at Cannes Lions.
And as responses started flooding in, on Sunday morning!, to my LinkedIn post talking about our Cannes plans, it made me consider again the importance of Cannes.
Cannes Lions has been going for decades, and while the advertising world has evolved beyond recognition, Cannes has managed to evolve with it. It’s not just the creative awards show it once was – though those awards can still be career defining for creatives – it’s now an industry-defining week for tech companies of every flavour, media owners, agencies, platforms, brands, and everyone in between.
Everyone has Cannes on the brain, whether they’re finalising their events, working out who’s going, sorting out last-minute travel, or just trying to figure out where they’re going to sleep. Cannes accommodation has always been less than fun.
Cannes evolution
It’s also remarkable how the festival has changed over the years. What was once a gathering purely for the creative elite has expanded to reflect the full complexity of our industry.
Programmatic, adtech, martech, data, retail media – all have carved out their own corners of the festival. While some people lament the tech invasion, I think it’s a sign of the festival’s strength. Cannes has always been about where the industry is going next. Right now, that means creativity powered by technology.
And let’s be honest, yes, there are contradictions. We talk about sustainability on stage while sipping rosé on a yacht. But at the same time, the amount of work that gets done during that week is enormous. The volume and quality of meetings, conversations, deals, and introductions that happen in Cannes can set the agenda for the rest of the year.
That said, the way we plan for Cannes has shifted in recent years. Before the pandemic, diaries were booked months in advance. Now, there’s often a much later scramble to finalise plans. This year the last-minute decision-making that first appeared post-pandemic seems to have lingered, perhaps reflecting broader uncertainty in the market.
But in all my decades of going to Cannes, I’ve never met anyone who said they regretted going.
For NDA, we’re back with our venue Maison NDA for our second year, right in the middle of the action, minutes from the Palais, opposite Amazon Port, for a week of roundtables, podcasts, panels and more.
For all the noise, for all the cynicism, Cannes still delivers. It still matters. And that’s why NDA believes in it. That’s why we’re proud to be there again this year, creating a space for the conversations that move the industry forward.
So, if you’re going, we’ll see you there and hope you’ll drop in at Maison NDA.
