Out with the Old?

Come September, the kick-off night for ADWKDC 2009 will feature the domestic premier of the Cannes Advertising Festival Winners at USA TODAY, and we are excited to see the entire pool of winners. Each year we come away from the Cannes event inspired, motivated and encouraged to strive for the best work not only for ourselves, but for our clients.

Reviewing the list of this year’s Cannes Advertising Festival winners, we notice a unique turn for two of the most coveted prizes. The Titanium Grand Prix and the Integrated Grand Prix winner—Obama for America—pioneered itself by seeing beyond TV and taking its message to other screens, thus extending the campaign to not only advertising, but to another level.

Although Cannes may have downsized this year and spectators and visitors alike were abuzz with the festival’s tight budget details, the winners’ work continues to “wow” us. How? By engaging consumers and deeply involving them in the brands as was the case of the GMMB victories where voters were motivated to believe in a movement through unique messaging rather than just a produced spot.

And yet, an Advertising Age column by Bob Garfield following the festival claims Cannes “doesn’t matter anymore,” attributing its irrelevance to the “black hole” of an advertising year that the industry has faced. In the article, Garfield reviewed a short list of Cannes submissions—concluding that most of the best ideas had little to do with advertising. Instead they were noteworthy for social media outreach efforts, optimal web experiences, and wildly attention grabbing PR stunts—perhaps the reasoning behind his deeming the festival superfluous and on its way out. Still, Garfield colleague Laurel Wentz notes despite downturn of the “ad age,” the industry may possibly have evolved to a higher plane, marked first by the unique change in Cannes winners.

So, we are curious as to what our ADWKDC audience thinks.

Will the Advertising Festival become obsolete? Or will the categories evolve to meet the progression of advertising?

Does Cannes’ change in tone, with new types of winners, reflect a mounting industry change—or will new industry trends and changes mean saying farewell to Cannes?