Written by Francis Ingham

@PRCAIngham

 

So it’s all over bar the boasting, the excuses, and the analysis. And maybe the odd hangover. Cannes has presented its awards, and agency heads are left to work out what if means for them and what it means for the industry

What are my observations?

First, the number of PR practitioners here keeps on growing. Partly because more agencies are entering and partly because PR people simply feel more at home here.

There are more PR wins. MSL walked away happy last night. But so did plenty of other PR agencies. The old lament of ‘PR agencies don’t/can’t win at Cannes’ simply doesn’t hold true any longer. But equally….

Lines really are blurred now. OK. That’s not an original observation. But it’s blindingly obvious when you’re here and when you see the work on display. Is this a bad thing? No. For the simple reason that PR agencies are better placed to eat into rivals (previously larger) territories than they are to eat into ours.

The campaigns that won were the integrated ones that told a compelling story. And more often than not spoke to a higher purpose than just profit or just fulfilling a brief. And yes, #likeagirl ticks all of those boxes.

And finally, the future really is bright. ICCO sponsored and made possible the Young Lions. Bigger than last year, and attracting entries from 18 countries, it was a fantastic showcase of the industry’s future. And showed, incidentally, that for all that the UK and the USA are the most advanced markets, our two countries have no monopoly on talent. The winning team came from Sweden. Last year, It came from Japan.

And on that note go and open up the ICCO House of PR. There are a lot of sore heads to tend to this morning…..