Why this year will really be PR’s year at Cannes Lions by Martyn Rosney & Niamh O’Keeffe

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Guest blog post by 2014 Young PR Lions contestants from Ireland

This time next week, we will be attending the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity representing Ireland at the inaugural Young PR Lions competition. The festival, now in its 61st year, is the foremost industry event in creative communications and advertising.

As part of our preparation for the competition, we have been reading up on festivals past. It seems that industry experts have been predicting that every year (since PR first became part of the festival in 2009) ‘will be PR’s year’. We thought it would be interesting to share our thoughts about what evidence there is to indicate that 2014 will be different.

In the first instance, one clear indication that PR is becoming a more inherent part of the Cannes Lions discourse is the inaugural Young PR Lions competition which was launched this year with support from ICCO, GolinHarris, H+K Strategies, Ketchum and Ogilvy PR. Setting up this competition is a very clear commitment by the industry to foster and cultivate emerging PR talent.

Secondly, 2014 is the 6th year that PR has competed at Cannes. Over this time, the PR industry has become more attuned to what will really appeal to the Jurors at Cannes and how best to showcase our industry. 2012 was a watershed year for PR at Cannes. After another year of disappointment for PR, the judges expressed disappointment in the entries from PR firms which lacked ‘big ideas’, being too tactical, stuck in historic structures of “having one person who is the client contact, the idea generator and also the budget keeper”. We’ve had time to reflect on this disappointment and build on it.

Lastly, everyone in the industry would agree that the PR industry is in a state of flux. We have to find new and more effective ways to identify and communicate to our audiences. As an industry, we have risen to that challenge and our imagination and innovation will be what sets us apart in years to come.

Hopefully 2014 will be PR’s year.

 

500_niamho039keeffe500_martynrosneyNiamh O’Keeffe @niamh_okeeffe and Martyn Rosney @martynrosney are both Account Managers at Wilson Hartnell, Ireland’s leading PR agency and Ogilvy PR’s Irish office. They will be representing Ireland at the inaugural Young PR Lions competition at the 2014 Cannes International Festival of Creativity.