The International Festival of Creativity, also known as Cannes Lions, is the world’s leading celebration of creativity in communications. As the most prestigious international annual advertising and communications awards, this year over 24,000 entries from all over the world are showcased and judged at the Festival.
Winning companies receive the highly coveted Lion trophy honouring the most creative film, print, outdoor, interactive, radio, design, sales promotion & activation, film craft and integrated advertising, as well as the best media, direct marketing, PR, titanium and creative effectiveness ideas.
Throughout Festival week, the winners of the much-coveted Lion trophies are honoured at four separate award ceremonies:
Monday 20 June 2011, 19:30: Promo & Activation, PR and Direct Lions Awards
Tuesday 21 June 2011, 19:00: Radio, Media and Outdoor Lions Awards
Wednesday 22 June 2011, 19:30: Press, Design and Cyber Lions Awards
Saturday 25 June 2011, 19:00: Film, Film Craft, Creative Effectiveness, and Titanium and Integrated Lions Awards
More than 8,000 people will attend the seven-day event in 2011, comprising the top professionals in the advertising, media, marketing, production and design industries, including creative directors, copywriters, art directors, CEOs, clients, directors, producers, animators, designers, marketers, editors and journalists. The Festival also has programmes for young creative and marketing talent, and students. Delegates from 95 countries attend seven days of exhibitions, screenings, as well as over 50 high-profile seminars, 20 workshops and master classes presented by renowned worldwide industry leaders.
The Cannes Lions learning programme features 57 world-class seminars across seven days inside the Palais des Festival. Thought-leaders and experts in all forms of communications and creative thinking will together to inspire, debate and entertain at the Festival. The seminar programme include sessions from Patti Smith, Sir Ken Robinson, foursquare Co-founder Dennis Crowley, Nestlé CEO Paul Bulcke, Piers Morgan, Arianna Huffington, Malcolm Gladwell, James Murdoch, Dr Edward de Bono and many more.
The Young Lions Competition is open to advertising professionals 28 years and under working in advertising/communications businesses. The participating teams, comprising an art director and copywriter, are selected through a pre-selection process in their own country, with the winners attending Cannes Lions in June and participating in the Young Lions Competition there, where they compete against teams from all over the world. There are four competitions that take place during the Festival week at the Palais des Festivals. These are for Cyber, Film, Media and Print. Each competing team is briefed by a client to create and execute a campaign within 24 hours (within 48 hours for Film).
The list of 2011 Cannes Lions partners includes Ogilvy, Microsoft Advertising, The Brand Union, Nokia, AT&T, Samsung, CNN and HP to name but a few.
For more information on the program, visit the official website of Cannes Lions.