The organisers of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity have announced a host of changes to the festival.
The festival has been shortened to five days and will run between 18-22 June 2018. This year the festival was held across eight days with the Health Lions kicking off on 17 June and ending on 24 June.
Other changes include:
- 'A simplified award structure' which sees 120 sub-categories being removed.
- The organisers will be giving away more than 650 delegate passes free as part of its Young Lions initiative. (One Young Lions delegate pass will be given free to every office which entered more than 15 entries at the 2017 Festival, totalling over 650 free places for the Festival in 2018).
- Price freezes and money-saving packages for attendees have also been added.
- The points allocations for the Special Awards (Holding Company of the Year, Agency of the Year, Network of the Year) have been changed .
- Charity and NGO work will now be presented to the jury separately from brand-led work.
- A new entry cap means that each piece of work can only be entered into a maximum of six Lions.
- The Cyber Lions, Integrated Lions and the Promo Lions have been retired.
- The craft categories within Print, Outdoor and Design have been removed from their respective Lions to be judged by a specialist 'Industry Craft Jury'.
- The Brand Experience & Activation, Creative e-commerce and Social & Influencer Lions have been launched.
- Every awards show will be available to view for free on all major platforms.
Philip Thomas, CEO, Ascential Events, said, “This is an especially important launch for us. We have spent a lot of time talking to the relevant people to make sure the festival is not only as aspirational as possible, but to also ensure the sentiment behind the festival is fundamentally founded on the work and those behind it. We have held lengthy discussions in order to curate an updated festival that puts the creative content back at the heart of Cannes Lions."
Alongside capped taxi fares and expanded free Wi-Fi facilities along the Croisette, hotel prices will be frozen for 2018, and fixed-price menus will be on offer exclusively for Festival badge holders at more than 50 restaurants, informed a statement.
Jose Papa, managing director, Cannes Lions, said, “Our customers made it clear that they had a significant issue with the affordability of the city of Cannes, and we shared this feedback with our city partners. The response from the city, and from the Mayor David Lisnard’s office has been fantastic. These new delegate benefits make it possible for attendees to budget for the Festival more accurately and effectively, with genuine money-saving measures.”
He added, “As representatives of the future of the industry, it’s vital that young creatives get to experience Cannes Lions and can take advantage of all the learning, inspiration and networking on offer. This new Young Lions scheme will welcome a new generation of young creatives to the Festival, while at the same time recognising the agencies and creative businesses who enter the awards.”
Thomas added, “Change has always been part of Cannes Lions and the innovations we’re introducing for 2018 mark an exciting new phase in the story of the Festival. Some of the effects from these changes will be felt immediately, while others represent the start of a longer transitional journey. But what they all have in common is that they refocus the festival and ensure that Cannes Lions continues to be the leading global event for the world’s creative communications industries for many years to come.”
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