The problem with turning to famous faces and outspoken media stars to help promote yourself in Cannes is that such slebs are not always easy to control.
And so it was with this year’s roll-call of improbable celebrities attending the seminars and lunches in the Croisette.
My time at
Cannes 2010 is coming to an end, but before I pack up, just thought I’d share
some simple lessons gained from outside the conference rooms of the Palais des Festivals.
Because while the conferences and
seminars have played host to some of the leading minds in the business, for
some inexplicable reason, the allure of the bright Riviera sunshine, luminous
sea and golden sands, bars pumping out music, fine-dining and general festival
atmosphere has been enough to keep some (read most) outside.
Shining a
light on some of the seismic changes in British advertising over the last six
decades was the remit of Campaign’s seminar in Cannes
earlier this week, and unsurprisingly it provided plenty of fodder.
Caroline Marshall moderated the session, ‘When Soho’s Mad Men Ruled The
World’, joined by Clear Channel International’s president and CEO William
Eccleshare, Publicis London’s Adam Kean and Ogilvy & Mather’s (India)
Piyush Pandey.
It provided an interesting romp across some well-trodden ground. The
1970s were highlighted as a time of notable creativity in the British ad
industry, when creatives started to lead the agencies and push the boundaries
of what it was to be in thus business.
It was the
wrong month for film star Ben Stiller to be visiting the South of France, something
he himself realised quite soon after 5pm yesterday evening.
It began,
as such public disasters so often do, full of promise and expectation.
Thousands
of Cannes
delegates and hundreds of the press corp had been looking forward to Stiller’s
arrival.
By the time
Publicis Groupe took to the stage, an hour before his appearance, organisers were
forced to open up another auditorium, two floors above the first, with a live
video stream from the stage below.
And in they
filed, with queues now stretching across both foyers. By the time the comedian
turned actor, writer and film director was announced, more than 2,500 delegates,
including some of the most creative minds in the business, were seated, ready
and waiting.
All Yahoo
had to do to capitalise on their star coup was provide a vaguely entertaining 40
minutes or so. But the signs were ominous from the outset.
Someone had
found a Stiller look-a-like and sent him onto the stage to shake hands with
Elisa Steele, chief marketing officer of Yahoo, and Jeff Goodby, co-chairman of
Goodby Silverstein & Partners.
After a
hesitant pause, the actor then walked on stage to reveal the brief hoax.
Undoubtedly one of those stunts which had probably felt like a good idea during
an ‘ideas meeting’ beforehand.
No matter,
this was bonafide Hollywood movie
star Ben Stiller, and the ill-conceived, poorly executed opening gambit was
quickly forgiven with a smattering of polite murmurs.
Steele
attempted to switch to VT of one of Stiller’s films, and after more than a few seconds of
staring desperately at an empty screen, it sprang to life – but they had chosen
a clip with no sound effects whatsoever, so we watched in silence as images flickered across the auditorium. A few seconds later, and to no applause,
it stopped.
“Er thank
you,” said Stiller. “I made that.”
The Starsky
& Hutch star then made the obligatory joke about how he had always wanted
to be at the Cannes Film Festival, and it went down hill from there.
Stiller had
clearly been hoping for light-hearted, quick-fire banter with Steele and Goodby, but he’d
come to the wrong place. Yahoo’s chief marketer looked bemused and slightly
terrified of him, and when, after another awkward pause, Stiller pressed “what is the
question?”, she replied “what was your life like as a kid?”. Eh?
The actor
checked, did she really want to know about his childhood? She really did, so, no doubt by now already thinking of the money, he
dusted off what must undoubtedly be one of his oldest stand-up gags and told
us, “well both my parents were comedians, it was no laughing matter”.
He was then
asked what he thought about digital, to which he replied “I’m honestly just
beginning to understand it all”. He did add that his production company in Los Angeles had a digital arm that was working on
several projects, including one with Paramount, but he didn’t seem to know too much about it all.
Fascinating
stuff.
Meanwhile,
silver-haired, pony-tailed Goodby seated in between Stiller and Steele had begun taking his
t-shirt off – with, it must be said, a bit
of a tangled struggle. Finally it came off to reveal… another t-shirt with his
twitter address on. An act he’d do another four or five times.
“Now he’s
taking off his shirt, this is the weirdest panel I’ve ever addressed,” said
Stiller, and 2,500 observers couldn’t help but agree.
It really
became no clearer, or funnier. We learned that Stiller thought digital made no real
discernable difference when it came to storytelling – “storytelling is
storytelling” he proffered.
Asked what
he thought of 3D, he responded: “I don’t know if there is research on whether
comedy is better in 3D, but it’s certainly making a lot of money for the movie
industry.”
As riveting
as this all was, within 10 minutes, hundreds of people, across two auditoriums,
after waiting hours for the session to start, had already started to ebb away.
What a shame, what a waste.
Tonight’s the night of the Radio, Media and Outdoor Lions awards and, following a dogged year of contraction in the British media, it’ll be interesting to see how our campaigns fare against the best the rest of the world has to offer.
A glance at tonight’s shortlists suggests it might feel like a long night.
To recap, UK agencies have been shortlisted for 20 Cannes Media Lions awards, with ZenithOptimedia, MediaCom and creative agency Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO commanding three nominations each.
In Outdoor, UK agencies have secured just 11 of the 419 nominations and it’s even slimmer pickings in Radio, with just five of the 178 shortlisted agencies based in the UK, led by Saatchi & Saatchi with three entries.
I forget how many times I’ve been told how straitened times can help drive innovation and boost creativity, but how true is it in practice?
We should also remember that entering awards can be a costly and time consuming business and, even in adland, it’s hard to classify awards entries as ‘essential’ business when the wolves are scratching at the door.
I hope I’m wrong but fear tonight could be as successful as the forced Ben Stiller/Yahoo tie-up I’ve just witnessed – which was really quite unpleasant indeed.
The
Cannes film festival is in May, so why at the end of June, with advertising’s
big shots rolling into town, is La Croisette buzzing with news of movie star
Ben Stiller?
Talk of the town last night was not of Maurice Levy, Martin Sorrell or Michael
Roth, or even Cannes 2010’s ‘Media Person of the Year’ Mark Zuckerberg.
Instead, adland is going nuts for the Hollywood actor and comedian.
The 44-year-old Meet the Fockers star is Yahoo’s inspired guest panelist this
afternoon and his arrival has caught everyone’s imagination. I had no idea he
was so popular, but it seems he’s a certifable international hit, with both men
and women alike.
After a week of heavy storms, it’s been a bright start to Cannes this morning, with early festival-goers greeted by dazzling sunshine and temperatures of 22° by 9:30.
Now in its 57th year, the Cannes Lions International Ad Festival claims to be the “most exciting, action-packed and must-attend event” of the ad industry’s calendar, so let’s see what all the fuss is about.
With more than 8,000 delegates from some 90 countries, Cannes 2010 certainly promises to be big by any standards. I’ve been reporting on international media conferences and events for more than 10 years now, but this is my first time at the Ad Festival and its sheer size is immediately apparent. I’m no stranger to the Riviera or La Croisette, and I’m interested to see how such a sprawling, wide-ranging schedule really translates along the beach front.
The next five days will host 55 seminars, 20 workshops, umpteen screenings, four awards ceremonies and two beach galas; and that’s just the official roll-call. Yet a tally of this year’s awards entries (24,242) suggests the worst advertising recession in living memory (for much of the globe at least) continues to cast a shadow across the event. While entries are up on last year’s telling nadir, 2010 sees the next lowest number of submissions for more than five years, some 4,000 entries below the festival’s bumper pre-recession high of 28,284.
Despite the tough climate, there has been a number of new initiatives across the categories this year, including two Grand Prix in Outdoor Lions and the introduction of craft categories in Radio, Cyber and Press Lions.
It promises to be a hectic week, hosting some of the most high-profile, influential people in the business, but rest assured, far from partying into the early hours like we’ve got the best gig of the summer, Matt (Williams) and I will be diligently keeping you updated whenever we can grab five.
