Whether or not a matter of time, value or mixture of different components, the advert world isn’t submitting as a lot work to the Cannes Lions Worldwide Pageant of Creativity as previously.
This 12 months, award entries had been down about 1% in comparison with final 12 months—not a big decline.
However trying again to 2016, which holds the document for many submissions ever, reveals a downward pattern. Certainly, when evaluating 2024 with 2016, award entries have decreased a big 38%.
From one 12 months to the subsequent, quantity can drop for a wide range of causes.
In 2018, for instance, Publicis Groupe paused its participation in award festivals to concentrate on creating its synthetic intelligence platform Marcel. Cannes Lions estimated Publicis’ absence contributed to an 8% drop in entries that season.
That very same 12 months, Cannes Lions restructured the occasion, introducing two new classes (Inventive Ecommerce and Sustainable Improvement Targets) and retiring three (Cyber, Built-in and Promo & Activation).
A Cannes Lions spokesperson said in an e mail that the standard classes that make up the majority of entries have declined since 2016: Print & Publishing, as an illustration, has fallen from 3,777 entries to 734.
“The newer classes, which replicate the work of recent companies and different model companions, don’t drive something like that variety of entries—Inventive Enterprise Transformation, as an illustration, or the Innovation Lions, whereas they spotlight the way forward for the business, obtain a fraction of the standard classes’ historic entry numbers,” the spokesperson wrote.
However sure classes are rising, stated Simon Cook dinner, chief govt of Cannes Lions.
“We’ve seen continued progress within the Inventive Effectiveness Lions, which has obtained the best variety of submissions since its launch in 2011, demonstrating that there’s a robust dedication to creativity as a progress driver,” Cook dinner stated in a press release.
Cook dinner additionally famous that entries from manufacturers and media house owners elevated 6% and 31%, respectively, displaying the “breadth of funding in creativity throughout the complete spectrum of branded communications.”
Regardless of the general decline in award submissions, Cannes Lions is doing effectively in different key areas.
Final 12 months, Cannes Lions partnered with 110 sponsors, who paid a median of $329,147 (£260,000), in line with an annual report from dad or mum firm Ascential. The variety of attendees additionally grew 9% to greater than 12,000. In complete, the competition generated $129 million (£101.8 million) in 2023, up 30% in comparison with 2022.
