Paul Yole’s Cannes Diary: Day One

The Brand Agency’s Paul Yole has written for the Campaign Brief Cannes blog for the last eight years. He’s at it again this year.

Roughly $30m has been spent on entry fees this year. Of that, about $27m will be wasted on work that fails to make the short list.

The biggest amount of cash will be burnt on press and outdoor entries where, unless the ad is a work of art for a toothpaste or a bicycle shop, the chances are it will miss out.

Each delegate will also shell out close to $5,000 for registration and the same again for accommodation and flights.

So our agency owners will be hoping we bring something back. And I don’t just mean a dodgy tee shirt, a pair of bright colored sunglasses from the Shots party and another conference bag.

At the very least we’d better meet some interesting new people and learn something useful from some of the 250 speakers.

Cannes is what you make of it. And for what it costs you’d better make a big effort.

Hopefully this year it will be back to its inspirational and entertaining best.