James Wright’s Cannes Diary #1
James Wright, CEO, Red Agency and COO, Havas Sydney is representing Australia on the Cannes PR Lions jury. Wright, along with most of the Australian and NZ jurors, is reporting exclusively for CB.
The first day in Cannes as a juror is like the first day in school. You are in equal measures excited and nervous, desperate to make a good first impression, meet new friends and learn.
The PR jury is made up of 21 of the very best senior talent from all around the world, frankly it’s humbling to be part of the group. The world of advertising and PR is small and I have worked with a lot of people in the same agencies as my fellow jurors. At least one had told me that one of my former colleagues and so called ‘mates’ had warned him off from hanging out with me too much. I hope this was said in jest, but he was German, so I am not sure. He keeps avoiding me, so that’s a concern.
In preparation for Cannes I have brushed up on my French and despite my very best efforts the waiters still respond to me in English. It kind of makes you feel small. I have taken to looking at ways to get my own back. Currently my favourite is stealing the glasses filled with cheese sticks from the bar as I take my glass of rose. I don’t even like cheese sticks but it 
makes me feel good.
Today we completed day one of judging. There was a total of around 2,400 entries for PR and through online pre-judging we have already reduced that by 900, so still a mammoth task to ensure you give each entry the attention it deserves, especially as we all know, it isn’t cheap to enter Cannes.
Today we were split into four mini-groups
and for our first three days each group will work through two or three categories per day before we come back together on days 4, 5 and 6. It is great to get to learn about other jurors and their diverse viewpoints of the same work being from so many different corners of the world.
Already there are some themes emerging just from around 120 entries my mini-group has gone through today. Initial insights:
· What the Trump? Global unrest and political uncertainty feature prominently, particularly out of the Americas, not just the US but Brazil too. I think we saw the Trump quote of “I will build a wall….” five times already. The man is gold for quotes in case films and has spurred a lot of the creative thinking. May be he is bad for the US, but he is great for marketing.
· Equality. Gender and LGBT rights took up a good 15/20% of the entries we saw today, which may be a reflection of the categories we judged but other groups called out that theme too. I expect a chunk of metal to go to campaigns championing these areas of work because there were many excellent and very effective ideas.
· Cause for Concern. Broader cause marketing work was prominent, championing education, special needs and the environment, including some solid work from Australia, highlighting the many reasons we should care for these issues.
· Finally, there is a lot of entries from Brazil, India and Japan. Much more than when I was last a juror in 2013. They were up and down in terms of quality but nonetheless some fascinating and thought-provoking creative thinking that will return well.
The quality has been good, but we are just at the start and I can’t wait for day two. I expect some very healthy debate come shortlist time and some marathon days.
Watch this space and the cheese sticks.