CANNES — In recent years, it has added tracks for entertainment, innovation and even health. But now the creative ad industry’s main event is considering expanding to encompass an even wider array of media industry topics.
Speaking with Beet.TV in this video interview as Cannes Lions kicked off, event CEO Phillip Thomas said the biggest recent expansion had come with the addition of Lions Entertainment, meaning a host of new delegates from music, TV and film this year – but other segments may yet be to come.
“I had a number of conversations already this week, one with a big music company who have brought people down for the first time in big numbers,” Thomas said. “There are so many music people here, it is absolutely incredible.”
Today, licensing music to brand campaigns is a growing business for labels, whilst ad buyers increasingly can target listeners through on-demand music services and apps.
But Thomas says Cannes Lions still under-delivers on several other media segments.
“There are quite big areas that we’re not exploring – for instance, sport,” he said. “We don’t really cover that very much. Gaming is another area that we’re not particularly deep in to. People are saying to us, ‘That needs to be part of what you do’.
“We normally finish the festival, take a breath and then pull the learnings from the festival to try to start to build next year.”
