While it was only my second year at Cannes, I was struck by the increasing number of clients not only just touching down at Cannes, but really engaging with the Festival by attending and speaking in seminars, and generally soaking up all that Cannes has to offer by way of creative inspiration, networking and celebrating the winning of awards with their agencies.  [As Rob Schwartz of TBWA said during the festival, "Advertising awards aren't life or death; they're much more important than that!"]

Phil Thomas, CEO of the  Cannes Advertising Festival, reported in his opening remarks at the final awards ceremony on Saturday night that more clients than ever before attended Cannes this year.  In fact, nearly 400 senior marketing clients, especially in the packaged goods and technology areas were present, suggesting that it is essential for anyone in our industry who wants to be taken seriously should be present and participate. 

The CEO and CMO of P&G, the world’s largest marketer, were actively involved throughout the week - not just swooping in for their respective seminars, but engaging throughout the week.  In fact, in his panel with Maurice Levy of Publicis, P&G CEO Bob McDonald actually stated that he was at Cannes because they "want to find the right partners".

As well, Yahoo! had a much larger presence this year, with at least five branded sites or events which included a headlined seminar with Ben Stiller, a Brandcastle event on the beach, and three branded sites including the central watering hole for the after-party scene most commonlyand affectionally known as "the gutter bar".

Kraft, too, had a bigger presence this year - from eight in 2009 up to 20 in 2010, and the brand hosted a seminar, a master class and a party for "friends & family" at the Majestic Hotel.  Other headliner brands included Kimberly Clark, Diageo, Coca-Cola and Intel.  In fact, the focus seemed to be much more on brands and campaigns this year in the seminars versus stars for pure entertainment, making the content more relevant and interesting for us punters.

Looking forward to seeing even more clients in 2011.

Whilst the festival continues until tomorrow, it's the end of our week here today. We've enjoyed talking to marketers from some of the largest companies in the world and hope you've enjoyed watching them.

Over the coming weeks we'll be pawing through all the footage that didn't make it into our 4 minute episodes to bring you even more insight from the festival, so please keep checking back.

From La Croisette, until next year, au revoir.

Earlier in the week, Hill & Knowlton CEO and Cannes Lions 2010 PR jury president Paul Taaffe called on the festival organisers to change its name to recognise the wide variety of marketing disciplines represented.

So we've been asking all our interviewees this week that exact same question. For this special edition of Cannes Eye TV, we've assembled all those responses together.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and let us know.

Just when you thought it was safe, the Cannes Lions Festival will be rearing its head again in a few weeks and so too is Cannes Eye, from now until it’s all over.

This time you'll be able to get a real-time sense of what's hot and what's not, as Cannes Eye will be aggregating and hosting the views of thousands of delegates and media from all over the world who will be blogging, tweeting, and posting pictures and videos.

If you’re coming to Cannes and fancy being (even more…) famous, then track down our Cannes Eye TV film crew (tweet us @hillandknowlton or email cannes.eye@hillandknowlton.com) and tell us your reaction to what you're seeing and hearing. We'll be broadcasting to the web twice daily for the entire week, as well as via dedicated iPhone and BlackBerry apps that you'll be able to download shortly. For those not attending, there'll be commenting and rating so you can still have your say.

Our seminar this year is at 11.00am on Tuesday 22nd in Debussy and features Charlie Todd of the (in)famous ImprovEverywhere comedy performance art group. Be sure to expect 'scenes of chaos and joy' on the streets of Cannes…

Update: Q&A now added to the playlist and video below.

It's becoming clear from all the feedback, blogs and tweets that Twitter's Biz Stone pulled the biggest crowd with a jam-packed auditorium at the Cannes Lions festival Monday.

We're in the process of making all of the seminar available to watch online and here's the first part, Biz's opening speech talking about how Twitter came into being, how it has grown and developed, how individuals and organisations have harnessed it, and what the future holds.

To follow we'll have Biz's answers to the questions that were tweeted in advance and during the session.

The always thought-provoking Karen McGrane argued recently why "Web ads suck", She cites a litany of usual suspects: lack of investment compared to other channels, questionable measurement, size and technical constraints and, most interestingly from my perspective, the fact that advertising should be "about more than awareness". As a career PR professional, this last point caught my attention - particularly her citation of Bob Greenberg of R/GA in Art & Commerce: Funnel Clouding:

... Real engagement requires entirely new teams of people—like information architects, data analysts and an army of technologists of various stripes. The traditional teams found at agencies simply do not possess the skill sets needed to tackle areas that are deeper inside the funnel, where purchase decisions increasingly take place.

She complements this by suggesting:

You get flashy, glossy microsites because you’re dealing with an industry of advertisers and publishers that haven’t had a chance to develop and assimilate a new set of values.

While we may be coming at this from slightly different tangents, the point itself is valid. As consumer expectations change with respect to interaction, transparency, and as they look for ways to engage more meaningfully with brands, new types of expertise will be required at the table - to drive forward the opportunities as well as to manage the risks. Moreover, and where this debate seems to end at the purchase decision, increasingly brands must now consider what happens post-purchase - to encourage evangelism, to address issues, to build community and loyalty, and to deliver a "sustained" brand experience.

If advertisers can't do it. Who will?

A month or two back I thought that we had made a big mistake and, having committed to Cannes Lions, our team would be standing on a deserted Croisette, with the mistral blowing the tumbleweed. Turns out that rumours of Cannes' demise have proved well premature. Entries and delegates may be down from last year but at more than 22,000 and 7,000 respectively, it's still going to be ‘the Oscars' of the marketing world.

But there's no doubt that agencies will be attending for less time, inviting fewer clients and spending less - less obviously. Following the general consumer trend in the West it will be a matter of public hairshirt, private consumption.

Cheap yacht rental anyone?