Category Archive for ‘Uncategorized’

Charlie Todd of Improv Everywhere did not disappoint when he took the stage at Cannes on Tuesday morning, and his “mission” that evening in front of the Palais exceeded expectations as well.  With a queue of over 200 delegates clamouring to get into the party of the week, the most global Improv Everywhere mission was [...]

Deciding to emerse myself in “the work” yesterday at Cannes, I was not disappointed!  The day was full of inspiration – from seminars showcasing  great creativity (with equally impressive results) to the Awards presentation last night covering PR, Direct, and Promo & Activation.  And what struck me most overall – and this isn’t a new [...]

Welcome to the world’s first augmented reality news release launched on a Thursday in June… Our promotional video (featuring our esteemed CEO without trousers)  appears to play directly on a piece of paper.
If you want to try it out, go to http://hillandknowlton.com/cannes and follow the instructions (you will need access to a printer and a webcam). Or if [...]

Hurrah, year 2 and PR entries to Cannes Lions 2010 are up by a third on 2009. H&K CEO Paul Taaffe, this year’s PR Lions Jury President,  and his panel will have more than 570 pieces of work to look at from around 50 countries. I’m told that in house PR dept entries are up… I [...]

“Welcome back to the real world”, said a colleague on my return to the office.  Indeed, just a weekend or so later, Cannes Lions 2009  does have a distinctly other-worldly quality.
But it really happened, H&K was really there – we are no longer newbies. So, after our first year in Cannesland, what lessons have we learned?
First, that [...]

It had to be.  A group of very senior CMOs from very big brands moderated by Sir Martin Sorrell on how brands are coping in the current economic downturn.  Joining the panel were Mary Dillon of McDonald’s, Marc Pritchard of P&G, Brian Perkins of J&J, and Mary Beth West of Kraft.  Another sell-out session as [...]

For a slew of reasons that I shall not even attempt to go into, Day 5 was pretty much restricted to recovery from Day 4 festivities and meetings with the team on what we’ve learned from our participation in Cannes, our collaboration with Twitter, our blogging and live-tweeting, our networking, and general miscellany.
That said, there [...]

Roger Daltrey’s battle cry apparently was to resist the usual, a worthy notion especially at a festival designed to celebrate creativity. His seminar at Cannes on Thursday was facilitated by none other than Harvey Goldsmith, and sponsored by Y&R. Entertaining as it was – particularly when Daltrey broke out his guitar and proceeded to entertain [...]

Day four was perhaps the best to date in terms of the quality and diversity of sessions in Cannes. It included a discussion with musician and actor Steven Van Zandt  and Grey Group’s Tim Mellors on the changing role of music and marketing, and what it means for artists and the music industry. Even better it ended [...]