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.

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 played out, and everyone then went on to enjoy the Festival Opening Gala.

This year's Festival seems to be more hard-working than last year's.  Whether driven by a more buoyant attitude or the increased number of delegates and entries to review, the content of the seminars seems richer and more relevant than ever before, & the work shared is truly inspirational.

Most notable on my list include the MOFILM awards with brand stewards from Lego, AT&T, Coke & more, punctuated by a special interview with Avatar & Titanic producer Jon Landau; a full session with Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook; a lively presentation by Coke CMO Joe Tripodi on that brand's unique engagement with the World Cup; and P&G CMO Marc Pritchard's presentation on purposeful brands, including its "Proud Sponsor of Mom" campaign around the Winter Olympics.  We interviewed Marc for our Cannes Eye series and posted the piece an hour ago - check it out.

One of my favourite sessions in the last 48 hours was the 20th Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors Showcase.  The work is always so inventive, amazing and mind-boggling.  Check out "Pixels" by Patrick Jean of onemoreprod, a combination of clever special effects & a nostalgic play on historial electronic games.

Lots more to come tomorrow...

As one of the largest marketers in the world, we were delighted to be able to catch up with Procter & Gamble global marketing and brand building officer Marc Pritchard during his hectic Cannes Lions schedule to find out why he thinks the festival is the place for his marketers to be.

Improv Everywhere's Charlie Todd also tells us why the kind of improvisation missions that took place at Cannes are relevant to brand owners.

Whilst we've been busy editing the highlights of the whole week, here's a short episode of Cannes Eye TV featuring interviews with Campaign's Claire Beale and Jim Stengel, who is hosting a seminar on Friday called The Burning Question.

At the end of our third day, whilst the rest of the world is watching England try and survive the group stages of the World Cup (UPDATE: Hurrah!), we caught up with Logitech's David Henry and James Hilton of AKQA.

To kick off our third day of interviews, we talk to Sir Martin Sorrell about his Cannes Debate on Friday and catch up with Chuck Porter of eponymous CP+B to get his thoughts on the festival so far.

Socialising plays a big part in the Cannes Lions festival schedule. So, following his call to arms at yesterday's seminar, Improv Everywhere's Charlie Todd last night briefed what must have been 200-250 delegates on their improv mission for the night: to create the most exclusive party in the whole of Cannes.

And create they did. And then some. For over half an hour, people queued patiently to enter a 4m x 4m square space and - well - dance to their own music and generally have a good time.

For those who took part, a great big thank you from Hill & Knowlton and Charlie Todd. For those who didn't, just look at what you missed:

As we near the end of our second day at the Cannes Lions, we thought it would be nice to hear from the delegates for a change so we headed out onto the Croisette to get a few sounds bites. Earlier we also caught up with Jess Greenwood from Contagious to understand what they were doing and get her views on the challenges facing today's marketers.

Cannes Eye TV may be off air for today, but we're certainly not. Check back on Wednesday morning to see our attempt to stage the first ever crowd-powered improvisation on the streets of Calais. It promises to be interesting...