Emap Communications, the international B2B publisher and events organiser, has paid over £52 million to acquire the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, the world's most prestigious advertising event.
The festival, which has run for the last 51 years, was formerly owned by the WJB Chiltern Trust Company, based in Jersey, and has been run by Roger Hatchuel since 1987. His son Romain was originally expected to take over the role when his father retired, but his move to Euro RSCG two years ago is thought to have signalled the decision to put the festival on the market.
Emap already has a strong presence in the agency information sector through shots, the media buying tools Brad, Genesis and Alf, and the European advertising agency magazine Media & Marketing Europe, all of which are published by Emap Media.
"We've wanted to buy Cannes for quite some time," Mike Jones, director of Emap Media and publishing director of shots told shots.net. "We've been going to the festival since 1999 and in all that time it's always been in the back of our minds. We know the market and felt we understood the festival and who it's aimed at and felt we'd be the natural custodians if it was up for sale. It's taken some time but we've got there."
In terms of making any immediate changes to the festival, Jones suggested that developments would evolve slowly, and with the input of the industry. "We feel that the festival is the best of its kind anywhere in the world," he said. "It's a completely unique event in its prestige and its scale and there's nothing that compares to winning a Gold or a Grand Prix at Cannes. So from that point of view making changes isn't on the agenda right now."
"But we understand the market well and want to develop and grow the festival. We'd also like to take advantage of the fact that the ad industry is recovering after a difficult period. We feel we're really well placed to take advantage of the changes in the industry. Over the next month or so we'll be actively seeking the views of people in the industry. One of the first things is to get feedback from this year's festival and get wise counsel for any changes in the years to come."
Entries to this year's festival reached over 18,700 this year, up 14 per cent year on year. Also significant this year was the representation of over 100 client companies, including Apple, Toyota and Unilever, something that Jones is keen to promote. "We want to develop and encourage that," he said. "Clients are taking a much more active view of the importance of creative advertising."
Another area that Emap is keen to explore is developing the range of categories in the festival. "We have plans for new categories which are being worked on at the moment. We are looking at including radio and there are also other categories under consideration. We want to cover the full spread of modern advertising and marketing in a world where marketing information is becoming more integrated."
"There's clearly an argument for projects that don't fit neatly into categories. The Titanium Award was introduced last year to recognise the BMW short films and I think it's becoming increasingly important to recognise work that doesn't fit in the traditions of the ad industry."
Terry Savage will continue as the CEO of the festival under the new Emap management. The group also now owns the Eurobest awards, which will be judged in late November with an awards ceremony held live online in early December. The chairman of the judges at this year's Eurobest awards will be Sven-Olof Bodenfors, founder and senior partner of Forsman & Bodenfors in Sweden.
