The Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival has been a key diary date for media professionals since it was founded in 1954, yet this year is the first time it has recognised PR with awards. The festival, which ran from 21 to 27 June, gave out 17 PR Lions, with the Grand Prix going to Australia’s Best Job in the World campaign for Tourism Queensland. The UK won two awards, for the Pigs are Worth it campaign for BPEX, the public body representing pig farmers in the UK, and for the Beautiful Game campaign to promote the new football pools.The reason for introducing PR as a category, says Philip Thomas, CEO of Cannes Lions Festival, is because Cannes is no longer simply an “advertising festival“, but is now a “communications festival”. He adds: “each year we develop the awards in line with what we are hearing from the industry. The PR community has been talking to us for a number of years, and with their support and guidance we felt strongly that this year was the right year.“ 

Everyone’s a winner

Cannes Lions is the largest gathering of worldwide advertising professionals and advertisers, with more than 6,000 registered delegates from 94 countries. Over 26,500 ads from all over the world are showcased at the festival, yet the PR awards only attracted over 400 entries. Thomas believes that this is a good start, and probably reflects today’s economy, as he says: “In a normal economic climate we would expect a lot more.” He also claims that the awards will grow in importance in the future, saying: “We want to build the PR Lions into being the most important honour in the PR calendar. With the support we've had, we feel sure this will happen."

One of the judges of the PR category is Carol Cone, chairman of US-based communications specialists Cone Inc. Cone says that it is important to have a PR category for Cannes Lions, because at its core, PR, like all advertising, is about creating positive relationships between an organisation and its core audiences. Cone adds: “PR is also about dialogue. As you could see from the results at Cannes, the monologue of advertising is no longer the King of the Lions. The key winners embraced fresh, innovative ideas that connected with audiences and had legs to be carried from medium to medium, as well as from mouth to mouth. While it took 56 years for PR to find a seat at the Cannes table, it turned out to be a very robust setting.” 

Talent spotting

For those who enter any PR awards, and especially for those who win, the value of having awards is clear. However, there are many excellent campaigns which are not entered for awards, and so which do not get as much public acclaim. The question is whether it is worth investing the considerable time that it takes to enter, when there is little guarantee of success. Jon Cope, course leader of Public Relations degree course at University College Falmouth (which ran its own awards for sixth form students in 2007), believes that awards are a great morale booster, as PR people are under a lot of pressure, yet “praise can be pretty thin on the ground“. He adds that although awards ceremonies are income generators for publishing houses, industry bodies and the like, they are still worthwhile because people enjoy them and they are good for networking. As for their value as recognition of campaigns that are successful, rather than just glitzy affairs, Cope says: “I think judging panels try to (and should) recognise genuine effectiveness but I suspect we can all think of examples where style has triumphed over content.”

In praise of PR

The winners of this year’s Cannes Lions PR awards are happy to have their work recognised, plus the awards also highlight to other businesses why PR is worthy of investment. Chris Lamb, head of marketing at BPEX, is obviously pleased with the success of the Pigs are Worth it Campaign, which won the award for Best PR-led Integrated Campaign. He says: “PR is an important part of our marketing strategy due to its flexibility and cost effectiveness.“ Lamb claims that the Pigs are Worth it campaign was successful because all the agencies were given a clear, simple and motivating strategy, realistic objectives and a multi-disciplinary creative theme. He adds: “All agencies involved contributed not only in their own identified area, but also by working together to integrate and improve delivery of the whole campaign. The size of audiences reached, the creativity involved and the cost-effectiveness were all excellent and demonstrated the advantages of removing barriers and getting agencies working together as a genuine team.” But the main benefit of any PR work is getting results, and Lamb is pleased that, “the end result ensured that many pig farmers stayed in business and that the consumer is still able to choose quality-standard pork”.