Ad agencies have traditionally attended the advertising industry’s annual awards show in Cannes. But this year their clients are invading the glitzy French Riviera in unprecedented numbers, attending the 53rd International Advertising Festival. Nearly 10% of the festival delegates being clients.

Overall, 9,000 advertising and marketing executives—up 20% over last year—attended this year’s awards show held the third week of June. The influx reflects the pressure marketers are under to make their ads stand out from the clutter, and to master the rapidly changing media landscape—including the threat from ad-skipping digital video recorders such as TiVo.

Advertisers are attending Cannes because it’s a showcase for the best advertising from around the world. For marketers, who are looking to get more ideas for how to grab consumers’ attention, Cannes has become more relevant as the festival has expanded beyond TV and print. (They began honoring direct mail, direct-response TV, and alternative media two years ago.)

Today, more companies are seeking “cultural marketing,” as well, which includes online advertising, viral marketing, and guerrilla marketing.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 29th, 2007 at 7:14 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.