WHEN IT COMES TO CANNES, I THINK PR MIGHT NEED A PR AGENCY

It’s been a week since this year’s Cannes Lions Festival came to a close and one persistent thought has been niggling at me ever since.  

The work that got shortlisted was incredible (including from our client, Walkers – props!). I saw some truly inspiring, goose-bump-inducing stuff. Some of it was clever creative simplicity at its finest (nice one, Stella). It inspired me to want to keep pushing for more. But I do have to say one thing…

I think ad agencies are being shortlisted for work that PRs do almost daily, but don’t think twice about. Merch, Guerilla, NPD. We’re not writing awards about it, or likely even giving ourselves much of a pat on the back for it. And why is that? Is it because our main KPI is reach? As long as it works, appreciation for the creative effectiveness of the idea that got you there falls by the wayside.

But here’s the other thing. It’s not just the story, it’s how you tell it, isn’t it?

And the problem is, us PRs are just made humble.

We’re so used to having to pivot that we wouldn’t even think to mention it, let alone write an award entry about it. And everything we do solves a real-world problem – it has to, to secure the media interest. So why would we make too much fuss of it?

Oh, and we often have to design a whole new product – that’s just one of the ways to create a story. But that wouldn’t be worthy of a Lion, would it?

Well, the answer is – actually, yes. All of these normalised behaviours are in fact award worthy.

So, with fresh eyes I’d say our industry needs to step back and critically evaluate every single thing we do with the view to entering more work, into more diverse categories. We have the potential to win so much more.