Aldo Quevedo de Lerma
The cancellation of the 2020 Cannes Lions Festival has been applauded throughout the industry, as has the fact that the main advertising holding companies – including WPP, Omnicom and Publicis – announced they would not participate in the event this year. “It was already clear how hard it would be for representatives of the industry to travel to the event, regardless of the date being postponed until October. So it’s possible to think that the festival`s decision was forced by the participants´ previous decisions. It is also worth mentioning that the reimbursement policy was not the best for agencies that had already paid registration fees or submitted advertising to compete for the awards. We all understand that everyone is suffering from the financial consequences of the pandemic, but the way the festival handled it definitely leaves much to be desired” said Aldo Quevedo, Principal, Creative Director of Lerma. Other festivals must now reflect on the feasibility of staging their own awards events in the context of this pandemic. “They must seek alternatives to celebrate creativity while adapting to this new reality,” Quevedo said, “and if there is no viable solution at a financial and logistic level, then they must cancel this year’s event and plan to make a comeback in 2021. Clio, Wave, FIAP and El Sol have already stated that they have such plans underway. Even this morning (Friday, April 3) we received some very interesting information from WNA about a virtual solution that offers support for independent agencies that want to (and can) participate.” Great ideas always emerge from a crisis, he observed, while insisting that the industry must redefine its priorities: “Over the last 5-10 years there has been an inordinate race around the circuit of international festivals. For agencies the aim seems to be to win, win, win, regardless of whether the ideas are real marketing tools or not. And you can´t demand festival organizations to act as cops to make sure they are.”
Anunciantes se preparan para una era después del coronavirus
Mayoría de holdings de publicidad planea no ir a Cannes Lions
