This year’s Cannes Lions opened with high of 30 degrees, and the sense of expectation creeping over the beach front’s historic promenade. Bigger than ever, the annual festival of creativity is set to cover branding, communications and advertising in a style unique to the iconic French coastline. Communicate magazine, with the ICCO, is working to bring readers daily updates about the public relations representation at the 65th festival of creativity.

A stalwart of public relations and communications engagement at Cannes Lions, the International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO’s) cabana will house a plethora of talks, socials and engagements designed to connect the public relations community present at Cannes. Easing delegates into what promises to be an activity-filled week, Monday saw ‘How to win a PR Lion’ chaired by Elise Mitchell, founder and chairman, Mitchell Communications Group and CEO, Dentsu Aegis Public Relations Network, focus on the achievements of last year’s Young Lions winners.

Challenged to create an impactful public relations campaign for a ‘silent emergency,’ the winning lions developed a strategy to raise awareness for the drastic shrinkage of Lake Chad. Bordering the African countries of Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Cameroon, the lake provides around 10 million people with vital sustenance – yet has denigrated by almost 95%c in some areas. Representing the country of Hungary, Luca Hadnagy and Paloma Medina of HPS Experience won the task with their ‘Lake For Lake’ campaign, encouraging Hungarians to engage with Lake Chad’s plight through comparison with their own Lake Balaton.

Advising future Young Lions entrants, Medina and Hadnagy says, “Public relations is not a toolkit, it’s an approach. Focus on insights and targets, trust your first instinct and have fun.” Much of their campaign focused on localising a global issue, key in establishing a new era of trust and forging strong reputation in PR. Mitchell corroborated this – think about metrics and measurement, she says, but don’t let that determine your end result. Creativity is key behind driving the campaign-creating process – it’s important that this isn’t forgone in favour of numbers.

Speaking about the first day of the festival and what to expect for the rest of the week, Matt Cartmell, deputy director general of the PRCA, says, “It’s great to be representing the PR industry here at Cannes Lions. Not only do we have a broad range of speakers at the House of PR, but we’re also attempting a world record with the Guiness World Records team. We’re looking forward to an exciting and informative week with some of the industry’s most renowned figures.”

Published in association with the ICCO