Lions CEO Philip Thomas on Creating Cannes

How have the preparations gone for this year's festival; does it get easier or harder with each year?

Preparations have gone well. It’s easier in the sense that we have been doing it longer and practice makes perfect, but it’s definitely harder because we are doing more and more each year.

Our Lions Health launch is huge, Product Design as a category, a full day of Brazilian content, three new learning Academies, and lots more besides. We now have 100 people working full time on Cannes in our London offices, and our estimate is that we employ about 600 people during the week to make it happen.

How does the 2014 Lions Festival differ from last year's event?

Apart from the addition of Lions Health, once again we see more people from new countries attending, and more from developing nations like African countries. More different types of businesses too, TV, Movies, music, data… everyone seems to be coming.

The inaugural Lions Health festival was last week; can you tell us a bit about that event and how it went? 

We were delighted with the entries, about 1,400 from all over the world, making Lions Health the biggest and most important award of its kind in year one. And 800 delegates attended from 50 countries, so it was fascinating.

The healthcare industry have not really seen Cannes as their place before, and it is fantastic to see how many of them are excited by it. Lots are staying on for Cannes Lions too.

As advertising grows and diversifies, can you see any further extension of the Lions to cater for individual, or groups of specific parts of the industry?

Absolutely. The most fascinating area at the moment is the development of data, insight, strategy and where that fits with creativity. Clearly it’s not new but I think the scale of it, and the usefulness of it to creative people is entering a new phase. We will be looking at this area in depth for 2015, we see data and insight as a huge driver for the industry.

Unlike previously though, it is a driver for what we’re all about, which is creativity. I don’t think we would or could or want bring pure research or pure data into Cannes, but when you approach if from “how can this really help with better ideas?”, I think it becomes exciting.

Do you approach each Lions festival with a particular theme or goal of achievement in mind when deciding on seminars/events, or is it a blank canvas?

We only have one theme, and that is creativity. Whether it is an inventor, a scientist, a movie director, an actor, a youtuber, or an ad creative (all of whom we have this year), that’s all we are looking for – how does this help people become more creative? We see our role as very simple: helping people and companies become more creative, the better to build their business.

U2’s Bono is receiving the inaugural Cannes LionsHeart this year; can you tell us a bit about that particular award and how the decision of who to present it to is made?

It may not be awarded every year, but we have seen both organisations and individuals use brand power for good growing more and more. Bono uses brands through (RED) in a really smart way, and we felt that by honouring someone as high-profile as him we could put what our industry can do for the world on the centre stage. Our industry changes minds and behaviour for a living, and brands and agencies have immense power to use those skills for good. That’s what this award is about.

What’s the toughest part of the week for you?

We have been in Cannes for ten days already when we throw the Opening Gala. I can never quite believe that, it feels like we have been here our whole life, and we have the main part of the Festival yet to come.

In terms of the toughest part of the role, it is trying to keep all the balls in the air and not let any of the fall. There are so many moving parts that if you actually thought about it your brain would melt.

And the most enjoyable?

The Award shows. Two reasons: everything we do is about the work. The speakers, the networking, the parties, the meetings, all these are important, but Cannes Lions is about the work. Second reason: the utter, total joy on the faces of the people who have won a Lion. It’s a life-changer.

What seminars/events are you looking forward to most this coming week?

There are so many but if you pushed me: Droga and Hegarty, Neil de Grasse Tyson, and Bono and Jony Ive [below]. But I never get to see the seminars anyway till afterwards when I watch them online.

Why is the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity such an important part of the advertising calendar?

I think every industry needs an event to come and discuss what is happening, and see the work that is pushing the industry forward. That has been the Lions for 61 years. I also think that Cannes Lions is the only truly global award and event, and to be honest it’s the only one that clients have heard of. That’s the clincher.

Finally, and importantly, who’s your tip for the World Cup?

I would love to say England, but, ahem maybe not. I would put a few bucks on Belgium actually, just in case Brazil crack under the pressure.