The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the world’s largest gathering of advertising professionals, is underway. The seven-day event, incorporating the awarding of the coveted Lions trophies, also played host earlier this week to the Screen Advertising World Association’s seminar celebrating the link between film, innovative technology and advertising. Digital Cinema Media’s CEO, Simon Rees writes from the French Riviera on how cinema has evolved since the festival started in 1954 and looks ahead to its future.
As the Cannes Lions Festival once again gets into its stride, the sheer scale of this massive celebration of creativity is astounding. Since this event was established by our global trade body SAWA (Screen Advertising World Association), in 1954 at the International Advertising Film Festival, held in Venice with the Lion of the Piazza San Marco inspiring the coveted Lion trophy, it has grown in stature and influence every year with 12,000 delegates thirsty for knowledge, new contacts and rosé wine...
SAWA (Screen Advertising World Association) has been part of this iconic event every year with a remit to reflect and inspire the changing media and film industries. The synergy has always been there, from filmmakers venturing into advertising - like Ridley Scott's famous 1984 Superbowl advert for Apple - to adland talent moving to the silver screen, such as Pixar's years of commercials, like this one for Gummi's Lifesavers that trained the team for their first feature, Toy Story.
Adobe's New Creatives report reveals that film remains among the top sources of 'creative spark and inspiration' alongside social, online and video games. Cinema creative still holds its own as an entertainment form that pushes boundaries, stirs emotions and that we love.
This year, SAWA went 'back to the future', celebrating the links between film, innovative technology and advertising. Digital Cinema Media's own Head of Planning and Knowledge, Blackett Ditchburn, opened the seminar, setting the scene by looking at how cinema has evolved in tune with its audiences, embracing new technology to reflect and showcase the pioneering filmmaking displayed on the big screen. Digitisation has now been followed by the sensitive integration of mobile into the cinema experience.
DCM's own cinema app, cinime, which was created in partnership with Yummi Media Group, is at the forefront of this, bringing two-way interaction and an enhancement of the powerful, shared movie experience to the cinema. Mobile is everywhere this year at Cannes with the strength of the Mobile Awards, and many more mobile companies dominating the Croisette.
A mobile future will be critical to our success as an industry - we can't afford to stand still. A recent PWC report predicted continued growth in the global box office at nearly 5% each year, across merging and established markets. With an epic year ahead with 2015 seeing new Star Wars, Avengers and Bond films, as well as an unprecedented number of other blockbusters, it's all about the big screen embracing the little screen.
This article first appeared on CampaignLive. Click here to read the original feature.