Philip Thomas
For Philips Thomas, Cannes Lions Festival’s CEO the performance of the Hispanic agencies has been outstanding after winning 15 Lions at the 2016 event edition. “The U.S. Hispanic market has proved the work that it can do, has proved creativity and has had a great success here” he said. He added that they will continue to encourage those in the Hispanic industry to highlight the local work. “We don’t tell the juries what they should do. I think last year there was a feeling that a lot of charity work won and I think the juries feel that there is a real place for charity work, and it is very hard to do and it’s a good thing. But really the purpose of the Lions is to show brands, how creativity can drive their businesses, and that is what the juries wanted to show this year” he explained. Regarding the Innovation and Music categories, Thomas said that there are significant differences between both, but that demand has been good. “Innovation grew a lot, it nearly doubled, so we are happy with the way that Innovation is going. Music is a new category and we were happy with the number of inscriptions that we got. The music industry is just starting to understand Cannes and what they can do in Cannes.”