Topics for the 6/28/09 Show

Here are the proposed topics for this week's episode of The BeanCast, and as usual we'd love to hear your thoughts and questions.

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This week's panel will be Bill Green (Make the Logo Bigger), Angela Natividad (Live and Uncensored) and Åsk Wäppling (Adland)

TOPICS

Top Line Impressions From the Events: Mainly looking for executive summary type thoughts on the event this year. Also looking for insights that would not be evident in the press coverage from the week.

Where were the parties?: The event didn't abandon glitz completely this year, but it seemed to refocus it into the educational sessions rather than parties. Stars and luminary panels seemed to be emphasis this year. Did Cannes seemed subdued? Was it a more serious event? Were there any of the classic parties, but just less coverage of them? What did you think about the presentations? Was the star power valuable or just an attempt to stay "cool."

It's About Results Too: The Cannes PR machine must have been listening. And USA Today, ever the purveyor of all things press release, seems to bought it completely. Was there really an increased focus on results at this year's festival? Was it evident in the award selections this year? Is this a quantum shift in the way the show will be managed in the future or just a reactionary tactic? What do you think about Jeff Goodby's comments on this subject -- were we looking at more real work with real results, or the same old fringe work designed to win award and prove limited results?

And Speaking of Results: I want to take a segue into discussing one of the perennial favorites at Cannes, which has come under fire this week. Burger King is losing ground to McDs, despite it's award winning work. Is the work to blame or can we pin this solely on a better product mix strategy by McDs in the lead up to the recession? Is this a classic example of the perfect ad for the wrong strategy or is every about the BK efforts coming into question? We need to also mention the seven-inch ad that made the blog rounds this week. It's clearly not part of the core effort from CP+B (came from Singapore), but is the fact that people so readily accepted it as an ad from CP+B a warning sign? Is this part of the reason CP+B wasn't seemingly as dominant this year during the festival?

Some Real Winnars: (Yes, I've been reading your "winnar" stuff Angela.) What insights did we get from the winners this year? With all the focus in the marketing realm on new media, was it a surprise to see so many traditional efforts take center stage? (Outdoor, Direct and PR all seemed to focus on simple strategies that worked.) What about the much-talked about "Best job in the world" campaign -- why was this so controversial as the winner of the first PR Lion? Were some categories more cognizant of emphasizing results than others? Was the work as good this year as in past years, considering the drop in entries?