I won’t miss the Boulevard de la Croisette. I won’t miss the croissant. I won’t miss the beach. I won’t miss the escargot. I won’t miss the Rosé.

But I’ll definitely miss my friends who I’ve made over the last 25 years of being in this industry.

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity as it’s called is not an advertising festival. It’s a pilgrimage. An annual pilgrimage the industry makes to the South of France to unite with the devotees who believe in creativity. And it’s the most expensive pilgrimage one can make.

Of course, the game is changing and more clients are coming. To take care of the client, we have been seeing more servicing people attending the festival. The unfortunate part of this is that the network’s budgets remain the same so creatives are being sacrificed.

Sad.

But the positive is that the clients want to win awards and realise that creativity is the only path towards it. This is a wave of clients and servicing teams coming to Cannes. The next big wave will see the creatives return.

Another big change I see is that the talks are interesting, but 90% of them are paid, so to get ‘paisa vasool’ (get their money’s worth), everyone has a clear agenda. When there’s an agenda in the talk, it’s a sales pitch.

People are betting that along with the talks, the award entries and sponsorships – Ascential is making anything between USD 200-500 million. Unfortunately, advertising awards are the only ones in the world, where you have to pay to win. I wish one day the festival makes entries free and earns through sponsorships alone.

Next to the Palais, three big giants are growing dramatically – Google, Amazon and Meta. They offer all-day events, free food, and fancy lounges. These giants have more money than Ascential (the owner of Cannes Lions). Eventually one of these tech majors will take over the festival.

Right now, Cannes Lions is a profitable business. The minute they dip, these technology giants will take over it.

I have also noticed that what used to be ‘Cannes Lions’ is just a ‘Lion’. That means they want to know how to make this award show location-neutral. I think it’s a bad idea. The most important aspect of Cannes Lions is Cannes.

And, what I’m also noticing is that Cannes is a big ‘network’ show. The small independent agencies are going to struggle. That’s what the organisers need to consider because the future is independent and not networks.

Anyway, I’m going to miss my friends from across the world. I’m watching them getting older, albeit gracefully and meeting them is what I’m going to miss the most.

Raj Kamble is founder and chief creative officer, Famous Innovations. This article first appeared in the June issue of Manifest. Get your copy here.