AdForum users to predict Cannes winners before the judges make their decision public

"The results have never been so uncertain", said AdForum.com's founder Hervé de Clerck. "So we decided to make every visitor to our website a virtual member of the 2002 Cannes panel of judges." From now until June 22nd, every AdForum.com user will be encouraged to browse, select, view and vote for the campaigns they feel will walk away with this year's Cannes Grand Prix. AdForum.com users will make their selection from a list of the most popular ads on AdForum.com over the last year. In the unlikely event that the visitor's favorite is not to be found among the over 18,000 ads already in the AdForum.com creative database, online judges will be able to send write-in ballots.

After 2001, a year tarnished by an economic slow down and budget cuts, the economy has begun recovering in 2002. However the trend is still quite weak and in the advertising industry, agencies are seeking recognition and visibility among advertisers to try to gain new clients. The Cannes Festival is naturally a 'must' event for all agencies that are looking for visibility. And because of the economic situation this year, they are particularly hungry: winning a Lions Award at the most prestigious advertising festival in the world has never been so important.

Besides this challenging context, we expect to see some changes in the ads that are competing this year. "Due to difficult economic conditions or budget cuts, we will see a change, from very expensive productions to more interesting ideas with an affordable price tag," said Remy Fabrikant, chief Creative Officer, JWT, Zurich, member of the 2002 Print & Poster Jury.

The influence of September 11th should also be important as there is no doubt that in the last few months communication has been a lot more 'people'-oriented, especially in the USA. But the advertising crisis should not lower the creative level. As mentioned Jaime Atria, V.P. Creative Director, Leo Burnett Chile, member of the 2002 Film Jury : "In terms of ideas, there are a lot of countries that had developed their creativity in adverse economic conditions, for example Spain and Argentina. "

AdForum.com will announce the people¹s jury Winner on Friday, June 21st. The final decision of the official judges will be made public 24 hours later at the ceremony on Saturday, June 22nd. All the winners will be published live on AdForum.com at the end of the ceremony.

Some useful AdForum links:

• Search 17000 agencies worldwide, including SA
  
• View winning ads over last three years: Clio, Cannes, D&AD, One Show etc
  
• Search all ads