"Surely a cinema marketer can't be completely indifferent to the creative quality in cinemas"

Last week, the Swiss Cannes Lions representative Weischer.Media/Werbeweischer surprisingly informedto only support the Young Lions competition in the "Media" category in future. The Art Directors Club Switzerland, which organizes and conducts the preliminary round for the international competition, took three days to respond and replied on Friday with a bang: in an open letter, the association of leading creatives demands that Weischer.Media relinquish its representation and that ADC Switzerland act as its representative from now on. Werbewoche.ch asked ADC President Frank Bodin about the plans to take the Cannes reins into his own hands.

Werbewoche.ch: Frank Bodin, as ADC President, what spontaneously went through your mind when you heard about Weischer.Media's plan to reduce the Young Lions Competition to one category?

Frank Bodin: Exactly what the open letter says. ADC Switzerland has worked closely with Weischer.Media in the past. Every year, the ADC and other partners organize the qualifying competition - the Young Creatives Awards - in four categories in Switzerland. The winning teams qualify for the Young Lions Competition in Cannes, where they compete against the best from countries all over the world.

If the categories are abolished: Will the Young Creative Awards lose their relevance or even their raison d'être?

The Young Creatives Awards are held as a qualifying competition and are therefore linked to Cannes.

The ADC would have no interest in organizing the Young Creatives Awards as a pure young talent competition without any connection to Cannes?

No, because the prospect of young talent being able to travel to the biggest festival in Cannes and compete with the best in the world is what makes the competition so special. Nothing can replace that.

You write in the open letter that Weischer.Media has been able to count on great support from ADC Switzerland so far. How should we imagine this support?

Representing a country involves a lot of effort and expense. Weischer.media deserves thanks for what it has achieved so far. The Swiss qualification competition is only one part, albeit a very important one - there are costs for organizing the events, personnel, infrastructure and then the winning teams' trips to Cannes also have to be financed. Together with other partners and sponsors, the ADC primarily provided personnel resources and infrastructure and organized the Young Creatives Awards. In return, Weischer.Media contributed financially to the ADC's costs as a sponsor.

What effect or reaction do you hope the open letter will have?

There are two possibilities: Either Weischer.Media retracts its decision and does not save money at the expense of Swiss talent. Or Weischer.Media transfers the Swiss representation to another company or organization.

If Weischer.Media has its way, will the competition take place - just with one category?

As a representative of the entire festival, you can't seriously refer to your core business and simply leave out all other disciplines. Besides, the core business of a cinema marketer doesn't just include media, but also the film category (laughs). And doing without the digital category in the digital age is incomprehensible anyway. Monocultures have never been sustainable. The crucial point, however, is that this is not about a creative issue - it's about an industry issue. Cannes Lions is no longer just a creative festival, but a creative AND tech festival. It's a cross-fertilization. That's why the Cannes Festival continues to be important for the entire industry, because it's a place for discussion, exchange and learning.

The open letter states that the ADC would step in as a representative if necessary?

The ADC has long since started planning the next qualifying competition. It should actually have been launched at the end of August. However, Weischer.Media then wanted to postpone it to January 2020 - but we assumed that it would take place. That's why it makes sense for ADC Switzerland to offer to take over the representation immediately. In this case, we would probably still be able to hold the most attractive competition for young talent in January. And perhaps even in five categories.

But there were only four categories?

I don't know the exact reasons why the PR category has not been held so far. Of course, enough teams have to come together to qualify, otherwise it's not worth the effort. But I have received a lot of interest from leading PR agencies in Switzerland - the Association of Public Relations Agencies in Switzerland (BPRA) has co-signed the open letter.

Why is it so important for the ADC to hold the young talent competition?

The ADC is the quality label for commercial communication in all disciplines, from digital and film to specific craft categories. Quality ultimately means investment security for clients. On the one hand, the ADC does this by annually judging, discussing and awarding prizes for the best communication measures as benchmarks for agencies and clients. And on the other hand, the ADC promotes the quality of agency employees by being strongly committed to training and further education. For example with the AdSchool, an extra-occupational CAS. Or with the Creative Week in collaboration with the Zurich University of the Arts. Or with the organization of the Young Creatives Awards for Cannes and also with a boot camp for the winning teams so that they can go through the Cannes conditions in real time before Cannes. Since we are close to the young people anyway and have organized the competition in the past, the proposal to take over the Swiss representation of Weischer.Media is not entirely out of the question. This also entails some financial risks for the ADC. But we are willing to accept that because it is important for our industry.

So the ADC would also pay for everything Weischer has paid so far?

If Weischer cedes the representation to us, then it is up to us to cover all the costs. However, ADC would have the advantage that it already has the infrastructure, staff and experience.

Could the ADC even cope with this financially?

Even if we had to bear the costs: Initial discussions reveal a great deal of solidarity. Various partners and clients have already backed the competition and have assured us of their continued support. In an emergency, there will only be vegetarian bratwurst and Bürli at the ADC Gala next year (laughs).

Are we talking about a short-term emergency solution or a long-term commitment?

No, this kind of commitment cannot be a short-term emergency solution. We would have to expand our infrastructure - you don't do that for one or two years. We are talking about a long-term commitment from ADC Switzerland. That's why our response took three days. Media.Weischer had communicated their decision to us in a meeting the day before it was published. We immediately began deliberations and discussions and came to the conclusion: If we want to save this competition, then someone has to take over the representation of Media.Weischer.

Is the impression deceptive, or could the latest development also be an opportunity? You get the feeling that the industry and the ADC were not necessarily happy with Weischer.Media as a representative. They felt like an appendage of Germany, criticized the lack of representation on the jury, were unhappy with the lack of a PR category in the Young...

Important: It's not about bashing Weischer.Media, it's just about the appropriate representation of our country. I personally greatly appreciate the cooperation with the employees of Weischer.Media, including Florian Weischer. Of course, there were concerns in the industry that Switzerland could become an appendage of Germany, because Weischer.Media also represents Germany and the key contacts are not in Switzerland, but in Germany. This also includes the tiresome issue of the number of jury members on site. But this is not only an issue in Switzerland, but also in other smaller countries.

Is the plan to take over representation a done deal with this letter or is it primarily about exerting pressure?

Lamenting is not the ADC's style. The letter is a concrete offer of a solution.

Do you assume that Weischer.Media will accept the offer and hand over the representation to ADC?

Switzerland's representation should be a pleasure for everyone involved. At Cannes, we are talking about the largest gathering of agencies, tech companies and clients in the world. And the interface between technology and creativity, which is so important in today's world. To say that we're limiting ourselves to media agencies because that's where the media decisions are made together with the clients... that can't be the case. A cinema marketer can't be completely indifferent to the creative quality in the cinemas. That's why we've made an offer. Now we'll see.