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Cannes admits media jury reform is needed

Cannes Lions officials have suggested that future Media Lions juries will include a more wide ranging group of people following accusations of vote rigging.

Australian trade publication B&T reports that Ikon national chief executive Dan Johns, a judge on this year’s panel, claims that the jury process suffered from block voting with judges ordered to support entries from their own agency networks. It also claims that the best work did not make it into the shortlist due to the fact that jury had just two minutes to assess each of the 3,200 entries.

All 31 judges on the Media Lions panel from this year were from media agencies with several coming from the same holding companies. In the case of Omnicom, six judges were from the same group.

Cannes chairman Terry Savage acknowledged that the composition of future judging panels needs reform. He added that a review of the judging will take place after the end of the festival.

“We review the jury processes every year, but tend to make our decisions outside the white-heat of the festival itself,” says Savage in a statement. “Post the event we will look at all aspects, but are strongly of the view that the Media Jury would benefit from having a more diverse group of people from a wider spectrum of the industry.”

David Hing, London