Agencies on the back foot at Cannes as clients take back control

The Rosé flowed, helicopters buzzed overhead and marketing clichés about purpose, creativity and innovation may have been trotted out as usual. But this year’s Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity revealed a lot about the future direction of the ad industry, and in particular the agency holding groups that have, until now, dominated how major companies spend billions of pounds on advertising and media.
It was a noticeably quieter event. Award entries fell by more than a fifth