• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, March 6, 2006

ORLANDO - The chairman of this summer's Cannes Media Lions jury urged agency executives to keep it simple. Renetta McCann, CEO of Starcom MediaVest Group, said that the jury deals with such a high volume of submissions in such a short time that they "need to be written crisply enough, so the jury can get it right away."

McCann made her comments here during a panel at the AAAA's annual media conference dedicated to the media competition of the annual Cannes festival, known more for honoring creative than media executions. And her directive was echoed by other agency and Cannes jury veterans.

"Case histories don't work," said OMD's Mark Stewart, the 2005 jury head.

Stewart also warned entrants to take a global perspective, noting that 80 percent of the judges speak English as a second language. "Lose all the local nuance," he advised.

Stewart cited a hypothetical example of a submission that goes into detail about negotiations of a media execution with say, UPN and The WB. "You have to provide global context and frame your entries," he said.

A former Cannes jury member, MediaCom's Dene Callas, suggested that agencies should explain the insight that went into a media plan and then the payout, but a detailed rendition of strategy would fall by the wayside no matter how impressive. "You cannot explain strategy in one minute," she said.

McCann, who said she was tremendously impressed by the out-of-home entrants while on the jury last year, added that the Media Lions are "a chance to look at ideas and innovation."

Callas added that she is impressed by the "breakthrough" use of the newspaper medium in other countries and suggested those ideas could help the industry here. "It could probably help rejuvenate the newspaper category in the U.S.," she said.