• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, September 22, 2015

Unlike iProspect President Ben Wood who has been to both Cannes and Dmexpo, I went to neither this year. But I have been to Cannes in the past. Sadly, though, I missed witnessing this year's display of public nudity and sex at Cannes -- which, thanks toAdWeek's David Griner, is now etched in the minds of all to relish for time immemorial.

In a The Drum column, Wood compares and contrasts Cannes and Dmexco because, well, the Cannes vs. SXSW thing has already been done to death. He notes the major differences between the two events are, in a nutshell, flash versus substance; my words, not his. 

He notes, "Cannes is a self-proclaimed 'festival' -- a celebration of creativity and groundbreaking advertising agency output (primarily creative output, and to a lesser extent media & 'digital'). At the heart of Cannes are awards and grand presentations, which are largely dominated by agencies and their people,that recognize this focus."

Of Dmexpo, he wrote: "Dmexco is the opposite. An event (less a festival, more an expo) dedicated and built out of the advertising technology and marketing technology arena, a celebration of the science not the art, proudly geeky, un-obsessed with incumbent models and ways of working. There is no inward facing focus on the 'work,' there are no awards and most interestingly there is a refreshingly non-agency-centric agenda."

Essentially, Cannes is for creatives and Dmexo is for ad tech geeks. But for both events, things are changing. In recent years, ad tech companies have become ever more prevalent at Cannes and agency and marketing types have been increasingly spotted at Dmexco. 

Of this shift, Wood wrote: "The balance between the two sides appears to be equalizing over time; there were more agencies, and agency leaders at Dmexco this year than ever before (even Sir Martin took to the stage), and Cannes is more and more focused on innovation, technology and disruption every year."

All I can really say is that if the geeks behind ad blocking don't somehow come to terms with the creatives behind everything they block, there will be no ad business left and no ad conferences to compare and contrast.

IAB President and CEO Randall Rothenberg took a stance on ad blocking in an Ad Age column calling some ad-blocking providers "unethical technology companies seeking to divert ad spending into their own pockets." He laid out a four-point solution to the problem which essentially asks all involved parties to bite the hands which feed them in order to solve the problem. 

Anyway, it would appear we will be hearing a lot more about Dmexco in the coming years. Not that that is really going to have much effect on the rose-fueled, ego-maniacal  escapades which occur during Cannes every year because, after all, who wants to sit around and listen to a bunch of geeks pontificate about the latest tech when you can bask in the sun on a yacht and satiate yourself in the glamor of an industry that wishes it were Hollywood ?