DEAL-MAKING, DECENT COFFEE, TOPLESS BATHING Why the Cannes Ad Festival Matters June 20, 2001 By Stefano Hatfield CANNES (AdAgeGlobal.com) -- So, we are sitting at the Carlton Hotel's beach restaurant. To the left is Euro RSCG's Bob Schmetterer, on my right Judy Wald's Anne-Marie Marcus. We have just left DDB's Keith Reinhard back at the Martinez, and in walks Messner etc's Ron Berger. Architectural jewel and social hub, the Carlton Hotel just after sunset. It is just like, well, it's just like New York really. Except, glory be, you can have a glass of wine at lunchtime without a colleague reporting you to Alcoholics Anonymous. 500+ from U.S. As Advertising Age flagged in its pre-Cannes coverage, the American delegation really has stood up remarkably well despite the doom and gloom at home. Over 500 finally registered, a drop of only 10% over last year. It's a number that the Festival's CEO, Romain Hatchuel, will scarcely fret about in the midst of his record 9,000-plus delegates. On this, the third consecutive beautifully sunny day, we -- Hatchuel and I -- watch another well-known U.S. adman piling up his plate at the buffet. The talk at a nearby table of new-media types turned back to Tuesday's bravura demonstration of international diplomacy by the OgilvyInteractive big cheese, Michael Windsor. Many Americans seem a tad ill at ease in Cannes. For one, and for once, they are accorded equal status Photo: Anthony Vagnoni.. Ad festival CEO, Romain Hatchuel. with the rest of the advertising world -- for instance there are way more Brazilian and French journalists here, and consequently the Brazilian and French admen get more feted and have a larger accompanying entourage. Then, because that renowned globalist and president, George W. Bush, chose to go to Poland and other minor European powers on his first visit to the continent rather than France (and for that matter, Germany or Britain) has scarcely added to the popularity of the American tourist who has already vexed the average waiter with his devastating command of the French language. Americans transformed festival week Nevertheless it is the Americans that have transformed Cannes advertising week. Once the world's biggest boondoggle with some awards attached, it is now regarded as the principal business event of the year. Much as Hatchuel in his quiet, charming way insists over his crudites that it is the program of lectures, seminars and additional awards schemes like the Media and Cyber lions that have meant record levels of attendees every year, we all know that's not really the case. What Cannes is really about, why it is unmissable, why there are still big parties and lavish entertaining is that it is now the place where deals are done. Not in the Palais, where the films are shown and the juries toil, and not deals in the old sense of the word here, like hiring star directors for big jobs -- although there is still a lot of that. Deal, deals, deals No, the deals take place at the Carlton and Majestic beach restaurants; they are forged away from Cannes in the fabulous restaurants and hotels of Provence: the Colombe d'Or, the Chevre d'Or, the Moulins des Mougins, Le Cagnard, Bacon, Tetou, the Hotel du Cap and so many wondrous others. And it is the Americans who have led this development as the business got global, and became more proper and grown-up. This is where DDB first laid eyes on DM9 from Brazil, where Young and Rubicam first hit on London's Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe. Cannes week is about preliminary M & A conversations, about agencies head-hunting international management talent, and the time-honored stealing of directors from other production companies. There are not movies to be sold as at the much larger May festival, but it is all about talent-spotting. The place for conducting business And that's why the softly-spoken, teetotaling Romain Hatchuel, 29 going on 45, can afford a smile at the Carlton Beach restaurant. A huge contrast to his louder, bon-viveur father, the wily Roger, he knows that Cannes is safe and relatively recession-free compared to its past. It is now the place in the year for conducting the business we have chosen. Cannes is New York with decent coffee and topless bathing. And another thing, there's nowhere Domaine d'Ott tastes quite so wonderful -- not even Michael's. Stefano Hatfield is managing director and editorial director of Ad Age Global © 2001, Crain Communications Inc. Editor@AdAge.com ..