WebProNews

Online advertising is expected to be a major subject when advertisers from around the globe meet in Cannes on the French Riviera as the industry tries to deal with uncertain economic times.

About 12,000 ad people, art directors, markets, producers and clients will attend the week -long Cannes Lions 2008 festival that started on June 15 and runs to June 21.

The Cannes Lions festival is in its 55th year and awards accomplishments with the Lions trophies along with hosting seminars and workshops. Because of the importance of online advertising the event includes the Film Lions awards for Internet and mobiles.

Market research company IDC said that it projected a potential recession to slow U.S. ad spending for all media by as much as 7 percent in 2008, but quarterly online ad growth would still rise by 15-20 percent in 2008.

"What happens is that the current economic crisis puts pressure on advertisers to save money and find more effective marketing channels," Karsten Weide, program director, Digital Marketplace and New Media at IDC said in a recent report.

"Effectively, the crisis accelerates the shift of advertising budgets from traditional media into new media," said Weide.

Martin Sorrell, the CEO of WPP, the 2nd-largest ad company in the world, will moderate the "Cannes Debate" seminar where Google, Yahoo and Microsoft will talk about how the Internet world changes the way the ad industry does business.

Others attending the event include Publicis Chairman Maurice Levy, Havas chairman Vincent Bollore and media mogul Rupert Murdoch. They are likely to discuss Yahoo allowing competitor Google to sell search ads on its sites and the breakdown in negotiations between Microsoft and Yahoo.