MUMBAI: It‘s made a roaring start. The annual jamboree of the international advertising fraternity, The Cannes Lions, has seen a spurt in the number of entries it has received from around the world. In its 57th edition, the International Advertising Festival (IAF) has reported that it has got 24,242 entries from 90 countries for its 12 categories, the fourth highest in its history. 
 
Festival CEO Philip Thomas said, "The Cannes Lions reflects the communications industry, and these results tell a fascinating story. Firstly, of course, they suggest that the industry as a whole is recovering from the distress of 2009 (entries to the Festival were down 20 per cent last year) and indeed they show recovery coming not only from places you would expect like Latin America or India, but also countries like Sweden, Turkey, the UK, France and the USA, all of which have picked up considerably. We look forward to welcoming the 12 juries to Cannes where they will take on the daunting task to view, judge, deliberate and honour the best creative work from the world‘s communications industry." 
 
The categories which saw the maximum increase from 2009 are the PR and Promo and Activation sections which rose by 32 and 43 per cent respectively. These are relatively new categories in the festival and they seem to be picking up fast. The entries in the Cyber and Media sections also rose by 18 and 17.5 per cent respectively. The Press, Outdoor and Film continue to be the most competitive categories in terms of number of entries, even though all three of them saw a fall in number of entries from 2009. 
 
The festival is set to kick off on 20 June.