The Cannes Lions International Festival, which has historically focused on advertising, has chosen Hill & Knowlton as its first PR partner.

The festival only began accepting PR award entries in 2009, which is when H&K began staging Cannes events. That year, H&K hosted a PR seminar and the first Cannes Lions tweet-up with Twitter co-founder Biz Stone. This year, they hosted another seminar, a street event, and a videoblog called Cannes Eye.