The slides below are from Ketchum’s “Cartoons from Cannes” webinar on July 28 (11 a.m. EST), and are a creative way to share some of the top headlines colleagues took away from the 2012 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

And take note – these aren’t just any old PowerPoint slides. Working with Marketoonist Tom Fishburne, we developed a series of exclusive cartoons that illuminate the top lessons learned at Cannes.

Those of us lucky enough to be part of a long-term, highly engaged client partnership are in the privileged position of closely observing that client’s business and inner workings on a regular basis. But the hustle and bustle of daily deadlines and talent management can make it hard to step back and reflect on this inner knowledge to pinpoint what’s truly important and inspiring to them beyond the everyday.

This week in Cannes, I had the opportunity to refresh my perspective as I sat and listened to my client, P&G Global Marketing & Brand Building Officer Marc Pritchard, as he spoke to a sea of people from our industry about his vision and mission to release creative genius. He shared work that sparkled, made us laugh and brought tears to the eyes of even the most jaded listeners.

The next time I’m tempted to criticize a client brief on a new piece of work, I’ll think twice. I didn’t appreciate the difficulty of getting them “just right” until I sat on the Cannes Lions jury for the Young Marketers competition, where in-house marketing teams were given 30 hours to produce the perfect agency brief on a new product or service to benefit global education charity Room to Read.

Speaker after speaker at Cannes has mentioned the power – and necessity – of engaging groups of diverse people in their business and initiatives if they really want to solve problems and develop major opportunities.

Talking to fans was the first step for Jon Chu, producer for Justin Bieber, in producing his movie, Never Say Never. Twitter CEO Dick Costolo reminded us that, with 400 million tweets a day, platforms like Twitter enable anyone to get input from anyone else, and that everyone wants a voice.

Creative genius is magic, and I’ve just watched two magicians dazzle their audiences. JR, a recent TED Prize winner, is a French street artist whose giant outdoor photo installations are startling and provocative. Jeff Goodby, the co-chairman of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, is an adman whose brilliant and compelling campaigns include Häagen-Dazs’ “Save the Honey Bees” (a PR Lion winner to which Ketchum contributed.)

Both men have guts, have fun and brought down the house.

After several days of sessions, forums, workshops and speakers, and a quick review of the winning PR Lions, I see an interesting trend emerging. What is it you wonder? Well, it’s personal.

In fact, it goes beyond personal to what I am calling “hyper-personal.” Here’s what I am seeing.

After all of the negative media coverage of Facebook as of late – privacy, IPO, mobile development, etc. – I didn’t know what to expect at the Cannes Lions Facebook session. I know that others might not agree, but I appreciated hearing a nervous (but brilliantly recovered) Paul Adams, Facebook’s Global Head of Brand Design, talking about why people talk, what they talk about and with whom they are talking.

“New business pitches cost agencies a LOT of money,” were the words uttered at a Cannes Forum billed as “Five Sneaky Ways to Get Great Work.” You’d assume the speaker was the director of new business at an agency, but no, it was the hilarious and very enlightened Dana Anderson, SVP, Marketing Strategy and Communications, at Kraft Foods.

The session focused entirely on getting to better work faster, and these ideas can all pave the way.

Ketchum has been involved with the Young Marketers Competition held at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity for two years running. In this video Senior Partner, David Gallagher explains what the competition is and adds a little more about Ketchum’s involvement.