Doha: WPP, a communications services group, was named holding company of the year at the Cannes Lions Festival for the third time in as many years after a stellar performance from its agencies.
The victory follows the news earlier this week that the Effie Index has ranked WPP as the world’s most effective holding company – for the second year in a row.
Cannes Lions is the premier global showcase for excellence in communications. The overall prize is based on the total number of awards won by holding companies’ agencies.
WPP registered 2067 points (2012: 1554.5), followed by Omnicom with 1552 (2012: 1375.5) and Publicis with 989.5 (2012: 1032). Consumer insight (market research) agencies — which form 25 percent of WPP’s business — are excluded from Cannes Lions and in terms of qualifying revenues for the festival WPP is smaller than Omnicom.
WPP’s Ogilvy & Mather became the first network ever to win more than 100 Lions as, in a repeat of 2012’s result, it was named network of the year. WPP companies from more than 40 countries won Lions, across all marketing disciplines. Ogilvy Sao Paulo was named agency of the year.
Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP, said: “WPP agencies have put in a stunning performance at this year’s festival, where the quality of work has been hugely impressive across the board. As Cannes Lions and the Effies have recognised, our people are creatively effective, and effectively creative. We’re very proud of them all.”
The Peninsula
