WPP, the world's leading communications services group, was Wednesday 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 win 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. The Group's agencies were behind many of the stars of the festival. Too numerous to list in full, they included Ogilvy Brasil's all-conquering “Real Beauty Sketches” campaign for Dove, Y&R Dubai's “Sale” work for Harvey Nichols, Grey London's “Hard, Fast And Effective” for the British Heart Foundation, Ogilvy Australia's “Share A Coke”, Y&R Macedonia's “10 Meters Apart” for the Government of Macedonia, Grey New York's work for DirecTV, Coke's “Sharing Can” from Ogilvy France/Singapore, Ogilvy Amsterdam's “Why Wait Until It's Too Late?” for Dela, Ogilvy France's “Outdoor As Utility” for IBM, “Immortal Fans” for Sport Club Recife by Ogilvy Brasil, “Kleenex Catches Colds” for Kimberly-Clark by Mindshare UK, JWT China's press work for Samsonite and AKQA's “Nike+ Kinect Training” innovation. 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. I'd like to thank and congratulate everyone who made this result possible. As Cannes Lions and the Effies have recognized, our people are creatively effective, and effectively creative. We're very proud of them all.” John O'Keeffe, Worldwide Creative Director of WPP, said: “The holding company Cannes Lion for WPP, for the third consecutive year, is of course very gratifying. But the Effie award is every bit as satisfying. What we do, we do not for ourselves, but in the service of our clients' brands the world over. To be judged the best in terms of both creativity and effectiveness is a wonderful achievement by our people and a great tribute to their talent.” — SG
