Clemenger BBDO Melbourne named 2017 Cannes Agency of the Year; BBDO crowned Cannes Network of the Year for record 6th time

Clemenger BBDO Melbourne has done Australian advertising proud after being crowned Cannes Agency of the Year at the 64th annual Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity awarded tonight.

The agency won 56 Lions and was responsible for two of the most awarded campaigns of the festival: ‘Meet Graham’ for the Transport Accident Commission and Snickers ‘Hungerithm’.  ‘Meet Graham’ won 29 Lions including two Grand Prix in Health & Wellness and Cyber, and eight Gold Lions. Snickers ‘Hungerithm” won six Gold Lions and 21 Lions in total.

Clemenger BBDO, Melbourne creative chairman James McGrath [second from left, pictured at this week’s CB Legendary Lunch at La Colombe d’Or] told CB: “We are both humbled and thrilled to have received this award. It is the first in Clemenger’s strong history, so we are honoured to be adding to the greater legacy of this extraordinary creative company.

“Nick [Garrett, near left] and I accept the accolade on behalf of the agency in Melbourne, each and every person should be proud to say I was there and I played my role in making it so.

“We were fortunate to have a number of projects across all platforms and many clients, from Airbnb , Myer, TAC, and Mars that made this result possible, as we look to our future we know the collaborative spirit that lives within these campaigns is a indicator to our future.”

BBDO Worldwide was named Network of the Year for a record-setting sixth time. Nineteen BBDO agencies from around the world combined to win 144 Lions across 24 categories including Creative Effectiveness, Cyber, Design, Digital, Direct, Entertainment, Film, Glass, Health & Wellness, Integrated, Media, Mobile, Outdoor, Print, PR, Radio and Titanium. 

It’s the second year in a row that a BBDO agency has been named Agency of the Year at this festival (last year’s winner was Almap BBDO in Brazil).

Says Andrew Robertson, President and CEO, BBDO Worldwide: “Let me put it simply: clients are interested in work that works. There is plenty of data to confirm the correlation between spectacular award-winning work and spectacular effects. I am very proud of, and grateful to, all of our award-winning agencies, but I do want to single out Clemenger BBDO’s work. ‘Meet Graham’ is literally unforgettable and saved lives. Snickers ‘Hungerithm’ creatively leverages a powerful platform, smart use of data, and retail integration to deliver spectacular results.”

The list of Lion-winning agencies includes Almap BBDO Brazil, AMV BBDO in UK, ANR BBDO in Sweden, BBDO Argentina, BBDO Bangkok, BBDO Chile, BBDO India, BBDO New York, CHE Proximity in Australia, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne, Clemenger BBDO Sydney, Clemenger BBDO/Touchcast New Zealand, Colenso BBDO New Zealand, Contrapunto BBDO Madrid, Energy BBDO Chicago, Impact BBDO Dubai, Pages BBDO in Dominican Republic, Proximity Barcelona and Proximity Madrid.

Being named Network of the Year at Cannes caps an impressive run by BBDO which earlier topped the Gunn Report as the most creative agency network in the world for the 11th year in a row. It was also ranked the #1 most effective agency network in the world in the Effie Effectiveness Index.

Says David Lubars, Chief Creative Officer BBDO Worldwide: “We are, indeed, a global creative boutique, capable of delivering award-winning work that works for clients anywhere in the world, big and small, global and local, across categories, forms and platforms.  But we never want to rest on our laurels.  We need to continue to lead the way forward for our clients.”

For the seventh year in succession, WPP has been named the world’s most creative parent company at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

The Group accumulated the highest number of points of any of the advertising and marketing services holding companies, thanks to yet another strong performance from its agencies.

Companies from 42 different countries contributed to WPP’s Lions tally, with winning work including:

“The Refugee Nation” by Ogilvy New York for Amnesty International; J. Walter Thompson New York’s “Unsafety Check” for Black Lives Matter; “Google Home Of The Whopper” and “Flame Grilled Since 1954” for Burger King by DAVID Miami; Tigo Une’s “Payphone Bank” from Grey Colombia; “A Love Song Written By A Murderer” by Circus Grey Peru Lima for Vida Mujer; Ogilvy Johannesburg’s “The Sad Man Meal” for KFC; “Handle With Care” from Grey New York for Gillette; “Pitching French Films to Hollywood” by Ogilvy Singapore for Alliance Française de Singapour; Johannes Leonardo’s “Original Is Never Finished” for Adidas Originals; “Equal Pay Billionaires” by Ogilvy Brasil for Forbes Magazine; DAVID Miami’s “Pass The Heinz” for The Kraft Heinz Company; “Savlon Healthy Hands Chalk Sticks” from Ogilvy Mumbai for ITC Savlon; and “The One Moment” for Morton Salt by Ogilvy Chicago.

Sir Martin Sorrell (left), founder and CEO of WPP, said: “As ever, this award simply reflects the achievements of our wonderfully talented people all around the world, and of course the support of our clients.

“In the year of our seventh successive win, the industry appears to be experiencing a collective seven-year itch in terms of its relationship with Cannes.

“The importance of recognising the outstanding creativity of our people and the work they do for clients is not in doubt. The question is whether the festival does that in the most effective way, and we look forward to playing our part in finding the best solution.”

John O’Keeffe, Worldwide Creative Director of WPP, said: “Cannes Lions 2017 draws to an end tinged a little with sadness. I’m personally sorry that so many good friends from Publicis won’t be at the awards next year. The festival is the poorer for their absence. 

“My congratulations of course go to my friends and colleagues throughout WPP, but also to all the winners, and indeed to every great client who bought all the brilliant work on show this week.

“Over the past ten days I’ve seen, writ large across the categories, the myriad ways now at our disposal to create fame for our clients. But equally I’ve seen proof of what I said last year: no matter what the platform, The Big Idea will always be The Big Winner.”

The Palme d’Or, given to the most awarded production company, went to MJZ, USA in first place, second to Smuggler, USA and third to The Mill, USA.

After eight days of networking, celebration and trail-blazing content across the stages, the programme drew to a close with a panel of industry leaders discussing new work in Titanium.

The Festival’s most coveted, forward-thinking accolade, the Panel who asked ‘what can be learned from the work honoured in Titanium’ were: Tham Khai Meng – co-chairman and worldwide chief creative officer, Ogilvy & Mather, and the 2017 Titanium and Integrated jury president; Gustavo Lauria – co-founder and CCO at We Believers and chairman of the US Hispanic Creative Circle; Jaime Robinson – co-founder and CCO, Joan; Chloe Gottlieb – CCO R/GA USA and Tim Nudd, creative editor at AdWeek.

And Burger King was named Creative Marketer of the Year to honour the brand for embracing and encouraging creativity across their brand communications and for the inspiring global marketing of their products. Axel Schwan, chief marketing officer of Burger King, and Fernando Machado, head of brand marketing at Burger King, collected the award on behalf of Burger King.

Screen writer, director, campaigner and co-founder of Red Nose Day, Richard Curtis, collected the LionHeart Award for his continued and significant involvement in charitable initiatives, including Comic Relief, Red Nose Day, Live 8 and the Make Poverty History campaign.