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Triumphant WPP wins Holding Company of the Year gong at Cannes by a knockout – thanks to Ogilvy

It’s trebles all around at WPP HQ in Farm Street, Mayfair, this morning (and, no doubt, at Ogilvy offices across the world) as the world’s biggest marcoms group celebrates a stonking victory in the Cannes Lions Holding Company of the Year stakes.

This comes on top of the awards for Network of the Year (Ogilvy, which won about 150 lions, a record by miles), Agency of the Year (Ogilvy Sao Paulo which finally won a well-deserved Titanium Grand Prix for Dove’s ‘Real Beauty Sketches’ on Saturday, below) and also the Effie accolade for most effective something or other earlier in the week.

WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell 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 recognised, our people are creatively effective, and effectively creative. We’re very proud of them all.”

He can’t help himself can he? Don’t creatively effective and effectively creative mean the same thing?

This makes a hat trick for WPP as Cannes Holding Company and the numbers are pretty conclusive. WPP registered 2067 points (2012: 1554.5), followed by Omnicom with 1552 (2012: 1375.5) and Publicis Groupe with 989.5 (2012: 1032).

WPP was also quick to point out that market research (or consumer insight as it prefers to call it) accounts for 25 per cent of its business (a bigger proportion than its rivals) and isn’t included at Cannes (Sorrell suggested earlier in the week that it should be – without explaining how) so the performance of its agencies was even better.

Would Ogilvy have won this ‘contest’ on its own? Maybe some Cannes number cruncher can tell us.

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