Cannes 2014: Publicis Groupe’s Starcom MediaVest has won the Media Network of the Year award at the Cannes Lions with a rather unimpressive-sounding three silver lions, nine bronzes and 14 shortlists.
Obviously these totted up to more than anybody else managed (by whatever formula the organisers decided) but who won all the golds? Havas Media Peru won the Media Grand Prix (along with McCann Lima) for its Coca-Cola ‘Happy ID’ stunt designed to make Peru a happier nation. Arguably one Grand Prix should outweigh a smallish sackful of silvers and bronzes.
Anyway, we mustn’t be mean. Starcom boss Laura Desmond says the win is down to the agency’s belief in “creativity and converged data,” which accurately sums up the media game these days.
At last year’s festival WPP boss Sir Martin Sorrell complained loudly that rival Omnicom’s media agencies had ganged up on WPP entries in the jury rooms. Omnicom riposted by saying that WPP had done exactly that in the creative awards. Maybe in this year’s media awards they cancelled each other out.
