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Cannes 2014: WPP is claiming the crown as ‘holding company of the year’ at Cannes 2014 and says that its star network, Ogilvy & Mather, is the highest-scoring network for the third year in a row, beating Omnicom’s BBDO once again. WPP has now been top holding company four years in succession.
I haven’t seen anything official from the Cannes organisers but I’ll take their word for it.
WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell says: “We normally describe Cannes as our Oscars but this year it’s the World Cup of advertising and marketing. We’re thrilled to lift it for the fourth year in a row. Over the last 12 months there have been a few distractions for some in the industry, so it’s good to focus on the core of our business: brilliant work for clients. Huge thanks and congratulations to all our winning people, agencies and networks.”
WPP worldwide CCO John O’Keeffe (left) says: “A tough contest has come to a gratifying conclusion for WPP here in Cannes. The closeness of the result is testament not only to our own strength, but that of our competitors as well, who I know will be just as hard to beat next year. Congratulations to everyone whose work has made Cannes 2014 such an amazing showcase for our industry.”
I presume the above means that WPP narrowly pipped Omnicom, in which case there might even be calls for a recount. Amir Kassaei, CCO of Omnicom’s DDB network said…..whoops, we can’t print that, we’re a family publication these days.
Update
As expected, Omnicom is claiming it won more big awards than WPP.
For those still interested, here’s Dr Mumbo’s painstaking (and quite funny) analysis in Australia’s Mumbrella.
PS Just to make Omnicom feel better, here’s a sweet pic.
