Cannes Lions 2012: Promo, PR and Direct Winners

Last night saw the first awards ceremony of 2012 at the 59^th International Festival of Creativity as delegates gathered at the Palais de Festivals to find out who was crowned the kings in the Promo & Activation, PR and Direct categories.

Crispin Porter + Bogusky Boulder (pictured) emerged as the dominant force, bagging two Grand Prix on the night – both for its Small Business Gets an Official Day for American Express in Direct and Promo & Activation. The campaign, which also picked up silver (in Promo & Activation), extended on a previous idea created by the agency in 2010 which encouraged consumers to shop at local, small businesses, this time with the aim to implement the idea further and cement an official shopping day in the US, driving solid business outcomes to America’s independent, brick-and-mortar retailers.

In PR, only in its fourth year of existence, it was JWT San Juan who took the top gong, marking the first-ever Grand Prix for the country and its Banco Popular de Puerto Rico The Most Popular Song. The campaign, which persuaded people to get off welfare, also took gold in the category in a winners list that was once again dominated by advertising agencies over PR firms.

Serviceplan Munich was crowned Direct Agency of the Year, picking up golds for its LEGO and The Solar Annual Report work. It was followed by Wieden + Kennedy Portland and DDB São Paulo ending up in second and third respectively.

All three categories saw a healthy mix of international agencies do well with Saatchi & Saatchi Milan’s Integration Day for World Syndrome Day enjoying notable success with five gold Lions overall. Other regions to receive gold included Australia and there was a big European influence with Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands all appearing.

The winners of the Young Lions’ Print category were also announced by the Press Lions jury president, worldwide chief creative officer Khai Meng Tham, with the team from TBWASingapore coming away with the coveted gold medal for their work to the brief issued by civil society alliance Control Arms

Art director Nuno Teixeira and copywriting partner James Holman beat off competition from 41 other teams in the competition and will be presented with their prize at the Press, Design, Radio and Cyber Lions ceremony on tomorrow night (Wednesday 20 June) and will also receive complimentary registration at the 2013 festival.

Teams from the UAE (art director Gautam Wadher and copywriter Akhelish Dwarkadas, FP7 Dubai) and Belgium (director Thomas Thysens and art director Willem De Wachter, both of Leo Burnett Brussels) were awarded the silver and bronze medals respectively.

To view the whole winners list in the categories from last night’s ceremony go to Cannes Lions www.canneslions.com/work. Tomorrow morning we’ll have news of who won what at tonight’s Creative Effectiveness, Media, Mobile and Outdoor ceremony.