WPP: won Creative Company of the Year at the Cannes Lions 2025.Cannes Lions will no longer award a Creative Company of the Year as part of an update to its awards process for 2026.
WPP was named Creative Company of the Year in 2025, with Omnicom second and Interpublic third. Omnicom acquired Interpublic in November 2025.
A spokesperson for Cannes Lions said: “Following significant structural industry shifts, including large-scale mergers, we concluded that the Creative Company of the Year award no longer provides a consistent or comparable benchmark.”
WPP also won Creative Company of the Year in 2024, while Omnicom claimed the prize in 2023.
Cannes Lions introduced the award as Holding Company of the Year in 2011 and renamed it as the Creative Company of the Year in 2022. Companies received points for the number of shortlisted entries and the different Lions they won.
Cannes Lions has also made changes to its Network of the Year prize after consulting with the industry, which a spokesperson said would place “even greater emphasis” on the quality of the work.
Under the new process, Cannes Lions will cap the number of points a network can receive from shortlisted entries. Cannes Lions has also increased the weighting of Lion wins (Grand Prix, gold, silver, bronze).
A spokesperson for Cannes Lions said: “By introducing a cap on shortlist contribution, reinforcing the importance of quality over quantity through adjusted weighting, and ensuring consistent judging practices, our aim is to provide a refreshed benchmark that reflects today’s creative landscape – grounded in credibility, integrity and excellence.”
Omnicom’s, now-defunct, network DDB, won the Network of the Year prize in 2025, ahead of WPP’s Oglivy, which had claimed the honour in 2024. WPP consulted lawyers after being prevented from including Grey’s points in Ogilvy’s calculation at last year’s festival.
Accusations of AI-manipulation against DDB prompted a wide-ranging scandal last year, and DDB “mutually withdrew” three campaigns, including the Grand Prix-winning “Efficient way to pay” for Consul, after breaching rules on factual representation.
Cannes Lions has tested the new methodology against past results and consulted external partners, including the awards auditor Mediasense.
This article was first published by Campaign UK.
