Ogilvy and Mather roars at Cannes

event, the Cannes Lion Festival of Creativity.

Barkers Ogilvy executive chairman Mr Alistair Carlisle said the receipt of some of the world’s most prestigious advertising accolades was a “huge honour for everyone of us within the Ogilvy network across the world, including here in Zimbabwe, where we share in the joy and the delight”.

The Cannes festival is held each year with thousands of entries from all over the world competing for honours in various categories. This year’s award for Ogilvy and Mather was the second in a row for the agency, which has representation in more than 100 countries and is one of the best-known names in advertising and related communications services.

“To add to the honour, Ogilvy also collected more than 100 Lions — as the Cannes Awards are known — becoming the first agency to do so in the 60-year history of the festival. The number of Lions won by the agency was, in fact, 155,” said Mr Carlisle.

The agency won the Creative Effectiveness Award, which was introduced this year, as well as a number of other top prizes in the competition.
Among these were a Titanium and Integrated Grand Prix for Ogilvy Brazil’s Real Beauty Sketches campaign for client Dove.

Of the 155 Lions, 67 were bronze, 46 were silver and 37 were gold, with additional success in taking four Grand Prix awards. Last year Ogilvy and Mather won 82 Lions and the agency was this year shortlisted for 429 awards.

“Coming as it does on the heels of having the Ogilvy across Africa named the continent’s best advertising agency network by the Financial Mail of South Africa, this is a great success for the Ogilvy brand worldwide and a spur to continued efforts to achieve excellence on behalf of all clients,” said Mr Carlisle.

Recent success also came in the AdReview competition, another South African advertising initiative, in which Ogilvy in South Africa won awards in various categories, being named marketing group of the year and receiving a trophy for PR consultancy of the year for its public relations operation.

Barkers Ogilvy is one of Zimbabwe’s longest-established advertising agencies, having been operational for more than 50 years. As part of the Ogilvy international network, it shares a number of clients with sister operations elsewhere in Africa and across the world.