Ketchum and its Clients Win Three Awards at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity

NEW YORK and CANNES, France, June 24, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading global public relations agency Ketchum was honored with three Cannes Lion awards for work on behalf of its clients during the PR Lions and Promo & Activation Lions award ceremonies, which were held last week at the 61st annual Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in Cannes, France. Ketchum is the only PR firm to have won Cannes Lions across multiple categories. The agency won one Silver and two Bronze Lions.

"Ketchum is proud to have been one of the first-ever PR firms to win a Cannes Lion award, and we're even more thrilled to continue that winning tradition today. The Cannes Lion represents the upper echelon of creative marketing ideas and programs from around the world, and the quality of work – particularly across the paid, earned, shared and owned spectrum – continues to push new boundaries," said Rob Flaherty, senior partner and CEO of Ketchum. "With the number of entries in the PR Lions category up 43 percent this year, the competition is fierce – and I'm proud that the work we've executed on behalf of our clients continues to stand out among the best."

Ketchum and its clients won Lions in the following categories:

PR Lions

BRONZE: CRISIS & ISSUES
"Rumble on the Rails"
Committee for the Preservation of Olympic Wrestling, International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles and USA Wrestling with Ketchum Sports & Entertainment

BRONZE: INTEGRATED CAMPAIGN LED BY PR
"#Unapologetic"
Mattel's Barbie with Ketchum, Starcom and HL Group

Promo & Activation Lions

SILVER: USE OF SOCIAL PLATFORMS IN A PROMOTIONAL CAMPAIGN
"Wendy's Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger Love Songs"
Wendy's with VML and Ketchum

Ketchum and its clients were shortlisted for an additional seven categories:

PR Lions

BRAND VOICE
"Thank You Mom"
Procter & Gamble with MMK (Marina Maher and Ketchum)

CO-CREATED AND CONSUMER GENERATED CONTENT
"Wendy's Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger Love Songs"
Wendy's with VML and Ketchum

CRISIS & ISSUES
"Don't Ground America"
Airlines for America with Ketchum

INTEGRATED CAMPAIGN LED BY PR
"#Unapologetic"
Mattel's Barbie with Ketchum, Starcom and HL Group

OTHER CONSUMER GOODS
"#Unapologetic"
Mattel's Barbie with Ketchum, Starcom and HL Group

RETAIL & RESTAURANTS
"Wendy's Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger Love Songs"
Wendy's with VML and Ketchum

Promo & Activation Lions

SOCIAL COMMERCE ACTIVATION
"Beard Ball"
Procter & Gamble's Gillette with Grey and Ketchum

Branded Content & Entertainment Lions

USE OR INTEGRATION OF DIGITAL OR SOCIAL MEDIA
"Wendy's Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger Love Songs"
Wendy's with VML and Ketchum

Ketchum Duo Takes Bronze in Young PR Lions Competition
In addition to Ketchum's Cannes Lions on behalf of its client work, Ketchum Publico consultant Doris Christina Steiner and senior consultant Pepita Adelmann won Bronze medals at the inaugural Young PR Lions competition last Monday. The team represented their home country of Austria and competed against young PR talent from Ireland, Japan, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden and the United Kingdom.  

Offering advice to other young people building a career in communications, Steiner said, "To win you have to be bold and take risks. Try to do more than people think you're capable of." Adding to this point, Adelmann said: "My advice to young PRs is to speak up. You can come up with winning ideas and catalyze more innovation than you might think."

The international jury included Michael Frohlich, U.K. head of Ogilvy PR; Pascal Beucler, chief strategy officer at MSLGROUP; and Marnie Kontovraki, global consumer PR officer for Heineken. Competitors were given 24 hours to create an effective and creative PR campaign for the United Nations' Office on Drugs and Crime's "Blue Heart Campaign" to help in its fight against human trafficking.

The Young PR Lions' Gold winners were Yuichiro Okada and Tetsuya Umeda of ASATSU-DK in Japan, and the Silver winners were Leila Mountford and Kate Sloan of Weber Shandwick.  The Young PR Lions competition was launched in February 2014, with the International Communications Consultancy Organisation serving as the official sponsor in association with Ketchum, Golin, H+K Strategies and Ogilvy PR.

Ketchum's Related Activities at Cannes
In 2014, Ketchum continues to support the next generation of marketing talent as the exclusive global sponsor of the fourth-annual Cannes Lions Young Marketers Competition, which recognizes in-house marketers, age 30 or under, from around the world and gives them the opportunity to showcase their work in front of industry leaders at the Cannes Lions Festival. Medals were presented to the winners at an awards ceremony on Saturday, June 21.

The Ketchum team onsite at Cannes posted their insights and observations during the Cannes Lions Festival through the agency's Scene@Cannes hub. Scene@Cannes is the umbrella brand under which all Ketchum content from the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is shared.

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity was established in 1954 and is generally viewed as the pinnacle event of the annual awards season for the global communications industry. A Ketchum delegate has served on the PR Lions jury since 2009, the first year public relations was included in the competition.

In 2009, Ketchum was honored with one of the first-ever PR Lions for its "Haagen-Dazs Loves Honey Bees" campaign in the Corporate Responsibility and Environmental Issues category. In 2011, Ketchum, as part of OneVoice, won a Silver PR Lion in the Technology and Manufacturing category on behalf of Philips for its "Parallel Lines" campaign. And in 2013, Ketchum won seven PR Lions and two Promo & Activation Lions across nine different categories.

The Cannes Lions are the latest in a series of top honors recently awarded to Ketchum. Just last week, Ketchum took home 14 Silver Anvil awards, more than any other agency. In May, Ketchum won eight Americas SABRE Awards and four EMEA SABRE Awards. In March 2014, Ketchum won the PRWeek Campaign of the Year Award along with three PRWeek Awards on behalf of its client work.

About the 61st Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, June 15 to 21, 2014, Palais des Festivals, Cannes, France
The International Festival of Creativity, also known as Cannes Lions, is the world's leading celebration of creativity in communications. Founded in 1954, the Festival takes place every June in Cannes, France. As the most prestigious international annual advertising and communications awards, over 35,500 entries from all over the world are showcased and judged at the Festival. Winning companies receive the highly coveted Lion trophy, a global benchmark of creative excellence,  for Film, Print, Outdoor, Interactive, Radio, Design, Product Design, Promo & Activation, Film Craft, Mobile, Branded Entertainment and Integrated advertising, as well as the best Media, Direct, PR, Titanium, Creative Effectiveness and Innovation ideas. The Festival is also the only truly global meeting place for advertisers, advertising and communication professionals.  More than 12,000 delegates from 95 countries attend a week-long programme of exhibitions, screenings and talks by worldwide thought leaders. As the networking and learning opportunity of the year, Cannes Lions is the must-attend event for anyone involved in brand communications.

About Ketchum
Ketchum is a leading global communications firm with operations in more than 70 countries across six continents. The winner of 14 Cannes Lions and an unprecedented four PRWeek Campaign of the Year Awards, Ketchum partners with clients to deliver strategic programming, game-changing creative and measurable results that build brands and reputations. For more information on Ketchum, a part of the DAS Group of Companies, a division of Omnicom Group Inc., visit www.ketchum.com.

About the DAS Group of Companies
The DAS Group of Companies, a division of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC) (www.omnicomgroup.com), is a global group of marketing services companies. DAS includes over 200 companies in the following marketing disciplines: specialty, PR, healthcare, CRM, events, promotional marketing, branding and research. Operating through a combination of networks and regional organizations, DAS serves international, regional, national and local clients through more than 700 offices in 71 countries.

SOURCE Ketchum

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