Last year’s magnificent performance by the comms sector at Cannes for idea creation is starting to look like a blip as most of the top prizes reverted to creative firms in the PR Lions in 2025.
Edelman was the major bright point for the sector, with its Chicago office receiving the only Gold Lion awarded to a PR firm for its Progresso Soup Drops campaign for the General Mills soup brand.
The world’s largest PR agency also won a joint Silver Lion out of its London office with LePub Milan for its Starring Bars activation on behalf of Heineken. And Edelman London scored again with bronze for Share the First on behalf of Unilever’s Dove brand.
Edelman London had already scored a silver in the Design Lions for Code My Crown for Dove. It also won a bronze in the Industry Craft Lions for Flags of Unity with Amref.
It would seem those writing off Edelman after its financial travails and senior level creative talent departures over the past 18 months may be speaking too soon. And you can bet that CEO Richard Edelman has plans in the works to continue the bounceback.
This year’s PR Lions Grand Prix went to a very clever activation for Indian Railways by FCB India called Lucky Yatra that approached the problem of 41% of riders traveling without tickets by tapping into Indians’ obsession with lotteries and making train tickets that included lottery numbers.
It brought in more than $68 million and forever changed the world’s largest railway system. Jury chair Tom Beckman noted that there have been many lottery-related campaigns in the past, but that the first is not always the best, likening it to video game Bejeweled being overtaken by Candy Crush. “Sometimes the cover is better than the original,” he added.
Thoughtful, intelligent and creatively focused, Weber Shandwick global chief creative officer Beckman spoke to PRWeek for this week’s podcast and provided fascinating insights into the successful work, why it was chosen, trends identified, why we shouldn’t obsess about PR firms not winning in “their own” category and what the work means for the future of comms and marketing.
He noted that the PR jury spent long days analyzing and debating the work, 14 hours on one day, but that the decision about which of the Gold Lions-winning campaigns should take the Grand Prix was “made in seconds.”
He added that broken English was the language of the cosmopolitan and international jury, which forced people to be concise and really boil down their contributions to the essence of the campaign under discussion.
Weber Shandwick San Francisco struck silver for its much-vaunted MSI Reproductive Choices campaign for the Vagina Privacy Network, which won at both the PRWeek US and Global Awards this year. Weber also took bronze for its Airbnb Icons work. Overall, it has four main idea creation credits so far across the Lions.
MSL Chicago won a joint Bronze Lion alongside sister Publicis agency Leo Chicago for its Baz Box campaign for Special K cereal. U.K. indie Ready10’s The Meal campaign for McDonald’s Happy Meal will took home a bronze from its four shortlisted entries.
Over at Omnicom, Porter Novelli was part of a consortium of firms that won a Bronze Lion in the Design category for its Justice By Her Type activation in Costa Rica, and FleishmanHillard is shortlisted in the Creative Strategy Lions for its State Farm work.
Interpublic Group’s Golin, which performed so well last year and mirrored that achievement in the PRWeek Awards, won a Silver Lion for the hotly fancied Desk Break Clause for Asics in the Creative B2B Lions. There may be more to come on this one.
Over at WPP, I haven’t seen a single campaign from Burson or Ogilvy PR winning a Lion, but I stand to be corrected.
To be fair, in the PR Lions the writing had been on the wall for the sector when only 17 of the 141 shortlisted entries named PR firms with the idea creation credit.
While it’s tempting to dust off the navel-gazing blogs from years gone by bemoaning the lack of PR firms honored in our eponymous category — and other categories — I think there’s a little more to it this year.
For years, much of the winning work at Cannes was extremely purpose-related. Some would say a lot of it had been produced principally with the intention of winning awards, rather than solving real business and social problems.
But the Grand Prix and Gold Lions winners this year definitely bucked that trend, encompassing brands such as the aforementioned Indian Railways and General Mills’ Progresso, insurance company Axa, Mondelēz International/Nabisco’s Nutter Butter, Nordic bank Nordea, Supersell mobile game Clash of Clans, Sun Reserve for beer brand Corona, and Daisy vs. Scammers for British telecoms operator O2.
Hopefully gone are the days when the Grand Prix and golds would go to obscure organizations and nonprofits that few people had ever heard of.
Beckman’s criteria for winning work were activations you would show to your clients or peers, or even your family. He coined the phrase “work designed for the jungle, not the zoo,” to expand on this and described the move toward real-world activations by real brands.
This time last year, we were celebrating Golin London’s PR Grand Prix for The Misheard Version activation for Specsavers and Ogilvy PR’s Social and Influencer Grand Prix for Michael CeraVe. This year, there wasn’t a single idea creation credit for a PR firm in the entire Social and Creator Lions (revamped this year), the Grand Prix for which was won by Ogilvy Singapore for its Vaseline Verified user-generated campaign for the Unilever brand.
Last year, Weber Shandwick took the Grand Prix in Brand Experience and Activation for its Pop-Tarts Edible Mascot campaign. And Edelman won a Titanium Lion for The Move to -15° for DP World.
Beckman pointed out that earned media is definitely now where it’s at, but that work can just as easily come from FCB India than Edelman or Weber Shandwick.
“I’ve been coming to Cannes for 15 years,” he said. “But I come here to be humbled by the work. That is a gift. It makes me realize what I can and should do.”
He similarly advised PR firms to focus more on what they should do, rather than what they can do, just like in sports, where you focus on your No. 1 competitor. He urged everyone in the industry to find that piece of work out there that makes you realize you can do better.
“Everyone should be thankful for that and not have issues with it,” he concluded.
*This article has been updated with more details about the respective performances of the PR firms in the major marketing services holding companies.
