WPP bags Creative Company of the Year, DDB named Top Network at Cannes Lions 2025

New Delhi: The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2025 announced its Special Awards.

WPP was named ‘Creative Company of the Year’, followed by Omnicom and Interpublic Group.

Mark Read, CEO of WPP, said, “Our success at Cannes Lions is a tribute to the extraordinary talent and passion of our people worldwide, and to the clients who entrust us with their brands. It’s also a powerful statement about the central role of creative and media excellence in building brands, shaping culture and driving growth, a principle at the heart of WPP and one I’m very proud to see recognised today. Winning Creative Company of the Year is always a huge honour, but celebrating this achievement with our brilliant people at my last Cannes as CEO makes it doubly special. Congratulations and thank you to everyone who made it happen.”

Rob Reilly, Global Chief Creative Officer of WPP, said, “In a world increasingly shaped by AI, authentic human creativity with integrity commands a growing premium. This year’s winners from across WPP brilliantly showcase how our agencies are owning innovation and technology, not to replace creativity, but to amplify it, solve complex challenges for brands, and connect with audiences in more meaningful ways. Congratulations to all our teams and fearless clients for these outstanding results.”

DDB Worldwide took the top spot as the ‘Network of the Year’, followed by Ogilvy and FCB.

For the second consecutive year and third time since 2022, OMD was named ‘Media Network of the Year’.

“I’m very proud of the work our agencies put forward this year, especially DDB and OMD, who came out on top in their respective network categories,” said John Wren, Chairman and CEO of Omnicom. “Excelling in both the creative and media categories is a testament to the end-to-end services we provide to our clients at Omnicom. I want to congratulate all the teams who contributed to award-winning work and our leading position in the industry.”

The ‘Independent Network of the Year’ honour went to Germany-based Serviceplan Agenturgruppe, with Rethink and Wieden+Kennedy rounding out the top three.

In individual agency performance, Publicis Conseil from Paris was crowned ‘Agency of the Year’, followed by Africa Creative DDB from São Paulo and FCB Chicago from the United States.

Germany's Serviceplan, Munich, added to its accolades by being named ‘Independent Agency of the Year’, with Rethink, Toronto’ and Bear Meets Eagle On Fire from Sydney claiming second and third places, respectively.

The ‘Palme d'Or’, awarded to the most awarded production company, went to Revolver, Australia, followed by Iconoclast, United States, and Biscuit Filmworks, United Kingdom.

Among brands, AXA was recognised as ‘Creative Brand of the Year’, with Dove and Vaseline completing the top three.