Last week we noted that the work of the world’s third-largest(?) agency holding company Publicis Groupe will be present in all major 2018 awards competitions despite promises of a “trade show ban” from CEO Arthur Sadoun and others that briefly rocked the industry last summer.
(Yes, it’s a bit of an exaggeration to say “rocked.” But the decision did lead some creatives at Leo Burnett Chicago to replace their founder’s name on the outside of their office with a sheet reading “Marcel.” And that post was one of our most-discussed of last year.)
Today we got a bit more confirmation of what we already knew. A P&G spokesperson said that the CPG giant has played a significant role in ensuring that its campaigns get some eyeballs from the trade show jury community this year.
“I can’t speak specifically to the ‘It’s a Tide Ad’ submission, but I can share that we supported Cannes Lions submissions on 15 campaigns from our agency partners as a way to demonstrate the value we place on creativity and the esteem with which we hold the creatives on our business,” the representative wrote.
The statement continued: “This was a proactive step because we’re proud of the work done by our agency partners, and we’re looking forward to seeing how the creative work stacks up against the best in the world at Cannes.”
“We are not providing a list of the campaigns we supported, which is why I can’t speak to the ‘It’s a Tide Ad’ specifically,” wrote the P&G rep. “The campaigns were across all the holding companies on our business and represented campaigns from around the world.”
We find this encouraging and, in the case of the final clarification, intriguing as well.
This almost reads as if P&G functions as its own jury when determining what which campaigns will be submitted. And given that it used to include with as many as 6000 agencies around the world on its roster, that’s a significant amount of work!