Rethink for Media Lions scoring system after OMD Sydney’s surprise win

Tim Burrowes

July 10, 2013 11:00

The Cannes Lions is to rethink its policy on how agencies are credited for the involvement in the Media Lions categories – but have stated that OMD Sydney, which was this year’s shock winner of the global media agency of the year award, is in no danger of having its trophy taken away.

From left: Daryl Simm (Omnicom Media Group global CEO), Mainardo de Nardis (OMD global CEO), Steve Blakeman (OMD APAC CEO)

The move by the Cannes Lions appears to have been triggered by discontent among some agencies that OMD Sydney won the global title, despite the fact that it did not put in the winning entries itself. The victory came as a pleasant surprise to OMD itself, which had to asks members of the global management team pick up the trophy because no-one from Australia had attended.

OMD was helped across the line by the success of work for McDonald’s entered by sister Omnicom creative agency DDB which credited OMD as the media agency involved.

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Tim Burrowes

Tim Burrowes is the publisher of Mumbrella and Unmade. He co-founded Mumbrella in 2008 and sister title Unmade in 2021. He's worked in the UK, Middle East, Asia & Australia and has specialised in writing about the communications world for the last 25 years. He wrote the book Media Unmade, published in 2021, and became the presenter of MediaLand on ABC Radio National in 2025.