Berlin School Graduates Win Big in Cannes

The Berlin School congratulates 16 award-winning graduates and program participants for their spectacular group success at this year's Cannes Lions Festival. 

Our "Berliners" led teams (usually as Chief Creative Officer, Creative Director or CEO) that took home 108 Lions, or 9% of all of the Lions awarded at the festival. If the Berlin School was a country, it would have been #1, beating the USA by more than 20 Lions won.

Leading the charge was Luiz Sanches, Creative Director at AlmapBBDO in Sao Paolo, which won its 2nd consecutive Agency of the Year award by racking up 40 Lions in all.
Some of the campaigns that led to the win included Volkswagen Original Parts, which won 4 Silver Lions in Film, or Billboard magazine, which netted 5 Gold and 5 Silver in the Press category.

Photo: Luiz Sanches, Creative Director of Almap BBDO in Brazil, has his hands on the Cannes Lions Agency of the Year Award for the 2nd consecutive year.

In second place (among Berlin Schoolers) was Robert Wong, Executive Creative Director of Google Creative Lab, who worked on campaigns that won 10 Lions this year.
The Arcade Fire Wilderness Inside campaign for Google Chrome won a Grand Prix in the Cyber category, and the Chrome Speed Test won Gold Lions in Film, Titanium and Cyber categories.

But perhaps the biggest splash was made this year by our 2010 EMBA grad Adrian Botan, the Creative Partner at McCann Romania, whose American ROM campaign scored a double Grand Prix in Direct and Promo & Activation, plus a Titanium Lion, 4 Gold and a total of 9 in all.
We're thrilled to see Adrian help Romania win its first-ever Grand Prix in Cannes.

Photo: Adrian Botan (2nd from right) celebrates with his team from McCann Romania after winning their two Grand Prix Lions for Direct and Promo/Activation.

Others who won Lions by leading their teams to creative excellence:
- Ruy Lindenberg, CEO of Leo Burnett Brazil (9 Lions). His team's Fiat Ambulance campaign won multiple Silver and Bronze in the Press category.
- Matthias Spaetgens, MD of Scholz & Friends Berlin (9 Lions). His team's campaign for the animal preservation Bund led to double Gold in the Press category.
- Sergio Alcocer, Partner & CCO of LatinWorks in Austin, Texas (6 Lions). His team's Radio campaign for Cine las Americas won triple Gold.
- Wolfgang Schneider, CCO of BBDO Proximity Germany (6 Lions). His team's amusing Hairmoticons spot for Braun took Silver in Film and Film Craft.
- Gideon Amichay, CCO & Partner, Shalmor Avnon Amichay / Y&R tel Aviv (4 Lions). A dramatic series of live AIDS tests across all the radio stations on the dial won him 2 Silver in PR.
- Marcelo Arango, Partner & Planning Dir., Sancho BBDO Bogota (3 Lions). His team's Taxi Drivers University took Gold in PR.
- Alexander Jaggy, Creative Director, Jung von Matt/Limnat Zurich (3 Lions). His team's Brake Assist campaign for Mercedes took triple Bronze in Outdoor.
- Wolf Schneider, MD at Scholz & Friends Berlin (2 Lions) shared two Silver Lions in Design with fellow Berliner Matthias Spaetgens for their teams' work for Loewe 3D.
- Fernando Bellotti, CEO of Leo Burnett Argentina (2 Lions), led his team to Sliver in the Film category with the One Car used car campaign and Bronze in Film Craft for Bon o Bon.
- Saneel Radia, Head of Innovation at BBH Lab NY (2 Lions), saw his team land double Bronze in PR for the Underheard in New York campaign.
- Marco Cremona, Creative Director at McCann Italy, won a Silver in Press for the Durex Gatecrasher campaign.
- Bechara Mouzannar, CCO of Leo Burnett MENA, led his team to Silver in PR with the Fake It All campaign.
- Cedric Ebener, the CEO of CE+Co. a participant in last year's Cannes Creative Leaders program, shared a Bronze Lion in Design with Till Hohmann, the CCO of JWT and a participant in this year's Cannes Creative Leaders program.
- While they did the work before coming to the Berlin School (and aren't counted in our statistics), we also want to celebrate the award-winning work of some of the newest "Berliners" from our 2011 Cannes Creative Leaders Program: Remy Fabrikant from JWT H + F Zurich, Moacyr Netto from DM9 e DDB Brazil, and Gian Martinez from Coca Cola Brazil.

Lions By The Numbers:
- Berlin Schoolers led teams that took an amazing 16% of all Grand Prix awarded this year in Cannes, 8% of all Gold, and 11% of all Silver.
- Our Berliners claimed 9%, or 108 of the 1.201 total Lions awarded.
- PR was the top category, with 5 Berlin Schoolers combining to win 9 Lions, or 23% of all Lions awarded in the Category. Ironically, none of them work at PR agencies!
- The next most awarded categories for Berlin Schoolers were Press (16%), Titanium & Integrated (13%), Film (8%) and Outdoor (7%).
- Finally, although some of our female alumni were shortlisted in Cannes, the above winners' list is devoid of women. That has to change! Please help us get more women in leadership positions in the creative industries by supporting them at the Berlin School.