UK agencies earn 12 nominations in Cannes' Direct Lions shortlist

Ad agencies CHI & Partners, McCann Erickson and Saatchi & Saatchi are shortlisted for a Direct Lion, with CMW the most nominated UK specialist direct agency.

The shortlist, which was unveiled this morning, was whittled down from a total of 1364 entries to the direct and digital category. The volume of entries was down nearly 20% on 2008.

There were 22,652 entries overall from 86 countries competing for a Lions award.

Germany came top of the country nominations league with 24 followed by Australia with 20. The US had a poor showing this year, with only 6 nominations, the same amount as Austria and Sweden.

Four UK agencies received double nominations: CMW, CHI & Partners, Proximity and Saatchi & Saatchi London.

CMW has been shortlisted twice for its ‘Faceless People’ campaign promoting the Lotus Evora on behalf of Group Lotus.

Saatchi & Saatchi London received a double nomination too, the first for its ‘Dance’ campaign on behalf of T-Mobile. It was also shortlisted in the ‘Corporate Image & Information’ category for a campaign advertising the agency’s own scholarship.

Proximity London receives the nod for ‘Growth’, a campaign for Royal Mail’s SME service and for ‘Mystery Package’ on behalf of the Royal National Lifeboat Institute.

Meanwhile work for Carphone Warehouse’s brand Talk Talk earned CHI & Partners two nominations also.

Story, Iris Worldwide, Wunderman and McCann Erickson all received one nomination apiece for Glenmorangie, Kids Co, Ford (in alliance with Land Rover and P&G) and Skcin respectively.

The Direct, Promo and PR Lions winners will be announced tomorrow, Tuesday 23 June. The rest of the awards ceremonies are staggered throughout the week, culminating on Saturday 27 June.

Daren Kay, executive creative director at TMW and one of two UK practitioners judging the awards this year, is blogging live from the event.

Nominations by country

Germany 24 nominations
Australia 20
Belgium 19
Spain 17
Brazil 9
New Zealand 9
India 7
Sweden 6
USA 6
Austria 6
South Africa 5
China 4
The Netherlands 4
Portugal 4
Japan 3
Norway 3
Hong Kong 3
Israel 3
Chile 2
Singapore 2
Columbia 2
Turkey 2
Saudi Arabia 1
Uruguay 1
Denmark 1
Dominican Republic 1
Austria 1
Tunisia 1
Argentina 1
Slovak Republic 1
Malaysia 1

This article was first published on Marketing Direct

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