Formally known as the Advertiser of the Year Award, this prize is presented to brands that have distinguished themselves by inspiring innovative marketing of their products across multiple platforms and who embrace and encourage creativity in their brand communications produced by their agencies.

Having won its first Cannes Lion back in 1967, the company has gone on to pick up more than 100 Lions across different advertising and communication disciplines, including a Design Grand Prix in 2008 for the US entry Coca-Cola Identity and, most recently, the 2012 Outdoor Grand Prix win for China for Coke Hands.

"The company's restless pursuit of creative innovation in the marketing of its brands across multiple platforms in many different territories has been honoured at Cannes for many years," says Philip Thomas, chief executive of Cannes Lions.

Perfect balance

"Most noticeable, when looking at its Lion winners, there is the perfect balance between the careful, consistent management of global brands and freedom given to local teams to adapt and innovate for their markets. We congratulate the company and its agency partners for the well-deserved achievement in keeping the business at the forefront of brand marketing thinking and look forward to honouring them in Cannes."

Joe Tripodi, executive vice president and chief marketing & commercial officer of the Coca-Cola Company, says, "Creativity has been and always will be at the heart of our brands. It fuels our business - with consumers, customers, fans, agencies and partners all over the world. We are honoured by this recognition and grateful to our agencies and partners who inspire and make us better."

The Creative Marketer of the Year trophy will be presented in Cannes to Joe Tripodi on Saturday 22 June 2013.

Nearly 100 years of brand identity

Since the manufacture of the now famous contour bottle in 1916, it has consistently maintained a strong brand identity with a focus on design. The company's advertising, always an important and exciting part of its business, came into its own in the 1970s with the brand's iconic 1971 Hilltop commercial - where a group of young people from all over the world gathered on a hilltop in Italy to sing "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke". The 1990s were a time of continued growth for the company, reflected in the strengthening of the brand by connecting with wider audiences through its on-going support of the Olympic Games and FIFA World Cup.

The industry recognised the resurgence of its creative mojo in 2007 with the launch of "The Coke Side of Life" and iconic films like Happiness Factory and Videogame, which marked the brand's return to telling big stories in a fresh, surprising way. Momentum continued to build in 2008 when its Visual Identity System (VIS) won the first Design Grand Prix at Cannes and the company surprised juries yet again in 2011 with small-scale viral films like Friendship Machine.

Key Cannes dates

• Creative Effectiveness Lions entries open: Now (by invitation only)
  
• Delegate registration opens: 10 January 2013
  
• All other entries open: 24 January 2013
  
• Creative Effectiveness Lions entry deadline: 1 March 2013
  
• All other entries deadline: 28 March 2013
  
• 60th Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity: 16-22 June 2013

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Information on Cannes Lions facilitated by Cinemark, South Africa's official representative of the Cannes Lions Festival.