South Africa roars in Cannes

A Silver Lion went to Net#work BBDO's "Lonely Finger" campaign for SABC's 5FM Radio in the Publications & Media section at the Direct Awards last night, Monday, 19 June 2006. Net#work also won a Bronze Lion for the same campaign in the Traffic Building section.

Over 100 awards were given at the Lions Direct and Promo Lions awards ceremony last night in Cannes. The first ever Grand Prix in Promo Lions was awarded to Volkswagen's 'Fast' entered by Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Miami, and the Lions Direct Grand Prix was given to De Tijd's Business Newspaper ad, 'Need A Job', entered by I DO, Brussels. Direct Agency of the Year went to Scholz & Friends, Berlin.

For more information, go to www.lionsdailynews.com. Winners may be viewed on www.canneslions.com/winners_site.

Net#work is also on the shortlist of finalists for the Cyber Lions for its Virgin Atlantic Frequent Flyer Programme campaign, entitled "Give yourself a break". Cyber Lion winners will be announced on Thursday, 22 June 2006.

Entries up this year

Entries for Cannes Lions are up 12.5% at 24 863 this year, with increases in nearly every existing category.

The new Promo category attracted more than 600 entries while the newly separated Outdoor and Press categories posted rises of 13.17% and 10.3% respectively. The overall rise, excluding Promo, is 9.67%, with a total of 81 countries submitting work.

The Titanium category continued to show strong growth with 203 entries, up 34.5%. After a dramatic rise between 2004 and 2005, Direct entries were down from 1614 to 1509, a drop of 6%. The Cyber category continued to grow rapidly, attracting 2502 entries, a rise of 31.9%.

The Media Agency of the Year Award - presented to the top-scoring agency in the Media section - has been expanded to include Gold, Silver and Bronze Lions. Entries in this section have increased from 421 at its inception in 1999 to 1466 this year. Media displayed the biggest year-on-year growth, at 36.2%.

For more info, go to www.canneslions.com.