Commented Graham Warsop: "Last year we had 78 Shortlists. This year we had 94 Shortlists. If you really want a selling job, how about this... South Africa had 124 Shortlists this year, of which 30 went on to win Cannes Lions and a Grand Prix... I don't think we've ever broken the 100 shortlists barrier before!"
The final tally was a total of 30 Lions (including the Grand Prix for Press), broken down as follows: 1 Grand Prix, 6 Golds, 4 Silvers and 19 Bronzes.
To demonstrate the sheer magnitude of the achievement, according to the Creative Circle, they did a comparison between Lions won in 2006 and Lions won the previous year, in 2005:
| 2005 | 2006 | |
| Radio | 6 | 6 |
| Press | 3 | 7 |
| Outdoor | 3 | 7 |
| Film | 1 | 2 |
| Media | 2 | 4 |
| Direct | 1 | 3 |
| Promotional (new category in 2006) | - | 1 |
| TOTAL | 16 | 30 |
Warsop continues: "Many congratulations to FCB for winning the first Cannes Grand Prix in the history of South African advertising - there can't be many better records to hold."
Congratulations must also go to all Lion winners, especially Ogilvy and Net#work BBDO who bagged a whopping six Lions each; to TBWA Hunt Lascaris/Tequila for five Lions; Lowe Bull which achieved four Lions (and was the only SA agency to win two Golds); and Lobedu Leo Burnett for a sterling three-Lion performance.
"The publishing of the Cannes results brings to a close the results for the four international awards shows endorsed by the Creative Circle in 2006. We couldn't have gone out on a bigger high. Let's hope in 2007 we carry on where we've left off," concluded Warsop.
