Publicis Conseil, France’s Leading Ad Shop, Is the Cannes Lions 2024 Agency of the Year

Publicis Conseil, the 98-year-old French agency that would morph into the $28 billion colossus Publicis Groupe, has taken the Agency of the Year honor at the 2024 Cannes Lions.

In all, Publicis Conseil took home 18 Lions this year: two Grand Prix, along with six silver and six bronze awards.

“Our dream was to make Publicis Conseil the most creative agency in the world by 2026, right on time for the agency’s centenary,” Publicis France president Agathe Bousquet and chief creative officer Marco Venturelli told ADWEEK. “What seemed like an almost impossible dream then has become a reality today, two years ahead of schedule.”

Agencies based in the United States tend to sweep the trophy table at Cannes: In 2023, American shops took home 218 trophies, 134 more than runner-up Brazil. But creative work from France tends to punch above its weight class—and Publicis Conseil is widely regarded as the leading French agency.

This year, Publicis Conseil received its two Grand Prix honors for a talked-about spot titled “Renault—Cars to Work.”

The short video stems from the finding that 54% of French citizens of limited financial means have had to turn down job offers because they didn’t own cars and lived in “mobility deserts” where public transportation did not exist. The Cars to Work program hands over the keys to a new Renault at the start of their jobs’ probationary period and requires payments only when prospective workers have employment contracts in hand.

By casting several real world workers who’ve benefitted from the program, the spot gives an otherwise dry corporate initiative validity and color.

“The Grand Prix reflects the essential goal we should achieve in advertising,” said jury president Gustavo Lauria in a statement. “It is an idea that is good for people and good for business. By helping people get the access they need to secure a job, Renault ends up selling cars and transforms consumers into loyal believers in the brand. It is a great example of a brave brand that cares, takes risks and gets results.”

Another buzzworthy piece of Pubicis Conseil creative work—also for Renault—was “The Climb,” which won two bronzes, one for production design/art direction and the second for achievement in production.

The apocalypse-flavored spot shows a man climbing a mountain made of abandoned, rusting cars—nearly losing his life to debris plummeting from the top—until he reaches the summit. There, in a blaze of daylight, sits a new, all-electric Renault 5.

Apart from its core message that the automotive industry’s old order of waste and pollution must give way to a more sustainable future, the spot was a technical triumph of its own. The production team assembled 120 crushed Renaults, found across Argentina, and stacked them 33 feet high for the shoot.

Reflecting on Publicis Conseil’s long history, CEO Arthur Sadoun said in a statement that “it took almost 100 years and over 820 kilometers for a hotshop founded in Montmartre by Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet to make its way to the Palais des Festivals to receive this incredibly special honor.”

He was not exaggerating. The son of a furniture salesman, a 20-year-old Bleustein-Blanchet opened his shop in 1926. At a time when advertising’s reputation was dodgy at best, he pledged to elevate the field to something ethical and respectable. The firm pioneered tools and approaches that are standards today, including head-turning slogans, brand sponsorships and campaigns based on consumer research. “To produce without information,” Bleustein-Blanchet once observed, “is like doing half the job.”