Wagon Wheels is Australia’s only Cannes Press winner

A long copy ad for Wagon Wheels by GPY&R Sydney was Australia’s sole winner of a Press Lion in Cannes.

The ad – featuring the quirky tale of the invention of the Wagon Wheel – won a silver lion.

The Press Lions’ Australian juror Ant Keogh, ECD of Clemenger BBDO Melbourne, told Mumbrella: “It didn’t feel to me like there were a lot of Australian entries and that’s a little disappointing. I’m actually trying to pinpoint why that is. It does seem in Australia there is an emphasis on integrated and television. Maybe with the budgets shrinking, print’s kind of falling away a little bit. Perhaps it was just a bad year.”

According to the Cannes Lions organisers, there were 174 Australian entries into the category – the seventh highest number among competing countries. However, 17 countries performed better in the category in terms of trophies won.