• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, July 9, 2013

The Cannes Lions organization said Tuesday it was reviewing its rules regarding the amendment of awards submissions to its annual International Festival of Creativity.

Word of the rules review comes less than two weeks after a controversy erupted over the final Lion tally claimed by WPP’s GroupM. The media holding company said it won a total of 45 awards. That claim could only be made after going back to roughly 30 of the entrant agencies, after the awards were issued, to request that GroupM shops be listed on the submission form for credit.

Omnicom Media Group, in turn, cried foul, charging that GroupM claimed credit for awards not certified by the Cannes Lions organization. OMG also asserted that the WPP company abused the amendment policy, which OMG claimed was designed for the occasional omission, not 30 of them. GroupM “decided to rewrite history after the event,” charged OMD global CEO Mainardo de Nardis.

While it plans to review the rules for future competitions, the Lions organization did certify all the claims made by media shops for the 2013 Lions award program. “To date, all claims that have been made have been validated by the Festival based on the entrant company being contacted and agreeing to the credit amendment,” the organization stated. Thus, GroupM’s tally of 45 Lions stands.

But the Lions group also made a point of noting that while various media shops boasted about their Lion tallies during and after the program in June, the festival “recognizes the leading media agency with the award of Media Agency of the Year. That is the only official award it gives as it relates to a media agency compilation, and in 2013, it was awarded to OMD Sydney.”

OMD’s de Nardis applauded the decision to review the rules, which he said was necessary “to achieve a more rational and equitable accreditation policy for 2014 and beyond, with the goal of protecting and respecting the spirit and mission of Cannes and its tradition as our industry’s cornerstone recognition event.”

GroupM declined to comment on the rules review.

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