Clio Awards 2025: FCB leads as Alan Cumming hosts evening of homosexual sheep and a century-old influencer

Topping the unofficial leaderboard used to be FCB New York, which accumulated 8 Grand Clio Awards throughout classes together with knowledge, design and branded leisure.

Ogilvy, in the meantime, endured its robust run beneath international CCO Liz Taylor. The community took house 5 Grands for paintings together with ‘Michael CeraVe,’ a bizarrely good skin care conspiracy concept became content material marketing campaign starring actor Michael Cera. It’s the type of eye-catching weirdness that awards juries (and TikTok) love and can most probably spice up Ogilvy’s status on this 12 months’s WCR.

Close in the back of used to be David Madrid, scoring 4 Grands for its not going ingenious hero: a 100-year-old influencer named Marina Prieto, who fronted a marketing campaign for outside media massive JCDecaux. Her symbol used to be splashed throughout ghosted-out advert stock to make the case for higher media protection of older generations.

Other robust performers incorporated LePub (additionally 4 wins), Serviceplan Germany (3) and Colenso BBDO, whose standout paintings for Pedigree earned it two Grands and a spot on this 12 months’s unofficial best tier.

With Cannes Lions and The Drum Marketing Awards going down in June, we’ll be publishing an replace to expose how the primary 1/2 of the 12 months awards have impacted the World Creative Rankings chief board.

The complete World Creative Rankings document will probably be printed in February 2026 and can combination the result of each main award program around the 12 months, together with The Drum Awards Festival 2025, which takes position in November.

Creative that caught – and stood for one thing

Among the numerous Grand Clio winners, a couple of campaigns stood out for his or her originality, objective and sheer storytelling energy.

Take ‘Rainbow Wool’ by way of Serviceplan Germany, a marketing campaign that started with a homosexual sheep and ended with a Grand Clio for Creative Commerce. The tale began on a small farm in rural Germany, the place two rams had been came upon appearing affection for one any other. Rather than brushing it apart, the farmers embraced the couple, positioned them in a secure pasture in combination and introduced a homosexual sanctuary for sheep, which spun their wool right into a Pride product line.

Meanwhile, Rethink gained large with its sharp, satirical marketing campaign ‘Paid Through Parents’ for Molson Coors. With Olympic laws barring non-sponsor manufacturers from supporting athletes without delay and with the Olympics refusing to shop for tickets for athletes’ households, Rethink discovered a workaround. It backed the fogeys to wait.

Decked out in branded merch, the fogeys gave the impression on billboards, in influencer content material and media interviews, all whilst cheering from the sidelines in Paris.

Then there used to be ‘Night Fishing’ by way of Innocean for Hyundai, a moody quick movie shot fully at the carmaker’s Ioniq 7 onboard cameras. Blending automobile tech with cinematic pressure, it became an EV release right into a narrative revel in and collected a Grand Clio for Branded Entertainment & Content – a neat reminder that, when carried out proper, product options don’t have to break the tale – they may be able to be the tale.

An evening of popularity

Beyond the emblem paintings, the Clio level additionally commemorated one of the other people using significant trade around the trade. Jerri DeVard, founding father of the Black Executive CMO Alliance (BECA), gained the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award for her many years of management and, extra considerably, for her tireless paintings supporting and advancing the careers of Black entrepreneurs.

DeVard introduced BECA to offer mentorship, get admission to and visibility for Black execs in senior advertising roles, addressing the loss of illustration on the best of the trade. Her paintings has created a pipeline of skill, provided long run leaders and challenged firms to decide to extra inclusive management buildings.

Digital sensation Jools LeBron gained the Breakthrough Award after her viral ‘Demure’ marketing campaign (which changed into Dictionary.com’s Word of the Year) ended in model offers with Verizon, Taco Bell and Elf Cosmetics. Her upward push displays the rising energy of creator-led storytelling in fashionable brand-building – one thing the Clios leaned into closely this 12 months.