technology and other disciplines beyond advertising. And, of course, there’s nothing a client who attends Cannes likes more than to mount the stage in the Palais, or feel their choice of agency vindicated by its performance there. Secondly, the economic justification – to us at least – had become very clear. This is a business where success is directly related to the extent to which one’s share of the best creative talent is disproportionately large, and Cannes is where you find them. I don’t think there is any other business except for professional football where this is the case. Cannes provides a perfect recruitment mechanism. The stars in our business want to work in a company that takes creativity seriously, and where winning is seen as core to the purpose, not as an expendable luxury. Thirdly, the arrival of the big holding companies – and the institution of a Holding Company of the Year award – meant the competition was featured in their annual reports. Performance was used by financial analysts hunting for any alchemical symptoms which might indicate underlying strength or weakness. All this happened at a time when bloggers were being critical of BDAs (Big Dumb Agencies), and the business model had to show itself to be as sexy as it was efficient. So it was that when the 100th anniversary of David’s birth had to be celebrated, we decided to take it (against the conventional wisdom) to Cannes. On 23 June 2011, people woke up to a gigantic red carpet spanning the entire length of the Croisette, which we subsequently cut up into small pieces and turned into David Ogilvy Red Carpet insoles, and used as a New Year’s direct-mail piece sent to clients and friends. That year, we came second. By mid-afternoon of 23 June 2012, the following year, it became clear that we were edging towards victory. A congratulatory text from my counterpart Andrew Robertson of BBDO, a typically generous gesture, confirmed it: their tally of points was at that time more accurate than ours. A few hours later, our teams invaded the stage in triumph. Since then, we’ve won four times more. Of course, we will not win forever, and rightly so.