A major industry award highlights new creative strategies in media buying. Carat secured top honors at Cannes Lions 2026, with OMD Worldwide and PHD Worldwide following. Innovative campaigns drove the win.
Media professionals tracking global recognition for creative excellence saw Carat, part of Dentsu, claim the Cannes Lions 2026 Media Network of the Year title. The award, determined by points from shortlisted and winning entries in the Media Lions category, reflects the network's performance in media placement roles across campaigns.
Carat's portfolio included three Gold Lions, with two awarded for the Heineken campaign, “Could Have Been a Heineken.” This campaign leveraged mobile and social behavior, notably using a WhatsApp bot that rewarded users who forwarded long voice messages with a free Heineken voucher. The campaign played on the familiar workplace meme, “this could have been an email,” to engage audiences in a novel way.
The third Gold Lion went to Carat Italy for “Dark Mode,” a campaign for energy company Plentitude. This initiative aimed to cut digital advertising's energy consumption by switching brightly lit LED screens in store windows and out-of-home displays to darker backgrounds, demonstrating a focus on sustainability in media execution.
OMD Worldwide and PHD Worldwide, both under Omnicom, were recognized as runner-up and third place, respectively, in the Media Network of the Year competition.
