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Titanium Lion award added to 2003 Cannes Lions ad fest
NEW YORK: The advertising industry’s most coveted awards’ committee has introduced a new award to honour innovation. The Titanium Lion will be added to this year’s Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival to be held between 16-22 June 2003.
Ad agency Wieden & Kennedy chairman Dan Wieden, who is also the president of this year’s film and print and posters juries at the Cannes festival, was behind the creation of the Titanium Lion. Wieden and the respective presidents of the media, direct and cyber juries will chose the winner of the Titanium Lion by majority vote.
The award will be given each year to provocative work “in any category, or any combination of categories, that causes the industry to stop in its tracks and reconsider the way forward”. An adage report says that the new prize was created at least in part over how difficult it is to award groundbreaking work like the BMW Films campaign that doesn’t fit neatly into a single category.
BMW Films swept award shows in the US and around the world last year and was considered by Cannes juries for film, media and cyber Lions but won only in the cyber category, which prompted widespread criticism by those in the ad industry.
In an earlier interview with Advertising Age, Wieden had indicated he will look for ads that point the way to advertising’s future, seeking out work with “a sign of where things could be going, the antenna to indicate a new landscape. I hope that’s what we can focus on.”
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WPP appoints Estée Lauder’s Anne-Isabelle Choueiri as chief transformation officer
Former Estée Lauder executive to lead operations, technology and culture overhaul under WPP’s three-year growth plan
LONDON: WPP has appointed Anne-Isabelle Choueiri as chief transformation officer in a newly created role tasked with delivering the group’s Elevate28 strategy.
Choueiri joins from The Estée Lauder Companies, where she led enterprise-wide strategic initiatives, including the “One ELC” operating model and major upgrades to enterprise marketing, data and analytics capabilities. She also led the redesign of enterprise technology teams and served on the company’s AI taskforce, driving AI strategy, adoption and value realisation across the business.
At WPP, she will be responsible for designing, implementing and embedding the operating model behind Elevate28, the company’s three-year growth plan unveiled in February 2026. She will lead efforts to improve innovation, efficiency and integration across WPP’s client offerings, with a focus on delivering agile, outcome-driven solutions and measurable growth.
Choueiri will oversee organisational transformation across the group, working closely with product and enterprise technology teams to deploy AI, data and technology to build new capabilities and improve operational performance. She will also work with the people function to embed cultural change, strengthen an agile performance mindset and support talent development across the organisation.
Before joining Estée Lauder, she held senior roles across consulting and digital agencies, including at Accenture, Masaï (a Bain & Company spin-off), and Kearney, with experience spanning strategy, data and digital marketing transformation.
Cindy Rose, chief executive officer of WPP, said Choueiri brings a strong track record of leading large-scale transformation across operations, technology and culture, adding that her appointment will help accelerate the group’s next phase of growth under Elevate28.
Choueiri said WPP’s strategy represents an ambitious opportunity to reshape how the company operates and delivers for clients, adding that she looks forward to building integrated solutions and fostering a culture of innovation and change.
She will be based in New York and will join WPP’s executive committee.
