Member Article

Manchester’s Havas Lynx scoops Healthcare Agency of the Year at Cannes

A Manchester healthcare communications agency is celebrating after claiming top honours at one of the world’s largest awards for the creative and marketing communications industry.

Havas Lynx, which employs nearly 300 people at its office in Princess Street, was named the Cannes Lions Healthcare Agency of the Year 2018, as well as collecting three prestigious Cannes Lions Awards.

The Lions Health Awards are the most established and sought-after awards for the sector and are recognised globally as the ultimate achievement in creativity.

The evening started well for Havas Lynx as it picked up a Bronze award in Cinematography for ‘The Attack’, a tense and striking film metaphorically comparing the unbearable pain of a heart attack to a shark attack out at sea. The impactful film is designed to urge cardiologists to keep treating heart attack victims to reduce the risk of often fatal second heart attacks.

The company, who also has offices in London and New York, then went on to pick up two Silver Lions. The first was in the Product Innovation category for ‘Ouchie’, a campaign designed to raise awareness and support children with JIA (Junior Idiopathic Arthritis). The second silver was in the Art Direction category for its inspired and inventive Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Rollercoaster campaign.

However, the ultimate win came when Havas Lynx were named as Cannes Lions Healthcare Agency of the Year 2018. This prestigious award is given annually in recognition of the agency that obtains the most points across both wins and shortlisted entries.

Havas Lynx CCO Tom Richards commented on the triple win and Agency of the Year 2018 title:

“This is momentous for Havas Lynx. To win three awards here was an amazing achievement, but then to go on and win Cannes Lions Healthcare Agency of the Year, was incredible. It is testament to the work and dedication of the whole team… we couldn’t be prouder to be bringing the trophies back to Manchester.

“Winning at Cannes is a defining moment for us and it’s thanks to the continued dedication, determination and ambition of our team, not to mention the extraordinary work of our clients. They trust us to communicate their healthcare innovations in a way which challenges and subverts industry expectations.”

He concluded: “We take great pride in our work and we continually strive to create bold, highly creative and powerful work, which resonates with both healthcare professionals, patients and caregivers to ultimately improve the future of healthcare and change lives for the better.”

Havas Lynx has grown from a small creative agency formed in the Northern Quarter of Manchester into a global healthcare communications agency, offering campaign development, brand strategy, capability building and education services.

It celebrated its 30th birthday in 2016 and over the last two years has grown almost 20%, creating over 60 new jobs to take its global workforce to over 300.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Russ Cockburn .