Edelman became the first PR firm to snap up a Titanium Lion award at Cannes Lions last week, suggesting a change in tide for the PR industry at the festival.

Edelman has snapped up the PR industry’s first Titanium award at Cannes Lions this year for a sustainability initiative for DP World.

The festival website describes the Titanium Lions award as celebrating “game-changing creativity” that “breaks new ground” in communications. DP World’s ‘The Move to Minus 15’ campaign is one of 80 Titanium Lions awarded since the category was launched 21 years ago.

Having found that the accepted norm of setting freight cargo temperatures for frozen food to -18 degrees has no scientific basis, the campaign promoted raising this to -15 degrees. This would mean saving 5-7% of energy and 17.7 million tons of carbon every year. Since the initiative, 60% of the global shopping container industry has joined ‘The Move to Minus 15’ coalition. “I wanted Edelman to transform from a PR firm into a communications firm,” says Richard Edelman, Edelman CEO, in a blog post.

“The first few years at Cannes were deeply frustrating. I would walk out of the PR Lions ceremony steaming mad. Not only Edelman, but all the other PR firms were struggling for any real wins in the PR category, with ad agencies and digital firms taking the prizes.

“With this win, we’ve scaled the ultimate mountain.”

PR agencies have picked up four Grand Prix at Cannes this year, in what has been described as a breakthrough year for the sector. This includes Golin, which won the PR Grand Prix for its ‘The Misheard Version’ campaign; Ogilvy PR, which took home the Grand Prix in Influencer Marketing for ‘Michael CeraVe’ and Weber Shandwick’s Brand Activation Grand Prix for its ‘First Edible Mascot’.

“I’m so proud of the diversity of our wins across categories, clients and our winning teams,” says Judy John, Edelman global chief creative officer. “From challenging representation in gaming with Dove's 'Code My Crown', to challenging double taxation with IKEA 'SHT', our work is positively impacting the world. I always say, ‘we are one idea away from changing the world’.”