Carat named Media Network of the Year

Cannes Lions 2026: Special report

Independent media agency Carat has won Media Network of the Year at Cannes Lions this week. The Media Leader talks to Will Swayne, global practice president at Dentsu on the Croisette.

Carat puts this year’s global recognition down to the “power of planning” and “really good understanding of consumers”, powered by AI, that is driving clients’ business outcomes. 

In another year of flux for the industry, which saw Carat retain Heineken’s global media account and win Netflix across Europe, but lose its Microsoft business to Publicis, Will Swayne, global practice president at Dentsu, calls the win “powerful validation’ of the network’s positioning.

“This recognition is powerful validation of what Carat does best – bringing together creativity, data and technology to deliver the most impactful outcomes for clients,” says Swayne. “At a time when our industry is being reshaped by AI, algorithms and fragmented attention, being named Media Network of the Year is evidence of what’s possible when exceptional talent, deep human understanding, market-leading agentic capabilities and trusted partnerships come together.”

At the Media Lions awards, Carat won three Gold Lions, one Silver Lion and two Bronze Lions. Standout campaigns included “Could Have Been a Heineken,” which won two Gold Lions, and “Dark Mode Ads for Plenitude,” which won one Gold Lion.

Swayne highlights Carat’s newly built agentic intelligence dentsu.Connect across the marketing lifecycle to be a key differentiator in the agency’s ability to deliver better outcomes for clients. 

At the heart of dentsu.Connect is a unified workflow and user experience powered by central, shared contextual intelligence. Autonomous, enterprise-scale agents leverage proprietary data and IP, embedding best practices and craft directly into how work gets done.

“It is about understanding people better,” says Swayne. “Carat has a very strong heritage in planning, but that planning started off with paid media, shifted into thinking about paid, owned and earned, and then shifted to including all touch points all the way through the line. 

“The planning tool that we use inside of dentsu.Connect, that all of our staff, 68,000 people across the network, work on, allows us to be able to plan through the line. If you look at the work that we do on Heineken, if you look at the work that we do on Kraft Heinz, what you see is thinking that goes all the way through from influencers and creators through to retail, all the way down to a shelf wobbler, as well as video and everything in between. 

He adds: “Ultimately, it’s about driving the best business outcomes. And Carat’s obsession with that is what is manifested in this great work, and I think it is a celebration of that work.”

Since winning Heineken’s media business in 2017, Carat has expanded its partnership from five markets to more than 80 and has since become its technology agency of record, helping the drinks brand build its own agentic workflow within the organisation.

“We’re taking our data and technology and helping Heineken build out what its marketing workflow is inside of its organisation. So it’s really interesting. They have a vision centred on Freddie AI, based on Freddie Heineken, the founder of the company. They’re building out an agentic workflow workplace that will change how they operate as a marketing organisation, and how they plug in their agency partners.” 

It seems the media agency landscape continues to evolve, and the original industry pioneer, Carat, continues to lead the way. The Merkle acquisition in 2016 is said to have been a “pioneering moment” for Dentsu, providing performance marketing expertise and data sets at scale.

“Carat has always had such a strong vision for the future and where we’re heading,” says Swayne. “Unlike other media agencies, Carat has always had to go out and win based upon its own understanding of media and our understanding of consumers.

“We’ve never been handed a piece of business by a creative agency, sister partner. And as media continues to evolve, the way that we structure the capabilities that we build, and where we’re investing on behalf of our clients, is always informed by the consumer, and understanding of the audience.” 

Arif Durrani is the global content director at Reuters Plus Studio. He is also a media consultant and freelance writer for The Media Leader.