• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, June 22, 2011

CANNES, FRANCE --The Cyber Lions judging committee awarded three grand prix winners to three American companies - Google's in-house Creative Labs, independent Wieden + Kennedy, and Interpublic's R/GA - but the underlying theme for the rest of the gold, silver and bronze awards reflected the same recurring message of international diversity throughout the festival week

Google's Grand Prix was awarded for its "Wilderness Downtown" interactive short film for its Chrome browser, while Wieden + Kennedy won for its Old Spice "Response" campaign, and R/GA for its "Pay With A Tweet" social media effort for Innovate Thunder.

Gold Cyber Lions went to AKQA for its Heineken "Starplayer" app, Sapient Nitro London for Footlocker's "Sneakerpedia," and Toaster London for its YouTube "Life In a Day" campaign.

AKQA won a Silver Lion for Nike's "Football+ Team Edition" coaching app, while R/GA received one for NGP Paribas' "We Are Tennis," and TBWA got one for Skittles' "Super Mega Rainbow Updater."

During the ceremony, the Lions' Media Person of the Year award was presented to Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google.

Also honored were the winners of the Young Lions Print & Cyber Competitions. The team from Canada took the gold for their Cyber entry.