Changed perspective leads India to a poor run at Cannes

India’s performance this year at the Cannes Festival of Creativity, regarded as the Mecca of advertising, would go down as one of its worse in recent times. With a tally of 12 metals across categories such as print, design, outdoor, media and radio, India is unlikely to exceed the figure of 15 (as against last year’s 24) even if agencies Taproot and BBH manage to convert their nominations into wins in film, film craft and Titanium & Integrated, among the final awards to be declared tonight.

Taproot has two nominations for ‘I am Mumbai’ (the campaign for Mumbai Mirror) in the film and film craft (it shares this one with production house Ramesh Deo Productions) categories, respectively. A third one for Taproot is in the Titanium & Integrated category for a ‘Day in the Life of India’ (all three nominations are for client Bennett, Coleman & Co). BBH has a nomination in film craft for its ‘Tanjore’ ad for Google Chrome. It shares this nomination with Mumbai-based production house Eeksaurus.

In all, there are four nominations between two agencies tonight. While both ‘I am Mumbai’ and the ‘Tanjore’ film are said to be strong contenders, the tally leaves much to be desired.

The number of Indian entries were more or less in line with last year’s figure, around 1,000-1,100. So, what went wrong? While shortlists this year were high in comparison to last year in traditional favourites such as print, design, outdoor, direct marketing and media, Indian agencies seem to have had a problem converting nominations into metals. In hot favourite print, for instance, India had 31 nominations against 19 last year. But the number of metals bagged was equal to last year’s four. Had the conversions been greater in print, followed by outdoor, which had 22 nominations, India would have been in a far stronger position, admit industry honchos.

In outdoor, India bagged just one metal out of 22 shortlists. In media, it bagged only three out of nine shortlists. “We could have converted better,” says Madhukar Kamath, MD & CEO, DDB Mudra Group, “As a country, we need more scale, better craft and execution to succeed.”
 

INDIAN AGENCIES’ SCORECARD
Agency	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Shortlists	Score
DDB Mudra	1	-	1	19	29
Leo Burnett	-	2	1	16	29
Ogilvy India	-	-	3	8	17
McCann	1	-	-	3	10
BBDO	-	-	2	8	14
Cheil	-	1	-	3	8
Taproot	-	-	-	3	3*
BBH	-	-	-	2	2*
Lions so far	2	3	7	-	-
India won a total of 24 Lions last year. *Taproot & BBH’s scores can change after Saturday’s outcome. 1 gold = 7 points; 1 silver = 5 points; 1 bronze = 3 points and one shortlist = 1 point Source: Industry

Josy Paul, chairman and national creative director, BBDO India, a Cannes regular for over a decade, points to a change in perspective on creativity. “What I found at Cannes this year was a greater emphasis on having jurors from diverse backgrounds and geographies. Possibly, the organising committee felt that would bring fresh ways of looking at work. With that, the pressure on creative agencies to produce work that is universally appealing increases,” he says.

In categories such as mobile and online advertising, India simply drew a blank. Says Abhijit Avasthi, national creative director, Ogilvy India, “We can get better. It depends on how fast media consumption habits change. Advertisers are beginning to venture into digital in India.”