Despite Grand Prix, poor show by India at Cannes Ad Fest

Tally of 13 metals lowest in seven years

India put up a dismal show at the annual Cannes Lion Advertising Festival, billed as the biggest ad fest in the world. Despite a Grand Prix, India took home only 13 metals , its lowest tally in seven years. A metal in advertising parlance means an award or trophy.

Cannes, like most other ad fests, gives gold, silver and bronze Lions. This year, a new category - Glass Lions - was introduced where India took home a Grand Prix plus an additional trophy. Both awards were bagged by BBDO India for work they did for fast moving consumer goods company Procter & Gamble. The Grand Prix winning campaign - Touch the Pickle - for Whisper sanitary napkins attempted to bust myths surrounding women's periods. The second, called 'Share the Load' for P&G's Arial Matic detergent powder, spoke of the need for gender equality when doing household chores.

In addition, BBDO India bagged a bronze in the media category, again for Touch the Pickle, helping it top the metal tally. Josy Paul, chairman and chief creative officer, BBDO India, said, "The Grand Prix win is significant because it tells us we are doing something the world loves and wants to celebrate. It builds roots and gives us greater belief in our work and inspires and encourages us to create more acts, not ads."

McCann was next with four silvers, three of which came for its work for DishTV (two were in outdoor and one in press), and one for Dabur Gastrina (press). Prasoon Joshi, chairman, McCann Worldgroup Asia Pacific, said, "I'm quite happy with our performance. The work we entered has won. Winning here is not easy. From an industry point of view, yes, it is one of those years when there haven't been too many wins for India at Cannes. But I'm of the view this has more to do with our emphasis on ideas than craft. We are great at generating ideas. That is good. But we also need to focus on the craft."

India earlier had a count lower than the current tally was in 2006 and 2007, when agencies took home a total of 12 metals each. But that was a different era, when Indian agencies were beginning to make their presence felt on the global advertising stage.

India, for the record, began winning metals at Cannes from 1996, when SSC&B Lintas (a Lintas Group agency) bagged gold for a mosquito-repellent brand called Hexit. The winning entry was a print campaign called 'How to Kill a Mosquito'.

After that, India failed to get the scoreboard ticking, with a fairly long dry spell that stretched until 2001. India was back to winning again from 2002. However, the tally never crossed 10-12 metals. It was in 2008 when the Indian contingent doubled its metals count to 23, not to look back again. It consistently began crossing the 20-metal-mark, though there were lean patches in between - like in 2010, when the tally was 17, and in 2012, when it was 14.

Piyush Pandey, executive chairman and creative director for Ogilvy & Mather India and South Asia, also a regular at Cannes, said, "I don't think our work wasn't up to the mark. It is just that the juries had a different point of view. These matters are subjective. What I think should win doesn't necessarily mean that the jury thinks should win. Yes, we need to improve our work in cyber and digital. These are fairly new categories for us as a nation. But we will get there."

Bobby Pawar, director and chief creative officer, Publicis South Asia, said India's conversion rate (that is, the number of metals bagged against the number of entries) was poor. Of the 945 entries this year, the conversion rate was only 1.4 per cent. Last year, the rate was nearly three per cent (27 metals against 979 entries). "Of course, this is a competitive festival. But that is no excuse to give for our poor showing. Our work hasn't evolved. Other countries are playing the game at a different level. We are falling behind," he said.

A number of categories that drew a blank this year. The Indian contingent had no shortlists at all in categories including mobile, cyber, promo and activation, product design, radio and film craft.

In certain other categories, the shortlists were not much. As in direct marketing, branded content and entertainment and film, where there were not more than one or two shortlists, respectively.