India hardly among the best in 2012 Gunn Report

The Prasoon Joshi-edited report shows a dip in award-winning work from Indian agencies

We know him as an adman, a lyricist and screenwriter for Bollywood films. But 41-year-old Prasoon Joshi, McCann's president for the South Asian region and chairman and chief creative officer of the Indian unit, has added one more feather to his cap. He has become the first Indian advertising professional to edit the Gunn Report, an annual compilation of the top advertising networks, advertisers and campaigns who have been winners at the most important ad industry award shows around the world.

While Joshi has been bestowed this honour, what is noteworthy is that the number of Indian campaigns in the 2012 Gunn Report is actually down to two-three from five-six earlier. "Indian agencies are creating good work, but not necessarily award-winning work," says Joshi. He declines to specify which are the Indian campaigns that make it to the list.

The last year has indeed been a tough one for Indian advertising. Industry growth rates remained flat at about 9-10 per cent, compared with 20 per cent in 2010.

There wasn't much to write home about on the creative side, too, with advertisers such as Airtel, Cadbury, Flipkart and Fevicol doing their bit to keep the creative torch burning. But international work, in contrast, says Joshi, had the sparks. "This despite the fact that the slowdown has hit these economies harder than ours," he adds.

Joshi lists his favourite international campaigns. "In print, for instance, there was some brilliant work from Samsonite. Basically of how your luggage and you can travel diverse worlds, as the ad says: From Heaven to Hell. In television, I liked the work by French premium pay TV channel Canal+. The idea is simple: how anybody can gain appreciation of cinema by watching the channel. The execution is interesting: the ad shows how a bear skin rug sitting on the floor in a living room metamorphoses into a movie director guiding his cast and crew during a shoot."

Of the ad networks that dominate the 2012 list - Omnicom agency BBDO has made it to the top five as the most awarded ad network for the seventh time in a row and the 10th time in the 14-year history of the report. DDB, also from Omnicom, follows next at No. 2, while WPP agencies Ogilvy, Leo Burnett and Y&R come in at numbers three, four and five respectively.

Of the advertisers, Volkswagen has reclaimed its position as the most-awarded company in 2012 after having been dethroned by Coca-Cola the year before. Technology major Google, Nike, Coca-Cola and Mercedes-Benz complete the top five list.

By country, the US ranks as the most awarded country, followed by the UK, Australia, Japan, Argentina and Brazil.