The Indian juggernaut rolls with minor blips

At the end of four days at Cannes Ad Fest, India has 19 metals and one Grand Prix in its fold

India’s pace of wins slackened on the fourth day of the Cannes Ad Fest in what professionals described as the onset of mid-week blues. Contrary to expectations, the Indian contingent took home only four metals — two silver and two bronze — and remained one short of the magical figure of 20 at the end of four days.

GETTING THERE

• At the end of four days, India has 19 metals and a Grand Prix
• India could breach the crucial 20-metal mark today with winners for categories such as online, mobile and media to be declared today, the fifth day
• India has 17 shortlists in the above-mentioned categories
• Day fourth belonged to agencies such as McCann Worldgroup, J Walter Thompson and BBDO

“The 20-metal mark would have been a good number to achieve. But, we still have half a week to go before the festival concludes on Saturday,” said K V Sridhar, chief creative officer, SapientNitro, and an industry veteran who has not only participated but also tracked the festival closely over the years.

The winners on the fourth night included McCann Worldgroup’s ‘The Dancing Letters’ campaign for the Maharashtra Dyslexia Association, which won a silver and bronze, respectively, in the design category. J Walter Thompson’s ‘Blood Banking’ campaign for the Indian Red Cross fetched the agency a silver, again in the design category, while BBDO's ‘Share the Load’ campaign for Procter & Gamble’s Ariel Matic bagged a bronze in creative effectiveness.

The fifth day of the festival will see awards given for categories such as cyber (online) media and mobile, where India has a total of 17 shortlists. Hopes remain alive of the Indian camp crossing the 20-metal hump, expected to boost sentiment enormously.

Two of the country's top advertisers, Hindustan Unilever and Procter & Gamble, seem to be slugging it out, albeit in a different context. Work entered by their respective roster agencies has won, giving a fillip to the morale of the respective companies’ marketing teams.

For instance, an initiative for Hindustan Unilever’s tea brand Brooke Bond Red Label, called ‘6 Pack Band’, was the Glass Grand Prix winner on day three, while Procter & Gamble’s ‘Share the Load’ campaign was a gold winner in the same category, besides taking home a bronze on day four. There could be more such occasions in the course of the week when the two advertisers face each other, according to sources.

This is, incidentally, not the first time the two giants have found themselves fighting for top honours at Cannes. Agency executives say it is a familiar script that has played for a few years now because the two remain active and aggressive advertisers in India.

Last year, Procter & Gamble’s ‘Touch the Pickle’ (for brand Whisper) campaign was the Glass Grand Prix winner, while Hindustan Unilever's Kan Khajura Tesan won a bronze for creative effectiveness.

This was the second straight year Kan Khajura Tesan, which requires the listener to make a missed call to a dedicated number, had won at Cannes. In 2014, Kan Khajura Tesan, which means earworm radio station, had won three golds and a bronze in recognition of the brand-building efforts of Hindustan Unilever in the media-dark areas of north India.