Cannes 2019: FCB bags Gold in sustainable development goals category

The Indian contingent will sign off from the 66th edition of the Cannes Lions Festival, which ended on Friday, with a gold in its kitty.

The yellow metal was bagged by FCB in the category of sustainable development goals for the Millennium National School. The entry was called the The Open Door Project.

Following the gold, the scorecard goes up to 17, though domestic agencies were also counting on Ogilvy's work for Hamam soap, shortlisted in the glass lions, to win metal at the time of going to press. Metals is industry parlance for awards. Glass lions reward agencies for the work they do around social issues, while sustainable development goals look at campaigns that have made a positive impact in their targeted markets.

After Friday night’s award show, India could take home close to 20 metals, provided there are some more metal conversions, say advertising agency heads attending or tracking the festival who Business Standard has spoken to. This comes after an average performance through the five-day fest, which began on Monday and saw India taking home a total of 16 lions, including five silver and 11 bronze after four days.

Last year, India had taken home 21 lions and two Grand Prix trophies.

In all, India has a total of seven shortlisted entries in the race for metals on Friday, including one in the glass lions segment, three in sustainable development goals and three in the film lion category. 

Makers of Hamam soap, namely, Hindustan Unilever, provided water-proof sarees for female pilgrims during this year’s Kumbh Mela, shortlisted in glass. The company worked with Ogilvy to conceptualise and execute the campaign. “Preserving the modesty of women has been a challenge at places of worship especially when they decide to take a holy dip. The concept of a water-proof saree in that context is interesting,” said KV Sridhar, founder and chief creative officer, HyperCollective. “This should win metal in my view,” he said. 

In sustainable development, DDB Mudra’s Project free period done for Johnson & Johnson’s sanitary napkin Stayfree has been shortlisted along with FCB's The Open door project. In the film category, Wunderman Thompson’s Blink campaign and work for Proctor & Gamble’s Vicks brand are in contention for metal.

Praful Akali, founder and managing director, Medulla Communications, said Indian work had fallen behind at a time when the global creative world was looking at the innovative use of data and technology to develop campaigns. "We have miles to go on how we creatively interpret data and weave it into our campaigns. While we are strong when it comes upholding our values and culture in our campaigns, I think what jurors at Cannes were looking out for this year were campaigns that could tell a human story with cutting-edge technology backing it. That is a gap we will have to fill.”

Despite 68 shortlists through the week, India’s metal conversion rate has been decent, said some experts, at 24 per cent. Before Friday’s win, in silver the conversion rate was 7 per cent and for bronze it was 16 per cent.