Cannes looks beyond feel-good ads, to results

A jury tends to rate social-issue ads higher than others. Yet, we can't forget that advertising is primarily to sell something

Looking back at the week-long festival, there was one clear pattern which was interesting. The festival made it a point to recognise brand work for advertisers and not just work built around social issues. It was what Prasoon (Joshi, McCann Worldgroup's South Asia President) also mentioned in his address as the Jury President of the coveted Titanium and Integrated awards.

As always there were a lot of social-issue ads. And given human nature, we naturally get attracted to and empathise more with public service ads and ads with a message for social good. A jury, then, tends to rate such ads higher than others. And yet, we can't forget, as a fraternity, that advertising money is primarily given to us by someone looking to sell something. The Titanium and Integrated awards, which were clearly demarcated from each other this time, rewarded campaigns that were moving but at the same time brought results for their advertisers.

Of course, the kind of entries which won across categories did have emotional appeal. The Aryton Senna-Sound of Honda campaign, for example, touched a nerve and stirred up nostalgia, bagging the Titanium Grand Prix for the kind of communication use Honda put its Internavi recording system to.

Yet, this was nicely balanced out by also rewarding those who created great merchandise results for the client. The Harvey Nichols campaign (Sorry I Spent It on Myself), for example, was one such super-worthy winner that swept up three lions, including the much-desired Integrated Grand Prix. It was one of the most influential Christmas campaigns for a retailer last year, and its irreverent but honest tone did the trick.

As for the Indian contingent's show, we fetched only five gold lions as compared with last year's eight. Perhaps it was the finesse of some of the contenders that brought that count down. A gold at Cannes means the executional brilliance of the ad has to be jaw-dropping, especially in categories like Press and Outdoor.

TV ads or Film, historically, has never been our strong-point because agencies in the US and UK have had a cultural head start over us, in terms of quality of production. The best TV production companies are based out of these two countries. Their budgets are phenomenal, and it is no surprise then, that their ads are also mounted phenomenally.

Digital entries from India lag, I think, because we don't introduce systems in our digital campaigns and rely purely on a story. The story alone can be worthy an award but then it better go as viral as last year's Dumb Ways to Die. Otherwise, you will need to have a system that excites the audience to generate content in response to the campaign. Digital, at the end of the day, is an interactive medium.

The author is the National Creative Director at McCann Worldgroup