Lions International Festival: Know your benchmarks

The Lions International Festival of Creativity began on Sunday. Business Standard brings together some of the biggest names in advertising to keep you updated on the seven-day festival

Cannes, a city of opulence, is buzzing with activity. Buzzing with advertising folks searching for that one idea that can make them famous. An idea that will make their patrons both powerful and proud. Power here is space in the mind. Some of which was on display as Leo Burnett Mexico got its first-ever Grand Prix for Procter & Gamble's feminine hygiene brand Always (Indian equivalent is Whisper) in the healthcare category. Before you jump to conclusions that I am pushing my agency's work, I wish to draw your attention to a simple truth: Know your benchmarks. There is no harm in that.

The winning P&G campaign called 'Intimate Words' sought to empower indigenous women outside of Oaxaca, Mexico by finding a way to educate them on cervical cancer, a leading cause of death in their community. There was a problem though. There were no words for the female reproductive system in the women's indigenous language due to cultural taboos, leaving them unable to explain their symptoms. To solve this problem, the agency enlisted the help of sociologists, doctors and linguists to work with the women and create the missing words. Interesting, isn't it? You create words where none existed. That's sheer brilliance. No wonder the Grand Prix went to them.

Is the Indian work capable of drawing such attention? Hopefully, answers should come as the award shows kick off. Buzz is that McCann may take home a gold tonight. The agency has been shortlisted in the press and outdoor categories, important ones from an Indian point of view. Gains here go a long way in adding to the overall metals tally. Out of the fifteen shortlists in outdoor, McCann has four for Dish TV; Creativeland Asia, Grey and Ogilvy have three each for Durex, DHL and Children's Audiobooks respectively, while DDB Mudra has two shortlists for Volkswagen.

In print, Grey and McCann have five shortlists each. Specifically, Grey's shortlists are for DHL (three) and Duracell (two) , while McCann's are for Dabur (three) and Dish TV (two) respectively.

We are assured of metals if any of these click. Fingers crossed, folks. There are more shortlists in print. Eight more to be precise bagged by agencies such as Taproot, Cheil and Contract. So hopes remain alive because these are strong agencies, Taproot especially. Shortlists across a spectrum of agencies are safer bet rather than counting on one or two which can be risky at an international festival such as Cannes. The competition is simply tough here.

Besides there are a few more such as media (8 shortlists), PR (three shorlists) and direct marketing (one shortlist) to watch out for, though mobile didn't deliver for us. Tough luck. It's an emerging category. We have many lessons to learn there. We'll surely have to know our benchmarks there.

In Creative Effectiveness, its not an agency, but a client's work that has been shortlisted - HUL's Kan Khajura Teshan has made the cut. Let's see how it does given the rave reviews back home of this initiative. And in media, it is not a media agency, but a creative agency that has bagged the maximum shortlists. Should we say that the lines are blurring. Yes, BBDO has four shortlisted entries in media. The agency's work titled 'Share the Load' for P&G India's Ariel Matic brand has got two shortlists. It also has a shortlist P&G's Whisper sanitary napkin titled 'Touch the Pickle' and one more for its work for the Indian Confederation of NGOs titled 'Dear Mr Terry Savage'.

So let's see where BBDO and the others go.

The author is group executive creative director, Leo Burnett India