India's best outing at Cannes: 32 & counting

Ad agencies have won 28 awards in print, design and outdoor categories; final tally yet to be announced

Last year, a dismal tally of 14 awards at Cannes had prompted most Indian advertising agencies to take a long, hard look at their creative work. The soul-searching appears to have paid off, with the current edition of the advertising festival turning out to be the best outing so far for Indian agencies at the French Riviera.

With a tally of 32 metals, and counting (the final set of awards would be announced tonight; India has five shortlists in film craft), Indian ad agencies have reason to celebrate.

“This is fascinating,” says Malvika Mehra, national creative director and executive vice-president, Grey, which bagged a gold and two bronze Lions at Cannes this year. “I couldn’t have asked for anything better and I feel happy to have contributed to taking up the Indian tally to its historic high this year,” she said from Cannes.

Not only did India cross the 30-award mark for the first time; it also saw more golds (eight). “This is the first time that we’ve had such a huge tally of Gold Lions,” says K V Sridhar, chief creative officer (Indian subcontinent) of Leo Burnett and a regular at Cannes since India began sending entries to the festival a decade and a half ago. “This year was also unique in terms of shortlists…. We had between 100 and 140 shortlists, higher than the 80-90 shortlists we’ve had in previous years,” he says.

Why are shortlists important? Because that is the pool from which the winners are selected. The more the shortlists, the greater the chances of improving one’s tally, says Sridhar.

Typically, major winners at Cannes, including the US, UK, Brazil and Argentina, have a high number of shortlists. The case of Asia-Pacific contenders such as Australia, Japan and Thailand isn’t different; these countries try and ensure a fair bit of their work is shortlisted, in the hope of racking up awards.

With India crossing the 100-mark in terms of shortlists this year, expectations of an encore next year have grown, say industry experts.

“We are getting there,” says Josy Paul, chairman and chief creative officer, BBDO India, which bagged three bronze Lions this year.

“More campaigns have won this year than in any other year. Of the 32 awards so far, 28 have been in print, design and outdoor. That’s a sign Indian art is contributing to world standards. We are also winning in film craft, another sign that our art is making a big difference!”

While print, design and outdoor gave India its major wins, for Indian agencies in categories such as film, mobile, digital, radio and media, it was a disappointing show — there were no wins at all.

“Mobile and digital are certainly areas where we need to devote our attention. The world has moved there; we need to move in that direction, too,” says Amit Akali, also national creative director and executive vice-president, Grey. “We need to take these categories seriously.”