Let me begin by saying that in my view, the performance of Indian agencies at Cannes is not the barometer for Indian advertising?s success. Not even 1%. There will be a lot of our everyday work, not awarded by Cannes, not even understood by people abroad because they can?t at times understandnor appeciate our cultural nuances and so on, but probably that work is great. It?s like not winnng an award in Hollywood. The same applies to the advertising world. Awards have to be taken in a very different spirit.
It?s a fact that India?s performance this year has not been as good as last year or the year before that. But we have to see it in the overall context of how Cannes has evolved in recent times. For starters, digital and interactive advertising is growing by leaps and bounds in the developed economies. There is a high degree of technology involvement in the communication undertaken in these markets. The focus still is prirmarily on the developed world. For example, Titanium award is very important and so is Interactive Lion. Now if we look at India, we still have a very big traditional advertising market. Our market does not demand that much interactive stuff. Only a small percent of the advertising revenues comes out of new media. Technology involvement is thus at a nascent stage. So if you see people are winning awards, it is for the conventional medium and in the new areas our absence is a result of our market dynamics.
Having said that, Cannes is probably the only festival which keeps itself so current that you can learn a lot. The highlight of Cannes is the future consumer, where is the world going. At Cannes, you get to see a lot of work at one place. They also keep improving on their award show every year. As a result, Cannes is more than an award, it?s a festival of ideas, of interacting with each other, it?s a learning ground not a boxing bout. When you come back from Cannes you have a very different image of the advertising world. In fact, a lot of our marketers are keen on the in-thing in the west.They travel abroad, they attend seminars abroad, and when they come back they say this is what should happen here also. But India is not like other markets. There are still many households who do not own a TV set. That makes the job of creative teams tough. On one hand, their international counterparts are telling them where advertising is going and on the other, the Indian consumer is at a very different stage. They have to strike a balance between the both.
I also feel that there is a lot of euphoria over or the initial amusement value around technology in advertising. People are still celebrating the basic idea of what it does. But wehave to get to the how’s of it. The craft and the nuances of it. That’s important.
Performance at Cannes is a very different thing. No award in the world can truly reflect the status of the market. The idea is to cleberate work that is great?work that strikes a delicate balance between communication craft and consumer connect.?If this is achived it?s an achivement in itself. On top of it, if it gets an award?we should? definetly celebrate it.
?The author is executive chairman and regional creative director, McCann Erickson Asia Pacific