Diminishing returns

It?s supposed to be the creative epicentre of the advertising and marketing industry where the best and the brightest creative minds not just compete for the laurels, but also draw inspiration from. So when India picked up its first Gold Lion at the just concluded 57th Cannes Lions Internationals Advertising festival there was much cheer back home. But when the final metal tally adds up to only 17 against 25 in 2009 and 23 the year before, some soul-searching is certain. Why is India lagging behind? Aren?t our ad guys doing the right thing? Or is there an unbridgeable chasm between First World culture and Third World creativity?

India ranked fifth in the list of countries with the most number of entries. While in 2009 the number of Indian entries were 982, this year it saw a marginal growth and stood at 1076. Categories like press, direct and outdoor saw the maximum number of entries from India. But despite this, 2010 will go down in the advertising history as one of the worst years for India at Cannes in terms of number of awards. Moreover, no Indian entry made to the final shortlist of categories including cyber, titanium and integrated and film craft. In contrast, India?s performance in the past two years at Cannes has been buoyant. JWT bagged India?s first ever grand prix for its ?Lead India? campaign for The Times of India in 2008. And that year India picked up 23 metals versus the 9 metals that it won in 2007. In 2009, while India did not win any Grand Prix, the number of awards increased to 25. Most significant was JWT?s ?Teach India? campaign for The Times of India that picked up the Gold Lions.

At the same time, there is some commendable work coming out of India which got due recognition at Cannes. Tap Root India, just about a year old, stood out, bagging the Press Gold Lion for its Spiritual Guru, Royal Rajput and Kathakali dancer campaigns for Transasia Papers? Conquerors Papers. So also, RMG Gurgaon which got the Gold Lion in the press category for its Funeral, Airport and Poker campaigns for FujiFilm?s F70 camera. The third gold for India was won by Publicis in the design category for its Beer, Sky and Mountain campaigns. The final tally?3 Golds, 7 Silvers and 7 Bronzes.

The Cannes Lions have also stood for change and this was reflected in the festival this year too. The first ever Film craft grand prix went to RSA Films London for its Philips Gift campaign done by DDB London. Pepsico?s Gatorade Replay campaign picked up two Grand Prixs?one in promo and activation category and the other in the PR category. The ad is by TBWA/Chiat Day Los Angeles. This year the Radio Lions jury felt that not a single entry was worth a Grand Prix and gave it a miss. The first Cyber Grand Prix went to DDB Stockholm?s Volkswagen Funtheory.com campaign. The second Cyber Grand Prix was picked up by Nike Livestrong Chalkbot campaign done by Weiden+Kennedy Portland.Many of the award winners at Cannes Lions 2010 have used some form of social media, even though traditional forms of advertising ? television, billboard and print, continue to hold their own. Altogether, there were 12 categories this year. However, Cannes Lions plans to include a new category next year that will be called ?Award for effectiveness in advertising?.

After coping with a bad 2009 when it witnessed a decrease in both number of entries and number of delegates, this year the Cannes festival saw a 7% increase in the number of entries. So while the number of entries were upwards of 24,000 from 90 countries, nearly 8000 delegates from around the world attended this 7-day festival. “Cannes Lions reflects the communications industry, and these results tell a fascinating story,? says Philip Thomas, Festival CEO in an official communique. ?Firstly, of course, they suggest that the industry as a whole is recovering from the distress of 2009 and indeed they show recovery coming not only from places you would expect like Latin America or India, but also countries like Sweden, Turkey, the UK, France and the USA, all of which have picked up considerably.??

Here?s presenting a snapshot of the winning campaigns from India at this year?s Cannes Lions. Read on.

On a paper trail

* The brief: The company is a paper supplier. And globally its a 100-year old brand. It had completed 10 years in India and wanted to create a campaign they would appeal to the industry and trade. At the same time it wanted it to be an ode to India and what it stands for.

* The execution: The agency says that in a way it?s an old fashioned demo. However, with a difference. The product has been used in the ad in an ingenious manner and the whole ad is made out of the product. The vibrancy of colours which has been used in the ad is what India is known for.

* The result: The campaign is still on and it caters to business to business (B2B) and is yet to be measured. .

* Client take: Rajesh Kejriwal, MD, Transasia Papers, said, ?When we started out we didn?t expect it to become so huge. We wanted to give out a simple message to the community that we have completed a decade in India and are very proud to be here. This award will be definitely commercially beneficial for the company. And we have decided to do something similar every year on the same lines that would involve the community.?

* Agency take: Agnello Dias, chairman and chief creative officer said, ?All the pieces that you see in the ad are created by hand and we haven?t used Photoshop. That was a challenge. They wouldn?t have looked so authentic if we had created it artificially.?