India started its campaign at Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in Cannes this year quite slowly, but there was hope that the tempo would pick up later. That hope was dashed as the Indian ad contingent was unable to break out of that initial sluggishness.
With 18 metals at the end of the five-day festival, the Indian contingent was staring at its worst performance since 2015 when it picked 13 metals. A metal in advertising parlance refers to an award or trophy.
Cannes, like every other advertising festival, gives away Gold, Silver and Bronze Lions to standout work in various categories.
Leo Burnett led the Indian contingent this year with 5 metals, followed by Ogilvy at 4, McCann with 3, Early Man Film and VML with 2 each and FCB Kinnect and Tghtr with one Lion each in their bag. This total of 18 metals was made up of 2 Golds, 7 Silvers and 9 Bronze. Interestingly, none of these awards were for digital craft that celebrates technological artistry in advertising.
A bit of history will explain the disappointing performance. During India’s last three outings, the score card was like this: 2020-21: 22 metals; 2022: 47; 2023: 24. Even at the 2015 festival when Indian landed only 13, the redeeming feature was a Grand Prix in that year’s new category, Glass Lions.
Inventiveness and bravery are two prerequisites for awards, Hemant Misra, founder, Magic Circle, and former CEO, Publicis Capital, says.
“I believe the business environment forces clients to do tactical work to drive sales, forcing agencies to “hunt” for socially relevant themes. Social themes have served their purpose, agencies need to be more inventive to gain international respect,” he adds.
Kunal Sinha, a senior brand strategist based in Kuala Lumpur, who has had long stints at Ogilvy and McCann in India, says all the changes happening across agencies in India might have affected the quality of work. “The insecurity has to show up somewhere,” he says. “Besides, there have been enough instances of pushback against interesting, pathbreaking campaigns… so creatives are playing safe.”
Some analysts have put this tendency to play safe down to trends that may not specifically relate to the ad industry in India. “In times when Indian storytellers have had to balance what they are allowed to say with what they want to say, the performance is pretty stellar,” says Aersh Danish, co-founder of marketing agency Ridge Brand Studio.