Because art is inherently subjective, events like the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity are notoriously unpredictable and should not define the true worth of a country’s creative output.
That is an alluring thought to hold on to when the sky is clear, but reality demands some soul-searching. The thing is, the Indian contingent has never had it so bad at the Palais des Festivals — from 47 metals in 2022 to 5 Lions (2 Silver, 3 Bronze, 0 Gold) in 2026 — it’s almost a 90% drop. Stack that against the number of submissions this year — 696 in total — the conversion rate is less than 1%.
In large part, the industry would like to brush it off as a “wake-up call” rather than an outright crisis of creativity. The modest tally reflects tightening agency budgets and stricter global judging standards rather than a sudden loss of talent — that’s the common refrain. But one look at India’s winning categories or those in which its entries were passed over and a disconnect between the global festival circuit’s demands and the domestic adfest agenda becomes obvious.
The jury in almost every category at Cannes Lions 2026 prioritised business outcomes, sustainable practices, and technological integration over isolated, emotional narrative arcs. India’s historical reliance on emotional storytelling and traditional craft fell woefully short when compared to global campaigns that merged technology, data, and human stories without a hitch.
India’s wins this year were confined to audio/radio (2 Silver), health and wellness (1 Silver, 1 Bronze), and film craft (1 Bronze), proving that narrative-led storytelling continues to be the primary weapon in its arsenal. In the highly competitive categories of Creative Strategy, Media and Direct, our agencies managed to secure key shortlists but failed to convert them on the awards stage.
Here’s the missing piece: “Connection” and “measurable results” were the keywords this season.
Take the Creative Business Transformation Grand Prix Winning Ad, “The Wedding Rice” by McCann Athens for Wikifarmer. The backstory is that roughly 30% of Greek farmers’ rice production goes waste because it fails to meet commercial standards. The agency packaged this inedible rice specifically for the local wedding tradition of throwing rice at newlywed couples and sold them directly to wedding planners. The initiative drove 110% more traffic to Wikifarmer’s platform, and sold over 3 tonnes in the first week of release, said the brand.
Jury President Gugu Mthembu, who is also chief marketing officer at Telkom, South Africa, said the creativity lay in the strategy’s disarming simplicity — no new tech infrastructure, no complex strategy, or significant go-to-market investment.
Now consider the Media Grand Prix winner, “Build Your Own Super Bowl Commercial”, by Special for Uber Eats. It was built as an in-app experience and invited users to build their own ads by mixing and matching from over a thousand clips and 36 hours of celebrity footage just as they might put together a food order. Over 325,000 people participated, spending a combined 800,000 minutes. Each user-created film unlocked customised deals and discounts for game day.
At one stroke the campaign did two things. It turned another app into a destination for both entertainment and transaction and the regular viewers into paying customers. The brand’s presentation claimed that the exercise helped Uber Eats achieve its best-ever Super Bowl sales — increasing revenue by $36 million and driving 3.7 million new app visits. In both these cases, the technology was invisible, acting merely as infrastructure to elevate an idea. And the ads did what they were meant to do — capture attention, build awareness, and drive profitable action.
The takeaway is clear: Capturing raw consumer attention will not cut it; global brands and agencies are focusing on community-driven engagement and peer-to-peer connection. So, it’s time to ditch the top-down, lecture-style, television-first strategy that has been the ad industry’s masterplan till now and start treating creators and tech tools as the centrepiece of the media plan rather than an afterthought.