It’s early Sunday morning here at Cannes and I am on my way to Nice. Let me start with the news from last night's awards show: It was a decent night for India. Not great, but decent.
In the Film Craft Lions, Ogilvy managed to win their first Gold Lion thanks to Nirvana's film for Indian Railways. It won in the best use of music category.
In the Film Lions both the Indian shortlists, from Mudra (Silent Anthem) and JWT (Airtel's Endless Goodbyes) bagged Bronze Lions.
In the inaugural Creative Effectiveness Lions, it was good to see BBDO India pick up a Gold Lion for their work on Gillette: Women against Lazy Stubble.
Over all it was one of the quietest years for India. There were four Gold Lions: Of the Box's Design Gold for Mother's Pride, Nirvana’s Film Craft Gold for Indian Railways, Lodestar's Media Gold for Garnier, and BBDO's Creative Effectiveness Gold Lion for Gillette.
Now for some news on the other big winners of the night:
More From This Section
The Film Craft grand prix was won by Smuggler, New York, for its film for agency Droga5’s client Puma.
The Film Lions Grand Prix was picked up by Independent, London and Wieden + Kennedy for Nike's Write the Future film.
The Advertiser of the Year was awarded to Ikea.
The Jury headed by Bob Scarpalli decided not to give any Grand Prix in the Titanium Lions. But there were other winners in that category. The one Lion that I will remember for a long time to come is the American Rom chocolate, where they challenged the Romanian national pride by changing the chocolate wrapper replete with an American flag, a combination of a great idea and loads of guts.
The Integrated Grand Prix was picked up by Droga5 for Decode/Bing. They are masters of great video presentations. It showed.
That's more or less the update on Lions.
So what's the take home from this year's Cannes? (especially when it doesn’t involve metals): Besides the work which I have spoken enough about, here is what some of the leaders had to tell me.
Edward De Bono said, "The biggest problem in the world is poor thinking. It's amazing how little progress we have made in thinking in 2,400 years. And that's because we are trained to think, analysis and find the truth and not to create value."
Sir John Hegarty, who was awarded the Lion of St Mark last night, said, "Growth needs space. And space needs difference.”
Sir Ken Robinson said, "Create the conditions where creativity flourishes because it is more painful to contain creative energy than to release it."
Jesse Eisenberg, the star of the film Social Network, said, "You have no excuse not to do what you want to do."
I think there is a message there for people like you and me.
See you then, till next year. Bye.
(The author is National Creative Director, Publicis Capital)
Also read: www.business-standard.com/cannes