India bags 27 metals at Cannes Ad Fest

JWT and McCann overtake O&M in late push

The annual Cannes Ad Fest has drawn to a close with India taking home 27 metals, six less than last year’s historic tally of 33, India’s biggest haul at any outing at the French Riviera. The agencies that walked away with the highest and second-highest number of Cannes Lions this year were JWT and McCann — they surpassed rival Ogilvy & Mather (O&M), which had taken an early lead in the festival.

Interestingly, the picture was exactly the opposite last year, when O&M was at the top (10 metals) and JWT at the bottom (one) among Indian winners. McCann was the third-best on the list last year.

On Saturday, the final night of this year’s festival, JWT was a big winner, bagging three silver lions and one bronze for its ‘Make Every Yard Count’ commercial for Nike. The ad, a crowd-sourced commercial that features cricket-crazy youth in seamless action across different playing grounds, won a bronze in the crucial film category, a silver in film craft and two silver lions in branded content. Also on Saturday, Lowe’s radio-on-mobile ‘Kan Khajura Teshan’ for Hindustan Unilever (HUL) got a bronze in branded content & entertainment.

Notably, both ‘Kan Khajura Teshan’ and ‘Make Every Yard Count’ were big winners for India through the week at Cannes. HUL’s innovative “radio station” gave the country three gold lions — two for media agency PHD and one for Lowe — earlier in the week. Similarly the Nike campaign had earlier bagged a silver and two bronze lions in the cyber (online) category, in addition to four on the final night.

Senthil Kumar, national creative director, JWT India, says: “It can’t get better than this. Seven Cannes lions for a campaign is a rich haul. And we bagged these across categories — film, film craft, cyber and branded content. I would have liked a gold in film craft — we had two silvers there — but I am happy with what we got.”

On the HUL work that gave Lowe Lintas & Partners India a gold and a bronze, the agency’s executive director Anaheeta Goenka says: “It all boils down to the power of the idea and how you execute it. I think that is what clicked in this case.”

This is a second straight year when Lowe’s India office has bagged crucial wins at Cannes. Last year, its ‘Help a Child Reach 5’ ad film for Lifebuoy, which spoke of how a father celebrated his child turning five in a small South Indian town, won a silver lion in the film category. However, the win could not be counted as part of India’s tally as it was entered by Lowe’s London office, and not India office. The reason for this was Lowe India’s ‘no awards’ policy — the agency has stayed away from entering work at Cannes for a few years now and boycotted India’s own Creative Abbies for over a decade.

Goenka maintains there is no change in stance and the decision to enter the HUL work at Cannes was taken by Lowe’s global creative council. “We believe in going about our work on brands, like we always do. We are not here to produce ads for awards,” she says.

McCann, whose South Asia president Prasoon Joshi this year became the first Asian to be elected Cannes’ Titanium and Integrated Jury president, also had significant winners. Its ‘Share My Dabba’ for Happy Life Welfare & Dabbawala Foundation bagged two silver lions in direct marketing. Two more silvers came in the outdoor category for Perfetti Van Melle’s Big Babol brand. The Big Babol campaign also fetched McCann a bronze in design, while two bronze lions were awarded to the agency in the outdoor segment for Bangalore-based Premier Tissues.

Joshi had earlier said Indian creative agencies were beginning to get there in terms of their work and that the Indian creative point of view was being recognised on the global advertising stage. “The fact that you have so many Indians on the Cannes jury panel this year indicates India has arrived at the global advertising stage. It is no more about the points of view of a few people (from a few countries) that count. Cannes, I believe, is truly a celebration of creativity and the organisers realise restricting themselves to a few countries (read western countries) is not going to help if work from across the world has to be felicitated.”

That appears to have worked, with India sticking to its traditional tally of between 25 to 30 metals (last year was the only exception). O&M helped reach this number with a gold in design for Operation Smile’s ‘Cleft to Smile’ campaign. This campaign got a special Lions Health trophy, a separate healthcare communications award organised by Cannes for the first time this year just before the main festival kicked off on June 15. Awards bagged here, which were declared on June 13 and 14, were not included in the overall tally of metals for the winning agency during the Cannes Ad Fest.

Incidentally, O&M’s metal hopeful Google Reunion took home a silver and a bronze in public relations, while its work for non-governmental organisation The Akanksha Foundation bagged three bronze lions (in PR, media and cyber categories).