Finally I didn’t end up burning the stage. I forgave the jury. Publicis hasn’t opened its account yet. But I can wait a bit more.
The winners for Direct, PR and Promo were declared.
The one big international winner so far has been this campaign titled American Rom by McCann Bucharest for a Romanian chocolate brand. The agency worked toward reviving interest in the brand called Rom with an unusual idea. The traditional Rom chocolate has a wrapper with the Romanian flag on it. In an attempt to draw attention to it, McCann did the unthinkable: It changed the old wrapper with a new one that sported the American flag. The provocation was enough to get people agitated who protested the wrapper change, and more so the company’s American fixation. The campaign, in other words, whipped up nationalist pride. The old wrapper was back and McCann’s attempt to create interest in the brand worked, that to, well.
This campaign has bagged two Grand Prixs in the Direct and PR categories respectively. I won't be surprised if it picks up more in the Media category, for instance.
Coming to the India story, Mudra leads in terms of number of metals with one silver and two bronzes for the Silent Anthem. The spot used two very emotional chords and the juries obviously couldn’t ignore it.
BBDO has two silvers for its Shave Sutra campaign for Gillette in PR.
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In Design, India has a few shortlists. Taproot, Mudra, Sorento are some of the agencies vying for metal there.
Ogilvy is vying for a metal for its Dr. Vaidya entry in the illustration category.
By the time this article is out, awards for outdoor, media and radio will be declared. I am keeping my fingers crossed and so are other creative heads.
On the seminat front, the big show was the one organised by Yahoo on the theme ‘Content as Communication Catalyst’. They brought actor Robert Redford to speak on the subject.
Obviously the auditorium was packed. Redford talked about how and why he created the Sundance Festival — the largest independent cinema festival in the United States — at the top of his career in the 1980s.
He wanted to create Sundance as a safe haven where people were not afraid to take risks. A festival devoid of the trappings of Hollywood.
Redford spoke about his life, his early struggles, and how he rose to become a movie star.
His mantra in life: Push yourselves as far as you can and take risks. Never let success cloud you.
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(The author is National Creative Director, Publicis Capital)