It’s that time of the year when the global advertising industry descends on the French Rivera for the week-long Cannes Advertising Festival.
If the crowds are indeed flocking to the mecca of the ad world for the festival that begins this Sunday, there are many reasons for it. Cannes sees an eclectic mix of speakers from the advertising, media and marketing worlds.
In between, the prestigious Cannes Lions will be given out across categories such as print, television, media and outdoor. Most make the trip for that.
This year, the festival has received close to 29,000 entries - a jump of 19 per cent over last year. Of this, Indian entries are 1,173, which is a nine per cent increase over the previous year. In the 16 years of India’s journey at Cannes, say industry experts, the growth in entries so far has been almost 12-fold.
Though heartening, India has had only one occasion to take home a Grand Prix. That was in 2008 when ad agency JWT was feted for its Lead India campaign for the Times of India in the direct marketing category.
“That was definitely a high point for the Indian advertising industry,” says Amit Akali, national creative director at ad agency Grey. “I think we are all waiting for a moment like that,” he says.
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India is expected to walk away with a metals tally of about 20 to 30 out of a shortlist of 60 to 70 - something which it has been doing for the last few years, according to Emmanuel Upputuru, national creative director, Publicis India.
The number of agencies bagging some metal or the other has also grown in the last few years, he says. “The spread of agencies has definitely improved. More agencies are bagging metals at the Cannes now than earlier which makes it exciting for them. That could be one reason why the number of entries is going up every year,” Upputuru says.
Agency sources say that McCann’s print and outdoor work for advertisers such as Videocon could bag metals this year, while Ogilvy could walk away with trophies in the TV category.
The TV Lions, say industry sources, remain the most coveted amongst advertising folk at Cannes, while categories such as media are growing steadily.
In all, there are a total of 12 categories at Cannes this year, with the festival introducing a creative effectiveness award too in this edition. The idea, say industry experts, is to help establish a correlation between creativity and effectiveness through the award. Entries will be judged on the parameters of strategy, creativity and effectiveness in the marketplace.
But Cannes, according to Manish Bhatt, co-founder of ad agency Scarecrow, remains incomplete without the camaraderie and festival spirit it fosters. “The whole idea of celebrating global advertising is wonderful. Cannes religiously show the entries that have been entered at the various auditoriums, which tells you where global advertising is headed. This definitely helps both young and seasoned advertising professionals.You can rub shoulders with different people, who come from different parts of the world, which makes it exciting,” he says.
This year, the speaker line-up includes Oliveir Altmann, worldwide chief creative officer of Publicis, Nigel Bogle, group chairman, Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) and Jeff Bewkes, the chairman & chief executive officer (CEO) of Time Warner among others. A much sought-after event at Cannes is the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors' Showcase - a competition aimed at finding new talent in the field of filmmaking.
This year, Saatchi & Saatchi has teamed up with international artiste Moby (who is a composer and photographer) and video-sharing site Vimeo for the competition. Aspiring film-makers have been asked to submit entries on the theme ‘Hello, Future’ using Moby’s tracks from his new album Destroyed. The winning entries will be showcased at the festival on June 23.
Among the celebrations also is a 100th birthday party for advertising legend David Ogilvy on June 23. The agency he founded, WPP’s Ogilvy & Mather, is rolling out a red carpet —evoking Ogilvy's trademark red suspenders — along the length of the Promenade de la Croisette, the main stretch in the city.