)
The annual trip of the Indian advertising contingent to the coastal town of Cannes in Southern France is getting better by the year.
Consider this: India's representation on the Cannes award juries has improved this year. Fifteen senior people are part of 15 different jury panels out of a total of 17 categories at the week-long Cannes Ad Fest, which began on Sunday.
This is two more than the number last year and the highest tally ever of Indian jurors at Cannes. India notably has representation on all key jury categories including press, film, outdoor, design, film craft, digital, public relations, direct marketing, media, radio, mobile, creative effectiveness and integrated.
India also has the honour of having one of its own, Prasoon Joshi, president, South Asia, McCann Worldgroup, as the jury president of the Titanium & Integrated award category, the most coveted trophy.
This is also the first time an Asian has been selected the jury president of this category, which in the past has had names such as Dan Wieden (co-founder of US-based Wieden+Kennedy), Mark Tutssel (Worldwide Chief Creative Officer of Leo Burnett), David Drogba (founder of Droga5), Jeff Goodby (co-founder of US-based Goodby, Silverstein & Partners) and Bob Scarpelli (former chairman and chief creative officer, DDB Worldwide) in the position.
Will India's growing presence at the Cannes Ad Fest translate into more awards? The verdict is still out on this. Joshi, when contacted, said it is “work in progress”. “The fact that you have so many Indians on the Cannes jury panel this year indicates that India has arrived at the global advertising stage and that it is no more about the point of view of a few people (from a few countries) that counts. Cannes, in my view, is truly a celebration of creativity and the organisers realise that restricting themselves to a few countries (read Western countries) is not going to help if work from across the world has to be felicitated. There must be diversity on the panel.”
India has taken home between 25 and 30 Cannes Lions each year. Last year, however, the country surpassed this number with a total of 33 Lions, its highest-ever tally at any Cannes outing. Agency heads say that for India to cross this number this year, creative ideas will have to be powerful enough to stand out of the clutter, notably in categories such as film, digital and branded content, where it has traditionally not performed too well.
Satbir Singh, managing partner and chief creative officer at Havas Worldwide India, says: “We are good in film. In fact, our film-making abilities are excellent. But our story-telling is different from the rest. Our films are rooted in the local language and idiom, which may not necessarily be what the Cannes jury is looking for.”
Bobby Pawar, director and chief creative officer (south Asia) at Publicis Worldwide, says: “I think we need to support our work a lot more than we now do. The fact that we have more Indian jurors should help in pushing the Indian point of view during judging so that our work is at least shortlisted in categories where we don't do too well.”
Traditionally, categories such as press, outdoor, print craft, design, media, promo and activation, direct marketing and public relations is where India has done well in terms of awards at Cannes.
Last year, India did have five shortlists in film craft and one in film. But it managed to convert just one of them into a metal, which was a bronze in film craft for the commercial Parallel Journeys for brand Nike by Ramesh Deo Productions. The agency was JWT.
Santosh Padhi, co-founder and chief creative officer of Taproot, whose Farmer Suicides campaign for Times of India bagged four gold lions, a silver and a bronze at Cannes last year, says Indians need to mount their work on a large scale. “The moment you have an idea whose scale is large, no one can question you on your work. People will vote for you,” he adds.
Farmer Suicides, for instance, bagged a gold each in press and design and two golds in outdoor. It was also the first time that India had taken home four Cannes golds in a single year.
INDIA'S METAL HOPEFULS THIS YEAR
Google Reunion: Ogilvy’s film showing how the ubiquitous search engine could bring two long-lost friends together has many creative heads rooting for it. The film bagged the Black Elephant at the Kyoorius D&AD Awards last week and could be India’s trump card this year at Cannes
MTS Internet Baby: Creativeland Asia’s take on how even new-born infants were becoming tech-savvy has many counting it as a metals hopeful
Nestle’s Share the Goodness: McCann’s emotional films on how goodness could be shared with the help of a Nestle product has takers too. The first film shows how Nestle’s products brings two siblings together. The second one on Mumbai’s famous dabbawalas and how Nestle’s goodness box brought joy to them could also cut ice with international jurors, creative heads said
