Have money, will spend. If that was the mantra of India Inc in better times, it’s a no-brainer that the opposite will be equally true when money is difficult to find. With the global recession wreaking havoc in every corner of the marketing business, expensive and glitzy award shows can’t be an exception.
That explains the dwindling number of entries from Indian advertising agencies at this year’s Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival that gets going on Monday. It’s obvious, therefore, that the advertising world’s biggest annual awards competition and trade show, known for its lavish dinners, champagne, luxury hotel suites and, of course, the trophy ceremonies, will be a smaller and more muted affair this time, as industry all over the world is coping with still falling advertising budgets and media spending. No surprise, therefore, that the number of submissions to the competition this year has dropped to 22,652 entries, representing a nearly 20 per cent fall as compared to the entries during the record-breaking 2008.
Advertising guru Prasoon Joshi hits the nail on the head, saying that when the option is between saving jobs and cutting expenses, the choice is obvious. Others agree. For example, a regular at the festival for the last eight years, K V Sridhar, national creative director of Leo Burnett, is among those who are not going to be at Cannes this year. His agency normally sends six to seven people, but will give the festival a skip this year. So, much of the Indian glitz at the festival will fall by the wayside as very few advertising agencies are willing to shell out the Rs 3.5 lakh average bill per participant for the seven-day festival on the French Riviera.
However, it’s not all gloom and doom: It can’t be, as there's no festival that comes remotely close to the global footprint of Cannes. There is no dearth of big names either: Google's Eric Schmidt and Microsoft's Steve Ballmer will both address Cannes attendees next week. So will the chiefs of the world's most digital-hungry agency conglomerates: Sir Martin Sorrell (WPP) and Maurice Lévy (Publicis). Throw in Kofi Annan and Obama campaign manager David Plouffe, you're bound to come across a few big important ideas. Thus, recognition here matters for an advertising agency’s global reputation. Ask the 23 Indian award winners at last year’s fest – partly the reason why the agencies that won awards last year will continue to send the highest number of entries this year too. The agencies include Ogilvy & Mather, Publicis India / Ambience, McCann Erickson, JWT India and Leo Burnett.
In a sense, Cannes has always been a happy hunting ground for Indian advertising agencies, but 2008 was exceptional as the number of prizes Indian agencies bagged zoomed from the nine won in the previous year. So it’s a sign of maturity on the part of advertising agencies to slash the number of delegates, but go in for only a moderate cut in the number of entries. In any case, the reduction of 10 per cent in the entries is reasonable considering the average reduction globally. Even in respect of the number of delegates this year, India’s score is much better: While global delegate registrations are expected to be down by around 50 per cent, those from India could dip by just 30 per cent. India, in fact, is fifth on the global list this year, clocking 982 entries, which is fewer than 1,109 in 2008 but more than 931 in the previous year. So, even as they slash spending, Indian advertising agencies will still fly high at Cannes this year, too.
