33 'metals' at Cannes: Indian advertising bounces back

This has surely been India's best ever performance at Cannes Lions. Indian ad agencies won 33 'metals', compared to 14 last year and 24 the year before. The advertising community believes that the quality of entries this year was superior to those of previous years.

It was only two months ago that the Indian advertising industry suffered a big blow to its reputation when certain agencies entered scam ad campaigns at the Creative Abby awards in Goa. However, advertising agencies seem to have learnt their lesson from the fiasco and come up with entirely new campaigns for Cannes.   

Santosh Padhy, Chief Creative Officer and Co-Founder, Taproot India, says that at least 10 of the 33 metals India won comprised campaigns that were created after the Goafest. Taproot Advertising won six metals at Cannes this year, including four golds. "All the campaigns that won us metals were created after the Goafest," he says.

Padhy, who was a judge at Cannes this year, says that the criteria for selection at Cannes is far more stringent than for Goa. "Cannes looks at an idea from multiple angles - in terms of freshness, the way the idea has been executed, as well as how well the story has been told. Goafest is much more liberal when it comes to judging," he adds. The agency didn't even enter its Change The Game campaign (Pepsi) and Airtel's Har Ek Friend Zaroori Hota Hai campaign. Both won metals at the Goafest but Padhy and his colleagues felt these didn't quite make the cut for entering at Cannes.

Likewise, McCann Erickson's campaign for Penguin Audio Books, which won the agency four metals at Cannes, and Grey's Duracell campaign had not been seen at the Goafest.  Ogilvy, which won 10 metals at Cannes this year, didn't even participate in the Goafest. "The campaigns that enter Cannes must have superior creative work, as all that the judges look out for are simple and bold ideas," says Padhy.
 
"India's performance at Cannes this year has been stupendous not just in terms of the metals we have won, but also the quality of the work entered," agrees Madhukar Sabnavis, Vice-Chairman, Ogilvy India.

Even as the metal tally was higher, this year saw a much lower turnout of Indian agencies at Cannes compared to previous years. The focus seems to be finally shifting towards producing original campaigns of great quality.