Cannes Lions - The Ad Festival
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Authors
Authors: Sadhu Ramakrishna,
Research Associate,
ICMR (IBS Center for Management Research).
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India at Cannes
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India too has tried its luck at the prestigious awards function but with not much of success. In fact, it is not so long ago that Indian agencies have started participating in Cannes Lions. A few Indian agencies did feature in the Cannes during the nineties, but unfortunately they couldn't make it big at the event. The only exception was the Gold Lion bagged by SSC&B for its "Hexit" ad during the mid-nineties. Until the dawn of the new millennium, there was nothing much to speak about the performances of Indian agencies at Cannes. The reasons for the dismal performance of Indian advertisements at Cannes were somehow never evaluated. The millennium marked the entry of a number of Indian advertisements at Cannes. In 2001, there were great expectations from Indian agencies of bagging some Lions through their much touted ads. Unfortunately, they failed to prove their worth as the end results showed that the Indian advertising fell short in terms of quality by a long distance. The ads failed to represent the world-class feel in them which were present in the other participating contenders. It was only then that ad agencies came out from their expectation den and felt the need to think from a different angle. They felt that the Indian advertising needs to go a long long way to be able to compete for the world's topmost honors. |
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While creative ad men from around the world considered Indian advertising a booming industry, there were only countable ads which were successful at Cannes. There were several unanswered questions as to why Indian ads were not successful at the festival though the men creating them were of high standard. There were questions as to why India was not a regular participant at Cannes. All those questions resulted in different views and opinions. While some experts felt that Indian advertisements lacked the world-class touch in them, some agencies were of the opinion that the fault was with the clients. Their argument was that the clients always looked for the traditional film-based ads and stuff like that, instead of looking for contemporary ideas.
Over time, Indian advertising has come a long way to meet the global requirements by not only being nominated for Cannes but also going to the extent of winning some awards. Since 2002, Indian ads have been appearing regularly in the nominations and were being shortlisted, but only a few of them tasted success. Indian ad agencies that have been participating in the event are Ogilvy & Mather (O&M), Leo Burnett, McCann Erickson, Saatchi & Saatchi, etc. The year 2003 turned out to be a golden year for Indians as out of a total of 32 nominations (29 from Press & Outdoor and three from Lions Direct category) from the country, Indian agencies grabbed six lions altogether of which three were Gold, two Silvers and one was Bronze. O&M was the topper with five Lions and McCann Erickson won its first Lion (Gold) for Prasoon Joshi's Coca-Cola print ad "Thanda matlab Coca-Cola".