Cannes Lions 2014: India begins with positivity!

Following the culmination of the Cannes Films Festival, the French sea-side town now has visitors from the other creative world. Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2014 kicked off on a positive note at The Palais des Festival, Cannes, France.

Cannes Lions, the annual week-long event through its seminars, sessions, workshops and award shows celebrates the marketing communications industry.

The festival seems to have started on a positive note for Indian contingents as there were 13 entries that were shortlisted across five categories – Promo & Activation, PR, Innovation, Direct and Creative Effectiveness. Indian agencies secured 13 shortlists from 221 entries that were submitted in these categories.

This year, 86 entries were received in the Promo & Activation category, off which three were Indian entries - Ogilvy Mumbai for its ‘Message Barter’ campaign for The Akanksha Foundation, ‘No Child Brides’ campaign by Havas Worldwide India for Child Survival India and Geometry Global Mumbai for its ‘Jump Pump’ campaign done for Hindustan Lever.

In the PR category, five of the 38 entries received were from India. Off the shortlisted entries, Havas Worldwide India had one while Ogilvy & Mather Mumbai secured four shortlists in this category. Ogilvy’s ‘Google Reunion’ campaign was shortlisted in two subcategories, ‘The Seatbelt Crew’ for Channel V and ‘Message Barter’ for The Akanksha Foundation secured one shortlist each. The ‘No Child Brides’ campaign by Havas Worldwide India for Child Survival India was shortlisted for PR Lions.

The Innovation Lions category had 35 entries off which six were from India. Off these six, PHD India was the only shortlist from India for its ‘Kan Khajura Tesan’ campaign which will compete against 29 other shortlisted campaigns for an Innovation Lion.

While there are 88 entries in the Direct Lions category this year, Indian agencies have secured three shortlists - McCann Worldgroup’s ‘Share My Dabba’ campaign for Happy Life Welfare & Dabbawala Foundation which has been shortlisted in two sub-categories and Ogilvy & Mather Mumbai for its campaign :{to:) clefttosmile for Operation Smile India.

In the Creative and Effectiveness Lions category, from three entries, Lowe & Partners was the only Indian agency to have secured a shortlist for its campaign ‘Help A Child Reach 5’ done for Lifebuoy.

The winners of three of the above mentioned categories - Promo & Activation, PR, Direct and Creative Effectiveness Lions will be announced today while Innovation Lions winners will be announced on 21st June 2014. In total, India had entered 976 works across all categories.

While the number of delegates this year - 12,500 delegates and many more unregistered admen and women at the Croisette, sources say that the number of people visiting the ad-fest is relatively less compared to previous years. Well, in any case, we shall continue to report about the happenings at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2014. Keep watching this space for more...