India wins awards in two categories at Cannes 2014

Cannes 2014 started on a positive note for Indian contingents with 13 entries being shortlisted across five categories – Promo & Activation, PR, Innovation, Direct and Creative Effectiveness. It was a proud moment for India who won Lions in two award categories viz. Direct Lions (2) and PR Lions (4).

In the Direct category McCann Worldgroup’s ‘Share My Dabba’ campaign for Happy Life Welfare & Dabbawala Foundation bagged 2 Silver Lions. It was their campaign where they partnered with the Dabbawalas of Mumbai to mitigate the problems of the less fortunate who go hungry and starve to death which won them these Lions and Ogilvy & Mather Mumbai for its campaign :{to:) clefttosmile for Operation Smile India. 

In the PR category, India takes away four Lions by agencies O&M that bagged 3 Lions (one Silver Lion and two Bronze Lions) and Havas Worldwide India that bagged 1 Bronze Lion. O&M won the silver and one bronze for Google India’s Reunion film which promotes the brand’s ‘search’ feature and the second bronze for its Message Barter campaign for The Akanksha Foundation (Akanksha Foundation Schools). It was the No Child Brides Campaign for Child Survival India which won Havas their Bronze Lion.

This year there was no win of Lions in the Creative Effectiveness  and Promo & Activation  category for India but seven entries that won in the Creative Effectiveness were from Australia (3, including Grand Prix), UK (3) and Brazil (1).

The effort generated 22 million media impressions, 1.5 million college students supported the cause, 10,468 'white bindi pictures' were shared, 60,000+ white bindis were sold, and 160 villages started their own awareness drives to eradicate the evil of child marriages.