What's in store for Indian Adwallas at Cannes Lions 2012...

The biggest advertising festival, The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the global event for advertising and related fraternity begain in Cannes, France on June 17th and will run till June 23, 2012.  The annual event gives the Lions awards and attracts thousands of delegates from around the world. It is a little get away from the daily grind and allows delegates to view shortlisted work, attend seminars, workshops, master classes and have fun.

 

Advertisements are generally entered by the agencies that created them, although technically anyone can enter any advertising creation, providing it ran within a specified time frame. The jurors are instructed to reward advertising that is deemed most creative both in idea and execution.

 

For the advertising and creative fraternity from India, Cannes Lions have been a rewarding experience in the past few years. Last year 2011 was a bountiful year as India won 24 metals - 4 Golds, 7 Silvers and 13 Bronzes out of 42 shortlists under its name. The top agency was Mudra Communications with three Silver Lions, five Bronze Lions and nine shortlisted entries. The second top agency was BBDO India that bagged two Silvers, one Bronze metal and seven shortlists. At the next three positions were Ogilvy & Mather India,  McCann World group followed by Lodestar UM and Taproot India- both tie at the fifth place. Mudra’s ‘Silent National Anthem’ was much appreciated, so was BBDO’s ‘Women Against lazy Stubble’ for Gillette; O&M’s entry ‘Train’ for Indian railways and McCann for Onida Mobile phones. 

 

In the preceding year 2010, Indian entries could bag only 17 Lions – 3 Gold, 6 Silver and 8 Bronzes. The sad part was that India drew a blank in most categories. The exception was Print, Design and Outdoor. Publicis won a Gold Lion for the work done for Publicis Communications, O&M won a Bronze Lion for Department of Posts. The notable  thing was Indian Speaker Piyush Pandey’s participation in a talk with Agnello Dias. 

 

The best year for India was undoubtedly 2009 as it bagged 25 metals - 4 Golds, 7 silvers and 13 Bronzes out of a possible 42 shortlists. The top agency was O&M  followed by JWT, Publicis and Leo Burnett in that order. Some of the campaigns which were appreciated were Happy Dent, Fevicol and that of Neo Sports. JWT got an award for Chennai’s Times Of India’s launch campaign title ‘A Day in the Life of Chennai’ Despite the economic slowdown of 2008-09, the fact that India performed so well at Cannes Lions was an eye-opener for Global creative houses to sit and take notice . 

 

So how will it be at Cannes Lions 2012?

A record 34,301 entries from 87 countries have been submitted to the Cannes Lions 59th International Festival of Creativity. An overall increase of 19% versus last year, entries have been submitted in 15 different categories like Creative Effectiveness, Cyber, Design, Direct, Film, Film Craft, Media, Outdoor, PR, Press, Promo & Activation, Radio and Titanium & Integrated.

 

From India, a total of 1,182 entries have been received this year against 1,177 entries in 2011. This year, maximum 266 entries are for Press Lions. Outdoor category has attracted 219 entries from India followed by 134 entries for Design Lions, 130 entries for Media Lions and 108 entries for Direct Lions. 85 Indian works are entered for Promo and Activations Lions while Film and Radio categories have attracted 56 and 55 entries respectively. There are 41 entries in Film Craft category followed by 27 for Cyber Lions, 19 for PR Lions, 18 for Branded Content and Entertainment Lions, 17 for Titanium and Integrated Lions, 5 for Mobile Lions and 2 for Creative Effectiveness Lions.