Mumbai: You are as good as your last work. The Indian advertising fraternity gave it their all at Cannes Lions 2023 by bringing home 25 metals, but it cannot be missed that the industry’s performance is being gauged with that of last year’s when India put up their best show ever by securing 47 metals.
Even when it comes to the number of entries, this year the Indian contingent had 809 entries at the international festival of creativity, which is lesser than the 921 entries that were submitted last year.
Was it a poor showing by India at the Cannes Lions 2023? Is it just about the numbers? Where does creativity feature in this rate race of numbers? Indiantelevision.com spoke to ad industry mavens to unearth the answers to these questions, and more.
Poor performance by India or not?
Wieden + Kennedy India chief creative officer Santosh Padhi aka Paddy doesn’t think we can call this a poor performance by India. “Yes, if you compare it to last year’s performance, we did not perform as we performed last year. However, as we all know, creativity is subjective. We all come to the office to create great work; we always push our clients to do great work. But fortunately or unfortunately, some pieces of work turn up, some don’t turn up, some shape up nicely, and some go and make a cut with the jury. I’m sure if the same set of work is entered with a new set of jury, the result will be absolutely 30 per cent or 40 – 50 per cent here and there; some which have won may not win, and some which did not win may win. So, I always feel that in such forums, the judging is subjective, barring those 30-40 pieces of work which are absolutely clear-cut winners. But I always feel that 40-50 per cent of the work is always on the borderline depending on who the jury is, what the sensibilities are, and so on.”
He also feels that to judge creativity, one year is not the right way to do it. “ I always put this filter saying that it should be an average of three years - be it a creative person’s growth, a creative agency’s awards, or consistency in business. Talking about consistency, it matters in creativity and business, and I request that we should take an average of three years of how India has performed because that is the ideal way of doing it.”
This year the maximum metals from India were bagged by Leo Burnett India – they nabbed 11 metals. Leo Burnett, SouthAsia, India chief creative officer and CEO, & Publicis Groupe - South Asia chairman Creative Council Rajdeepak Das understands that the number of metals is just about numbers. “But from the campaign point of view, how many different kinds of campaigns won last year? That’s where you see the difference. The difference is that India is no more a Cannes agency country – we are doing big brands, big work. And that takes its own sweet time and energy to do those things. That’s why brands like PepsiCo, P&G (Whisper), Mondelez, Burger King, Swiggy, and Cleartrip have won. Look at the power of the brand, compared to last year. We won in multiple categories – Innovation, Sustainability, Data, Effectiveness, Business Transformation, Business Strategy, and PR. The quality of brands and work is amazing.”
He further adds that the number game is a bad game to be in. “In advertising, it is important to not look at numbers but to look at the brands and the quality of work being produced. A brand like PepsiCo hasn’t won at Cannes from India – it must have been a very long time ago, probably about eight or nine years back. Airtel too won after a very long time at the festival. Oreo won a metal for the first time. Brands like Swiggy and Cleartrip have never won a metal. We’ve got to understand the change that has happened. The new global Indian clients are coming up very fast, and they are winning for the kind of work that they are doing. I would emphasise that it is not the quantity but the quality that we should look at.”
How to rake in more metals?
Das of Leo Burnett thinks that we should concentrate on how to get more clients on board to do path-breaking work, not on metals. “A metal is a by-product of what we create. So, I think India is on the right track, and whatever it is doing, is amazing. I’m happy with the way Ogilvy India is doing so well, and so is Talented.Agency and Dentsu. Agencies are actually trying to push the clients to do good work. I think we need more clients to be in that crowd.”
Paddy points out that they keep doing experimental work, pushing their clients to do many new-age brave works. “Some may be prototypes, some may be done on a very small scale. But as a nation, the number of opportunities we get, the number of people we communicate to, I think we should more often do the SRK Cadbury ad - because that’s a genuine, great piece of work that was done for consumers keeping innovation and tech at the centre, or the core of the idea and without closing the human emotion. So, according to me, we should be doing four of such pieces every year, apart from the stuff that we already churn out.”
He is of the view that there are many Indias in India, and the world knows. “Like a particular region is rich in something, compared to another state which is rich in something else. So, I think that if that is our strength, then as an advertising community, we are capable of doing more than just TV, digital, print, radio, outdoor, activation, entertainment, sports, etc. Different regions have different sensibilities. Like folks sitting in Bangalore are super highly talented when it comes to new age mediums, whereas the traditional storytellers are fabulous when it comes to TV, we have a great understanding of what’s happening on the social and digital medium. I think this is what our strength is and I think it’s like saying that we should not be playing one format of a game – whether it’s T20, one-day, or five-days. I think we should be doing all formats and winning in all formats because we are capable of it.”
Innovations that need to be built upon
Paddy deliberates that slowly the ad industry is getting to know the possibilities that are there in this new-age creative tech innovation world. “Let’s not forget that ultimately these are the platforms and you have to reach out to consumers through these platforms and ultimately the core of everything is a great human idea, it’s the human connect. The platform can never be the idea. I think somehow we are still getting carried away with new mediums. New mediums is nothing except few buttons and machines, if it’s not going to move or make somebody cry or laugh. Let’s be very clear that we should use the right medium to convey to the right set of audiences to create the right brand impact. And this should be our sole goal in using technology in the coming years.”
Das offers an interesting take by deciphering that we don’t need to keep innovating for the sake of innovating. “When the Indian work was showcased in the Sustainability category at Cannes Lions 2023, the world was amazed to see that a huge number of shortlists came in this category from India. They were in awe of the fact that India is using data to solve the farming problems. So, we have already been doing those things. Last year, we did not make it to the Innovation category, this year we did. We are doing tech-based innovation, and AI-based innovation to do farming right. “
Submitting a befitting conclusion, Das brings out, “We just need to keep on doing, what we are doing i.e. the biggest innovation and work for the existing client, and we have been doing that as a country. We don’t need to change anything – we just need to keep the momentum right of whatever we are doing. At Cannes, we are known as one of the nuclear creative powerhouses – a creative superpower. So, I don’t think we need to keep on doing it again and again. We are in our best possible time in the Indian industry. No one remembers what you win, they always remember what you win for.”
