India ends its best run with 33 metals haul at international advertising festival 'Cannes Lions'

CANNES: It was the best (and occasionally the worst) time to be a music fan at Cannes on Friday night, with summer solstice parties and impromptu concerts dotting every block. There were live salsa bands, a morose child stumbling his way through solo classical violin, B-Boys, drum circles, DJs sponsored by clubs and bars, bands playing rock classics and quite possibly the world's worst U2 cover band who made every song they played sound like With Or Without You (except With Or Without You which was rendered in an avant-garde ragaesque drone).

Many from the Indian contingent preferred their old haunt, Gutter Bar, hoping at least some of Daft Punk's lyrics on Get Lucky would turn into self-fulfilling prophecy. But the only luck that came Team India's way — that we know of — was in the form a Bronze in Film Craft for Nike's Parallel Journeys created by JWT and entered by Ramesh Deo Productions.

The Help a Child Reach 5 film by Lowe Lintas submitted to Cannes Lions by Lowe + Partners, London bagged Silver. Speaking to The Economic Times, the Indian judge on Film Craft, Abhinay Deo of Ramesh Deo Productions says there were several narrow misses for India: Nike which was shortlisted in multiple categories stood a chance to land another Bronze and O&M's film for Madhya Pradesh tourism almost got into the shortlist. Deo believes, "Even making the shortlist is a big honour."

After a near three-hour long final prize distribution on Saturday and the packed after party, it was curtains on the 60th anniversary edition of Cannes Lions. The festival has been an unambiguous success for India when it comes to awards won. Indian ad folk can be found heatedly arguing whether this is a flash in the pan or represents some sort of turning point for Indian creativity.

However as Abhijit Avasthi, national creative director, O&M, admits, "I'll feel really good about our performance when advertising that my neighbour talks about gets awarded. Work that does fabulously well and moves the people back home, entered by us and many other agencies didn't get the recognition it deserved."

Besides, India has yet to make its presence felt even in the shortlists of some of the more exciting categories like Digital and Mobile. Avasthi is sceptical about whether the current victory will change anything on this front: "We have not been able to convince clients on the effectiveness of such work.

Till such a time as we can or we take the studies from here and prove they are efficacious, it's not going to take off." Josy Paul, chairman and chief creative officer of BBDO India is more optimistic: "We have to look beyond the two person artistry (of press, design and outdoor) towards more collaborative life changing ideas.
When you win big, you draw some inferences. People will ask why are we winning only in these categories? We certainly have what it takes considering the level and volume of gold from the country." The festival has also paid host to several Indian marketers this year with teams from Hindustan Unilever and Dabur among others in attendance.

First time attendee Shubhranshu Singh, marketing director - India and South Asia at Visa, believes, "The scale of this event and its efficiency is a revelation. But I wish we had more of an option to quiz presenters to understand what was being shown in greater depth. Some results are around things one can't argue with, like saving lives, but I would put more weight behind work that drives brands in the commercial sense."

Source: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-06-24/news/40166703_1_cannes-lions-ramesh-deo-productions-film-craft