Do Indian campaigns suffer at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity due to bad pitching? Do we manage to convey the finer nuances of an intrinsically Indian themed campaign to an international jury? What do people from other countries do better compared to Indians?
By Saloni Dutta
(with inputs from Henna Achhpal)
Even as football fever grips the world and people agonize over matches, goals and wins, the advertising fraternity is all set to play its own high-stake game at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, 2014 - its goal being to match wits with peers in the creative world and win the coveted metals. India registered one of its best performances so far at the festival last year, with a total metal tally of 33, therefore, this year the onus is on India to live up to its name, if not do better. So what can Indian agencies do to better their prospects at Cannes? How can they pitch better? How can they convey the nuances of our ad campaigns based on Indian themes better to an international jury?
DECIPHERING CULTURES
Owing to India’s culturally diverse population, a campaign that may work wonders in the West may be completely alien to those residing in its East. In such a scenario, how can an international jury be expected to grasp the cultural nuances of an idea within a few seconds? Vodafone’s popular ZooZoos that caught the fancy of every Indian didn’t merit recognition at Cannes. “The works that win at Cannes are not the best ideas, but the most universal. Local work finds it difficult to compete at such a level,” says Agnello Dias, Founder & CCO, Taproot India. Taking the example of Google India’s Reunion film, Nakul Chopra, CEO, South Asia Publicis says, “One cannot explain the sentiments regarding Indo-Pak issues in one slide.” Giving an insider scoop, Malvika Mehra, National Creative Director and Executive Vice President, Grey Worldwide, India who is on a Cannes jury for the second time this year says, “Usually ideas with an universal insight and something which everyone can connect with tends to come up tops. In case of local ideas, if there is somebody from that particular country to explain to the rest of the jury, it helps to put the idea through.” She adds, “At times we lose out not because the idea is not good or the insight is not brilliant, but because we are not able to put it across to the jury in a way that they would understand it.” For Rajiv Rao, National Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather India, word of mouth is a key factor to grab the attention of jurors. “When a really good piece of work is released four to five months before Cannes, it gets talked about, mentioned in the media and as a result, word spreads about a powerful creative work from India,” says Rao. He adds, “Entries can also be accompanied by an explanation on why the particular piece of work is relevant and brilliant in the country’s context.”
MYSTERY OF THE CASE FILMS
“The case film is the ad of the ad,” remarks Parixit Bhattacharya, Chief Creative Officer TBWA\ India. From advertisements that sell products for clients to advertisements that sell those advertisements — it’s an ongoing ad-ception for agencies. With a number of brilliant works competing for the jury’s attention, Dias says it’s all about the packaging. “Other countries invest a lot of money on their case films. They would already be working on the case films for next year’s Cannes Lions and that is where they beat us. Creative teams are flown from US to Australia to work on a case film for someone else’s creative,” he says. Giving a couple of tips, Subhash Kamath, CEO and Managing Partner, BBH India suggests, “The case films must be short and crisp but impactful, talking about the strategy, the creative idea and its results.” Bhattacharya recommends a few guidelines: “State the problem as clearly as possible, get to the idea within the first 20 seconds, identify the emotion you want the judges to feel on seeing the case film. Let everything else be driven by this.” He adds, “Have credible third party endorsements of the campaign and once you have done all of this, edit again!” On second thought Dias suggests, “More than doing anything at Cannes, we should have a dominant presence in the other award shows that provide a great platform to expose our work. That’s where all the judges go, so by the time they come to Cannes, they have already seen it.”
BREAKING AWAY FROM TRADITION
The world over, agencies are introducing path-breaking innovations in their campaigns. Earlier this year, while Oreo unveiled a 3D printer that printed cookies on demand at the SxSW festival, closer home we are just making 360-degree integrated campaigns the norm. No doubt we have seen several award winning campaigns emerging from India, but they continue to belong to traditional categories like Print craft, Film, Outdoor, Direct and Media. Agencies are still taking baby steps in the fields of digital integration, social media, innovation and design. The reason for this, Dias says, is the cost of the case films. He explains, “For the Outdoor, Print, Film and Film Craft categories, the creative piece itself is the entry, which is paid for by the client. In other categories like Branded Content and Integrated, the case film is the entry, which is not paid for by the client and a huge cost to the agency.”
UNITED WE WIN
The industry is beset with self-harming tendencies. An industry representative on condition of anonymity says, “When an international jury is judging, they don’t have a problem about who is winning, but when an Indian is on the jury, there is a problem because he does not want another Indian agency to be seen as winning. Another aspect to be observed is the number of bronze metals given to India, compared to the few silvers and golds. Nobody wants to give other agencies better publicity because it is not their own work.” Will India’s chances be better on international platforms if the industry poses a united forum? Manish Bhatt, Founder Director, Scarecrow Communications doesn’t think that would make a difference. He says, “We can obviously promote ourselves as a united entity and put forth good work in a more patriotic perspective that if India shines, you shine. But it’s more a thing for the network honchos to do. They should stop promoting their own work and favouritism.” Kamath asserts, “I don’t see the industry uniting on that at all. Ultimately, every point counts when it comes to agencies investing time, effort and money in telling their story. There is a lot of socializing that happens at Cannes. The Indian gang, parties and all that happen, but I don’t see the agencies coming together to form a united forum.” On an optimistic note, Santosh Padhi, Founder and Chief Creative Officer, Taproot India thinks such international events are occasions when the industry should think of representing the country. He says, “We can approach local awards individually but when it comes to Cannes, we need to represent the country. In the last two or three years, India is increasingly being seen as a young and vibrant nation that is doing work in its own way and getting glory. There is a lot of buzz for India at Cannes which is why I feel we should come together and push the nation.” Making another important point, Padhi adds, “Last year we were the second most awarded Print agency after Brazil, who are big time winners at Cannes. They won 23 metals and we got somewhere around 13 in Print. But no one in the media did a story about this. If it was another nation, they would have blown it up. Every year, Brazil wins close to two dozen metals. It was a big story for us but nobody even noticed it. When we don’t win, there is a lot of criticism and when we do well, we still sulk because ‘we’ won, ‘I’ didn’t win.” Highlighting the sour grapes attitude he says, “The winning agency’s work always gets criticized and people say things like I never saw this campaign, how many times did it run, where did it run, etc. This is not right as an industry, we need to grow up. I am hoping the younger generation is not like these oldies are.”
This year, out of 97 participating countries, India stands 9th in the total number of entries sent. Following its impressive performance in 2013, the Indian contingent is riding on high expectations. Over the years several lessons have been learnt from wins and losses. Whether these learnings will convert to metals is something to wait and watch out for...
Feedback: saloni.dutta@exchange4media.com
