By Sneha Ullal
(With inputs from Shobhana Nair and Simran Sabherwal)
The Indian ad industry suffered a dismal performance at last year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. A few outspoken experts in the domain offer five challenging but do-able solutions, to help improve our prospects at Cannes this year KV Sridhar, National Creative Director, Leo Burnett was once famously quoted in a popular business daily, about how creatives would now be referred to as “pre-2008 or post-2008 work”.
Why? Because that was the year agencies around the world finally sat up and saw India as an able contender at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
In 2008, India swept a whopping 23 awards across various categories, including its first ever Grand Prix at Cannes, with JWT’s ‘Lead India’ TV campaign for The Times Of India, an Integrated Lion and a Cyber Lion. This was twice the number of awards won in 2006 and 2007 (a paltry sum of 12 awards each).
In the following years, the industry has tried to make its mark, rounding up their decent tally between 20 and 25 accolades. However, there’s been a significant imbalance of submissions in categories, with more and more agencies preferring to vie for top spot only in traditional categories like Direct, Media, Film and Outdoor; with the digital space, a big burgeoning domain, strangely being left out and Innovation and Design categories also being largely ignored.
The Indian ad industry’s most disappointing year at Cannes so far was in 2012, when it bagged only 14 metals; despite 91 entries being shortlisted from a record total of 1,182 entries. Some of the standouts were McCann Worldgroup scoring a Gold Lion for their demo billboards for Western Union Money Transfer; and Babble Fish Production, OML Entertainment and Bacardi India winning bronzes in the best non-fiction programme series or film, for the hit music show The Dewarists.
This year at Cannes, with a record number of 11 Indian members in the judging panel—including Piyush Pandey, Executive Chairman and Creative Director, South Asia, Ogilvy & Mather; Santosh Padhi, CCD and Co-founder, Taproot and Sabbas Joseph, Director, Wizcraft—Indian participating agencies just might have a shot at reliving 2008, or even bettering that record. But what can we do to improve our chances this year? A few eminent ad professionals put their heads together and doled out challenging but important solutions.
Solution 1: Churning New, Big Ideas
Any judge who has scrutinized numerous submissions at any awards fest will tell you that the first thing they look at is whether the creative’s concept is fresh, something they haven’t seen before. And therein lies the problem—we need to suck in our guts and take the plunge with bigger, better ideas. “Even though we’ve won a few Grand Prix in the past, not all have been exceptional,” laments Ashish Khazanchi, Vice Chairman and National Creative Director at Publicis Ambience. “We need to evolve our ideas.”
Prashanth Challapalli, Business Head, Jack In The Box Worldwide, too believes that our ideas sell short sometimes, because it’s common for participants to consider last year’s winners as a benchmark. “We need to ask ourselves—are we desperate to win awards or to create kick-ass work?” he says. “We shouldn’t be afraid to carry out big executions of great concepts.”
Solution 2: Improve Overall Quality and Presentation
Sometimes, even though the idea is spectacular, it’s the quality of the execution and presentation that can ruin the participant’s chance of even making it to a shortlist. “If we really want to win at the international stage,” says Chraneeta Mann, ECD and National Creative Head, Rediffusion-Y&R, “we need to work on our art direction. The production quality of our ideas, the illustrators, fabricators, and so on could do with a lot of improvement too. A lot of international work benefits from generous budgets and stronger currencies, which we do not always have the benefit of as Indian agencies.”
Even the way an agency presents the idea to the jury needs to be properly quality-checked. Care must be taken when a local language is translated and cultural contexts are elucidated. “Very often, our work has local nuances which maybe alien to 80% of the international jury,” adds Malvika Mehra, National Creative Director and Senior VP, Grey Worldwide, India. “Whether a piece comes up for discussion or not, the Indian juror should be able to, and more importantly willing to, help give it its due credit. Pieces have moved up from nothing to a shortlist, to even a bronze sometimes, only because the context was explained more succinctly.”
Solution 3: Go Beyond Traditional Media
Even though Print and TV are strong categories, Indian agencies should aim to vie for top spots at other important categories like digital, innovation, design and branded content. “We need to consider these sectors too, which isn’t so hard really, because most clients today request for integrated solutions from the same agency,” adds Challapalli, who is hoping that the 7UP digital media campaign by Jack In The Box Worldwide will get noticed at this year’s Cannes. “We need to do new-age stuff, especially since the market in India is also changing,” adds Sridhar. “Our work needs to be a reflection of that. We should experiment with PR, branded content, digital, mobile, new technologies, etc.”
According to Mehra—whose agency is looking forward to see Leo Burnett’s KBC Girl Child Film and Bio Farm packaging design creatives make it through to the shortlist at this year’s Cannes—agencies as well as their clients need to walk the talk, and see solutions beyond the typical TVC. “Sure, a great film will always win, as will some of the well-crafted, one-off posters. But agencies and clients need to believe that great ideas are media neutral, and can start anywhere, be it at an on-ground activation, a great logo or product design, or even a fantastic innovation in Print or Radio. Ironically, ‘winning at Cannes’ irrespective of ‘how’ has become the agenda with some agencies, versus ‘solving a client’s real problem that may well win at Cannes’.”
Solution 4: Get Better Exposure
Indian agencies need to figure out how to introduce their work to larger audiences, including the juries, to generate good feedback as well as good recall value. “A lot of work that lands up on the judges’ table has already been seen before,” says Khazanchi. “When new work appears out of the blue, it doesn’t have the same sense of gravitas or familiarity, as the some of the other works they might have seen before Cannes.”
Put simply, the better and wider the exposure of your work, the more popularity you gain.
Solution 5: Participate as a United Contingent
Lastly, the best way to improve your own work is to learn and get feedback from your peers. A show of solidarity and support to fellow competitors can also help develop better impressions with the jury. “I don’t think being unified means winning many awards together—awards are always a by-product,” says Manish Bhat of Scarecrow Communications. Mehra, however, believes that it’ll take a while for the Indian ad industry to adopt a forum where they can share, discuss and maybe even help improve one another’s work, months before the awards season begins. “We need to rise above our massive egos and insecurities, and have bigger hearts.” Santosh Padhi, co-founder of Taproot and a jury member at Cannes this year, advises participants to take a page from countries like Brazil, Argentina and Thailand, who always support each other. “When we are at a platform like Cannes, we should be ‘we’, not ‘me’, ‘he’ or ‘she’,” he adds. “I don’t know how we can fix the politics in the industry, but I know for sure it can only be done if everyone collectively feels about what we can be as a nation, as a unified contingent.”
AMONG THE METALS AT INTERNATIONAL SHOWS IN 2013
METALS AT CANNES
2012 – TOTAL TALLY – 14, BREAKUP: 3 GOLDS, 3 SILVERS, 8 BRONZES
SO MUCH POLITICS HERE...
We as a nation don’t believe in unity at all, unless it has something to do with Indo-Pak cricket or Indo-Pak border issues. When it comes to advertising, we are a bunch of solid individuals or agencies who have pretended to be an industry for many years. There is so much of politics here that if this industry decides to fight the coming elections, we may end up winning with majority :) We have seen or heard of some of the renowned seniors (so-called industry leaders) bitching, bad-mouthing, sulking about other agencies’ winning work at Cannes. They are the ones who are responsible for the good side and this side as well of the industry for years. I don’t know how we can change or fix this, but I know for sure it can only be done if everyone collectively feels about what we can be as a nation. Everyone knows about it, and everyone is ignoring it.
Santosh Padhi, Co-founder, Taproot
OUR BEST BETS
We asked prominent creative agencies to pick the best bets from their cauldrons for metals at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity this year, and also wanted them to mention the USP of each of these hopefuls. While some agencies such as Ogilvy & Mather, JWT and Interface Business Solutions declined to comment on their entries—call it superstition or caution or whatever—others were more than happy to share some of their best innovative works that stand a good chance at Cannes. So who gets your vote?
LEO BURNETT
Product: Educating the Girl Child - Brand: Kaun Banega Crorepati, Sony - Category: Film
The TVC, shot in Haryana, starts off with a doctor announcing the birth of a girl child to her anxious father. On hearing the news, the father gets disheartened. Thereon, the girl, Asha, grows to suffer gender bias on every account. Her father ignores her academic victories and refuses her the right to pursue higher studies. Her principal doesn’t punish a defaulter who misbehaves with Asha.
Her colleagues pass derogatory remarks on her character when she gets promoted at work. Finally, on the hot seat of KBC, Asha wins a crore and proves her worth with her knowledge - while her father watches Asha on TV with remorse. Amitabh Bachchan enunciates the power of knowledge. It won a bronze already at the Adfest 2013 and couple of golds at the recent Goafest.
Product: Fertiliser Brand: Bio-Farm (The Good Paper Project) Category: Packaging Design
Bio-Farm prides itself on making eco-friendly and organic fertilizers and caters to nurseries, flower enthusiasts and casual plant growers. The brand wanted to redesign their packaging. But instead of creating new visual designs on their existing packaging, we decided to do a radical overhaul. We wanted the new packaging to reflect the company’s eco friendly philosophy. So we created packets made of the Bio-Farm fertilizer itself. The stocks sold very quickly and the stores went out of stock every weekend. Moreover, it presented the values of Bio- Farm in a creative manner. This innovative idea has a good chance of winning a metal at Cannes.
BATES CHI & PARTNERS
Product: Music and stock images website - Brand: Getty Images - Category: Print
In this over-cluttered environment where everyone is trying hard to come up with a cool gadget and invade the privacy of consumers, organic ideas like the innovative hoarding draw attention without shouting out loud. It is a sweet and simple way of communicating an idea involving people without really bothering them. It is almost like a category innovation by creating a portable hoarding which you can place anywhere and drive home the message. The result was evident from the reaction of people on the roads who often stopped and clicked pictures of themselves standing behind the hoarding posing as subjects.
Product: Stock images website Brand: Getty Images Category: Outdoor
It’s a witty idea that naturally connects music and visuals, driving home the point of availability of music on a stock images website. Each visual is a story in itself, and each represents a legendary song through images available on Getty Images. The simplicity compiled with a smart idea makes this entry a strong contender at Cannes.
SCARECROW COMMUNICATIONS
Product: Beverage - Brand: B’Lue (Reveal Yourself. 1 song. 150,000 lyricists) - Category: Branded content/Cyber http://www.revealyourselfb1.com/
This campaign combined two media with which most of today’s youth can connect well—music and Facebook—to engage them with B’lue’s brand philosophy, ‘Reveal Yourself’. Popular band Agnee was roped in and a song was specially composed, where the lyrics spelt out the brand philosophy, and released as a silent music video. Through a specially designed Facebook app, people had to lip read and guess the lyrics. If someone guessed the words correctly, on replaying the silent music video, only those words got unmuted. It served like a game, and people competed to reveal more and more words.
After a week, ‘Reveal Yourself’ was totally unmuted and released, and ‘B’lue’ unveiled its association. Through the song, B’lue managed to convert 1,50,000 passive listeners into active lyricists. For me, because of the campaign’s unique engagement, it’s a strong contender at Cannes.
Product: Video doorphone Brand: Anchor Panasonic Category: Film
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb03TKt34qM
This Doorphone comes with a unique facility –visitor recording. The film uses humour to highlight this unique benefit. The plot revolves around an old woman who does all sorts of bizarre things while standing in front of the door—she breathes heavily, sticks her tongue out and even stretches her nostrils wide. In the end, we realize that she was actually getting her medical examination done by a doctor through the door phone.
REDIFFUSION-Y&R
Product: Online image bank - Brand: IndiaPicture - Category: Innovation
Indiapicture wanted to remove the unsightly piles of garbage, and clean up stained walls across streets of India. Another objective was to galvanize people to access India picture’s extensive image library. The creative execution took the shape of a cleanliness drive, called ‘An Act of God’. We selected images of Indian gods from India picture’s library and recreated them as wall paintings or ceramic tiles and placed them on walls near littered areas, garbage, and trash bins. Upon seeing their gods in less than perfect surroundings, people organically began clearing up these areas and stopped further littering. This was a fantastic method of showcasing the power of images. It stands a good chance of winning at Cannes because it takes a very powerful human insight—namely, reverence for the divine— placed it within a uniquely Indian context, and brought about meaningful, societal change.
Product: Panoramic app - Brand: MTS Mtag smartphones Category: Radio
The purpose here was to communicate the new Panoramic App for MTS MTag smartphones. We chose 92.7 BIG FM as our channel partner to air the spot, as it is one of the most popular radio channels. We released the spot during peak hours to tap maximum listenership. We used the process of end-to-end image capture to demonstrate the way panoramic pictures are taken. We hold the camera in one hand and take the picture in one sweeping motion. The radio spots cleverly replicate the movement and bring it alive for the listener through a simple device. It ends with the clicking sound of a camera and the voice over sums up the message succinctly. What’s interesting about this execution is the great use of the audio-radio medium. It shows how we have successfully used stereophonic sound, like a horse galloping away, to compare it with the panoramic attribute of a product.
GREY WORLDWIDE
Product: Mobile phone Brand: Intex Category: Print
With the help of clever typography and design, we used just the first two alphabets of any word to form an image of that word. For example, ‘o’ and ‘r’ come together to form a pictorial orange; ‘c’ and ‘l’ form a clock and the letters ‘c’ and ‘u’ form a cup. These visuals push the feature of ‘advanced predictive text messaging’ on Intex phones quite superbly.
Product: Batteries - Brand: Duracell - Category: Print
One ad shows the batteries placed right in the centre of three juxtaposed toys, proposing that no matter how many stages a person goes through in a lifetime (a girl may move on from a doll to a keyboard to an egg-beater), the batteries will never change. Hence, we’re selling the durability of the Duracell batteries, accented with a simple punchline, ‘Lasts for ages’.
XOX DESIGN
Product: Creative Beings Swatch Book Brand: Kyoorius, Transasia Category: Books
The book reflects all of us. Better yet, it is us. Transasia offers a comprehensive range of fine papers under their brand Kyoorius. Every paper manufacturer prints a paper sample swatch book, and sends it to various design houses and ad agencies; but it is soon stashed with other books and forgotten. To avoid that, we thought of creating a functional swatch book in disguise and calling it ‘Creative Beings’. The book connects with creative minds by reflecting how they think, work and live. Going beyond swatches and paper information, it involves the reader with an interesting take on various things related to design and creativity, and takes a potshot at all kinds of creative people.
Product: Planner for creative professionals Brand: Transasia Category: Books
Confessions of a Typoholic is the third planner we have designed for Transasia Fine Papers, with typography as the central theme. Every page has a unique design to break the monotony and to emphasize the fact that every day in the life of a creative person is different. It showcases the full potential of the paper by using every imaginable printing technique, including Glow In The Dark ink. Printed in large quantities, the reason for doing a planner like this is also to consume the available stock of papers.The Planner connects with creative minds as it appeals to their design sense, and it’s great to carry around too.
