Cannes Lions 2019: India brings home 18 metals; a gold, five silvers and 12 bronzes

The Gold Lion for FCB Ulka came on the last day of the festival for its entry The Open Door Project for Millennium School. The campaign won in the Sustainable Development Goals category.

The win, the sole gold for India, should help the mission of the project to get the international attention it deserves. The project seeks to eradicate illiteracy in India by opening the doors of hundreds and thousands of schools to children from the under-privileged class.

FCB Ulka also won a Bronze Lion for the same campaign in the Brand Experience & Activation Winners category. In the same category, Dentsu Webchutney also bagged a Bronze for the ‘Hagglebot’ that it created for Flipkart’s The Big Billion Days sales event.

Dentsu Webchutney and the ‘Hagglebot’ won another Bronze Lion in the Creative eCommerce Lions category.

Dentsu Webchutney’s third Bronze on Day Four came for the Voice of Hunger campaign that it created for Swiggy.

On Day Three, Dentsu Webchutney’s Voice of Hunger campaign for Swiggy won another Bronze in the Social and Influencer Lions category. The same campaign also won a Silver in the Direct Lions category.

Dentsu Webchutney bagged another Bronze for its campaign Code name: Uri for the movie Uri: The Surgical Strike in the PR Lion Category. In the same category, Burnett India got a Silver for #StopMithani blood donation camps for its client HDFC Bank.

On Day Three, Mindshare got a Silver for Lifebuoy Soap's The infection alert system in the Media Lions category; Lowe Lintas Mumbai got a Silver for Lifebuoy's #HelpAChildReach5 in the   Creative Strategy Lions category and Mindshare got a Bronze for Lifebuoy's The infection alert system’ for its client Hindustan Unilever in the Creative Data category.

On Day Two, Grey India bagged a Silver for its campaign #ShavingStereotypes which features the barbershop girls of India in the Entertainment Lions for Music category.

Meanwhile, Offroad Films and Wunderman Thompson bagged a Bronze metal each in the Film Craft and Industry Craft categories respectively. Offroad bagged the metal for its client P&G's Vicks - one in a million #TouchOfCare campaign, while Wunderman Thompson won for its work on Jimmy Nelson Foundation.

On Day Five, creative agency DDB Mudra bagged a Bronze Lion in the Sustainable Development Goals category for its entry Free Period for Johnson & Johnson's sanitary pads brand Stayfree.

Dentsu Aegis Network is leading the India tally with 33 points. The network's digital agency Dentsu Webchutney also emerged as the most awarded Indian agency, bagging one Silver Lion and five Bronze Lions for its work on Swiggy and Flipkart.

Despite the total entries from India going up to 1,053 this year, the Indian agencies could not outdo last year's haul of 21 metals and two Grand Prix, the top award at the festival.

The Indian agency tally

Dentsu Webchutney: Shortlist 17; Bronze 5; Silver 1; Total points 32

FCB Ulka: Shortlist 3; Bronze 1; Gold 1; Total points 19

Wunderman Thompson: Shortlist 13; Bronze 1; Total points 15

Mindshare: Shortlist 4; Bronze                 1; Silver 1; Total points 12

TBWA: Shortlist 6; Bronze 2; Total points 10;

Grey: Shortlist 3; Silver 1; Total points 9

Leo Burnett: Shortlist 2; Silver 1; Total points 8

Offroad Films: Shortlist 2; Silver 1; Total points 8

Lowe Lintas: Shortlist 1; Silver 1; Total points 7

DDB Mudra: Shortlist 5; Bronze 1; Total points 7

McCann Worldgroup India: Shortlist 4; Total points 4

Ogilvy: Shortlist 3; Total points 3

Cheil WW India: Shortlist 2; Total points 2

Dentsu Impact: Shortlist 2; Total points 2

Google: Shortlist 1; Total points 1

McCann Worldgroup wins Network of the Year

McCann Worldgroup took the Network of the Year honours at Cannes Lions 2019. The agency said its China, India, Singapore, Philippines and Taiwan office all contributed to its point total, with a Grand Prix (and a Gold Lion) in pharma, in particular, helping toward the title. Those wins also helped McCann Health to win Healthcare Network of the Year and McCann Health Shanghai to win Healthcare Agency of the year.

Eight per cent increase in entries from India

Entries for Cannes Lions have fallen for the second year in a row despite Publicis Groupe agencies re-entering the fray. 

The annual Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity received 30,953 entries into this year’s awards, down 4% from 32,372 in 2018. China and India are exception though, with entries from these markets increasing by 5 and 8% respectively. A total of 1,053 entries have come from India, ranking it sixth in the countries amongst the highest entries.  

Last year the number of award entries had fallen by over a fifth (21%), following Publicis Groupe’s decision to withdraw from all marketing and awards shows in 2018. The consecutive drop in entries comes despite Cannes Lions launching two new award categories in 2019: Creative Strategy, which specifically recognises strategists and planners; and Entertainment Lions for Sport. These two new awards categories received 848 and 702 entries, respectively.

Meanwhile, the number of entries from the world’s biggest advertising markets has fallen year on year: the US is down 2% to 8,138; the UK is down 8% to 2,268; and Brazil is down 2% to 2,093.

However, the most popular category, Film Lions, has bucked the trend with a substantial rise in entries this year: up 29% to 2,793. While Brand Experience entries are also up slightly (0.7% to 2,353), Cannes Lions’ most-entered categories are all down from last year: Direct (-19% to 2,005); Film Craft (-24% to 1,924); Media (-15% to 2,196); Outdoor (-9% to 2,389); and Print & Publishing (-13% to 1,252).

Philip Thomas, the chairman of Cannes Lions, explained that changes made to the awards structure in 2018 resulted in a ‘refocus’ towards ‘absolute quality’. He said: “The industry is concentrating on the absolute quality of their entries, allowing everyone in the marketing and advertising community, and particularly brands, to benchmark their output against the world’s very best.”

(Courtesy Campaign India)