Cannes Lions 2011: Ogilvy's Train returns with Gold

BBDO India picks Creative Effectiveness Lion in its maiden year; Mudra and JWT too get a Bronze Lion each.

Neha Saraiya | Delhi | June 26, 2011

What could have been better than turning all the shortlists into Lions on the final day for Indian agencies? The final night of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity concluded with the Film, Film Craft, Creative Effectiveness and Titanium and Integrated Lions Awards Ceremony where all the Indian shortlists turned into metals. India had no shortlist in Titanium and Integrated category.

India had secured 4 shortlists in Film, Film Craft and Creative Effectiveness categories and ended the festival by adding 4 more Lions to take its metal tally to 24 which is equal to the number of metals won in 2009. Last year Indian agencies returned home with 17 metals.

On the final day of the festival, Ogilvy & Mather India won the third Gold Lion for India in Film Craft category for its film 'Train' created for Indian Railways. The Gold Lion winner film for 'Best use of music' was created by Ogilvy Delhi and shot and developed by Nirvana Films. The TVC was released on the opening day of the Common Wealth Games.

The Indian Railways connect and touch every one of our 1.3 billion populations in more ways than one and Ogilvy attempted to capture this very core essence of the Indian Railways brand.  The Ogilvy team – Sanjay Thapar, Ajay Gahlaut and Ravi Adhikari – led by Piyush Pandey along with the Nirvana team led by Prakash Varma, pulled off a near impossible deadline with the passion and commitment that came from this very emotion.

Credits:

It seems that BBDO India had created the campaign 'Women Against Lazy Stubble' for P&G's Gillette Mach3 Razors to win the Lions in all the new categories of future. After winning Silver Lion in the first year of PR Lions, the campaign has won Creative Effectiveness Lions introduced this year.

The creative idea was to create a social movement called “Women Against Lazy Stubble” (W.A.L.S.) – a publicity and controversy generating campaign that for the first time gave women a voice in how they would prefer their men to clean shave. The campaign began as an unbranded facebook page, and ended up as a national news phenomenon.

Credits:

And after winning 3 Lions in PR and Promo & Activations categories, the Silent National Anthem created by Mudra Communications has won Bronze Lion in Film category under 'Corporate Image'.

To promote the Big Cinemas, Mudra Communications had created the world's first Silent national anthem. A unique cinematic experience that turned the National Anthem into a medium that carries the message of unity to a country that often is divided by its 21 languages and thousands of dialects.

Leading TV Channels covered the film and ran it free of cost for a few days. 38 articles in newspapers and magazines. Thousands of blog mentions and tweets. Including those by Bollywood stars and opinion leaders. The Creative Review UK, named it the 3rd most viraled campaign in the world. Total earned media: $5.3 million. Media cost: zero.

Credits:

At last JWT India has won a Bronze for 'Endless Goodbye' for Airtel in 'Commercial Public Services'. The campaign conveys that a man and a woman are never apart, even after they say their goodbyes. The commercial is a launch spot for 3G video calls.

Besides, the Grand Prix winners of the day were Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO London for PepsiCo 'Sandwich' in Creative Effectiveness; Droga5 for Puma's 'After Hours Athlete' in Film Craft and 'Decode Jay-Z with Bing' in Integrated; and W+K Amsterdam for Nike's 'Write The Future' in Film Lions.

Of the 3,310 entries in the Film category, the jury, chaired by Tony Granger, Global Chief Creative Officer of Y&R, shortlisted 299 entries of which 14 were awarded Gold, 30 Silver and 57 Bronze Lions. The Film Grand Prix was awarded to Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam, The Netherlands for Nike's 'Write the Future'.

In its second year the Film Craft Lions category received 1,322 entries. Jury President Keith Rose, Director of Velocity Films, along with his jury, shortlisted 116 entries and awarded 12 Gold, 17 Silver and 24 Bronze Lions. Droga5 New York, USA was presented with the Film Craft Grand Prix for its entry for Puma 'After Hours Athlete'.

Bob Scarpelli, Chairman of DDB Worldwide, has been presiding over the Titanium and Integrated jury who voted on 480 entries to reach a shortlist of 32, of which 3 gold, 6 silver and 3 bronze Integrated Lions were awarded and 3 Titanium Lions given. The Integrated Grand Prix went to Droga5 New York, USA, for its entry 'Decode Jay-Z with Bing' for Bing/Jay-Z. The jury decided not to award a Titanium Grand Prix.

The Titanium and Integrated Jury was also responsible for awarding the Grand Prix for Good. From a list of 31 contenders, the award was presented to Leo Burnett Melbourne, Australia for its Film entry 'See the Person' for Scope.

The inaugural Creative Effectiveness Lions were presented by jury president Jean-Marie Dru, Chairman of TBWA\Worldwide. 142 entries were received into this category of which 10 were shortlisted and 6 Creative Effectiveness Lions awarded. The inaugural Grand Prix went to Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO London, UK for its PepsiCo ad 'Sandwich'.

During the ceremony Sir John Hegarty was honoured and presented with the inaugural Lion of St. Mark trophy, awarded in celebration and honour of an individual's long and outstanding contribution to creativity in communications.

Other awards presented at this evening's awards ceremony were:

Advertising Agency of the Year was given to AlmapBBDO Sao Paulo, Brazil, with Wieden+Kennedy Portland, USA in second and BBDO New York, USA in third.

Independent Agency of the Year went to Wieden+Kennedy Portland, USA. Runners up were Droga5 New York in second place and Jung von Matt Hamburg in third.

The Palme d'Or, given to the most awarded production company, was presented to SmugglerUSA.

The Network of the Year award was presented to BBDO. Second place went to Ogilvy & Mather and third to DDB.

Awarded for the first time was the Holding Company of the Year which went to WPP with 1,219 points. Omnicom were in second with 1,152 points and Publicis Groupe in third with 744 points.

Also announced were the winners of the Young Lions Film Competition, with the USA Hispanic team winning the Gold medal, South Africa Silver and USA Bronze.

The Young Marketers Competition saw the dedicated jury award The Philippines with the Gold medal, Belarus with Silver and Brazil with Bronze.

The coveted Advertiser of the Year trophy was presented to IKEA in honour of its continued commitment to encouraging creative, unconventional and humorous advertising. Noel Wijsmans, Global Retail Manager and Vice President of IKEA Group accepted the award.

Neha@BestMediaInfo.com

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