Cannes Lions 2017: India wins accolades for record tally of 40 Lions this year

India has set a record at the 2017 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. India won 40 Lions, including a Grand Prix for Good – the highest tally in the last seven years. Before this, India had won 34 Lions in 2013.

While Indian agencies have taken a comfortable lead over last year’s metal tally of 27, the year before that was the worst for the country in the last seven years with only 13 Lions.

It is for the first time that India has won 10 Gold in the country’s Cannes history. For the first time, India won a Silver Lion for Leo Burnett’s ‘Roads that honks’ campaign in the Innovation category. It was for the first time India qualified in the Titanium category with Taproot’s Adidas Odds campaign, but could not win a Lion though.

This year, Indian agencies have won 10 Gold Lions, including one Glass Gold, 16 Silver and 13 Bronze Lions as compared to last year’s three Gold, seven Silver and 14 Bronze Lions. 2013 had witnessed the maximum number of Gold Lions.

Santosh Padhi

Santosh Padhi, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer, Taproot Dentsu, commented on India’s performance this year, “Happy that India raised the bar to 40 Lions for next year. Wonderful to see India's performance across categories, now that's called diversity. India won in almost every single category baring a few. Traditionally, we have been weak in categories like Digital and Mobile, etc. I'm sure we will get better with time and will reach there soon too.”

India’s performance at Cannes Lions since 2010

In terms of entries from India in the last five years, 2016 had witnessed the highest number of entries at 1,315 as compared to this year’s 1,227 entries. In 2015, there were 1,035 entries from India while 2014 witnessed the lowest entries at 979 in the last five years. Indian agencies sent 1,110 entries in 2013.

Entries from India in last five years

Saurabh Varma

Saurabh Varma, CEO, Publicis Communications, India, said, “As an industry, we have to forget number of metals we won and focus on the work that wins and the impact the work creates for the clients.”

Agency-wise performance

McCann Worldwide has the best performance till now with 16 Lions (one Grand Prix, four Gold, seven Silver and four Bronze) followed by Ogilvy & Mather with nine Lions (Two Gold, two Silver and five Bronze). Taproot, Leo Burnett and BBDO has three Lions each under its belt this year (Taproot: Two Silver and one Bronze; BBDO: One Gold and two Silver; Leo Burnett: One Gold, one Silver and one Bronze) while Medulla Communications has two Silver in its pocket. Wieden+Kennedy has one Gold and one Bronze Lion. Famous Innovations won a Bronze and L&K Saatchi & Saatchi earned one Gold at Cannes this year.

Prasoon Joshi

Commenting on the win, Prasoon Joshi Chairman McCann Asia Pacific & CEO and Chief Creative Officer McCann India, said, “We at McCann India believe in creative excellence and our performance at Cannes 2017 exemplifies this. This has been possible because of a strong creative culture which we have nurtured over the years and real teamwork. This wouldn't have been possible without the 'Creative First Culture' at McCann Worldgroup under the leadership of our CEO Harris Diamond. Rob Riley, the global creative chairman, has driven this creative vision intricately, which has reflected in the overall performance of McCann Worldgroup.”

“Most importantly I thank all our client partners because great work happens only when our clients join hands with us on this quest for excellence,” Joshi said.

Piyush Pandey

Piyush Pandey, Executive Chairman & Creative Director, Ogilvy South Asia, said, “I am very happy for the young people who work at Ogilvy India and have made us proud. My congratulations to all other agencies in India.”

Kunal Jeswani

Kunal Jeswani, CEO, Ogilvy India, said, “People often ask me what differentiates Ogilvy. As consumers move seamlessly from one platform to the next and agencies and marketers struggle to keep up, what should clients look to Ogilvy for?  What is the one thing that we rally our people and services around, which defines us and sets us apart?  It is the ability to tell great brand stories and build brand love. The nine Lions we picked up at the 2017 Cannes Festival is recognition from one of the toughest competitions in our industry, that we do this incredible well. Great clients and great teams partner to create great work at Ogilvy every day. How do we do this consistently? We don't create work to win awards. We just bring our best game to every client and every brief. That's how we win.”

Commenting on Leo Burnett’s performance at Cannes this year, Varma, said, “This is a symbol of transformation as an agency. It communicates our ability to use data, intelligence and our ability to create impact for our clients.”

Not so satisfied Padhi also said, “I would have loved if Taproot's performance was little better than two Silver, a Bronze and some shortlists. This has won big at most shows we entered, was part of Gunn Report and Facebook’s Cannes predications as well. But as we know Cannes is all about good bad surprises, no time to sulk so moving on taking the better side of the show for us."

Agency-wise Indian tally

Shining campaigns at Cannes

The most awarded campaigns so far are McCann’s Afghan Immunity Charm; Ogilvy & Mather’s Savlon Healthy Hands Chalk Sticks for ITC’s Savlon; Leo Burnett’s Roads that Honk for HP Lubricant; Taproot Dentsu’s Adidas Odds for Adidas; L&K Saatchi & Saatchi’s #GiveHer5, and Medulla Communication’s Last Laugh for IAPC. From India, only Wieden+Kennedy’s campaign ‘Da Da Ding’ for Nike won a Gold Lion in the film category.

Creative leaders spoke about Savlon Chalk Sticks, India's most awarded campaign, at Cannes 2017. Kainaz Karmakar and Harshad Rajadhyaksha, Ogilvy & Mather, said, “Savlon's Healthy Hands Chalk Sticks is simple, surprising and effective. That is the reason why juries from around the world have thought it to be worthy of such heavy metals, in such large numbers. Beauty Tips by Reshma also got us the highly regarded Lion for Creative Effectiveness. The honesty of this campaign cuts through the clutter and goes straight to the heart. We are beyond happy and we share this glory with our rockstar teams and our brave clients.”

Category-wise performance

India performed best in the Pharma category with 11 metals (four Gold, six Silver and one Grand Prix) followed by Design with four Lions (two Bronze and two Silver) and Creative Effectiveness with four Lions as well (two Silver and two Gold). There were three Lions each in Health & Wellness and PR categories (Health & Wellness: three Bronze; PR: one Gold, One Silver and one Bronze) while Direct, Outdoor, Product Design, Radio and Media categories had two winners each (Direct: two Silver; Outdoor: one Gold and one Silver; Product Design: One Silver and one Bronze; Media: Two Bronze; Radio: Two Bronze). India won one Lion each in Innovation, Glass and Promo & Activation, Film Craft and Film (Innovation: one Silver; Glass: one Gold; Promo & Activation: one Bronze; Film: One Gold; Film Craft: One Bronze).

Category wise winners from India

Network of the Year went to BBDO Worldwide, Ogilvy & Mather was second and McCann Worldgroup took the third spot.

The Agency of the Year went to Clemenger BBDO Melbourne, the second place to AlmapBBDO, Sao Paulo, and the third to McCann New York.

Independent Agency of the Year went to Droga5 New York, second to Wieden+Kennedy, Portland and 4creative, London, was third.

Holding Company of the Year was given to WPP, the second place to Omnicom and the third to Interpublic Group.

David Droga, Founder & Creative Chairman of Droga5, collected the Lion of St. Mark in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the industry. Burger King was named Creative Marketer of the Year to honour the brand for embracing and encouraging creativity across their brand communications and for the inspiring global marketing of their products. Screenwriter, Director, Campaigner & Co-Founder of Red Nose Day, Richard Curtis, collected the LionHeart Award. The Grand Prix for Good was awarded to The Refugee Nation by Ogilvy New York for Amnesty International.

Overall metal tally of India in 2017

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