Cannes Lions 2025 begins: India bets big on Ogilvy, FCB, Havas and Talented

New Delhi: India has so far secured 64 shortlists across 15 categories.

Leading the tally is Ogilvy India with 13 shortlists, followed by FCB India with 11. Talented and Havas Creative India have garnered 7 each, while Leo Burnett has 4.

McCann Worldgroup India, typically a regular winner, is yet to open its shortlists account this year.

Among the standout campaigns are Lucky Yatra by FCB India for Indian Railways, Ogilvy’s Eye Test Menu for Titan Company, Talented’s Nature Shapes for Britannia, and Havas Creative India’s Ink of Democracy campaign for The Times of India.

Watch the ad campaigns mentioned above here: 

FCB India’s Lucky yatra campaign film:

Ogilvy India’s Eye Test Menu campaign film: 

Talented’s Nature shapes Britannia film: 

Havas Creative’s film for TOI: 

While the shortlists for the Digital Craft, Entertainment, Audio & Radio, Innovation, and Glass: The Lion for Change categories have been announced, India has not secured any shortlists in these.

Tally of Indian agencies’ shortlists at Cannes Lions so far

The highest number of entries are made in the Brand Experience & Activation (2,337) category, followed by Media (2,058), Direct (2,038). The lowest number of entries were made Dan Wieden Titanium Lion (187), Luxury and Lifestyle (181) and Innovation (231).

The Cannes Lions Awards Shows will be held each evening during the Festival from Monday, June 16, to Friday, June 20, 2025. On Day 1 (June 16), winners in Pharma, Health & Wellness, Grand Prix for Good, Audio & Radio, Print & Publishing, and Outdoor will be announced.

India has a strong presence in the Outdoor category this year with 13 shortlists, along with 3 in Health & Wellness, 4 in Print & Publishing, and 2 in Pharma.

India has submitted 982 entries for Cannes Lions 2025. According to data shared by Cannes Lions, only 3% of work entered gets to win an award.

The country’s global standing has dipped slightly—dropping from 10th to 12th in the location-wise rankings of Cannes Lions 2024.

India’s performance at Cannes Lions 2024 ended on a modest note, with 18 awards (2 Gold, 7 Silver, 9 Bronze)—the lowest tally since 2019, when India also secured 18 Lions.

In 2024, Leo Burnett topped the Indian rankings, followed by McCann, Ogilvy, VML, and Kondurkar Studio, the agency behind the controversial Jindal Steel film. 

By comparison, India won 25 metals in 2023 and set a record with 48 Lions in 2022.

Sumit Virmani, Global Chief Marketing Officer at Infosys; Ananya Srikanth Rao, Brand Director, Strategy, at Saatchi & Saatchi; Josy Paul, Chairperson and CCO at BBDO India; and Gurbaksh Singh, Chief Creative Officer and Chief Innovation Officer at Dentsu Creative are the major speakers from India this year.