Fewer shortlists but hopes run high as Indian contingent eyes more medals at Cannes Lions

Cannes: The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2024 has commenced at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in Cannes, France, and will run until June 21. 

Indian agencies are optimistic about winning big this year as well. So far, India has secured 38 shortlists across 14 categories at the Cannes Lions 2024, with more categories yet to be announced. 

It is to be noted that last year, before the first day of Cannes Lions, India had earned 43 shortlists across 13 categories. 

This year, India has submitted 826 entries compared to 809 entries last year.

From India, VML’s tally stands the strongest with 10 shortlists. Leo Burnett, Ogilvy and McCann have earned 6 shortlists each so far. FCB Kinnect and dentsu Creative India have 3 shortlists each, followed by Early Man Film with 2 shortlists and Tgthr with one shortlist.

The highest number of entries are made in the Brand Experience & Activation (89) category, followed by Media (81), Direct (79), Films (54) and PR (52). The lowest number of entries were made in the newly formed category, Luxury and Lifestyle (2) and Entertainment Lion for Gaming (3). 

The festival has received a total of 26,753 entries in 2024, and a surge in categories like Creative Business Transformation, Creative Commerce, and Creative Strategy can be observed.

In 2023, India ended its Cannes Lions campaign with 25 Lions and an Agency of the Year award by track out of 77 shortlists in 2023 vs 47 Lions in 2022.

Last year, the Indian tally at Cannes Lions included a Grand Prix, two Gold, 10 Silver and 12 Bronze medals where Leo Burnett Mumbai emerged as the highest-scoring agency. 

In 2023, India couldn’t match the bar it set for itself in 2022 when it created history at the Cannes Lions. In 2022, Dentsu Creative India won the coveted “Agency of the Year” and the country’s final tally stood at 47 metal hauls across 20 categories securing 210 points in terms of 5 Grand Prix, 2 Titanium, 8 Gold, 18 Silver and 14 Bronze Lions, second to USA which earned 365 points. 

Moreover, in 2022, it was the first time that two agencies crossed the 100-point mark at the Cannes Lions- dentsu Creative Bengaluru with 184 points and FCB India with 121 points. Not to forget Vice Media’s ‘The Unfiltered History Tour’ ad campaign conceptualised by dentsu Creative - which became the only campaign to be awarded three Grand Prix and a Titanium Lion, globally, in 2022. 

There were many firsts in store for India at the awards gala 2022, including Indian agencies winning Grand Prix in ‘Sustainable Development’ and ‘Social & Influencer’ categories and winning four Lions including a Grand Prix for the first time in ‘Radio & Audio’ category.

However, it is important to understand that while it would be phenomenal to see India scoring big this year as well, not every year can be as fruitful as the last one. 

For the record, the silver and Bronze winners will be announced at 2:30 pm CEST, every day. Only the Gold, Grand Prix and special awards winners will be announced during the awards gala every evening. 

According to data shared by Cannes Lions, only 3% of work entered gets to win an award. 

This time around, Indian agencies are looking forward to continuing the winning streak once again with a slew of campaigns including Taj Megh Santoor, #UnplasticIndia, Fit My Feet, Motorola - A Deep Connect, Turf Farm and many more. 

Launched last year in December, Aalap Desai’s Tgthr has debuted at Cannes Lions with one shortlist for Harpic ‘Loocator - #BeFreeToPee. 

Furthermore, 12 jurors including 2 jury presidents namely - Anusheela Saha, Anupama Ramaswamy, Rahul Mathew, Mayuri Nikumbh, Honey Bajaj, Parikshit Bhattaccharya, Anushree Ghosh, Sonal Chhajerh, Mukund Olety, Hephzibah Pathak, Prasoon Pandey and Prerna Mehrotra have also been enlisted in the jury line-up this year. 

This year, Cannes Lions introduced the Luxury & Lifestyle Lions, retired the Mobile Lion, and expanded Innovation Lions to include spaces for environmental, societal and financial innovation. 

The awards renamed “Radio & Audio Lions” to “Audio & Radio Lions”. In addition, Cannes Lions introduced the ‘Use of humour’ category to the Cultural & Context sections that sit across many of the Lions, to celebrate the art of humour in branded communications. 

Last year, the jurors found the cultural context section so valuable that they made it a compulsory element this year onwards along with making AI disclaimer mandatory.

The Cannes Lions program will showcase more than 150 hours of content, featuring around 500 speakers from across the spectrum of creativity. This year, 16 Indians, including Gautam Reghunath, PG Aditiya, Rajdeepak Das, Kawal Shoor, Josy Paul, Nitin Saini, Abraham Varughese, Karandeep Kapany and a few others are set to share their invaluable insights and innovative perspectives at Cannes Lions 2024.

This year, Pooja Manek, Palak Kapadia & Kopal Naithani are selected for the Cannes Lions 2024 ‘See It Be It’ programme.

India’s shortlist tally so far: