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New Delhi: Cannes Lions 2025 has seen a wide range of submissions from Indian agencies and brands, reflecting evolving themes, diverse storytelling styles, and context-driven ideas.
Agencies including Leo India, DDB Mudra Group, TBWA\India, BBDO India, dentsu India, Havas India, ^atom network and Tgthr have entered work across categories such as Health, Creative Data, Media, Entertainment, and Glass: The Lion for Change.
The campaigns feature contributions from brands such as Cathay Pacific, Mountain Dew, Lay’s, Whisper, Flipkart, Swiggy, and NPCI, among others.
This list outlines key Indian submissions, showcasing how creative work is responding to cultural, social, and behavioural trends.
Leo India has submitted four entries spanning a mix of creative approaches and themes.
Here's a look at the work it has entered this year.
Cathay Pacific transforms live flight data into a media opportunity
In a bid to outsmart rather than outspend, Leo India created Takeoff Takeover for Cathay Pacific by hijacking competitor flights in real time. By analysing layers of live airport data, aircraft information, and historical social media complaints, the agency served highly contextual ads to flyers right at their departure gates. This data-led campaign reframed every rival takeoff as an opportunity to push Cathay’s message, effectively targeting travellers at a moment of vulnerability, just before boarding.
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Mountain Dew maps Nepal’s peaks with real-time 'Fear Scores'
Mountain Dew’s Peaks of Courage reframes fear as a measurable, conquerable force. Tapping into the brand’s longstanding “Darr ke Aage Jeet Hai” positioning, the campaign mapped Nepal’s 8K, 7K, and 6K mountains using real-time expedition data like terrain complexity, Sherpa availability, weather conditions, and historical climbing routes. This information was converted into algorithmically generated “Fear Scores,” accessible via QR codes on product packaging. In collaboration with Nepal Tourism and Discovery Channel, the campaign aimed to inspire adventure while offering practical tools for mountaineers.
Lay’s spotlights soil health through a mother’s letter to her daughter
Mitti Ki Chithi (The Letter) for Lay’s India centres on the emotional and cultural significance of soil in Indian agriculture. The film portrays a female farmer receiving a heartfelt letter from her mother—personifying the land itself—as a metaphor for the urgent need to revive India’s degrading soil. By focusing on soil testing accessibility and female representation in farming, the campaign takes a grassroots approach to sustainability. The narrative reflects Lay’s ongoing efforts to support regenerative agriculture and improve crop quality by addressing soil health at its root.
Whisper’s musical campaign speaks directly to pre-teens about menstruation
With girls in India starting their periods as early as age eight, Whisper's #KeepGirlsInSchool – Early Periods campaign brings period education to younger audiences in a format they can relate to—music. Collaborating with artists Shreya Ghoshal and Sunidhi Chauhan, the campaign launched India’s first period education song for pre-teens. It also extended into animated content and classroom learning to reach both children and adults. The campaign’s goal is to create safe, stigma-free environments and encourage open conversations about early menstruation.
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DDB Mudra Group has entered four campaigns for Cannes Lions 2025
The work reflects a range of themes and execution styles across categories. Here's a snapshot of the agency's entries this year.
Stayfree addresses period stigma by encouraging boys to buy pads
Stayfree’s #BetaStayfreeLeAana campaign, entered in the Health & Wellness and Glass – The Lion for Change categories, focuses on breaking the stigma around menstruation by targeting the root of the discomfort: male silence. The campaign encourages parents to include sanitary pads in the shopping lists handed to boys, aiming to normalise period products and reduce the shame often passed down through generations. By engaging boys early, the initiative seeks to create long-term behavioural change through everyday interactions.
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Krafton spotlights connection over conflict with a BGMI in-game wedding
Krafton’s Great In-Game Wedding campaign, entered in the Entertainment Lions for Gaming, PR, and Design categories, aims to shift the perception of gaming in India from one of addiction and violence to one of connection and community. Recognising that gamers often spend more time in lobbies than in actual gameplay—forming friendships, seeking advice, and even finding love—the campaign showcased a real couple who met through BGMI and got married within the game itself. The event invited the public to witness and celebrate the ceremony, highlighting gaming as a meaningful social space.
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McDonald’s turns fries into a musical movement with Shakashaka
McDonald’s Shakashaka campaign, entered in the Entertainment Lions for Music and Social & Creator categories, tapped into Gen Z’s culture of memes, music, and shareable humour to revive love for its Shake Shake Fries. Based on the insight that shaking the fries enhances the eating experience, the brand reimagined the act as a cultural ritual—transforming it into a mockumentary-style music movement. Fries became percussion instruments, sparking a fictional musical tribe and blending entertainment with brand playfulness across digital platforms and in-store activations.
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Flipkart helps Gen Z dodge spending scrutiny with ‘Cover-Up Coupons’
Flipkart’s Big Billion Days – The Cover Up Coupon campaign, entered in the Brand Activation & Experience and Creative Commerce categories, addresses a familiar tension for Indian Gen Z shoppers—justifying online purchases to their parents. With most still living at home, and parental scepticism over spending running high, Flipkart introduced a playful workaround: fake scratch-and-win vouchers delivered ahead of the actual product. The coupons helped young shoppers frame their purchases as lucky wins rather than expenses, blending humour with behavioural insight to deepen engagement during its flagship sale event.
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TBWA\India has submitted one campaign for Cannes Lions 2025
Air India Express celebrates Indian English with The Inglish Dictionary
Air India Express’s The Inglish Dictionary campaign, entered in Social Behaviour, Culture Engagement, Publication & Editorial Design, and Art Direction categories, embraces the everyday language quirks of Indian English. Reflecting the airline’s positioning to let travellers “Fly As You Are,” the campaign turned commonly used, culturally rooted phrases into a curated dictionary—legitimising what’s often dismissed as incorrect English. By celebrating these expressions in a creative, editorial format, the campaign aimed to spark cultural pride and reinforce the idea that language, like identity, doesn't have to conform to a single standard.
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BBDO India has entered four campaigns this year, each rooted in storytelling and social insight.
Here’s a look.
Candid visualises the itch with a musical twist in scratch music
Candid’s Scratch Music campaign, entered in the Health & Wellness category, tackles the common yet often ignored issue of skin infections and the compulsive urge to scratch. Set against the backdrop of India’s humid climate, the film uses a blend of humour and discomfort—through an Indian classical-inspired melody—to capture the involuntary nature of scratching. As the protagonist scratches in rhythm, the tune shifts into an unsettling note, mirroring the worsening of the infection. The campaign uses this sensory storytelling to highlight the importance of treatment over temporary relief.
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WhatsApp taps nostalgia to highlight scam awareness in Oye Lucky campaign
WhatsApp’s Oye Lucky ft. Abhay Deol campaign, entered in the Entertainment category, reimagines the iconic track Oye Lucky Lucky Oye to spread awareness about online scams. Featuring familiar threats like fake job offers, impersonation, and OTP fraud, the music video uses humour and nostalgia to make digital safety more relatable. Created in collaboration with BBDO India, the campaign supports WhatsApp’s broader initiative to promote user privacy by encouraging cautious behaviour and highlighting in-app safety features.
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Ariel marks 10 years of #ShareTheLoad with focus on the mental burden of chores
Ariel’s decade-long #ShareTheLoad movement, entered in the Creative Effectiveness category, continues its call for gender equality at home. What began in 2015 with the question—“Is laundry only a woman’s job?”—has evolved through various lenses, from parenting and health to hidden social biases. In 2024, the campaign spotlighted the often invisible mental load of household responsibilities, revealing how it limits women’s opportunities—such as 57% declining work-related travel due to domestic demands. Through innovative touchpoints like wash labels and comic books, Ariel keeps pushing the conversation forward on home dynamics and shared responsibility.
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Tata Ultra Marathon turns runners’ footprints into pledges with Feet of Glory
Tata Ultra Marathon’s Feet of Glory, entered in the Media category, draws attention to the lack of access to running shoes among underprivileged children in India. Challenging the norm of hand-based pledges, the campaign encouraged participants to dip their feet in colour and leave behind a footprint—each one representing a pledge. For every pledge made, Tata committed to donating a pair of running shoes. The initiative combined symbolism with action to bridge the gap between India’s growing running culture and the accessibility issues that still persist for many.
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dentsu India is entering four campaigns this year
DSP Mutual Fund uses drone tech to protect lost children at Kumbh Mela
Launched at the 2025 Purna Maha Kumbh, Garuda Rakshak by DSP Mutual Fund tackled the recurring issue of missing children in one of the world’s largest gatherings. In a setting where modern connectivity often fails, DSP partnered with Falco Robotics to deploy Garuda-inspired drones powered by ultra-low frequency 8-bit tech from the 1970s. These drones tracked wristband signals given to children, enabling real-time, offline location tracing. The initiative, entered in the Innovation and Creative Data categories, reunited every registered child—78% in under five minutes—underscoring how technology can be used with empathy and intention.
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SBI Life’s ‘Hug of Life’ campaign links period care to breast cancer awareness
SBI Life’s Hug of Life, part of the Thanks A Dot initiative, addresses India’s low rate of breast self-examinations—only 18% of women have ever performed one, despite breast cancer being the leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women. The campaign introduced a tactile innovation: transforming a common hot water bottle—used during menstruation pain—into a self-exam guide. By encouraging checks a week after menstruation, when breasts are least dense, the initiative bridges the gap between awareness and early detection.
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Motorola’s deep connect bridges emotional and safety gaps in coal mining
In India’s coal mining sector, over 330,000 workers face daily risks, compounded by limited communication due to explosion hazards. Motorola’s Deep Connect addresses this gap with an innovative, frequency-based system that enables miners to safely connect with their families using existing walkie-talkie infrastructure—avoiding any risk of sparks. At just $200 per unit, the solution is designed for scale and affordability. After a successful pilot showing 100% adoption on day one, Deep Connect is set to roll out across 227 coal mines, potentially impacting over 1.65 million lives.
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Amdocs aims to stand out in India’s IT talent race with ‘Live Amazing, Do Amazing’
Despite having global operations and strong employee policies, Amdocs lacked visibility in India’s culturally entrenched IT ecosystem, long dominated by legacy giants like Infosys, TCS, and Wipro. With its new campaign, Live Amazing, Do Amazing, Amdocs seeks to challenge these popular perceptions and position itself as a desirable workplace for Indian tech talent. The campaign highlights the company's ambitions to become a leading talent hub in the region by focusing on growth, innovation, and meaningful work.
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Havas India has submitted three entries via three of its agencies: Havas Creative, Havas Life Mumbai and Havas Play (part of Havas Media Network).
The Times of India prints in purple to remind people to vote
Before the 2024 elections, The Times of India and Havas Creative India launched the “Ink of Democracy” campaign to fight voter apathy. Instead of black ink, the newspaper was printed in purple electoral ink—the same ink used to mark fingers after voting. Each purple page stood for 132 people who didn’t vote in the last election. The idea was simple but powerful: don’t waste a drop of ink, don’t waste your vote. The campaign was entered in categories like Media/Entertainment, Cultural Engagement, Single-Market Campaign, Social Behaviour, Not-for-Profit, and Innovative Use of Print.
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LullabAI , giving every mother the voice to sing
In India, lullabies are more than just songs—they’re emotional, cultural connections between mother and child. But for speech-impaired mothers, this tradition has been out of reach. That’s where LullabAI steps in. Created by Havas Life Mumbai, this innovative platform uses AI to recreate a mother’s voice from short speech samples, allowing her to “sing” to her baby through personalised lullabies. This powerful blend of tech and emotion was entered in categories including Audio & Radio, Healthcare, and Health & Wellness, and shows how AI can be used to create deeply personal experiences that bridge silence with love.
Swiggy’s ‘Bhog Elo Boney’ brings the festival and change to the forgotten
During Durga Puja, many widows—especially the Tiger Widows of the Sundarbans—are excluded from celebrations due to deep-rooted social stigma. Swiggy Foods, in collaboration with Havas Play, launched Bhog Elo Boney, turning this injustice into an act of inclusion. By building a floating Durga Puja pandal, they brought the festival directly to these women for the first time.
The campaign, entered under Glass: The Lion for Change and Outdoor, didn’t stop at symbolic gestures.
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Tgthr has entered two campaigns for this year’s awards
Ultraviolette’s UV Lync makes EV charging easy for bikers
India is home to eight of the world’s ten most polluted cities, with fuel-powered bikes being a major contributor. To tackle this, Ultraviolette, along with agency Tgthr, introduced UV Lync—a smart device that turns any Type-2 EV car charging point into a three-pin socket for electric bikes. This simple plug bridges the gap in charging infrastructure, easing range anxiety and making EV adoption more accessible for two-wheeler users. By using existing car chargers, UV Lync empowers more riders to switch to electric and supports the push for a cleaner, greener India.
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Scam awareness goes local at MahaKumbh
Amid an 85% spike in digital frauds in 2024, NPCI, in partnership with The Times of India and creative agency Tgthr, launched the Anti Scam Shala at the 2025 MahaKumbh. Instead of using traditional media, they tapped into everyday festival life by printing scam-awareness ads in regional languages on newspaper pouches. These were distributed for free to over 207,000 vendors, who passed them along with every purchase, making the campaign deeply local, low-cost, and high-impact.
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Atom Network has submitted one entry for this year’s Cannes Lions
Reliance General Insurance rolled out AI-powered Pink Star Safety Ratings for women travellers.
The Pink Star Safety Ratings, developed by Reliance General Insurance in partnership with ^atom network, aims to help women make informed decisions about travel destinations by offering real-time safety scores.
The system uses AI algorithms to assess locations based on multiple data points, including crime history, proximity to emergency services, public infrastructure, and other contextual indicators. The platform is designed to function similarly to existing rating systems used for hotels or vehicles, allowing users to better evaluate the safety of a place before visiting.
Content creator Kamiya Jani, founder of Curly Tales, features in the campaign launch, which seeks to build awareness around personal safety and informed travel planning.
Watch the campaign film here:
Wondrlab participates in Cannes Lions 2025 with three campaigns that explore the intersection of creativity and social responsibility. Each project addresses a different issue, using local cultural and behavioural cues to engage audiences.
Bill of Pride urges brands to move beyond rainbow-washing with real LGBTQIA+ inclusion steps
Launched in partnership with the Keshav Suri Foundation, 6 Degrees Diversity Council, and Ungender, this campaign critiques the widespread trend of performative allyship during Pride Month. Instead of asking for donations, it calculates and sends companies a customised “bill” based on the extent of their Pride-themed social media activity. The bill outlines actionable commitments—such as policy changes, DEI hiring goals, and sensitivity training—nudging businesses towards meaningful, year-round inclusion of the LGBTQIA+ community.
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The Right Sign brings Indian Sign Language into rap culture to promote accessibility
This campaign, made with VerSe Innovation, the Signing Hands Foundation, and Lucifer Music, brings Indian Sign Language (ISL) into mainstream hip-hop culture. The project reimagines common music video tropes, replacing gang signs with authentic ISL signs. Rap artists like Indeep Bakshi and Enkore collaborate to create India’s first rap videos performed entirely in sign language. To extend its reach, the campaign also offers a 40-phrase ISL tutorial pack to encourage public adoption and awareness of ISL.
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One More Tika turns a festive ritual into a nationwide push for dog vaccination
One More Tika, created with Pawfect Foods, connects the Kukur Tihar festival’s ritual of putting a tika on dogs with the Hindi word for vaccine (tika). The campaign encourages people to give their pets and street dogs “one more tika” by getting them vaccinated against rabies. By linking a cultural tradition with a health message, the campaign helped vaccinate over 5,000 dogs across India and raised awareness about pet care and rabies prevention.
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Nerolac’s ‘Dukaan It Yourself’ to represent India at Cannes Lions 2025
Kansai Nerolac’s 'Dukaan It Yourself' campaign, developed in collaboration with Tribes Communication, utilises foldable shade cards to create modular, eco-conscious retail kits for street vendors. Launched at the Maha Kumbh Mela, the initiative offers visibility and structure to informal sellers, turning a branding element into a functional shop setup. Recognised at Abby’s 2025 with the most metals won by a single campaign from an agency, the work now heads to Cannes Lions 2025 under multiple categories including PR, Outdoor, and Corporate Purpose.
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FCB India has submitted four entries for Cannes Lions 2025, highlighting its storytelling approach.
Indian Railways' 'Lucky Yatra' initiative
Indian Railways in Mumbai has introduced "Lucky Yatra," an initiative aimed at addressing the significant financial losses caused by ticketless travel. Rather than increasing enforcement, the program leverages the country's interest in luck and lotteries. Developed by FCB India, "Lucky Yatra" converts every train ticket into a potential lottery entry. The unique number on each ticket now offers passengers an incentive to purchase valid tickets, transforming a standard transaction into an engaging experience without requiring any changes to passenger behavior or the use of new applications.
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Navneet launches colourblindness text books
Navneet Education, addressing the challenges faced by children with Colour Vision Deficiency (CVD), has launched innovative "Color Blindness Detection Books." Developed in collaboration with FCB India, ophthalmological experts, and educators, these books aim to help identify and support children with CVD early in their education, ensuring they don't fall behind. Over one crore children in India suffer from CVD, often unknowingly.
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Navbharat Times: Barabari Ki Bhasha
The Navbharat Times has launched the Barabari Ki Bhasha (Language of Equality) campaign to address how language shapes gender roles and aspirations. Studies indicate that a lack of feminine equivalents for various professions and roles in language can discourage women from pursuing them, thus perpetuating gender disparities. This initiative aims to empower young girls by providing them with the linguistic tools to envision and pursue diverse ambitions, recognizing that language plays a crucial role in shaping societal perceptions and opportunities.
Uber Connects with India through 'Uber One'
Uber has launched its first loyalty program in India, Uber One, with a strategy to better resonate with the local population. Recognizing that many Indian names contain the phonetic sound of 'one', similar to the program's name, Uber, in collaboration with FCB India, devised the "Takes One to Get One" initiative. This approach offers a complimentary Uber One subscription to individuals whose names include this distinct phonetic element, aiming to integrate the brand more deeply into the Indian cultural context.
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BestMediaInfo.com will update the list as and when it receives submissions from agencies and brands.