Technology

India Shines at the World’s Biggest Creativity Festival: Cannes Lions 2022

Every year, the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity brings the creative and corporate communications industry together through events and experiential marketing at its one-of-a-kind stage to learn, network and celebrate. For India's creative agencies, the feel-good cup was obviously brimming over, with the medals tally touching 47, including 5…

By Shrishti Jain
July 1, 2022

Every year, the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity brings the creative and corporate communications industry together through events and experiential marketing at its one-of-a-kind stage to learn, network and celebrate. For India's creative agencies, the feel-good cup was obviously brimming over, with the medals tally touching 47, including 5 Grand Prix and 2 Titanium Lions. Around 87 countries entered the competition, including India, which saw a 32% increase in entries year on year. Here are our top 5 influential picks from the festival:

Coinbase for the Win

Coinbase broke the internet with a $14 Mn 60-second Super Bowl ad spot showing nothing more than a QR code bouncing around the screen. An unbranded QR code presented crypto platform Coinbase to the Super Bowl crowd. The ad's simple CTA sent a clear message to the viewers' minds. As a result, it became a hit in leveraging creativity and giving people an experience that "affects the bottom line." This ultimately led to community building with 14 Bn media impressions and more than 445 Mn new Coinbase signups. Later, Coinbase became the second-most downloaded app, according to Apple data.

Marrying Tech & Innovation

Monday saw six Grands Prix awarded, including India coming first in the Radio & Audio Lions and Health & Wellness Lions. Through Dentsu Creative Bengaluru, VICE Media's 'The Unfiltered History Tour' won its second Grand Prix in the Brand Experience & Activation Lions. Using Instagram filters and immersive audio, VICE Media shared the untold side of the British Museum's looted artefacts and allowed visitors to discover the authentic provenance of the artefacts. The tour was developed right under the British Museum's nose, and visitors can even connect to its wifi while taking the tour! The campaign highlights its commitment to making marginalised colonial voices heard.

Celebrating Creativity

The AI-enabled system created thousands of permutations for the localised versions of the same ad, making an engaging hyper-personalised ad. Ogilvy's artificial intelligence-driven campaign for Cadbury Celebrations' 'Shah Rukh Khan My Ad' with Wavemaker India earned the prestigious Titanium Lion, which celebrates game-changing creativity. The campaign used AI, ML & location data to create a hyper-personalised campaign and allow local small retailers to make India's most prominent brand ambassador their own brand ambassador. You can map local stores of the most impacted categories and cities using pin code-based data. The same ad features different local stores and serves on Facebook and Youtube with stores closest to the viewer in real-time.

Google's All In

At Cannes Lions, Google hosted a presentation on inclusive influencer engagement marketing with the theme "Build for Belonging: Accessibility Marketing in Action." This initiative recognised intersectionality by treating persons with disabilities more holistically, using a range of identification metrics such as gender, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, age, and education. It was undertaken to ensure that everyone experiences a feeling of identity. It was also included to spread the message that every component of a brand should consist of accessibility as an integral part - from design to implementation and beyond. The subsequent step will be to grow All In worldwide, launch audience analytics in more nations this year, and collaborate with brands from other sectors to fund inclusive marketing efforts for everyone.

Campaign What Matters

Leo Burnett India won a Grand Prix award in the Sustainable Development Goals category for P&G's campaign named 'The Missing Chapter' for its sanitary napkin brand Whisper. Studies indicate that even today, 2.3 crore girls drop out of school when their periods begin, and 71% of adolescent girls in India are not aware that menstruation occurs until they start their period. Together with P&G's Whisper, Leo Burnett designed The Missing Chapter that, explained menstruation to educate girls in India and petitioned the Government to include it in school books. The campaign questioned the gap that exists in education systems. The unique concept, beating deep-rooted stigmas and impact created on the ground helped the campaign become the best in the Sustainable Development Goals category.

The Evolution of the Indian Advertising

Marketing and advertising play a massive role in shaping society — how people see, think, understand and act. But, with social media, the entire scene changed. It prompted brands to shift from producing monologues to engaging in conversation, altering the relationship between brand and buyer. Today, a brand's equity is directly proportional to its values and emotional quotient. And the creatives must take notes.