Nine Indians to be part of the jury at Cannes

A new category – Design – has been included this year at the Cannes Lions. With this inclusion, it is hoped that design will get the impetus that it has been lacking so far in India

India is shining. Slowly and steadily, but shining for sure. Nine Indians have been selected to be part of the jury at the Cannes Lions 2008. Each of the nine categories at Cannes has an Indian on its jury this year.

Sonal Dabral, chairman, Bates David Enterprise, and regional executive creative director, Bates Asia Pacific, is on the Film Lions panel. Priti Nair, national creative director, Grey India, will be on the Press panel. Prasoon Joshi, executive chairman, McCann-Erickson India, and regional executive creative director, McCann Asia Pacific, is president of the Outdoor Lions jury.

The Direct Lions panel will include Nishad Ramachandran, vice-president and group creative director of iContract. Lodestar Universal’s chief executive officer Shashidhar Sinha is a juror on the Media Lions panel. Karl Gomes, executive creative director, Arc Worldwide, is judging the Cyber Lions, while Senthil Kumar, ECD, JWT, is on the Radio Lions jury. Roshan Abbas, managing director, Encompass, is one of the jurors for the Promo Lions, and Sudhir Sharma, strategy and design founder of Elephant, is part of the panel for the new category, Design Lions.

Nine Indians to be part of the jury at Cannes

“There is a good trend of recognising Indian advertising at Cannes,” says Nair. This being her first time at judging at Cannes, Nair is looking forward to seeing some well- crafted work. She says, “What comes to mind is the Luxor print campaign, which has been done in sharp detail.”

The Design Lions is a new category at Cannes. Graphics, packaging and branding will be part of the work that will be judged. Sharma says, “Design awards aren’t big in India yet, though they are a big deal in the US and in Europe.” He is sure that with Cannes having included the category, design will become the most looked forward to category in times to come.

“In India, we are beginning to see a lot of integrated campaigns with digital playing an important role, and not just as a campaign website or a display ad unit. Today, we have virals, downloads, widgets, Facebook applications and a lot more social and mobile merchandise with integrated campaigns. I truly believe the time is now, when most brands can have, not just transparent dialogues with their consumers, but use the Internet and its various tools to react and optimise efforts,” says Gomes.

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