Cannes 2011: BBDO India high on Creative Effectiveness

To win this award or even enter this category, it's mandatory to have won a Lion in the previous year. The Creative Effectiveness award is the latest addition to the ever-growing list of categories at the Festival of Creativity, Cannes.

Philip Thomas, chief executive officer, Cannes Lions Festival, shared that for the last two-and-a-half years, they have been trying to add effectiveness to Cannes' creativity.

Sharing his view on the winning Indian entry, Jean Marie Dru, jury president and chairperson, TBWA Worldwide, says, "This was a great idea and above all, it was a complete integration of event, advertising and digital."

Dru shares, "Many of the entries in the category (in the first year) over-claimed their results, which they weren't able to validate later."

All entries for this category had to be submitted with a 3,000-word case study, with information from the client. Once the Cannes festival committee reviewed it internally, it was passed on to PWC, which further validated the claims. During both stages, the entrants were called to provide more information, if the need for the same was felt.

The jury was also careful to eliminate those entries in which creativity did not play a large role in achieving targets. Nirvik Singh, chairperson and chief executive officer, Grey Group, Asia-Pacific, says, "There was one question in the format which discounted the other factors that could have contributed to achieving the final target -- for instance, if there were any sales discounts available during the time of the campaign. The jury also looked for a mismatch between the initial goal and the result, and those entries which did not meet these criteria failed."

The Grand Prix in this category was awarded to PepsiCo's Walker. It was interesting to see small brands winning in this category along with the big brands. A small television channel from New Zealand has also won a Lion in this category.

This has been a great year for India at Cannes. The Indian agencies have received 72 nominations, of which 24 have been converted into Lions. Indian agencies have bagged four golds, 10 silvers and 10 bronzes.

Among the Indian agencies, BBDO India tops the list with one gold (Creative Effectiveness), two silvers (both in PR), and one bronze in Outdoor. The other gold winners are Ogilvy India, Lodestar UM and Out of the Box in Film Craft, Media and Design, respectively. Mudra has won three silvers (two in Design and one in PR), and five bronzes (two in Promo & Activation, one each in Film, Press and Design). McCann has one silver in Press and one bronze in Radio, while Taproot has one silver in Outdoor. Ogilvy, Maxus and TBWA India, too, have one silver each in Press, Media and Design, respectively. Besides, JWT, Grey and Sorento Healthcare have won a bronze each in Film, Press and Outdoor, respectively.

To view other interviews from Cannes 2011, click here.