Cannes 2013: Going beyond killing keetanooz

There's a sea of knowledge to tap into at the International Festival of Creativity. Consider, for instance, McCann Melbourne's Dumb Ways to Die viral film.

Got to love Indian advertising! After all, it introduced us to words that would otherwise have had no way of making it all the way to our English-educated, somewhat elitist vocabulary. They include words like keetanu (germs, the 'Hinglish' plural for which is in the headline), ghamodiyaan (prickly heat), chiknaai (grease, typically found on used utensils), poshan (nutrition) and my favourite… muhasay (pimples). The exhaustive list is beyond the scope of this blog.

A trip to Cannes and you realise there's so much more to advertising and creativity than this. Of course, you already knew this is not where creativity ends, but there's no denying it begins here for most of us. And, getting exposed to creative work from world over at a forum like this one certainly helps in taking that first giant glance beyond the familiar.

Consider a creative gem from this year's winners' list, McCann Melbourne's Dumb Ways to Die film. The campaign has already won a Grand Prix in two categories - PR Lions and Direct Lions. And I'll be damned if these are the only Lions it wins this year.

The brief to the agency was to find a way to get youngsters to be more mindful about their safety around Melbourne's metro trains. This brief came in the wake of rising incidents of accidents and deaths of young people on Melbourne's train system. The agency came up with the idea that being unsafe around trains and dying in the process is, well, the dumbest way to die! This message was conveyed through entertainment and branded content, as opposed to the usual shock tactics.

So, here's what McCann Melbourne did: The agency first launched a song on iTunes and a music video on YouTube. Then came a book, a smartphone game, interactive outdoor posters, and radio advertising. What's more? A karaoke version of the song was even played on train stations. People were basically entertained and as a by product, made to pledge not to be dumb.

And, guess what! Melbourne Metro recorded a 21 per cent reduction in accidents and deaths as compared to the previous year. The film, too, went viral in no time. According to the official Cannes Lions website, the film became the 'most shared' public service announcement with more than 30,00,000 Facebook shares; 1,00,000 Twitter shares; and over 2,000 blog posts on it. The campaign website received around one million pledges.

At the time of writing this blog, the YouTube page view figure for the video released by the agency read: 49,642,983.

Overall, the campaign generated earned media worth 6,00,00,000 USD.

Growing up, I never really understood the fuss about going abroad to study or work. People around me would go on about 'international exposure' and I'd roll my eyes wondering what the big deal about sitting in a class full of mixed races was. Now, I get it. It's more than that. It's all about opening one's mind to ideas that originate in the grey cells of a person halfway across the world.