Chennai, Colvyn conquer! Leo wins a Lion; O&M flies high!

On the cover of this issue, it's a question – the cover was designed on Monday night. In these unnumbered pages, it's a statement - and this page was designed on Thursday night.

JWT Chennai has indeed won a Lion at Cannes - one of three awards won as on Thursday night by Indian agencies. Their entry for the Red Cross (photographed by Sharad Haksar of 1pointsize) wins a silver lion in the press category, while O&M's “Birds” for a:door wins a silver lion for Outdoor. Leo Burnett's entry for Heinz wins a bronze.

Two of the winning entries are elsewhere in this issue (Red Cross on page 12, and Heinz on page 7).

Impact spoke to the three winners on their accomplishments, before the champagne could get to them.

Emmanuel Upputuru and Prasad Raghavan are stunned, and still to recover from the win. An elated Upputuru was infomed by Abhijit Awasthi, who is over the moon as well, and keeping his fingers crossed for more good news from Cannes once the film shortlist is announced.

On asked if he was satisfied with a silver, Upputuru is buoyant: "Year before last we won a nomination, last year a bronze and this year it's silver. Hopefully, next year it's a Gold, and then it's the Grand Prix," he says. Raghavan is shell-shocked. “What can I say, except that it’s fantastic to win at Cannes.” That’s it -- he’s speechless.

The poster that won them the silver is created for a:door art centre, a forum for creative people, which regularly holds film screenings and other meetings and seminars focusing on the arts. The forum does exist, posters are created for meetings, and Upputuru doesn't even know what a scam ad is.

Upputuru and his colleague Prasad Raghavan, both 34, will wait for Creative Director Ramesh to return from Cannes before celebrating this win. The self-effacing duo had no photograph handy - we'll tell you more about them in the next issue.

But we can tell you about JWT’s Colvyn Harris’ initial reaction now. “We are delighted. Not only have we clinched a Silver Lion for Indian Red Cross, but 'Ideator' was a finalist. We have just instituted something called 'The Standard', which signifies our current creative philosophy and I think that this win couldn't have come at a better time.”

“More importantly, one has to remember that in India we create advertisements, keeping the Indian consumer in mind and what will move the brand in the market. Many a times, these ads don't set well at the global level. But that's not the primary concern - the primary concern is that the ad should be effective in the Indian market and then if it is good, we send it for awards. When the ad wins, it really is the icing on the cake.”

We managed to get hold of JWT’s Chennai Head, Anita Gupta, who threw light on the award winning effort."The press ad was created for the Red Cross. The more our creative team thought of the concept, the more the idea evolved. The Red Cross was itself a simple metaphor. What was good about it was the simplicity, the idea coming from the cross itself." "With JWT's new vision, this award gives us evidence of how we live and breathe creative", she adds.

The four man team on this campaign are featured in another story in this issue – on page 12. Call it foresight!

Says Charles Victor, Creative Supervisor (Copy). “It felt great to hear that we had five nominations, and its absolutely fantastic that we won. More will follow.”

His colleague Joono Simon, Senior Creative Director, adds"It's a great moment for me. Public service is a very cluttered category to win in, and that makes the award sweeter.”

“JWT was always known for its brand building skills and bigness. I'm happy to see this giant dance."

Done with O&M and JWT, Impact tracked down Leo Burnett’s Executive Creative Director Agnello Dias for his comments. This one, unlike the others, was not done on the phone or in person, but on the net, so we reproduce the conversation interview-style.

Of the various Leo Burnett entries that were short listed, which was your personal favourite? Did you expect this one to win?

I was expecting a lot out of this one, the McDonald's shoe ad and a Prerana Ad for the prevention of female foeticide.

What do you think worked in favour of this particular entry?

The fact that it is global brand; a universal message; a completely fresh execution

You have won at the Cannes Lions every year. Please do share some of the earlier wins..
The ads that have won in the past are the Forte Organ Donation commercial, the Senso Italian restaurant ad and this one. Not to mention a host of finalists for babool, complan, tide etc.

Did the fact that you have been winning create any pressure on this year - that you should win this year as well?

Yes there is a lot of pressure but pressure is good.

What does this win, a Cannes Lion mean to you?

It means that if you keep the faith, results will eventually show. It shows us the power of persistence.

And most importantly, it charges us up.

Aiming for the Gold Lion next year?

We go for the Gold Lion every year. And we will next year too.

That’s conversations with three winners as at the end of Thursday. Tomorrow is another day; more hopes, and hopefully, more awards and more conversations. Keep the champagne buckets handy!