Cannes Lions Day 4: Leo Burnett bags 1 Silver, Ogilvy 1 Bronze; India metal tally at 14
Leo Burnett’s ‘#BringBack2011’ Oreo campaign and Ogilvy’s ‘VI Human Network Testing Network’ shine
On Day 4 of the ongoing Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2024, Leo Burnett and Ogilvy bagged one silver and one bronze Lion respectively. This brings India’s total Lions tally to 14-- two golds, five silvers and seven bronzes.
The day was disappointing for India, as a total of 13 campaigns were in the reckoning for the awards in the six categories. The categories were Creative Business Transformation, Creative Effectiveness, Creative Strategy, Luxury & Lifestyle, Brand Experience & Activation, Innovation and Creative Commerce.
The silver Lion was awarded to Leo Burnett in the creative effectiveness category, within the single market subcategory for Oreo’s #BringBack2011 campaign. It relied on the high emotional stakes that Indians have for cricket and the cricket world cup. The year 2011 when Oreo was launched in India was also the year when the country won the Cricket World Cup. They relaunched the cookie, targeting to bring several cultural and social milestones that Indian enjoyed in 2011 again in 2022, collaborating with ace cricketer MS Dhoni for it.
The bronze lion winner in the creative strategy category in the market disruption subcategory was won by Oglivy for ‘VI Human Network Testing Network’ for Vodafone Idea. The campaign included a documentary style advertisement in which the Dabbawalas, who are the most reliable people for any movement around the metropolis of Mumbai, were prominently featured as the network testers for the telecom service provider. It showed how the dabbawalas helped the company in torture-testing its network, and thereby improving their service and ultimately sales.
Out of the seven categories whose awards were given out on Thursday, no Indian campaign had been shortlisted for creative business transformation, luxury & lifestyle, innovation and creative commerce. In creative effectiveness, Leo Burnett had three different shortlists one of which was the recipient of the silver lion. In creative strategy, four campaigns were shortlisted, two each by Ogilvy and Leo Burnett. Despite having the most number of shortlisted campaigns from India in a category at six, no wins were registered in the brand activation and experience category.
