DDB Mudra Group Cannes Lions entries: Breaking taboos, robbing & ‘frowning’ with Chaplin
For this year’s festival of creativity, DDB Mudra Group has sent five of its ad campaigns with brands like Netflix, McDonald’s, Stayfree and BGMI
Mumbai-headquartered DDB Mudra Group, a part of the Omnicom Group, has submitted five of its campaigns for the upcoming Cannes Lions.
Rahul Mathew, Chief Creative Officer, DDB Mudra Group, spoke to e4m about the entries and more.
“The work we’ve sent to Cannes reflects what we really enjoy doing at the agency – big work on big clients, work that influences society or shapes culture, and work that showcases our love for craft. It’s the kind of work that we encourage through the year at the agency and probably why we have multiple pieces of work to take to Cannes. We’re optimistic about our chances at Cannes.”
The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity will be held in France 20-24 June.
Let's take a glimpse at the group’s entries:
Stayfree: Daughters Day
The campaign aims to initiate a wider discussion over menstruation and the associated taboos. This campaign has won Cannes Lions in the past too.
“Stayfree believes that normalizing periods will remain unattainable if men are excluded. If the men could start talking, their love for their daughters could potentially overcome and end years of conditioning,” says the agency.
But involving men is easier said than done, when even women talk about menstruation in hushed tones and behind closed doors.
The campaign gets father-daughter duos to have their first-ever conversation about periods. Instead of convincing them to talk about it, the campaign tricked them into it - by asking father-daughter duos to appear for an audition for an advertisement.
“They didn’t know it was for Stayfree, they didn’t know what the ad was about at all. The participants read through a script handed to them. Midway through reading the script they realized what their conversation was actually about. Periods. They fumbled and stuttered but continued with the audition,” the creative team explains.
By the end of it, the film helped fathers overcome their awkwardness to assure their daughters that it’s just a period.
The campaign has been nominated in four categories - Social Behaviour, Cultural Insight, Health & Wellness (Brand-led Education & Awareness) and Creative Effectiveness (Creative Effectiveness for Good).
Impact:
The film reached 19.7 million people and generated 45 million impressions and a 24% engagement rate overall – significantly higher than social media benchmarks of 8-11%.
The engagement rate with men in particular was a staggering 51% - in a category so covert that dialogue with men is negligible. Not only this, we received 14.4 million views with a VTR of 61% from men
It led to a 2.5 fold rise in registrations from parents for Stayfree & Menstrupedia, a leading resource on menstrual health – for a month-long workshop on understanding menstruation. What was especially heartening was that 25% registrations were fathers.
Most importantly, people engaged in dialogue. In a matter of days, we received 23 million page views from fathers learning about periods and comment threads teeming with discussion, proving that starting one awkward conversation can spark lasting change.
Netflix: Red Notice Shop
This slick promo campaign, which involves bringing alive a “Red Notice Shop” in a 3,000 sq. ft. retail space in one of Mumbai’s Phoenix Palladium Mall, allowed fans, celebrities and influencers to “steal” from the Shop.
The event, which was built using lasers, sensors, secret codes, CCTV cameras, alarms, and security associated with heist movies, provided the agency with a lot of fun content, which was used to create daily engagement videos.
While “top criminals” made it to a daily compilation of Most Wanted Thieves, many valiant attempts by amateurs were recognised as “Epic Fail package”.
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The campaign has been nominated in 10 different categories such as Brand Experience & Activation (Social Engagement & Integration, (Launch / Relaunch), Use of Ambient Media and Outdoor (Live Advertising and Events).
“We got India’s most beloved game show and talk show hosts to give fun commentary over our highlight reel, making people’s attempt at stealing look even more entertaining,” says the team.
Impact:
With 100k+ participants stealing goodies worth INR 5.5 lakh in just 36 hours, the Red Notice Shop became Netflix’s most participated on-ground event globally.
The shop left an indelible mark online driving 19 Million+ impressions on Instagram in just 3 days. It earned media space worth INR one crore.
Charlie Chaplin Foundation: A Silent Frown
Despite being thrown headlong into all the challenges one could possibly encounter – estranged parents, poverty, familial illnesses, war, economic devastation – the legendary comic actor Sir Charlie Chaplin taught the world to look past tragedies and find happiness where one could.
In his honour, the DDB Mudra Group and the Charlie Chaplin Museum Foundation have created a book - A Silent Frown - dedicated to the life and philosophy of Sir Charlie Chaplin.
Developed as a piece of art, each page of the book depicts Chaplin’s life in illustrations on a transparent section. When stacked by closing the book, the illustrations come together to form the visage of the great entertainer.
The book was launched to the public on Chaplin’s 133rd birthday, at the Chaplin’s World museum in Switzerland, and unveiled by Mr. Eugene Chaplin - son of the legend himself.
The campaign has been nominated in several categories such as Communication Design, Books, Promotional Printed Media, Promotional Item Design, Special Editions & Bespoke items, Industry Craft, Charity and CSR.
Impact:
Several copies have been sold at 200 CHF each, bearing the signature and endorsement of Eugene Chaplin. All proceeds from the sales are diverted towards the Foundation’s initiatives of developing cultural activities around Chaplin’s work, including workshops and film screenings for youngsters to whom access to culture is challenging.
BGMI: Game Responsibly
The Game Responsibly campaign is an unexpected take on a pressing issue. It embeds the problems of over-gaming and their subsequent solutions into relatable, non-preachy narratives.
The BGMI (Battle Ground Mobile India) was rolled out with several features built into the game to encourage gaming moderation among its young users.
“Our key challenge was to strike a balance between a fun, sticky message that also conveys the game features and culture we set out to communicate. Hence, humour was employed to drive home the features introduced by BGMI to combat over-gaming, including OTP authentication for minors and limits on daily in-game spending,” the agency explained.
The ad film has been entered in eight categories -
Media/Entertainment, Viral Film, Social Behaviour, CSR,
Health & Wellness, Brand-led Education & Awareness and Social Film.
McDonald’s: EatQual
India faces several challenges on the diversity, inclusivity, and social exclusion front, of which one of the biggest is that of disability. Over 2.21% of India’s population is disabled – nearly 27 million people, more than the population of Australia – 27 million who are routinely left out of marketing efforts, and even basic experiences.
McDonald’s mission was to “Make Delicious Feel-Good Moments Easy For Everyone”. The brand realized that for people with upper-limb disabilities, the feel-good burger experience probably rated zero, not to mention the intimidation they feel, and pity stares they get with something as simple as eating a burger.
The film has been nominated in eight categories, including Creative Effectiveness (Retail), Brand Challenges & Opportunities (Acquisition), and Creative Strategy-Audience Insight, CSR and Brand Strategy.
Impact
McDonald's launched EatQual in 2020, an innovative packaging that truly drove inclusivity and captured the country’s attention, improving people’s perception of the brand, and inviting audiences that had long been ignored by Food Retail.
