The desi Hellos have begun
Most of the expected Indian delegation has reached Cannes to attend the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and the Indian shortlisted entries have a few slightly upset
The first day of the Festival doesn’t usually get specific reactions from people. After all, Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is a week-long experience of winning some, losing some but learning lots if one takes out the time to be in the Palais de Festival, where the Festival is held every year.
And the 59th year of the Festival is no different. Most people did constantly discuss the ‘wonderful’ weather but apart from that, the conversations were about the Indians now making a home in Singapore, the seemingly low count of award shortlists with which India has begun day one, how some of the sessions were ‘brilliant’ and the fact that the seminar hall was ‘too full’ for the first day.
Needless to say, all sessions were on the extreme changes that digital has brought upon the communication industry and for the new-age marketer; this year there was a higher dose of data and big data that made it to the conversations on stage. In fact, the festival programme shows that there are going to be more discussions on data in the week to come. But the Indian delegates seemed to enjoy most sessions.
Media owner representatives, Joy Chakraborthy from TV Today Network, Avinash Pandey and Neeraj Sanan from Media Content and Communication Services (MCCS), Ashish Sehgal from Zee Entertainment Enterprises and needless to say The Times of India Group led by Arunabh Das Sharma were amongst the first from India to attend sessions.
Rana Banerjee of Dabur India, representing the marketer side, is also here attending his first Cannes Lions.
From the advertising fraternity, DDB Mudra Group’s Madhukar Kamath and Mandeep Malhotra, JWT India’s Bobby Pawar and Colvyn Harris, Creativeland Asia’s Sajan Raj Kurup, Bates Asia’s Praveen Vadhera and Ogilvy India’s Abhijit Avasthi were caught exchanging notes with their Singapore counterparts including DDB’s Joji Jacob, Leo Burnett’s Saurabh Varma and WPP’s Team P&G’s Anurag Gupta.
Mindshare’s recently promoted South and South East Asia CEO R Gowthaman is also attending Cannes Lions this year and if his tweets are anything to go by, G’Man, as he is better known, has thoroughly enjoyed Day One of the Festival. The rest of the week promises to be busy for him with the various Mindshare activities lined up at the pent house that the agency has made its home for the week.
India has got 13 entries that have made it to the shortlists of Direct Lions, Promo & Activation Lions and PR Lions. Last year, between these three categories, Indian agencies had 16 entries shortlisted. For some of the Festival old timers, India performance is “not very good” for day one but as a senior creative agency head points out, the week has only just begun.
Cannes Lions has got underway and the Palais has got busy but the real Cannes rush will be upon us only today and this year promises to be one of the most action-packed years for the Festival.
