Cannes 2013: 'One simple pink line that was adopted by thousands...': Santosh Padhi, Taproot India

Carlton Draught Beer Chase (TVC)

Loved the fact that the film opens almost on a product window. Which client wouldn't agree to a TVC which has product through out the film? That doesn't mean the creative jury will hate it. It's always about how you tell a story. The story is well told here - it's quite funny, nice spoof / take on car. Wonderful to see they did not over do it. We see love and care for the beer in this TVC, that's what the human truth or consumer insight is. Really very well shot, looks very sleek. I won't mind watching it again and again, may be with a glass of beer!

NMRA Car Creation (Integrated)

Financial and insurance category is one of the toughest for years. Most clients played very safe due to stiff rules and regulation - but not any more. NMRA just added some excitement in this category around their new campaign.

The problem was, some insurance companies in Australia don’t cover all the parts of cars. NMRA took this problem and launched their campaign idea. They used the actual uninsured car parts as advertising through content videos, online and digital outdoor, which moved consumers to their website. They suggested uninsured parts from their own cars, submitted mural designs and could even name the car. To make the car more accessible to the public, they created motion activated outdoor posters. While building the real car, they simultaneously built it in 3D. The poster detected movements so people could explore the 3D car inside and out, resulting in a fully operating car, a drivable collection of literally hundreds of reasons to insure with NMRA. They even launched it like a real car with Australian presenter and car enthusiast Shane Jacobson on a motoring site.

I think this campaign was very well thought through in terms of various stages, consumer touch points and consumer involvement. At the same time, it was exciting keeping the brand relevance at its core. The created car looks quite cool! I'd love to take a ride on it, but before that I would surely take an medical insurance

Dumb ways to die (TVC)

Public safety messages don’t work on young people if done in a typical fashion. They ignore them because they hate being told what to do. Metro Train found a way to get young people to care about being safe around trains. I liked the basic approach that it's not a typical public service campaign that's very emotional with human suffering shot in black and white, etc. A public safety campaign joyfully highlighted a range of incredibly dumb ways to die, with being unsafe around trains at the very top of the list. I loved the wonderful youthful song (quite peppy and trendy) which was told through a stark stylised, yet simple graphic visuals rendered through this TVC. It's always difficult to do the ad around the product. In this case 'dumb ways to die' is the product and they managed to tackle it quite well in the content (song) in a very youthful way. One won't get bored by watching or hearing it again and again - that's one of the good things about this TVC. No wonder it was the most shared public service ad in history, the sixth most viral ad of all time. Youtube views of the main video exceeded 30 million after just one month.

SEEK Volunteer (Digital)

All charities need donations. But there’s something far more important to them than money. Volunteers. That's what the Australian online job company SEEK Volunteer asked for, through one simple pink coloured line that was almost adopted by hundreds and thousands to promote the need. It's one simple, smart, contagious new age media idea. Starting from media industry to individuals, they all volunteered personal spaces such as profile pics, blogs, websites and tweets, as media spaces. From simply changing their profile pictures to offering up space on blogs, websites, tweets, right down to their email signatures. One can do this only if they feel for it inside and I feel this has the power to do so. Hope this gets adopted in every country for every cause.