Ahead of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2019, we are back with our 'Cannes Contender' series.
The premise is:
How much time really does a Cannes juror get to understand a case or piece of work s/he hasn't come across before?
Too little. It's up to us to help them get acquainted with the good work prior. We present here entries from Indian/South Asian agencies that their creators believe will be in contention for Lions at the 2019 International Festival of Creativity.
Cheil India has three such entries.
Samsung Bixby Voice Forever
Bixby Voice Forever is the world’s first personalised voice assistant created for Sonal; a mother of two and a Motor Neurone Disease patient. All MND patients lose their ability to speak. Before Sonal lost her speech, we engineered her own personalised voice assistant so she can leave her natural voice alive in her children’s smartphones and throughout all of their Samsung home appliances.
We first recorded her voice and synthesised all tones, pitches and unique characteristics to create a realistic voice file we could integrate into Bixby’s A.I. code; to make her voice, the voice of Bixby. Then, we personalised the wake-up command from “Hi Bixby” to “Hi Mama,” and personalised the responses, so it always answers with her children’s names and personal information. These personalized Bixby devices were gifted to the family. By creating a personalised voice assistant, we can imagine a future where we all have a more meaningful relationship with Artificial Intelligence.
Inspired by Sonal’s story, we produced a heart touching commercial film.
It turned out to be a huge success as it clocked 100 million views in less than 7 days and has more than 201 million views on YouTube till date.
Adidas #TheRealKashmir
Kashmir - the world’s most-militarised region. For more than seven decades, the world has only seen one side to it. At Adidas we believe sports has the power to change lives, so we decided to change the lens.
By telling the true story of a rising football club in Kashmir, to the world narrated by an 80-year-old, blind Kashmiri who doesn’t see Kashmir like the world, but feels it in the hope football brings. Through him, we gave the world a new lens to see The Real Kashmir. The lens of football.
For the first time, media talked in positives about Kashmir. Governors and Ministers in the Indian Government joined the fans. The positive lens of football brought hope, back to the narrative.
We wanted mainstream media to join the change too. So we partnered with a leading Kashmiri newspaper, Kashmir monitor and changed an age old format of reporting. And flipped the usual cover story of negativity with positive stories of sports. For the first time in decades, Kashmir woke up to a positive cover story. Media powerhouses joined the change and spread the message.
We then collaborated with renowned photographer Prashant Godbole who shot Kashmir through the lens of football. An eye-opening photography exhibition held in Bangalore showed Kashmir in a way that it had never been shown before. The same shots were used for an outdoor campaign that changed the negative language associated with Kashmir.
Adidas ConnectedByColours
Inspired by the spirit of Holi, Pharrell Williams was about to launch the adidas Originals Hu Holi collection. We needed a campaign that celebrated his Hu platform’s philosophy of equality and unity to introduce the collection. The campaign was meant to engage with Pharrell fans and Sneakerheads alike to drum up chatter around Pharrell's visit to India for the launch of this new collection.
Our campaign had to be a visual treat just like Holi, while being inclusive, like the spirit of India. So we asked fans to welcome Pharrell to India with a Holi festival tradition to show inclusivity - by smearing him with colors, albeit digitally. We created a microsite titled 'Connected by Colors' - A virtual altar for fans - where they could colour-in Pharell to create virtually infinite colourful tributes to the superstar.
Keeping in mind our Indian internet audience, the microsite's main canvas used a User interface similar by the trending hobby of adult coloring books. Users could choose a canvas and fill it with colors to make their own unique art as a tribute to Pharrell.
The campaign culminated with Pharrell coming down to Mumbai for the launch, being welcomed with the fan-created artworks and celebrating Holi with Indian celebrities Ranveer Singh, Anusha Dandekar and his fans.
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