LISTEN to Pops and Ravi Deshpande on India wins

The Cannes Press, Design and Cyber Lions Awards ceremony held on Wednesday night saw India win 2 Gold Lions, 2 Silver Lions and 3 Bronze Lions in the Press category, 1 Bronze Lion in the Cyber Category and 2 Golds and 1 Bronze Lion in the Design category, totaling 11 metals in all.

More significantly, India's total tally of Gold Lions across Press and Design is four. 

2008 seems to be India’s year at Cannes given that two days ago, the country also won its first Grand Prix in Direct for the Lead India campaign.

LISTEN to KV Sridhar's views on overall India haul:
 

In the Press category, Leo Burnett India has won a Gold Lion for their Luxor campaign, ‘Che’, Charlie’ and ‘Hitler’ (pictured). The agency has also won a Silver Lion for their Tide campaign titled ‘Lipstick’, ‘Ketchup’ and ‘Ice Cream.’  

Leo Burnett also won a Bronze Lion for their Luxor campaign ‘Blue’ and ‘Pink.’ Contract Advertising has won a Gold Lion for their campaign ‘Anti Female Foeticide’ for Aadhar. JWT India has won a Silver Lion in the Press category for their campaign ‘Twins’ for GM Pens International. Saatchi & Saatchi has won one Bronze Lion for their Cox & Kings campaign ‘Eiffel Tower’, ‘London’ and ‘Statue of Liberty’ while Grey Worldwide has bagged a Bronze Lion in the press category for their campaign ‘Taj Mahal’ for the Ministry of Tourism, government of India.

In the Design category, Leo Burnett India’s Luxor campaign has won a Gold Lion. JWT India has done well in Design this year with one Gold Lion for their campaign ‘Burden’ for Care Foundation and one Bronze Lion for their Mansworld campaign ‘Bob Marley’, ‘50 Cent’, ‘Jim Morrison’ and ‘Madonna’.
In fact, Leo Burnett India has won a Bronze Lion in the cyber category for their campaign ‘Pop Up’ and ‘Highlighter’ for Luxor, which is a first, given that India is perceived to be traditionally weak in the use of the online medium. Reacting to the win on an overall level, Leo Burnett India’s National Creative Director KV Sridhar or Pops as he is more widely called, said, “It’s fantastic. Everyone is now saying that India is the new Brazil. We have stolen the thunder this year. I think by the time we end, which is day six, day seven, we should be over 20 metals, which would place us amongst the top five countries in the world to have this share, which is fantastic. We were struggling between number  17 to 14 in the last couple of years inspite of what we think is a good haul of 10 to 12 metals. This year has been a defining year for India and henceforth people will talk about ‘before 2008’ and ‘after 2008’.”

LISTEN to KV Sridhar's views here:

At the award ceremony, Colvyn Harris, CEO, JWT India had this to say on his agency’s metal haul, “This is absolutely wonderful for JWT India. On Day 3 we already have India's first Grand Prix, one Gold Lion, one silver, three Bronze, and 16 finalists. What more can we ask for? We're getting greedy. We still have two award nights to go. And we are hoping for more. I am delighted with the JWT India team- Agnello Dias and his team have done a fabulous job and have brought us a lot of fame. I am particularly happy that India's advertising has come of age, and we're doing as well as any of the traditional country winners.”

Speaking to Campaign India, Contract’s National Creative Director Ravi Deshpande had this to say, “It’s been a great year for India. I am very happy that we won a Gold for an ad that’s so powerful, conceived in the classic no nonsense way. This is great for Contract to build on the optimism and hard work that we have put in this year.”

LISTEN to Ravi Deshpande's views here: