The shortlists for the Media Lions and Press Lions were announced on June 22, 2009 at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival 2009. India has got 11 entries in Media Lions shortlists, and there are 10 works, between three campaigns and one standalone entry, in the Press Lions category.

11 Indian entries in Media Lions shortlist: Maxus leads, followed by MediaCom
There are 11 Indian works that have made it to the Media Lions shortlist. The three from Maxus include the work done for Tata Sky; for Nokia, and for Titan. Mediacom has managed two entries for the work that is has done for P&G’s Gillette. Following this, there is one entry from Madison Media for BBC World Trust; one from Lodestar Universal for Tata Nano and then one from Starcom MediaVest Group for Singapore Tourism Board.

In addition to this, Ogilvy India has one shortlist for SAB Miller India; Publicis India has one for In Gandhi’s Shoes and Publicis Ambience has one for Sansui Electronics.

As compared to the 92 entries sent last year by Indian agencies, this year 72 works were entered in this category. Last year India had two Media Lions.

Nick Brien, CEO, Mediabrands is the Jury President for Media Lions this year. The expectation from Brien to ensure media agencies are actually credited for media awards instead of their creative counterparts has been high. The Indian juror for this category is Lynn de Souza, Chairman and CEO, Lintas Media Group.

The judging process for Media Lions commenced on June 18, 2009 and ended on June 22, 2009.

10 Indian works in Press Lions shortlist
While in the shortlist, these have been put as different entries, technically taking the number of Indian entries in the Press Lions shortlist to 10, three campaigns per se have been shortlisted in Press Lions, in addition to one standalone entry.

The three campaigns include three entries ‘Cave-man’, ‘Diver’ and ‘Tourist’ from the print campaign that Ogilvy India had done for Perfetti Van Melle’s Sour Marbels Candies. Ogilvy India’s count in this category is higher than others given that it also has a standalone entry for the work done for GlaxoSmithKline.

There are also three entries ‘Garlic’, ‘Fish’ and ‘Cigar’ from the print campaign that McCann Erickson has done for Perfetti Van Melle’s Chlormint.

Then there are three entries ‘Engineer’, ‘Housewife’ and ‘Tourist’ from Rediffusion Y&R’s print campaign for Bharti Airtel.

Indian entries in Press Lions have dropped. In comparison to the 333 entries in 2008, there are 262 Indian works entered in this category this year. Indian agencies had won seven awards in this category last year.

David Lubars, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer, BBDO North America, is the Press Lions Jury President this year. Abhijit Avasthi (better known as Kinu), Executive Creative Director, South Asia, is the Indian juror in Press Lions.