The LIONS Creativity Report, released on Wednesday, features creative heads from Dentsu Creative, Bengaluru, which had bagged the Agency of the Year award at Cannes Lions 2022. It also emerged as the first Indian agency to ever win the coveted title.

The names picked for Creative Director of the Year are - Aabhaas Shreshtha, Amey Chodankar, Ashwin Palkar, Binaifer Dulani, Geetika Sood and Kushal Lalvani.

The Art Director of the Year category featured Karthik Nambiar, Manasi Sheth, Tanya Paul and Vaishakh Kolaprath. Sachin Ghanekar from Purple Focus, Bengaluru, is also on the list.

Farishte Irani and Meghna Yesudas made it to the Copywriter of the Year list.

The annual report is the definitive rankings for creative excellence in branded communications, and provides insights, analysis and interviews with Lion-winning creators.

Speaking about the report, Simon Cook, CEO, LIONS, said, “It's a celebration and also a tool for future success. The official global creativity rankings provide a definitive benchmark for the industry, accompanied by insights and commentary from our winners and the talented experts who judged the work this year. I would like to congratulate everyone who ranked this year. Together, they set the global benchmark for creativity.”

The LIONS Creativity Report presents four Regional Network of the year awards and 11 global awards: Creative Company, Network, Agency, Independent Agency, Creative Brand and Palme d’Or, as well as Health Network, Health Agency, Media Network, Agency by Track, and Independent Agency by Track of the Year. The creative rankings also include the top performing Director, Art Director, Creative Director and Copywriter.

I consider meeting some interesting people during the Cannes Lions 2022 trip to be the second greatest thing for obvious reasons. Winning, and winning it big along with being the first-ever Indian agency to secure the ‘Agency of the Year’ title, was certainly the greatest high and nothing will ever compare. Everything else is a distant second, third, fourth, etc. Also, the fact that I was travelling out of India for the first time in a long period, added to the excitement of this journey. For me, the best thing about travel is meeting different people, and thus, also my second favourite memory of our trip. Here are a few that I remember vividly, for different reasons:

The landlord: We reached Cannes after a good run of wins at another award function in Mumbai; and so, we were anticipating a relaxed Sunday evening, as the festival would kick off the next day. However, our apartment was anything but a cozy abode. To our surprise, there was no AC in the bedroom. When we called the landlord in a panic, he was totally unshaken and rather than figuring a solution, gave me the advice of my life – “Sir, you should never sleep with the AC on, you will catch a cold.” Cannes mein mummy ki yaad dila dee.

The sixty-something young digital enthusiast: During the much-awaited India party at Cannes, I was introduced to this elderly gentleman, who was most likely in his mid-sixties. He was definitely much younger in his passion, and when I heard about how he ended up here, it left me amazed and extremely inspired. He was from a Kolkata-based agency that had entered a Facebook/Meta contest for some thumb-stopper videos. Out of all the entries submitted (most of them by some really young creative writers), his entry was the one that was selected. While we keep talking about new-age talent for the new-age medium, there is no age to learn and adapt. The moral of the story is - Keep Reinventing Amit!!

A friend from Pakistan: At the end of the third day of the festival, a young gentleman approached us and not just congratulated us, but also thanked us. We were naturally curious about him thanking us. Upon asking him, he introduced himself as Hamza who was visiting the festival from Pakistan. His agency had won big last year at Cannes with two golds and some more metals, but unfortunately, this year had not been as rewarding. But he was really happy to see agencies from Asia doing well, particularly Dentsu Creative India, which had won two Grand Prix at the time. He expressed his admiration for the idea and the fact that it originated in OUR area. His words, feelings, and hug were all genuine, and they left us all with a beautiful feeling.

Mexican anchor: On day four, as we were leaving the awards show, we met this very interesting-looking Mexican TV anchor (with a lovely blue-coloured beard - this is of zero significance), who was recording a show. He congratulated the team and asked us about the idea. When we shared the idea, he was so moved by it that for the next 5 minutes he took over the role of a participant in the interview. He began talking about a Mexican artefact that was taken over to Sweden (cannot authenticate the claim here) and how it should be returned to Mexico. That to me is the power of an idea.

Indians @Cannes: Last but certainly not least, as strange as it may sound, it is always great to meet people from your country whenever you travel outside. The ones you meet in Cannes are extremely special because they are friends from different agencies who we don't get to see very frequently. Spending some time together, exchanging thoughts & ideas and most importantly, cheering for each other just makes meeting them so much more fun.

These are only a handful of the people I met on my trip; there were many more, but I'll save that for when we meet in person.

“Hey Mumbai, feel proud. We won India’s first advertising world cup”.

“Hey Mumbai, Have you met the Agency of The Year Cannes 2022? Get to know us at www.dentsucreative.com.”

This was splashed across Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru on large hoardings put up by Dentsu Creative, the first Indian agency to ever win the coveted title of Agency of the Year at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity.

Dentsu Creative’s global campaign “The Unfiltered History Tour” designed for Vice World Media also emerged as the most awarded campaign from India ever at Cannes Lions, bagging Titanium, three Grand Prix, two Gold Lions and three Silver Lions.

Asked about the massive Outdoor campaign, Amit Wadhwa, CEO, Dentsu Creative India, said, “We are in the business of building brands and this time we are talking about our very own brand. The objective of this (Outdoor) campaign is two-fold. First, it symbolizes the start of a new age of innovation by dentsu under the Dentsu Creative brand, and second, it allows us to celebrate the enormous success of Cannes with as many people as possible.”

It is a matter of pride that we are sure each person on the street and especially, our people, would feel extremely proud of, Wadhwa added.

The campaign is an unofficial guide to the British Museum, which gives visitors an immersive tour of the museum’s disputed artefacts, their origins and how they were obtained. Visitors are invited to scan objects on display, such as the Rosetta Stone, or the Parthenon Marbles, and are transported back to the time and place of provenance via Instagram AR filters. Through the experience, users can listen to audio guides narrated by people from the countries whence the artefacts hailed from.

The campaign shows how a disruptive idea accelerated by the power of technology and social media can help in providing a balanced narrative.

“Being named Creative Agency of the Year at Cannes Lions is an experience that cannot be adequately described in words. I am proud that a fantastic team succeeded in doing something that has never been done before,” an elated Gurbaksh Singh, Chief Innovation Officer, Dentsu Creative India, tells e4m.

“It gave the entire team more assurance that as "WE" nothing is impossibly difficult if you dare big and stay focused. The campaign reinforced our beliefs on the true power of innovation,” he added.

Winning formula

Hard work, dedication and patience are the three key core components of our success mantra, says Singh.

“When it came to "The Unfiltered History” project, it took a period to develop, especially due to the pandemic, we faced many challenges. However, we stuck to our core principles and kept our attention on the objective.

When you produce exceptional work for a brand with the potential to alter culture, it will inevitably garner praise. This is certainly the case with Unfiltered.”

Raised the bar for Indian creativity

Dentsu has raised the bar, not only for others but for itself as well. How does it plan to go ahead in the future, more specifically for the next Cannes Lions?

Singh says, “I consider it an honour that at Cannes Lions we contributed to building a new benchwork for Indian creativity. Every year, we put in soul and develop campaigns. But when it comes to creativity, I believe there are a hundred different ways a plan can go wrong, but only one way it will work out as intended.”

We keep pursuing innovations that have a good influence and bring a positive impact, he noted, adding, “Our aim now is to produce brand work that is worth talking about rather than adopting any particular strategy for the Cannes Lions.”

Last year, after a mellow performance of 22 metals at Cannes Lions, the industry had lamented the dulling sheen of metals over the past few years. Speaking in a clubhouse room, hosted by exchange4media for the winners of last year,  Cheil India CCO Emmanuel Upputuru had said, “India is quite consistent at maintaining its average metal count for the past few years now, but I couldn’t help but notice that the numbers of Grand Prix and Gold Lions are slowly coming down. This, as an industry, we need to think how we can improve.” 

And the performance certainly improved this year, and how! The country not only more than doubled its count of metals, getting home 47 Lions, but also managed to grab an unprecedented five Grand Prix in a year, and maiden set of Titanium Lions. It was also the first time that an Indian agency – Dentsu Creative – was named the Creative Agency of the year. 

Reacting to the sea of stunning performances, Dentsu Creative CEO India Amit Wadhwa had said, “While we have won what we have, it is also amazing to see all the other agencies from India win big. What a lovely feeling!! We are undeniably proud to be associated with a campaign that takes top honours on a global platform. This indeed fuels the fire of passion and commitment in the team that has relentlessly worked on it. The entire credit goes to each one of them who has been involved, to all our present and ex-colleagues who have worked so hard on the campaign. They are the real winners.” 

BBDO India Chairperson and CCO Josy Paul said, “Ideas have no geography. What it takes to create great ideas is chemistry. It’s the electricity of creation. That’s what the team at Dentsu Creative (Webchutney) demonstrated so well. As did all the Indian agencies that contributed to the glory (some more than others but all making a difference): Dentsu Creative, FCB, Ogilvy, VMLY&R, Leo Burnett, DDB Mudra, McCann, Byju’, BBDO India and many others who added to the long tail of shortlist recognition. It was chemistry that created history.  The Indian victory represents the distributed creativity and collective chemistry of a confident nation. When the team from Dentsu Creative (Webchutney), Bengaluru  went up on stage to collect their global ‘Agency of the Year’ award, all of us felt a collective stirring as the national anthem played silently in our hearts! It’s all chemistry!” 

BBDO had picked five shortlists and a Bronze Lion for the  “Share the Load” campaign, its long-running successful endeavour for P&G’s Ariel.

DDB Mudra Group Chief Creative Officer Rahul Mathew noted, “It has been a stupendous year for India. We haven’t made our presence felt so emphatically, ever before. It pegs us as an equal and not a David in the world of Goliaths. While Dentsu has played a major role in putting us there, the pressure is now on all of us to keep us there. I can’t think of any real misses. Usually, 3 Lions at Cannes make for a good year. But this year has changed everything. I would rate our performance as more of a growl than a roar.” 

For DDB the win came in the form of one silver and three bronze lions for “Machine Gun Mouth” and “The Silent Frown” campaigns. 

Mathew added that all the winning campaigns were built on strong social provocations that were resolved with either great simplicity or clever technology. “While we have shown our ability to use simplicity in a powerful way before, the use of technology has been a new addition to our arsenal.” 

The little misses

While the industry is keen to focus on the positives of the grandest performance for the country at Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity 2022, there have been some categories that could not get the same results as others. There were no shortlists in categories like Print & Publishing, Outdoor, Creative B2B and Creative Strategy. Also, India could not score any metals in categories including Design and Film Craft. 

The poor performance in Print was predicted by the industry even before the festival began. An industry veteran had quipped, “Print used to be one of India’s strongholds at Cannes in the initial years but with the growth of alternative media, the medium has suffered. I won’t say that the advertisers are not there, but we do not see the same level of creativity in most print ads as we used to see a few years ago. Every now and then, some sporadic creative emerges which has a competitive edge and that’s about it.”

Further, Mathew said, “Craft, especially design and film, I feel is an area we need to focus on and protect more. We often see more craft in the making of the case videos than in the individual elements in that video. And it’s not hard to understand why. With the constant pressure of time and budgets, one often has to choose between making it better or making it bigger. Just that I feel, the individual elements are what the consumer sees, so it’s worth pushing and protecting more.”

The Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity 2022 turned out to be a gala affair for the Indian ad world as the industry clocked its best performance thus far at the French Riveria. With an unprecedented five Grand Prix wins in a year and its first set of Titanium Lions, the Indian contingent is getting home a total of 47 metals this year. Before this, India’s best performance was in 2017, when it had got 40 metals. 

Here’s the overall performance of India at Cannes Level Festival of Creativity 2022:

While the maximum entries were sent to Health & Wellness Lions, maximum shortlists came in Social & Influencer Lions. The maxium Lions came from Radio & Audio (6), Media (5), and Brand Experience & Activation, Direct, and Radio & Audio (4 each). 

It is interesting to note that India’s entry to the Festival saw a rise of 32% this year as a total of 921 entries were sent as compared to last year’s 699. There were 77 shortlists last year as compared to 121 this year, and 22 metals against 47 of this year. 

Most Successful Campaigns

A total of sixteen campaigns won at the prestigious Festival of Creativity this year. The top three were Dentsu Creative’s ‘The Unfiltered History Tour’ with a total of 12 metals, FCB’s ‘Chatpat’ with 8 metals, and Ogilvy’s ‘Shah Rukh Khan My Ad’ with 5 metals. 

Most Successful Agencies

While a total of 16 agencies (including 1 brand - BYJUS) got their campaigns shortlisted this year, nine could turn those shortlists into metals. 

The maximum metals were grabbed by FCB including three gold, five silver, and 6 bronze. It was followed by Dentsu Creative with an astonishing three Grand Prix-haul along with one gold, four silver, three bronze, and one titanium Lions. On third spot was VMLY&R + VMLY&R Commerce with seven metals including one Grand Prix, one gold, four silver, and one bronze metal. 

5 Grand Prix Haul

It is the first time that India has bagged five Grand Prix in one year at Cannes Lions. The coveted campaigns to win this laurel are ‘The Unfiltered History Tour’ (3) by Dentsu Creative, ‘The Killer Pack’ (1) by VMLY&R, and ‘The Missing Chapter’ (1) by Leo Burnett. 

Two Titanium Lions

In its first-ever Titanium Lion win, the Indian contingent picked it for two campaigns: Dentsu Creative’s ‘The Unfiltered History Tour’ and Ogilvy’s ‘Shah Rukh Khan My Ad’. 

WPP has been named the most creative company of the year at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

Ogilvy was awarded Network of the Year and took home a Titanium Lion together with Wavemaker for Shah Rukh Khan My Ad for Cadbury, a data-driven campaign that personalised ads for local businesses impacted by COVID-19.

WPP winners and shortlisted entries came from every part of the company, and from across its agencies. VMLY&R won a Grand Prix for its I Will Always Be Me campaign for Dell and Intel, designed to make it easier for people with motor neurone disease to bank their voice by reading a story, and a Grand Prix for Maxx Flash’s The Killer Pack, which helps combat, through biodegradable packaging, deadly diseases like malaria and dengue caught outdoors in India. Speaking in Color for Sherwin Williams by Wunderman Thompson won the Grand Prix for Creative B2B – a prestigious win in the inaugural year of this category – for its voice-activated colour-selection system. A Grand Prix for Media Placement was also awarded to MediaCom’s Hope Reef for Mars Petcare (with AMV BBDO).

Mark Read, CEO of WPP, said: “Creativity is the most important force in modern business. Being named the Creative Company of the Year is testament to WPP’s power to help our clients succeed, and to the incredible talent of our 109,000 people around the world. Thank you to them and to our clients who entrust us with their brands.”

Rob Reilly, Global Chief Creative Officer of WPP, said: “Creativity is the world’s most valuable asset. It has the potential to address the biggest challenges of our time in the most extreme circumstances. We have had to think differently for the last two years, and I feel this year's Cannes Lions has been a celebration of innovation for our industry. So, I couldn’t be prouder to be part of this amazing global team of the most creative people in our industry.”
On Ogilvy’s wins, Global Chief Creative Officer Liz Taylor said: “We are thrilled that Ogilvy has been recognized as the world’s leading creative agency network because we believe that creativity is the great differentiator. Our teams earned this honor by producing work that upends the status quo, that alters the conversation, that creates meaningful change, and reshapes our industry. We are so proud that the work honored spanned so many categories, countries, and clients. It is a powerful demonstration of what defines Ogilvy. It's pervasive creativity. It’s borderless creativity. It’s creativity with impact.”
Ogilvy’s Global President Devika Bulchandani said: “This recognition is a testament to Ogilvy’s ability to lead the way in a world where creativity is needed more than ever. We are so proud to see our teams honored for driving impact with our clients through creativity that transcends the status quo and shifts culture. Our sincerest thanks to everyone at Ogilvy who poured their hearts into the work, who strive day in and day out to do the best work of our lives, and to our incredible clients for their brilliance, trust, and partnership.”

The Creative Company of the Year award is given to the company which earned the most points across its agencies. WPP was also the most awarded company in the Creative Business Transformation category, reflecting the company’s expertise in creating new and innovative products and services for clients, and reimagining customer experiences or business models.

Breaking the dry spell of 19 years - since the addition of the category to Cannes Festival of Creativity in 2003 - India has picked its first set of Titanium Lions. The great win came for Dentsu Creative and Ogilvy for their campaigns ‘The Unfiltered History Tour’ and ‘Shah Rukh Khan My Ad’ respectively. 

Dentsu’s ‘The Unfiltered History Tour’ remained India’s leading star this year at Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity as the campaign also won 3 Grand Prix, 1 Gold, 4 Silver, and 3 Bronze metals.

Created for Vice Media, the campaign is an interactive Instagram filter that tells the story of some of the most disputed artefacts in the British Museum through the perspective of communities that they have been stolen from. 

On the other hand, Ogilvy’s AI-driven campaign for Cadbury Celebrations’ ‘Shah Rukh Khan My Ad’ was created last Diwali to support local businesses and small shop owners to deal with the slowdown caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The campaign allowed small businesses to create customised video ads for themselves with none other than, the ‘king of Bollywood’ promoting the business. Created with Rephrase AI and Wavemaker, the campaign gained massive popularity and success at Cannes Lions, also winning two Gold, one Silver and one Bronze Lion.