India’s opportunity in ambient outdoor advertising: Pooja Manek

On her second visit to the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Pooja Manek, Creative and Founding Member, Talented Agency, India, recounts her experience of being part of the Outdoor jury, the importance of pushing craft within traditional media, the restraint exhibited in some global campaigns, and why India should also embrace restraint in advertising. Sharing her favourite campaigns, she notes that India should more aggressively promote the use of ambient outdoor media in the country.

Cannes experience

My first Cannes experience in 2024 was as part of the See It Be It programme, where I was a member of a cohort of 18 women. We had all-day sessions with industry leaders, particularly women, and it felt like a 24/7 sorority. It was deeply inspiring because it was centred on human connection and women uplifting women.

This year has been very different. I'm here as a juror on the Outdoor Lions jury. Being part of the judging process for the outdoor work reminded me why I joined the advertising industry. Seeing beautifully crafted ideas in traditional media made me feel like I was falling in love with advertising all over again.

Judging the Outdoor category

Outdoor is perhaps the only advertising medium that has the power to physically shape the way a city looks. This medium has an immense and profound power.  One of the discussions we had repeatedly in the jury room was around inevitability—ideas that were perfectly aligned with a brand that you couldn't imagine any other brand doing them.

Key Takeaways

The first takeaway was the importance of pushing craft within traditional media itself. We saw well-crafted work that exercised restraint, was clean, and was rooted in deep human insight. An example of this was British Airways, which was unanimously admired in the jury room for this reason.

Lesson for India

I understand that highly minimalistic outdoor or print advertising can be difficult to execute in India. Our conversations often focus on celebrities, product visibility, etc. The work seen at Cannes has a certain Western gloss, where brands exercise restraint, and even if there is no logo, it is acceptable. The restraint seen in some global campaigns can be difficult to achieve locally, but it's definitely something we should continue to push for.

That said, I think India has a huge opportunity in ambient and non-traditional outdoor advertising, as many entries did not use traditional outdoor formats. The Grand Prix winner, Field Barcode (Brazil), was an entire football field transformed into a QR code. This shows that there are no limits to the touchpoints that can be counted as Outdoor. Once a touchpoint has been identified, the challenge is to ensure that the idea is executed flawlessly.

India is full of such opportunities. Our cities are vibrant, chaotic, and rich with an insane number of cultural touchpoints. The possibilities for outdoor creativity are endless. The challenge isn't always the idea—it's ensuring flawless execution, as this is where we seem to drop the ball.

Campaigns that stood out

There were several pieces that I absolutely loved. One was Heineken's Could Have Been a Heineken campaign. While the billboard was fantastic, it was also interactive, where you could scan it and actually get free beer with your friend. That’s such a human insight: instead of sending a long voice note, you get to see your friend face-to-face over a beer, get off your phone, and have a real conversation.

One of the best pieces was The Last Coke in the Desert campaign from Mexico. It's one of the best examples of a brand being deeply embedded in culture. In Mexico, the phrase "the last Coca-Cola in the desert" has existed for generations and is used to describe someone who is "too cool for school." It's become part of everyday language. It was inevitable that Coca-Cola would pick that up, and they built a brilliant campaign around it. The work featured the last Coca-Cola vendors in remote desert regions, was photographed beautifully, and the typography was brilliant. The campaign was juxtaposed to show that the Coca-Cola vendors are the coolest people, keeping an ice-cold Coke for travellers in the middle of nowhere.

Cathay Pacific’s campaign, Back to Kai Tak, was a beacon of what can be done if we think out of the box. This campaign set a new benchmark for human ambition and creative tenacity. The Kai Tak airport, located in Hong Kong's city centre, used to be the primary airport for the city before it moved to another location. The planes used to fly dramatically low over the city before landing at the old airport. When that airport was converted into a stadium, Cathay recreated the experience by flying an aircraft over the city once again. The sheer complexity of the execution was incredible. Pilots had to undergo months of specialised training because this was no longer a standard flight path. Yet the result was a deeply emotional moment that gave people a chance to relive a shared memory and reconnect with a piece of the city's history. This campaign is a great symbol of human dreams, and the one thought in my mind was: can we fly a plane? It is possible. I want youngsters to believe that no ideas are stupid, dumb, or too big to achieve.

The Grand Prix winner, Field Barcode, from Brazil was not traditional outdoor but was literally an entire football field—an ambient outdoor execution. Ambient outdoor has a huge opportunity in India. While traditional billboards and large-format outdoor often come with limitations, and we cannot push craft as much here, ambient media allows brands to be more ingenious, and we need to push the use of ambient outdoor media in the country.

Another great use of ambient outdoor was Kit Kat’s Kit Kat Security Detail, where a routine experience was transformed into a branded moment.