Cannes Lions 2018: McCann wins India’s 2nd Gold, as tally goes up by 5 more Lions

McCann Worldgroup India brought much cheer to the Indian camp by securing India’s second Gold at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2018. (The first Gold for India was bagged by TBWAIndia for its Blink To Speak initiative in the Pharma category.) In all, Indian agencies took home 5 Lions on Day 3 in the Creative eCommerce, Film Craft, and Brand Experience & Activation categories. 

Day 3 at Cannes Lions saw winners in the Industry Craft, Digital Craft, Film Craft, Brand Experience & Activation, Creative eCommerce, Entertainment and Entertainment Lions for Music categories being honoured. 

The newly-created category of Creative eCommerce saw McCann Worldgroup India bagging a Gold Lion for its Sweet Change campaign done for online payment platform Paytm. The agency also won a Silver Lion for the Sweet Change campaign in this category. 

With India primarily being a cash economy, Paytm as an e-wallet needed to get people to make a habit of using it. The objective was to get more people to try Paytm and realise its ease and advantage. The month-long activity saw shopkeepers being asked to hand over Paytm candies to customers instead of the usual candies given as change. These Paytm candies could be redeemed for their real worth (Re 1, Rs 2, Rs 5 or Rs 10) by first downloading the Paytm app and then entering the unique code on the candy’s wrapper. This activation resulted in 1 million app downloads, of which 36 per cent downloads remained active users. The cost of acquisition was brought down to Rs 12 from Rs 60. 

In the inaugural edition of Brand Experience & Activation category, FCB India took home a Bronze Lion for its Sindoor Khela - No Conditions Apply campaign for done for The Times of India. 

Reacting to the win, Rohit Ohri, Group Chairman & CEO, FCB India, commented, “The Lion we have won for our campaign for TOI stands testimony to the creative transformation at FCB India. This transformation has energised the entire agency, creating a momentum and a new winning culture. I’m truly proud of Team FCB!” 

Swati Bhattacharya, CCO, FCB Ulka, added here, “I am very happy that this piece of work is getting so much love. There is nothing more powerful than sisterhood for us women. Sindoor Khela #NoConditionsApply is a testimony to this.” 

Speaking about the win, Sanjeev Bhargava, Director, Brand TOI, said, “We are ecstatic that our work has been recognised at a global platform like Cannes.  Being the most influential media house in the country, we have always believed that not only are we the chroniclers of change, but catalysts as well. Something that is always appreciated at Cannes. But this year, the Shindoor Khela campaign has penetrated a seemingly harmless tradition to create a realisation of how easily we overlook the marginalised. I am delighted at the recognition and honoured to work with the teams in TOI and FCB on this project, which has all the makings of a sustained campaign over the next few years.”

The Film Craft category saw Ogilvy India bagging 2 Lions. The agency won a Silver Lion (Use of Original Music) and a Bronze Lion (Editing) for its campaign, titled World’s Most Honest Tourism Film, done for Madhya Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation. 

The Madhya Pradesh ‘Memories’ film is a collection of hundreds of photographs that tell stories of millions of travellers who have visited Madhya Pradesh for the past many decades. And using these candid photographs and pictures of real travellers the film tries to showcase various tourist destinations of Madhya Pradesh through the eyes of a traveller. And not through the lens of a travel film maker.