India and advertising: chasing lions in the French Riviera

The biggest celebration of creativity is back, and in-person after two years. Ahead of Cannes Lions, five advertising honchos discuss what’s changed, digital vs film, and why meaningful brand connection is key

That the last two years have changed everything is a truism. As the world gets ready for the 2022 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, questions are being asked about how it has impacted advertising. “The pandemic coincided with what is being heralded as the Third Internet Revolution. It has become a catalyst for a surge of new concepts to join the mainstream,” says P.G. Aditiya, the co-founder and CCO of Talented, and a Lion hopeful from India. “The Web3 economy has swept in game-changing ideas like crypto and NFTs, and this is impacting how we work today. Gautam [Reghunath, co-founder of Talented] calls this a ‘renaissance period for artists’. The sheer volume and variety of art being created now is huge, and as commercial artists, we’re always looking to higher art forms for inspiration.”

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But as the marketplace morphed, so has the consumer. After a forced hiatus from brands that once used to be an intrinsic part of their life, the post pandemic consumer is carefully evaluating and assessing which ones to allow back in. A brand’s equity is now directly proportionate to its values and emotional quotient. And the creatives are taking note. The Lions’ first shortlist includes Engine Creative’s pro-bono campaign, ‘Long Live the Prince’ (where EA Sports turned Kiyan Prince, the late British football prodigy who was killed at the age of 15, into a playable character in Fifa 21, with all proceeds going to the Kiyan Prince Foundation); the Cadbury Celebrations’ ‘Shah Rukh Khan - My Ad’ by Ogilvy Mumbai (where the brand and the actor exhorted viewers to buy from neighbourhood stores), and Aditiya’s ‘Unfiltered History Tour’, created while he was with Dentsu Webchutney (a project about the disputed art at the British Museum).

Historically, creativity has surged when humanity was plunged into crisis. As global brands and their creative custodians return to the Palais after two underwhelming online editions, can we expect the same? We spoke to some of India’s celebrated Lion whisperers — Subhash Kamath, CEO BBH & Publicis Worldwide, Anupama Ramaswamy, National Creative Director - Dentsu, P.G. Aditiya, Bobby Pawar, chairman and CCO Havas Group, and Senthil Kumar, CCO Wunderman Thompson — about the changing face of advertising just before their departure to the French Riviera.

Kamath: The lockdown caused slashing of marketing budgets, shrinkage of fees, redundancies, and job losses. [But] from an advertising spends perspective, digital boomed and the transition — which may have otherwise taken five years — happened in two. Life was lived on devices and video calling technology thrived enabling the WFH [work from home] model, which had structural implications on organisations. Marketing spends on digital shot up.

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Aditiya: While the pandemic shut down mainstream communication with consumers, it opened up new channels of engagement. Influencer marketing, mobile communication, and social media marketing flourished. It presented us with opportunities for innovation and breakthroughs. The growing importance of marketing year on year is hard to miss. What’s also hard to miss is how this doesn’t seem to translate into a growing role for the agency. This discrepancy will not be addressed until the agency model changes.