The Hindu Business Line : ‘The eventual integration of media’

Ideas have no geography. They come with no media plan. They refuse to be boxed. They are a reaction to a challenge or opportunity… a rebellion against prejudice. Great ideas are uncaring of authority. They focus on finding a solution. They repr esent the way, the truth and the light!

The Cannes festival is a celebration of this urge to break new ground. This year it promises to be more path breaking, more directional and more subversive than ever before. This has nothing to do with how many metals India will win. (I’m sure we’ll do reasonably well. Though a Grand Prix or Titanium is most unlikely.) Cannes 2009 will not be defined by the number of delegates who will attend the festival. Or the crowd at the Gutter Bar which is most likely to end up looking like an empty church!

My sense is that this year, Cannes will truly point us to where communication is going rather than where it’s coming from. If you go by the trend so far, if you study the One Show awards or the D&AD awards, it looks like Cannes will explode with ideas that’ll have traditional agencies calling for disaster management sessions. Like never before, you will witness the instant power of the individual and the Net, the inspiration of new media, the seduction of design, the breaking of walls, and the fragmentation and eventual integration of media!

For those who don’t know what we are talking about — the International Advertising Festival — Cannes Lions — is the largest gathering of global advertising professionals and advertisers as well as the most prestigious annual advertising awards. More than 10,000 registered delegates from 94 countries and around 12,000 visitors from the advertising and allied industries will attend this event to celebrate the best of creativity across all media, mix, discuss industry issues and network with one another.

Over 28,000 ads from all over the world will be showcased and judged at the Festival. Winning companies will receive the highly coveted Lion trophies honouring the most creative TV/cinema, print, outdoor, interactive, radio, design, sales promotion, integrated advertising, as well as the best media and direct marketing solutions. A unique programme of high-profile seminars, workshops and keynote speakers will also be presented by some of the biggest names in the industry. This will be a year of change at Cannes. A year when the work is most likely to be more inspiring than the metals.

See the work done by Colenso BBDO, Auckland for the Yellow Pages. What is it? Is it an ad? Or is it activation? Or a new media idea? Or is it so boundless that you cannot classify it? And yet it is commerce, for it is creating unimaginable awareness, trial and sale for the brand. Or take the stunning BMW kinetic sculpture done by Art+Com. It frightens you how architecture, technology and ideas combine to conquer space and time. Or take Matt Dent’s redesign of the UK coinage — it is audacious and truly artistic and integrated with life.

Some of these were Black Pencil winners at the recently concluded D&AD awards. “The winners demonstrate the power and all-encompassing nature of creativity — in education, politics and even in the change in our pockets,” says D&AD President, Garrick Hamm. “These winners are more than just great pieces of communication, they change our behaviour and touch our lives.”

Design is a relatively new vertical that was introduced at Cannes last year. Here’s where traditional agencies will have to slug it out with no-holds-barred design shops. Take this packaging design idea done by the Han Tang Communications Group in China for Quzhou Trading. They put dictators’ faces on condoms suggesting that the product’s use may have prevented the birth of some undesirables. Take the work done for Alka Seltzer by CLM BBDO. It’s a masterpiece of design, craft and bold thinking.

India too has her fair share of award-worthy work. The most inspiring of the mix is Mudra’s radio spot for the Islamic Research Foundation. It’s startlingly brilliant and a sure winner. The other piece of work that will have the jury taking a fresh interest in India is the Nakka Mukka film by JWT for The Times of India, Chennai. Emami’s Human Machine will certainly find a place in the list.

There’s more. Ogilvy’s work for Vodafone and for WWF, Leo Burnett’s work for Bajaj Exhaust Fans and CreativeLand Asia’s work for Eye Bank Association. This year’s winners will also come from Publicis Delhi and Mumbai (they are doing a great job) and from Contract, Rediffusion Y&R and the smaller, exciting outfits such as ideas@work, Happy, White Canvas and Dizzy Design.

If you take the count of winners at One Show, D&AD, Clio and Adfest and Goafest, India could easily achieve a shortlist of over 45 entries. Converting these into metal is a lottery, and a matter of luck. Last year, India had 60 entries in the shortlist and converted 22 into metals.

What’s missing in our list of entries at Cannes is the ‘pink chaddis campaign’. To me it represents one of the most imaginative, most audacious, most courageous pieces of communication out of India. Wish it were going to Cannes! Guess what, it did not come from an ad agency. It was the brainchild of one indignant woman. Armed with her Facebook and her belief, she created a revolution and an overnight cause. She inspired hundreds of blogs and millions of followers. She represents the change we want to be. She tells us where communication is going — where technology makes everybody a medium. She represents the next big answer! That’s the beauty of the business. Ideas can come from anywhere.

(The writer is Chairman and Chief Creative Office, BBDO India.)

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