Indian agencies roared at Cannes Lion 2022 , the festival of creativity. Dentsu India, Ogilvy India, Leo Burnett India, VMLY&R, and FCB India were among the winners. With 47 metals, it was India’s best-ever outing at the event. Dentsu Creative Bengaluru won the Agency of the Year, the first Indian agency to do so. It bagged a Titanium Lion, three Grand Prix, one Gold, three Silver and three Bronze Lions for its “The Unfiltered History Tour” made for VICE media. Here are some of the creative ideas from India that got the world talking.

A disruptive idea

The idea was to change the narrative and Dentsu Creative’s “The Unfiltered History Tour” does just that! It is an unofficial guide to the British Museum, giving 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 from where the artefacts hailed. An out-of-the-box idea, creative use of technology and social media tools for culture-shaking storytelling.

Supporting stance

In the Data-Enhanced Creativity subcategory, Ogilvy India bagged a Titanium Lion for Mondelez India’s Shah Rukh Khan My Ad campaign. The hyper-personalised festive campaign was created in an attempt to support local small shop owners to get over the pandemic’s impact. Thousands of kirana store owners had the opportunity to use Shah Rukh Khan as their own brand ambassador, using generative media technology.

Laudable goals

Leo Burnett won the Grand Prix in Good Health & Well-Being subcategory for P&G’s The Missing Chapter, a campaign that creates awareness on how lack of period education leads to a girl missing school. FCB India and FCB Chicago’s The Nominate Me Selfie film won a Gold Lion – a powerful campaign that seeks to see more women get nominated in politics. VMLY&R COMMERCE India team took home a Gold Creative Commerce Lion in the Sustainable Commerce category for its Smart Fill solution for Unilever, an initiative that seeks to cut down on packaging.

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