25-06-2025
Cracking the Cannes code
After a modest 25 metals in 2023 and 18 in 2024,
Indian ad agencies
have had an incredible run at Cannes this year. They picked up an impressive 32 Lions at the French Riviera (one Grand Prix, nine Gold, nine Silver and 13 Bronze Lions). So, what has led to this metal rush — did agencies really sharpen their instincts and crack the winning code, or were the ideas just better this year?
Arun Iyer
, co-founder and partner of Spring Marketing Capital, thinks it was a combination of all.
Winning playbook
'My hunch is that we're obviously getting better at understanding the whole game of what wins, what kind of packaging, what kind of messaging [work] at Cannes,' Iyer, who was part of the shortlist jury for the
Creative Strategy
Lions this year, told Brand Equity.
And it's not just restricted to 2025. Iyer says that over the last few years, those in the business can recognise that India is getting better at reading and applying these practices. 'With enough people representing India on global juries, hearing people in those rooms, understanding what criteria is being applied to what is lauded, and what is not — that knowledge has improved over time,' Iyer added. 'There's a lot of emphasis and focus on saying, 'Okay, this is an idea for a legit client, which has the potential to win at Cannes.''
There have been grumblings that India's metal haul has been due to '
scamvertising
' (
advertising
made only for the purpose of winning awards). To which, Iyer said, 'We have to face facts. Yes, a lot of the work is tailored for juries; you can't run away from that.'
Breakout or break even?
2022 was considered a breakout year for Indian agencies, with the country picking up 47 metals, including five Grands Prix and two Titanium Lions. Could India's healthy tally this year be considered another breakout year?
'I don't think so; there have been better years in terms of number of metals won,' Iyer pointed out. 'In 2008, when JWT won India's first-ever Grand Prix at Cannes for its 'Lead India' TV campaign for The Times of India, there was a lot of talk around it being a breakout year; 2022, with Dentsu Creative's 'Unfiltered History Tour' and Ogilvy's 'Shah Rukh Khan-My-Ad' was another year of such conversation. I think we have heard this before.'
For him, 2025 is simply a year 'where there have been some interesting attempts and a decent haul of metals'.
