MxMIndia

Tag: PR Lions

  • In his weekly column, Chicago-based PR professional Amith Prabhu makes a case for award-winning PR campaigns.

    Amith Prabhu: Why can’t our PR firms win PR Lions at Cannes?

    By Amith Prabhu

     

    This year marked the fourth anniversary of the introduction of the PR Lion at the International Festival of Creativity in Cannes. By virtue of being the biggest gathering of marketing communications professionals from across the world these awards are sought after by the advertising fraternity for a long time and by the PR community for the last five years. The moot question is should PR firms participate in an advertising festival that is bound to be dominated by ad agencies? The rules are open so some do.

     

    Over the years PR firms have struggled to make headway in this space as advertising agencies have won the PR Lions left, right and centre. Even the largest PR firm in the world won its first Cannes Lions in 2013.  No PR firm has ever won the Grand Prix.  A few firms have managed to grabs some Gold and Silver.

     

    This column looks at some of the reasons as to why this category has been elusive to PR professionals. And the focus is on India. For a better appreciation one should look at the statistics of Indian entries for the category over the years here - http://is.gd/YM8yo5 and a snapshot in the table below,

    Year Total Entries from India Shortlists from PR firm Winners, always ad agencies
    2009 12 0 0
    2010 12 0 1
    2011 14 0 3
    2012 19 1 0
    2013 27 0 3

     

    Of the 27 entries from India in the PR category this year only two were submitted by PR firms. The other 25 went from ad agencies. The organizers of Cannes Lions have made it a point to invite the best from India to be on the jury year on year starting with Prema Sagar in 2009, Nandita Lakshmanan in 2010, Veena Gidwani in 2011, Sunil Gautam in 2012 and Dilip Cherian in 2013. The Practice, the firm that Ms Lakshmanan runs is the only Indian PR firm to have made it to a shortlist ever and that happened last year for a campaign for HP.

     

    What is the reason for this dismal showing? I put together five factors that contribute to this drought.

     

    Exorbitant entry fee – At Rs 35,000 or Euro 450 per entry most Indian firms are not even considering participation in these awards. Maybe the festival organizers should consider a discounted fee for emerging markets.

     

    Lack of award-winning worthy campaigns – Due to low budgets to execute great PR campaigns and a great focus on tactics rather than strategy it is possible that Indian PR firms don’t do campaigns worthy of participating in the Cannes Lions.

     

    Inability to package and produce smart submissions – Packaging and producing storyboards and videos takes a great amount of time and most ad agencies have dedicated teams that focus on this through the year. Imagine what wonders that a dedicated creative group focused on awards packaging can do to a firm!

     

    Absence of an awards culture – How many Indian PR firms have internal awards to reward the best work done for clients? I would think 2 or 3. That change needs to come about internally.

     

    PRCAI and the members of the jury should come together – The premier association of PR consultancies and the five stalwarts who have been to Cannes as jury members should come together and offer a workshop in the major metros to share insights with future generations of the profession.

     

    Until most of the above changes, an Indian PR firm winning a Lion at Cannes will be hard to come by.

     

    I still don’t see a reason why the top 10 PR firms in India can’t set aside Rs 1 lakh to send three entries every year. If PRCAI mandated all its members to do so Indian PR would be on the world map in no time by just beating the advertising counterparts two times over. Before that it would be great for PRCAI to host an annual workshop on Preparing for Cannes. If not the annual debate will just keep recurring.

     

    Amith Prabhu is the founder of The PRomise Foundation which organises PRAXIS – the annual summit for PR & Corp Comm professionals in India. During the day he is a full time employee at a leading Public Relations firm in their Chicago office. He spent the first eight years of his post graduation career in India and is in the US for two years of which he has completed 18 months. Views expressed here are the author’s own and don’t represent those of his past, present, future employer or of MxMIndia. You can connect with him on Twitter @amithpr

     

  • The jury at Cannes is a mature set of people, so one cannot pass off mediocre work and fool the judges

    Road to CL2013: The way to win at Cannes is by not aiming for a metal

    The Cannes metal wins for India has been disappointing. There could be various reasons for it and the metal tally definitely doesn’t point that the work coming out of India is of inferior category. However, it does point that there is something more required from India n agencies to gain attention of the international jury. Who better that people on the Cannes jury this year to show us some light on where the agencies could improve and what really went behind the judging. We spoke to a few on the jury this year to understand where India went wrong and what can be done to reclaim some of the lost ground this year.

     

    Rahul Jauhari, National Creative Director, Everest Brand Solutions

    Rahul Jauhari

    I don’t think you can aim at Cannes by doing something that can win at Cannes . Most winning entries at Cannes are brilliant solutions to one business issue or another. “Let’s do something like that one” ­ is not going to get you anywhere. The point is to solve the business issue facing your brand with a wonderful idea and execution. If it is that wonderful, it will win.

     

    And yes, the glorious part is in doing it in a way that is relevant to the India n audience. The jury are not fools. They can see through scams, in most cases. They ask relevant questions and give a lot of importance to the logic of the communication. They reward ingenuity, but not at the cost of authenticity.Brazilwins a lot of awards at Cannes . But their work is unmistakably Brazilian. The same goes for other countries. So, the language of your entry is not a minus point, as long as you send in a good explanation.

     

    The jury at Cannes is now well represented by different countries. And that shows in the selection of work. “Let’s do something that integrates social media” is not the answer either. More Facebook likes is not equal to higher chances at a Cannes metal. If the idea is loved, people will spread it on social media. A print ad can lead to online furore or fan-following. The same goes for a TV ad or a radio spot. The consumer builds in social media integration without asking you. So there.

     

    Simply put, the way to win at Cannes is not by aiming for a metal at Cannes . Aim for a brilliant solution or idea. Execute it brilliantly. Even the simplest of ideas can win. There is that little bit about the packaging, though. When a jury member has to sift through a thousand plus entries, he or she will not suffer a poorly packaged entry. Keep it simple, keep it to the point. Sure make it enjoyable. But remember, the jury wants to know how you did it, why you did it and what it achieved. Inform them, but don’t bore them to death. And don’t try to con them. Most are highly experienced and can tell a fake from a real. Instantly.

     

    Sunil Gautam, Founder, HanmerMSL

    This is the fourth year for Cannes PR Lions which saw 1,130 entries from 61 countries, the highest number of entries received by Cannes Lions in this category ever. 134 entries were short listed. India had 19 entries, 1 was short-listed.

     

    The composition of jury was very good and it represented the cross-section from the world over. There was a lot of interaction and discussion before finalising the winners. According to me, it was very professional judging and the experience was awesome.

     

    India had 19 entries in this category, and many of them came up for lively discussion. Of these, one entry was short listed. Unfortunately, this entry didn’t get any metal. But the overall effort by the India n agencies was excellent. All the campaigns that were reviewed were very imaginative, with good strategy, execution and measurable impact and results.

     

    My advice to the India n public relations industry is to focus on innovative strategies, immaculate execution and measurable results in such a way that the campaigns that they implement for a client are a huge success. And not to plan campaigns from the short sighted of just winning awards. Good campaigns are appreciated everywhere and they may end up with the awards. The client comes first and they will get awarded if they deserve.

     

    Vikram S Gaikwad, Partner & Executive Creative Director, Creativeland Asia

    Vikram S Gaikwad

    I think there are three simple yet significant aspects to any entry. The idea, its execution and the category in which it is entered. A brilliant idea can miss out simply because it is not entered in the right category.

    With the number of entries running in thousands even in each category, each panel has a unique criteria while judging entries. So, the chances are that a great entry submitted in a wrong category might fail to even get a shortlist.

    Also, we should look at the new categories introduced at Cannes every year.I was disappointed to see little or no work in categories like Mobile, PR and Brand Entertainment & Content categories. With the size of the Indian
    market, number of brands, consumption etc, we are very much capable of capitalising on various opportunities and entering more quality work in the future.

    This year the number of metals that India won has gone significantly low. This definitely is disappointing. So, I am hoping we will make up for it
    next year.