Leo Burnett’s Silver & Ogilvy’s Bronze take India’s tally to 14 on Cannes Lions Day 4

Indian agencies won two metals at the end of day four of Cannes Lions 2024 taking the country’s tally to 14.

Last year, ad land had picked up seven metals on the penultimate day of the festival, Ogilvy scored a Grand Prix, and India’s Lions tally stood at 23.

This year’s performance at the world’s most popular award for creativity is nothing but disappointing.

Cannes Lions announced winners from seven categories. They were:

Brand Experience & Activation

Creative Business Transformation

Creative Commerce

Creative Effectiveness

Creative Strategy

Innovation Lions

Luxury & Lifestyle Lions

Leo Burnett scored a Silver Lion in the ‘Creative Effectiveness’ category. It won the metal for #BringBack2011 where the Publicis-owned agency, for Oreo, got MS Dhoni to tell people Oreo is re-entering India – the cookie had made its India debut in 2011, the same year when India won the 50-over Men’s Cricket World Cup under Dhoni’s captaincy.

The agency wanted folks to behave like it's 2011 again so that India could go on and win the Cricket World Cup in 2022 when this ad made its debut.

“To be picked as a Creative Effectiveness winner you have to be the best of the best consistently. And we couldn’t be prouder to take home a silver for our Mondelez Oreo #BringBack2011 campaign. This campaign is a powerful example of how creativity can play an effective role in driving business, fostering a deeper connection with the audiences and building the brand,” said Rajdeepak Das, CCO Publicis Groupe - South Asia and Chairman Leo Burnett - South Asia.

Ogilvy was the other Indian winner of day four with a Bronze Lion in the ‘Creative Strategy’ category. Its win came for VI Human Network Testing Network the ad agency executed for telecom company Vodafone Idea (Vi).

Mumbai’s dabbawallas, combing through over 500 locations, across every by-lane, nook and corner of the city, gave Vi on-the-spot feedback about its network's performance.

Ogilvy chief creative officers Kainaz Karmakar, Harshad Rajadhyaksha, and Sukesh Nayak issued a joint statement after the win:

“The Vi Dabbawalas idea of ‘Human Network Testing Network’ is so deeply rooted in our culture and our Mumbai city. It therefore pleases us immensely to see it recognised on the world stage with a Cannes Lion win.”

“There is a big bunch of happy hearts who have strived to make this work shine. Our compliments to Rohit, Abir, Nikhil, Debaleena, Krishnakant, Priyanka and the whole team at Ogilvy, to our production partners at Hungry Films, and our client partners at Vodafone-Idea (Vi). A heartfelt special thanks to the amazing and iconic Dabbawalas of Mumbai, for helping us deliver this idea as efficiently as any of their dabbas.”