CANNES LIONS

Management guru Arindam Chaudhuri’s latest blockbuster book, Discover The Diamond In You

Ashish Naik, Associate Creative Director (Art) at O&M, is another guy who got lucky at Cannes this year. He won two silver lions for his Marbels campaign for confectionery giant Perfetti. Like the guys at Good Morning Films, Ashish too is on cloud nine. Although cost cutting at O&M deprived him of the pleasure to walk the red carpet at Cannes (the news of his win was broken to him by a friend attending the ceremony), yet the pleasure has been no less, says Naik. The feel of the Cannes metal in his hands is all the more poignant now because he had missed the bus in 2002, despite being nominated. “But back then, even getting a nomination in the prestigious Cannes was a big thing,” explains Naik, basking in his present glory. His expectations are also running high post this first win at Cannes. “I now dream of winning the Grand Prix and then eventually get into Bollywood film direction,” he says.

A Grand Prix, Bollywood ambitions, potential superstar status… sounds downright chic and hip, right? Well, the reality of this quaint city in the French Riviera is far from glamorous. Oh sure, the glamour of Cannes can never be doubted, not even for a minute. There is the beach, blue sky, yachts, beautiful people, picturesque little villages and the eventual biggest celebration of great ideas and brilliant craft. The problem comes once you strut back home, the exalted metal in tow, with matching expectations to boot for the future. Hey guys, this is not 1994, when the only Indian delegates at Cannes were Piyush Pandey, Pradeep Guha and just a couple more (perhaps the smallest contingent from any country); and there were zero entries from India. This is 2009, with 70 Indian delegates and 982 entries from the country. And even these numbers belie reality having gone down, thanks to the slowdown. The numbers in 2008 were far higher–140 delegates and 1,109 entries. The real reason we are telling you all this is to say that sure, winning a Cannes Lion is great stuff but surely not as big a rarity for India’s ingenious ad men.

Needless to say, winning a Cannes does fetch amazing accolades and possibly even makes the winner’s career graph soar faster. But can the Cannes euphoria alone take them to the top? Talk to some Cannes winners over the years and they say affirm, “Yes, suddenly we are loaded with all these offers from rival agencies, thinking that if we’ve cracked it once, we can crack it twice or even thrice for them,” but then when the dust settles, there is life beyond winning at Cannes.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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