Cannes Lions: Mediacom India bags Gold for Gillette

Rahul Kapoor - Televisionpoint.com | Cannes
It was the media agencies which brought the elusive Gold Lion for India with Mediacom India winning the Gold for Gillette Mach 3 at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.

Mediacom also won a Silver Lion for the same 'To Shave or Not' campaign for Gillette. In all, the day ended on a satisfactory note for India with the total metals tally now at 16.

The campaign was for Gillette Mach3, which was perceived as expensive by Indian men, who were opposed to paying a premium for something like shaving. Mediacom started with a research on the country's attitudes to shaving. The research revealed quite a few debatable points – were clean-shaven men more successful ? Or, did women prefer clean-shaven men ?

Mediacom tied up with NDTV and for eight weeks, whereby the channel ran celebrity interviews, panel discussions and news stories around the topic. Similar tie ups were done with radio stations.

The same debate was also extended on ground in malls, gyms and cinema halls. The results were that the sales increased by 38 per cent and the brand awareness doubled. Even trial increased by 400 per cent, claims the agency.

Sumeet Narang, marketing manager, P&G, explains that 'To Shave or Not' campaign was about generating a talking point on a subject that's not necessarily top-of-mind. From communicating Mach 3's ability to be gentle on the skin to conducting a popularity poll was a big leap.

"Men considered shaving to be a chore and the objective was to create a buzz around men's facial hair. Facial hair and shaving is not something that is discussed often, the debates on television and through online polls gave the 'clean shaven look' the thumbs-up." Narang says.

"The look emerged as the preferred style and was associated with attributes like confidence, success and being trustworthy, an opinion that's shared by men, women and top management people. Luckily for us the 'clean-shaven look' emerged as the winning look among masses," Narang adds.

Moving ahead, Maxus has won two Bronzes for its work on Tata Sky and Nokia. Madison's single Bronze is for BBC World Trust's Say Condom campaign, while Lodestar won its Bronze for the Tata Nano campaign.

In Media, the tally stood at 8 Metals with media agencies winning 6 metals, while O&M Bangalore won the Bronze Lion for Sab Miller for its work The Elusive Coaster, Publicis Delhi won the Bronze for In Gandhi's shoe' currency campaign.

Commenting on the performance, Piyush Pandey, executive chairman and national creative director, Ogilvy India, said; "It speaks well for the industry and speaks volumes for the confidence reposed by clients to allow us to do this kind of work."

The Grand Prix in Media category was bagged by JWT Japan for Nestle's Kit Kat mail 2009. JWT Japan came up with a path breaking idea which changed the fortunes of Kit Kat in the Japanese market. A close competitor for the Grand Prix title was the Zimbabwean trillion dollar campaign.

Overall, this was the best ever performance by Indian agencies in this category. Lynn de Souza, director, Lintas Media Services, who was part of the Media Lions jury, says, "It was an encouraging jury and as many as 122 Lions were awarded in this category. However, India stood out."