MAM
Cannes Lions 2021: India’s metal tally touches 21 on day 4
Mumbai: Dentsu Webchutney continued its winning spree on day four of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2021, winning two Silver Lions and two Bronze Lions, taking its total metal tally to seven.
Cheil India picked up its first Silver Lion on day four, FCB Interface a Bronze, and Ogilvy India won a Bronze Lion rounding off day four with 21 Lions for India.
Here’s the detailed list of the wins on days three and four of the fest:
Dentsu Webchutney
The 8-bit journo for Vice Media
The 8-bit Journo campaign continued its winning spree by adding Bronze Lion under the Mobile Lions category on day four. Created by Dentsu Webchutney for Vice Media, it also took home a Silver in the Digital Craft (real-time contextual content) category on the previous day. The campaign had earlier won two Silver Lions and one Bronze Lion, taking its total winning tally to a cool five Lions. It won a Silver Lion in Creative Strategy (media/entertainment), another Silver Lion in Direct (market disruption), and a Bronze Lion in Direct (media/entertainment) categories.
The campaign was a one-of-its-kind, unique initiative to inform the Jammu & Kashmir public of what transpired in the world when they were under a 100+ day internet and telecom blackout after the scrapping of Article 370 in August 2019.
‘The World’s Most Reported Trailer’ for Trigger Happy Entertainment
In the Entertainment category, it bagged the silver for ‘The World’s Most Reported Trailer’ for Trigger Happy Entertainment to promote the Bollywood movie Thappad. The win was in the audience engagement/distribution strategy sub-category. The campaign aimed to sensitise the public around domestic violence, which was the core theme of the film. It made smart use of the built-in ‘report’ feature on YouTube app and websites and prompted the viewers to report the second trailer of the film, which included the scene from the movie wherein the male lead slaps his wife, played by Taapsee Pannu during a party. Having been reported over 400,000 times, the trailer was ultimately taken down by YouTube within 26 hours, proving the success of the campaign.
‘The Better Half Recipes’ campaign for Swiggy Instamart
Dentsu Webchutney continued its winning spree at the ongoing Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity by picking a Bronze Lion for Swiggy Instamart’s ‘The Better Half Recipes’ campaign under the Creative eCommerce (cultural insight) category.
The e-comm brand launched an innovative cookbook to bring more gender equality into the kitchen. It did this by splitting the recipes into two halves to give both partners an equal responsibility to cook the meal. Each partner had to follow only their side of the instructions to see their meal to completion, together. The ingredients from the cookbook could be ordered directly with a simple QR scan and the order was delivered by Swiggy Instamart. The food delivery platform asked the users to send a picture of them and their better halves in the kitchen, to get their hands on the cookbook. A barrage of entries poured in to claim a copy of #TheBetterHalfCookBook, making the campaign a triumph.
Cheil India
‘Now, Words Aren’t Just Heard’ campaign for Samsung
The agency picked up its first Cannes Lions 2021 metal in the form of a Silver Lion for its ‘Now, Words Aren’t Just Heard’ campaign for Samsung on day four.
The campaign was designed for Samsung Good Vibes smartphone communication, which has two interfaces: one regular, and the other for the deafblind. It translates voice and text messages into Morse Code vibrations, and vice versa, helping the deafblind community. Supported by a robust digital campaign and nationwide training workshops, the campaign is bringing inclusivity to over 500,000 people who have been disregarded by modern social media technologies.
FCB Interface
‘The Punishing Signal’ campaign for Mumbai Police
The no-honking campaign for the Mumbai police by FCB Interface continued its winning run, adding one more Bronze Lion to its metal tally. ‘The Punishing Signal’ campaign picked the Lion in Brand & Activation (not-for-profit/charity/ government) category.
One of the most successful campaigns at Cannes Lions this year, the campaign, thus far, has won seven metals, including one Gold, three Silver, and two Bronze Lions under Health & Wellness, Outdoor, PR, and Brand & Activation Lions.
Ogilvy India
#NotJustACadburyAd for Mondelez
Ogilvy Mumbai’s work titled #NotJustACadburyAd campaign won a Bronze Lion under Creative Data (data-driven targeting) category. The Creative Data Lions category celebrates the intersection of creativity and data. Created for Mondelez’s ‘Cadbury Celebration’ on Diwali last year, the campaign managed to advertise not just the brand, but thousands of small businesses across India.
MAM
Three senior OpenAI infrastructure executives join Meta
Key members of Stargate project move to rival amid aggressive AI spending race.
MUMBAI: Three key architects of OpenAI’s ambitious data centre plans have switched sides and joined Meta Platforms, according to people familiar with the matter. Peter Hoeschele, who played a central role in OpenAI’s high-profile Stargate initiative, is among the new hires. He is joined by Shamez Hemani, who focused on computing strategy and business development, and Anuj Saharan, another leader in the computing organisation. The Information first reported their departure from OpenAI on Thursday.
The moves come as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has pledged to spend aggressively on AI infrastructure. The company is projecting capital expenditure of up to $135 billion this year alone, with hundreds of billions more expected before the end of the decade to support its Meta Superintelligence Labs and new models such as Muse Spark.
OpenAI, which is pushing ahead with massive data centre expansion, had described its early lead in securing computing power as a competitive advantage. Stargate, originally announced last year as a $500 billion venture involving OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank, has since become an umbrella term for the company’s broader data centre ambitions. However, the project has seen recent adjustments, including a pause on its UK plans and the decision not to expand the Abilene, Texas site.
A spokesperson for Meta declined to comment, while Hoeschele, Hemani, and Saharan also declined to comment. OpenAI said it was grateful for the contributions of the three employees and remains focused on hiring talent for its infrastructure plans. The company recently brought in former Intel executive Sachin Katti to lead its industrial compute efforts.
In the high-stakes race to build the future of artificial intelligence, talent is proving to be as valuable as computing power itself. Meta’s latest hires suggest the competition for top infrastructure minds is intensifying, even as OpenAI continues to scale its own ambitious projects. The move highlights how quickly the AI talent war is heating up across Silicon Valley.
