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
VML India lands two finalist spots at Cairns Hatchlings 2026
The Mumbai agency is back in Australia with two teams, a UN brief and 24 hours to impress
MUMBAI: VML India is heading to Australia again. The Mumbai-based creative agency has secured two finalist spots at the Cairns Hatchlings 2026 competition, one in the Audio category and one in Design, making it the only Indian agency to have reached the finals in both editions of the contest since its launch in 2025.
Four people will make the trip. Senior copywriter Shilpi Dey and senior art director Raj Thakkar will compete in Audio. Art directors Shabbir and Shruti Negi will go head-to-head with the world’s best in Design. The finals take place at the Cairns Convention Centre from 13th May, culminating in an awards ceremony on 15th May.
The work that got them there is worth examining. For the Audio category, Dey and Thakkar tackled a brief for LIVE LIKE MMAD with a campaign called Inner Voice, Interrupted. Using spatial audio techniques, the campaign recreates the overwhelming self-doubt that descends after a long workday, physically panning negative thoughts left and right before cutting the noise entirely to reveal a confident inner voice. Strategically targeted at commuters via Spotify during evening rush hours, the campaign reframes the hours after work as an opportunity for personal growth and charitable action.
For the Design category, Shabbir and Negi worked on a brief for Canteen’s Bandanna Day, a campaign highlighting how cancer pushes teenagers out of their own defining moments. Using a pixelated design language to create stark contrast between a blurred world of isolation and a focused world of connection, the campaign, titled The Flipside of Cancer, shows teenagers fading into the background of birthdays, skateparks and school proms. As a Canteen bandanna appears, the blur flips and the teenager snaps back into sharp focus.
Kalpesh Patankar, group chief creative officer of VML India, made no attempt to disguise his satisfaction. “We are immensely proud to see our teams consistently excel on the Cairns Hatchlings platform since its inception,” he said. “They have masterfully tackled challenging briefs across diverse categories, demonstrating both layered storytelling and a unique creative approach. This exceptional teamwork is truly inspiring.”
Dey and Thakkar, returning to the finals after last year’s run, were candid about the demands of the audio medium. “It’s one of the most demanding mediums, where we only have a few seconds to capture a listener’s world with sound alone, so absolute clarity is essential,” they said. “The true measure of creative work is its ability to create positive change, and our audio submission was made to help those who need it most while encouraging people to silence the inner voices that hold them back.”
Shabbir and Negi, competing in Design for the first time, described the experience as “a completely different beast.” “We see it as an opportunity to showcase our expertise, raise the bar, and challenge ourselves in new ways, while also learning from creative minds from across the globe,” they said.
In Australia, the four finalists will face a live 24-hour brief from the United Nations before presenting in a live pitch session. Twenty-four hours, one brief, one shot. VML India has been here before. It knows exactly what is at stake.
