Great news for all the marketers, India now has 10.2 % Internet penetration, which makes 121 million users as of December 2011. Out of which 45 million are Facebook users and it’s only going to get higher! We are a land of great marketers who sell everything possible under the sun be it religious beliefs, caste, people or ideologies and not to forget, we can bargain God as well !! then the big question is…why can’t we get shortlisted in Cannes Cyber lions? Forget about wining it! Cannes Cyber lions honors excellence in online digital communications and is considered as the Oscars of creativity in communications and marketing.

1. India Y U NO win Cyber lion at Cannes?
Great news for all the marketers, India now has 10.2 % Internet penetration, which makes 121 million users as of
December 2011. Out of which 45 million are Facebook users and it’s only going to get higher! We are a land of
great marketers who sell everything possible under the sun be it religious beliefs, caste, people or ideologies and
not to forget, we can bargain God as well !!
Hence, marketing products and brands online, which is the most cost effective and an efficient medium, must be
an easy thing to do right??? So if it is… then the big question is…why can’t we get shortlisted in Cannes Cyber
lions? Forget about wining it! Cannes Cyber lions honors excellence in online digital communications and is
considered as the Oscars of creativity in communications and marketing.
Few learning’s have been observed after analyzing all the campaigns, talking to several people in the field and
through experiences. The first highlight being, that we love to work in silos. Taking an example from a famous
Bollywood film, as Sanjay dutt aptly puts it in Munna bhai MBBS “Apun ko full toos doctor bane ka hai, specialist
nahi. Ki gale ke doctor ko malum nahi, ke ghutne mein kya chal rahan hai.” Digital marketers in India have the
same mindset. They don’t know or don’t want to acknowledge what the brand is doing on other mediums. It
seldom happens that digital marketers have a say in the field of marketing on other mediums. The marketing
campaign is mostly driven by traditional mediums and is rarely the other way around. Also, many a times, digital
marketers do not want to understand the brand. So caught up are they with the working of online technology, that
the knowledge of the medium is sufficient enough. But in reality it’s not only about knowing and integrating the
mediums, but about understanding the customer; the brand; what it stands for and its values. As Brian Solis says
“Social Media is about sociology and psychology more than technology.” …Wise words.
For example let’s see this year’s Grand prix winning campaign, Curators of Sweden. (Curators of Sweden) Where
every week someone in Sweden becomes the voice of the country and handles the country’s twitter account. This
was a very simple but a brave idea and the people handling the brand were from diverse backgrounds like writer,
priest, teacher and a lesbian trucker. They also did not block a blogger after she made anti-Semitic remarks. This, in
the true sense, was an idea for the people and by the people. Can we imagine something like this happening in
India?
Digital technology offers us unprecedented opportunities and we as marketers know that, do we fully utilize it or
are we taking it for granted? “The value of great idea hasn’t changed; only the opportunity to exploit it has. Let’s
just remember that what this provides is simply speed and access. In other words, I can get more of what I want
more easily”- Sir John Hegarty. Let’s look at another brilliant example of Old spice response campaign-(Old Spice
Responses Case Study). This one is my favorite, owing to the way it uses the medium so beautifully and has a
conversation with the audience. They made 186 response videos to the questions asked by fans and celebrities.
Also, a lot of us complain that we are helpless because the client does not allow us to do anything or the client
does not simply understand the idea. The client likes to play it safe or the client has no budget for a good digital
plan. Remember, “There are no bad clients. There are only bad agencies”- as quoted by Amir Kassaei (Chief
Creative Officer DDB Worldwide).
You might like to see few other good campaigns -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNic4wf8AYg
- Husain Zaidi

2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fK3TNjR2JY
The audience of today needs much more than just attention; it requires an understanding of what motivates them
to click, act, and share.
Signing off on this note, with a hope that we get our hands on a Cyber lion very soon…
- Anish Sarai
- Husain Zaidi