A day before the ad world gathers for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2024, the shortlisted campaigns from eleven of the 31 categories were declared on Sunday June 16. Twenty Indian campaigns found a place among those shortlisted. A total of 26,753 entries were submitted into the campaign under 31 categories for the extravaganza slated to be held between June 17 and 21.  

The Cannes Lions 2024 categories whose shortlisted campaigns were announced on Sunday included Design, Digital Craft, Direct, Entertainment, Entertainment Lions For Gaming, Entertainment Lions For Music, Entertainment Lions For Sport, Industry Craft, Media, PR and Social & Influencer Lions.  

In the design category, VML’s work for Times of India’s #UnplasticIndia and McCann Worldgroup’s Fit My Feet campaign for Buckaroo Footwear were shortlisted for the poster and medical subcategories respectively.

In the industry craft category, two campaigns of VML for Times of India, namely Seal Alarm and Seabird Alarm were shortlisted as was Ogilvy’s Taj Mahal Megh Santoor campaign for Taj Mahal Tea. 

Three campaigns from India were placed in the shortlist for the direct category. They included the Gatorade Turffinder campaign by Leo Burnett, Mumbai, McCann Worldgroup’s Fit My Feet campaign for Buckaroo Footwear and Motorola’s Deep Connect campaign by Dentsu Creative. 

In the media category, India found two mentions. One was for the Taj Mahal Megh Santoor campaign for which Rapport Outdoor Advertising from Mumbai and Ogilvy were jointly nominated. The other was the Cosplay campaign for McDonald’s for which DDB Mudra Group, Mumbai and Wieden+Kennedy, New York were the joint nominees.  

Ogilvy’s Erase Valentine’s Day campaign for Mondelez (Cadbury 5 Star) was shortlisted in the entertainment category. 

In the Entertainment for Music, two Indian campaigns made it to the shortlist. They were Feel The Music for Spotify India by Leo Burnett and Sing to Remember for Coca Cola’s Coke Studio by VML. Leo Burnett’s Gatorade Turffinder campaign was shortlisted in the Entertainment for Sport category.

FCB Kinnect’s Lulumelon Eoss campaign for HDFC Bank got shortlisted in three subcateogries in the PR category, namely Business 2 business/consumer service, use of events and stunts and corporate purpose & social responsibility. Two more Indian campaigns that found their place among those shortlisted in this category were the Gatorade Turffinder campaign by Leo Burnett and the Sing to Remember for Coca Cola’s Coke Studio by VML.

No Indian campaigns found a place among those shortlisted for the digital craft, social & influencer and Entertainment for Gaming categories.