India ended the 2024 edition of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity with 18 Lions and 59 shortlists.

After the highs of 2023 and 2022, this was quite a disappointment for the country. And definitely not what we predicted. So what went wrong?

While Manifest will be exploring this through an in-depth story, at the face of it according to agency heads who didn't make the cut this year, one of the reasons for this was that the jury was more of a diversity checklist versus those who understand the nuances of cultures like India. In our chat with Simon Cook, CEO, Lions, we asked him the same. Look out for his response in our next issue of Manifest.

What else happened at the French Riviera?

The final day of the festival had two extremely entertaining and inspirational talks courtesy of Havas' Jacques Séguéla and Gut's co-founders Anselmo Ramos and Gaston Bigio. One shared his six-decade experience, the others shared a six-year experience of running an independent agency. The common factor between the two is bravery. 

Probably that's what Indian agencies need to look at when it comes to 2025. We need brave pieces of work. 

What we are seeing is a lot of work about the culture of India. The ones that got awarded, however, saw the use of technology - a case in point was Leo Burnett's 'Turf Finder' for Gatorade and Tgthr's 'Loocator' for Harpic. 

With that, see you in Cannes again next year! 

The author is founder and editor, Manifest. Look out for our extensive coverage of the festival in the next issue of Manifest. Subscription options here.