Give work the chance to find its own greatness: Rahul Mathew of DDB Mudra Group

By Rahul Mathew

Not a great year for Team India at Cannes. We had a few glimmers of hope, but in the end, we couldn’t make it to 20 metals. For an industry as large as ours, it’s definitely disappointing.

And much like what happens after an Indian loss in cricket, the theories started to flow. Conspiracies against India, poor jury selection (ouch, considering I was one of them), more Western sensibilities and many others that I can’t remember.

What I do remember is a chat I had with a young Creative Director from South America, on the last day of the festival. He had scored half a dozen shortlists, none of which converted. While you could hear the disappointment in his voice, it’s the determination in his words that stuck with me. “Tomorrow is Day 1.”

And it got me thinking. Do we leave it too late as a country? Why do our contenders come out of the shadows only a few months before Cannes?

Look at some of the big winners this year; Coke Recycle Me, Orange Women’s Football, Heinz Ketchup Fraud, and Coors Lights Out. We’ve ooh-ed and aah-ed about these pieces well before they reached the south of France. It makes it so much easier for the jury to push these through to a shortlist and your oohs and aahs continue to play in your head as decide the metals.

Another thing for us to remember is that Cannes is increasingly becoming a show about creativity that leads to strong results. The more time your work gets in the market, the more results you get to play with.

Also, the more time we give ourselves, the better partners we can bring into the work – be it directors, illustrators, editors, coders or even critics.

And there’s no reason not to start right away. We have briefs landing on our desks each day. And we’ve all been told (or told others) that every brief holds the chance to create great work. Now we need to ask ourselves are we giving our work the chance to find its own greatness.

Rahul Mathew is the Chief Creative Officer at DDB Mudra Group. Views expressed are personal.