Storyboard18 Insider: Startups' cooling period; uninspiring ideas from Cannes Lions; and more

Cooling period

The richest cricket board in the world was in the fix hunting for sponsors as its current sponsor, a trouble-ridden edtech firm is on its way out. Flushed with funds, a fantasy sports platform came to its rescue as the only serious contender in the race, with only two other companies showing interest by picking up the tender document. It was a close save. Industry insiders believe that it is basically an indication of a hot market cooling. With investor money drying up, lesser and lesser number of ‘couldn’t-care-less’ tech, gaming and fintech startups are now staying away from high value properties.

No Cannes do

Indian adwallahs try everything to get a ticket to Cannes to attend the festival, not the film one but it’s other cousin, the Lions. They go through budget hoops and find loops and ways to get themselves, their key team members and a smattering of worthy juniors, to the French Riviera every year. But there was one agency executive who wasn’t too keen to swirl Rose with the global ad crowd at all. So, while this adman’s boss, a constant and regular at Cannes, attended the festival, the said adman preferred to be hundreds of miles away in an Asian paradise. We wonder why.

Cannes Do Better

An award-winning creative director who has broken records at international advertising festivals over the years wasn’t at all impressed with the work from India this year. He called the campaigns ‘uninspiring’. The adman also felt that causevertising is formulaic. We wonder if this is genuine critique or a case of sour grapes. But hey, when life gives you grapes, you know what to make.