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In the recently concluded Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, VMLY&R India's 'The Killer Pack' campaign for Maxx Flash bagged a Grand Prix at the Health & Wellness Lions. The agency’s commerce division picked up a Gold Lion in the Creative Commerce category for Unilever’s ‘Smart Fill’ campaign. These big wins at a global platform like Cannes Lions is an indication that the agency is ramping up its capabilities to create more future-ready, cutting-edge work.
For instance, 'The Killer Pack' campaign for Maxx Flash which fetched the agency a Grand Prix may look like a purpose-led initiative but it has more layers to it which made it stand out.

Here’s what the campaign focused on:

In India, garbage collection points act as major breeding grounds for diseases like dengue and malaria, while mosquito repellent coils are only used to fight mosquitoes inside homes, Maxx Flash and VMLY&R decided to change that. The mosquito repellent brand introduced The Killer Pack, with 100% biodegradable packaging lined with 5% Active Probiotic Bacillus thuringiensis, which kills mosquito larvae when disposed of in garbage dumps, dustbins, and stagnant water, which, the company claims, helps to break the cycle.

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With ‘Smart Fill’, which was launched as Hindustan Unilever’s (a subsidiary of Unilever) in-store vending model for its home care products, VMLY&R Commerce is trying to move sustainability narrative to actual practice. The consumer giant has plans to expand ‘Smart Fill’ machines across prominent retailers and modern trade outlets in India. To access products from the Smart Fill machine, consumers can either use their old empty bottles or purchase a ‘Smart Fill’ bottle from the store at a nominal price.

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Storyboard18 caught up with Mukund Olety, CCO, VMLY&R India and Arpan Jain, ECD, VMLY&R Commerce India, to dig into the making of these campaigns and the advertising trends that will shape the rest of 2022.

Read on:

<strong>VMLY&R India won Lions in categories like Creative Commerce and Creative Business Transformation. It’s putting India high up on the creative world map in categories it didn't have much presence in. What do clients really want from award winning agencies like yours?</strong>

Jain: Our winning campaigns are great examples of purpose powered creativity, which is what we stand for as an agency. Brands are looking for ideas that have the power to drive business transformation, while bringing about real change in society. It’s about adding value to a brand by adding value to its consumers’ lives.

<strong>What according to you makes Unilever’s ‘Smart Fill’ campaign a winning initiative?</strong>

Jain: The beauty of Smart Fill is that it stems from the Indian mindset of resourcefulness. India has a culture of thrift. Unlike the West, trade-offs are expected with every action. People carry their own bags to supermarkets to avoid paying for carry bags. It isn’t that they cannot afford a Rs5 carry bag on a shopping bill of Rs5000, but they do not want to be wasteful.

India also has a cultural practice of repurposing used packaging. Cookie tins are reused as sewing kits, soda bottles are converted into spray bottles.

So, it’s not just about providing an alternative to new plastic packaging but creating a strong ‘value’ connotation to drive mass adoption of the model.

<strong>What do people not know about a campaign like 'The Killer Pack' for Maxx Flash that picked up a Grand Prix this year?</strong>

Olety: The toughest part was executing the idea. While our client bought into the idea, we had to go through a whole lot of hurdles before we got our hands on the bacterial strain. It was not just difficult to access but also difficult to transport. And once we had the bacteria, we tried different ways to infuse it into the packaging. After multiple tries, a smart solution was found. We used a debossed design in which the bacteria was placed. We also managed to infuse it into the ink. That made the pack doubly potent. The bacteria in the ink releases immediately when in a moist environment and the bacteria in the debossed section starts to work as the pack breaks down.

<strong>In terms of the work at Cannes, what did you pick up as some of the key advertising trends that will shape the rest of the year?</strong>

Jain: You would have noticed the shift from creative e-commerce to creative commerce at Cannes this year. Creative commerce brings the element of conversion to brand experiences, making sure we give customers the option to buy online or in the physical space. This shift was to highlight the different emerging areas of commerce and it will broaden the horizons of creativity for business and talent, for years to come.

There was talk of aiming to make every ad a green ad by 2030, and I couldn’t agree more with the speakers. The future is all about sustainable innovation and we’re going to see a lot more.

We saw some really interesting campaigns that were set inside games in the metaverse. I look forward to seeing more brandverses come alive with fun interactions and unique experiences. If your campaign can entertain, enlighten and encourage purchases at the same time, you’ve struck gold!

<a href="https://images.storyboard18.com/storyboard18/Future-of-advertising-as-seen-at-Cannes-Lions.webp"><img src="https://images.storyboard18.com/storyboard18/Future-of-advertising-as-seen-at-Cannes-Lions.webp" alt="" width="700" height="700" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-493" /></a>




Making of VMLY&R India’s Grand Prix winning campaign

VMLY&amp;R Commerce’s ‘Smart Fill’ campaign for Unilever has been shortlisted for one Creative Business Transformation Lion, and three lions in the Creative Commerce category. (image: Screen grab)
India’s report card at the ongoing Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity looks solid and promising. On Day 2 at the ongoing Oscars of advertising, shortlists for Mobile Lions, Brand Experience &amp; Activation Lions, Creative Business Transformation Lions, and Creative Commerce Lions were announced. India has managed to add 20 more shortlists to its kitty, taking the total shortlist tally for India to 57.

In Mobile Lions, Dentsu Webchutney’s ‘The Unfiltered Tour’ for Vice Media made three shortlists. On Day 1, the campaign won the Grand Prix award in the Radio and Audio Lions. It is so far India’s most shortlisted campaign at Cannes Lions this year.

Ogilvy India’s ‘Nothingcoin’ for Cadbury 5 Star also got one shortlist in Mobile Lions.

https://youtu.be/lRWwym-WCYc

DDB Mudra’s ‘Stayfree Project Free Period’ campaign for Johnson &amp; Johnson’s bagged the only Creative Effectiveness shortlist for India.
Indian agencies managed to pick up a total of 10 shortlists in the Brand Experience &amp; Activation category. Ogilvy India got shortlisted for ‘Shah Rukh Khan - My Ad’ in two sub-categories. Dentsu Creative India again secured three shortlists for Vice Media’s ‘The Unfiltered Tour’.

FCB India along with FCB Chicago grabbed three shortlists for the campaign ‘The Nominate Me Selfie’ for The Times of India. VMLY&amp;R has also been shortlisted for Unipads’ ‘Adeli’ campaign. The agency’s commerce unit added a shortlist for Unilever’s ‘Smart Fill’ to its Cannes cart.

In the Creative Business Transformation Lions, VMLY&amp;R Commerce got one shortlist for its Unilever’s ‘Smart Fill’ campaign. The campaign has three in the Creative Commerce category. McCann India received one shortlist in Creative Commerce Lions too. The agency bagged it for Ujjivan Small Finance Bank’s Shagun Ka Lifafa campaign.

No Indian entries qualified in Creative Strategy Lions.

Cannes Lions 2022: Indian creatives shortlisted for 20 more Lions on Day 2

In the 2022 edition of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Dentsu Webchutney won a Grand Prix in Radio &amp; Audio Lions for its ‘The Unfiltered Tour’ campaign for Vice Media. The campaign, which is the most shortlisted Indian entry (so far), also picked up two Bronze Lions and one Silver Lion too in the same category.

In a behind-the-scenes blog for Storyboard18, Dentsu Webchutney’s former CEO Gautam Reghunath had described ‘The Unfiltered Tour’ as a “project of serious rigour and ambition”.

The key members who worked on the campaign made multiple secret visits to the museum, and spent over 18 months to put together the campaign. Under the campaign, VICE World News and Dentsu Webchutney launched a new guided tour for visitors at the British Museum in London. Interestingly, the museum has nothing to do with the campaign directly. British Museum is home to some of the world’s most disputed artefacts. Through ‘The Unfiltered Tour’, visitors to the museum could scan these artefacts using the Instagram filters and unlock an augmented reality (AR) experience that visually teleported the objects back to their homeland.

It’s for the first time that visitors to the museum were able to hear the story behind each artefact in the voices of experts from the countries they were taken from and not from where it’s currently housed. A moment of guerrilla genius that gave each of them an opportunity to play ‘audio tour guide’ right under the museum’s nose, said Reghunath. Taking this further, ‘The Unfiltered History Tour’ also extends into a ten-part podcast series featuring these experts, providing a broader education on the artefacts, as well as the history and ongoing impact of colonialism.

<strong>Watch all about ‘The Unfiltered Tour’ here:
</strong>

https://youtu.be/Y7iVMnS5-LU

The other campaign that picked a Grand Prix is VMLY&amp;R's 'The Killer Pack' campaign for Maxx Flash in the Health &amp; Wellness Lions. In India, garbage collection points act as major breeding grounds for diseases like dengue and malaria, while mosquito repellent coils are only used to fight mosquitoes inside homes, Maxx Flash decided to change that practice. The mosquito repellent brand introduced The Killer Pack, a 100% biodegradable, innovative packaging lined with 5% Active Probiotic Bacillus thuringiensis, which kills mosquito larvae when disposed of in garbage dumps, dustbins, and stagnant water, helping to break the vicious cycle.

<strong>Watch the brand’s case video here:
</strong>

https://youtu.be/ZHxyR9Qjnm0

VMLYR INDIA