Here’s what went behind creating 'The Punishing Signal', one of India’s most awarded campaigns at Cannes Lions 2021

• FCB Interface's The Punishing Signal for Mumbai Police, shone bright at Cannes Lions this year, bringing home 7 metals.
• We caught up with Robby Mathew, Vice Chairman & CCO, FCB Interface who spoke to us about the work, what went into conceptualizing and then executing the campaign, and the kind of impact it has had since.

Last week, Cannes Lions announced winners of campaigns for both 2020 and 2021 for campaigns from across the world, and Indian campaigns did not disappoint. While a Grand Prix eluded us this year, FCB Interface’s campaign, The Punishing Signal for The Mumbai Police, created waves. The agency brought home a total of 7 metals, including 1 Gold, 3 Silvers and 3 Bronzes for this campaign alone.

Mumbai has been known to be one of the busiest and resultantly, the noisiest cities in the world. We have all faced incessant, unnecessary honking at traffic signals, even when the lights are red. The Mumbai Traffic Police wanted to address this problem and partnered with FCB Interface to find an answer. The agency came up with an innovative solution, The Punishing Signal to tackle the honking menace in the city.

As a part of the activation, special decibel meters were connected to traffic signals across the city. Every time impatient people would honk, and the decibel levels would exceed 85dB, the signal timer would simply reset itself, adding another 90 seconds to the wait. Haven't most of us wished this on all those honkers on the streets?

The campaign, which most of us could relate to instantly, received 6.6 billion impressions with many international publications picking it up too.

We recently caught up with Robby Mathew, Vice Chairman & CCO, FCB Interface who spoke to us about the work, what went into conceptualizing and then executing the campaign, and the kind of impact it has had since.

Watch the full conversations here: