India bags 2 Golds & 7 Finalists @ Montreux Switzerland Festival

By A Correspondent

The Montreux Advertising Festival is billed as a precursor to the Cannes Lions and every year many Cannes aspirants test their work at the fest held on the  on the picturesque Lake Geneva in the pretty resort town of Montreux, famous for it’s jazz festival and once home of icons like Freddy Mercury, Charlie Chaplin and Vladimir Nobokov. Veteran advertising professional Ajay Chandwani has been on the jury of the awards for some years.

After India’s impressive haul at D&AD, One Show and Montreux, all eyes will now be on Cannes for an encore.The 27th edition of the Golden Award of Montreux Advertising saw Indian entries winning two Golds and seven Finalist positions.

The two Golds were for Hindustan Unilever and the Dainik Bhaskar Group. PHD India won a Gold for Best Use of Mobile Media for it’s Rin Career Ready Academy while the Dainik Bhaskar Group’s film “Zid karo, Duniya Badlo” on girl child literacy won a Gold in the Corporate Film Category.

There were 7 Finalists from India, which is being considered creditable since Montreux does not have a tradition of Silver or Bronze so a Finalist works like a metal here. Indian Finalists included SAP for their Direct Marketing project on Discover, 2 Finalists of Jagran Prakashan for “A newspaper initiates a quest “ and “ Creating a newspaper for the future”, PHD’s Vande Matram” for Hindustan Unilever, ITSA People’s Print work on HCL “Relationship beyond the Contract”, and two Finalists of Zee Entertainment Enterprises in TV Film for their promos on Border and Credit Card.

BBDO New York was once again the most successful agency at the Montreux Festival for their work on Mars Chocolates, GE,Fedex, Footlocker. Other prominent winners were Leo Burnett Germany, Arnold Worldwide USA, Otto GmbH, Havas Worldwide, AMVBBDO UK. The films category was dominated by the BBDO TV films Crisper and Marilyn on Mars Chocolate.Leo Burnett’s “One Second” film on Dunlop and two Diageo films by AMVBBDO UK.

BETC Paris dominated the Print and Direct category with two Golds in Print for Petit Bateau and Evian and a Direct Response Gold for Canal +. Creative agencies enter the Global Festival from across over the world with a higher share of American and European participation. Indian interest and performance in Montreux has grown over the years.