MxMIndia

Category: Awards

  • A quick chat with Pratap Bose, Chairman, The Social Street which won the second-largest number of metals in the Creative Abby and a few in the Media Abby too!

    Winning across 3 days gave us a lot of pleasure: Pratap Bose


    We’re going to do well at Goafest this year, Pratap Bose, Chairman and Co-Founder of The Social Street had told us before we left for Goa last week. The shortlists were good indicators that Social Street would do well, but being #2 in the metals tally? Well, he proved the naysayers wrong and also confirmed the point that you don’t have to be 10-20-40-70-year-old agency to be winning big at the Abby. In conversation with Pradyuman Maheshwari, Pratap Bose talks about the wins, scam work, the focus on print and the way forward for his agency. Read on…

     

    Just your second year in business and already right up there!

    We’re actually only 20 months old. It’s an amazing feeling. We’ve worked very hard to get where we are, at Goafest particularly. It’s been like a David versus Goliath story. The underdogs if you can call it that. All kudos to the team who’ve made it possible.

     

    You’re not actually an underdog. You’ve been there, done that. You know the…

    People wouldn’t have expected us to do that well at Goafest. But you’re right, we’re not an underdog. We are industry veterans. But yes, for a small agency to do so well at Goafest is a great sense of pride and achievement.

     

    You’ve done it in the past at Mudra when you were helming it. You obviously know how it works. So when did you decide to play the Goafest game?

    Honestly, it’s not just about playing the game well. It’s also about doing great work. If you look at our wins, we’ve won in pretty much all of the major 14-17 categories. So, it’s always good work at that pace. To win you have to start very early in the year. You can’t just leave it to December and then scramble at the end. Producing good stuff all throughout the year. That gives you the humongous tally of metals at the end of the day. That’s something I keep advocating to the people who want to do well at the awards. You have to be at it. You have to have a dogged goal to do great work. I don’t think we do great work to win awards. You have to do consistent work month-on-month and produce two-three great pieces of work every month and if you measure yourself with that benchmark, you’ll certainly do well.

     

    In terms of the work you’ve done… you’ve said in the past you’re not just an outdoor agency, you’ve done a fair bit of work for print and print-craft.

    Yes, we’ve done a lot for print and print-craft outdoor, even won a lot of metals for digital, branded content, PR, our strong units are out of home, promo and activation is where we score very high… so, yes, the results in terms of where we’ve won the metals is indicative of how wide our network is in terms of our integrated offerings across all verticals. That has paid dividends for sure.

     

    But is print one of your core strengths?

    It’s not, but we had a lot of fun doing print advertisements for clients and we won on big clients. We’ve won big for brands like Aegon Religare, IDBI.

     

    I must tell you that there’s a charge that a lot of work you’ve done is scam work.

    Scam is a dirty work. Sometime proactive. If any agency tells you they haven’t done proactive work, they’re lying through their teeth. There’s always a bit of it. If your main body of work… and this is not just the awards, because every day when you go to office for clients you don’t always do award work. But, yes, sometimes the work is proactive and you’ve made a lot of efforts with the client to say, let’s enter this field in this direction. It ticks all the boxes in terms of the parameters in which you have to enter. It has to be published, approved, released. I don’t like this scam word though I said it. Sometimes you do work that motivates the team and sometimes you have clients that allow you to do that.

     

    You’ve won some 40 metals in creative. And you’ve some metals at the Media Abby as well. How many of these are for genuine work?

    Most of them are. What gives me a lot of pleasure is winning across three days. While a lot of hoo-haa is done about a lot of creative agencies and media separately. We don’t have a very large media offering. We have a small media offering but it’s a great offering. But, to be honest, no agency has won across Goafest for three days. Maybe, one or two. So, that gives us a lot of pride. So, to answer your question, most of it is on large brands.

     

    Your strategy until now has been to fashion yourself more than just an outdoor and activation agency. But if you have to look at your play in the last three months, how have you fared by your own assessment?

    So we are just under two years now and if you read the book by Tom Peters, ‘Thriving on Chaos’, I think that’s what we went through. Because we’ve grown very rapidly. We have 180 people now. That’s a lot of people in these two years. But ultimately the true value that Social Street will derive in terms of where it’s going to be positioned and seen in the area of a highly creative company, backed by data, analytics, content, we’re looking at production services and we’re also looking at partnering and opening a few JVs outside of the country. I think that’s really how I see it.

     

    And how are the financials looking?

    I think we’re doing very well. As I said, we’re just under two years and this is a very important year, financially. By all indications it looks good. So, hoping for a great year ahead.

     

    When you were at Mudra, the great wins helped it get acquired by Omnicom. While you’re ou’re already funded. Are you going to use it to any advantage in terms of more investments

    Not really. Metals at Goafest don’t get you any VC funding. I can tell you that. It rewards you for the work you’ve done. It’s a recognition that we are now a force to reckon with in the awards scenario. Not just the creative awards, we’re also doing well at the Effies, Emvies and internationally at Cannes as well. But there’s no extra funding for winning metals at award functions.

     

    You mentioned about the David v/s Goliath analogy. How have the Goliaths been with you so far?

    We’ve received a lot of love and affection, to be honest. When you get on your own, people wish the independent agencies well, by and large. When you’re a part of a large network, you have a lot of competition and crab crawling. But we don’t have that at all. The industry is also happy for us and wishes us well.

     

  • What was distinctive about the awards was the invasion of the youth and the takeover by the boutique creative shops, writes Sandip Ghose

    Point of View by Sandip Ghose: Huge and slick, but clients were missing

    By Sandip Ghose

     

    Came to Goafest after a long hiatus – almost 10 years, I think. On the surface, not much has changed. As the inaugural speaker assured in his welcome address, this year too, Goafest has retained all its standard sights and fixtures. From Sam Balsara strutting around (though I did not see him in his signature shorts), Shashi Sinha in his “Dabang” avatar to the wild after-hour parties, all were in place.

     

    However, talking for myself, this time around, I did feel like an outsider. It was probably age. The world certainly belongs to the millennials now. But, it was more than just that. It was like gatecrashing into someone else’ private party.

     

    Let us admit: it is a closed club. The ad fraternity has been genetically incestuous. Perhaps, I was being unduly self-conscious. However, this year, it looked like a Bombay clique. That too is perfectly understandable since, Mumbai is where the action is. Gurgaon still remains a distant cousin. Folks from the other cities were conspicuously missing or I did not recognise them.

     

    Having moved out of the advertising and media circuit for some years, in a way it was reassuring to see the old familiar faces on the dais – Raj Nayak, Vikram Sakhuja, Ashish Bhasin, Nakul Chopra, Ramesh Narayan. They all looked remarkably young and fit. Obviously, the workout regimes and diets are working. Of course, there was Srinivasan Swamy, the patron saint of Goafest. Also, one spotted the inimitable Bhaskar Das, with his latest hair-do, wafting through the crowd.  But, where were the other Gods?

     

    Clash of the Titans is a common story. But, one had heard, the big guns had smoked the peace pipe a few years ago. Then why were the biggies so conspicuously missing?

     

    From what I recall, there used to be a sizeable presence of the Marketing fraternity of different media houses. Other than Dainik Jagran, who were one of the sponsors and DB Corp (Dainik Bhaskar) in small measure did not see any of my old friends, whom I was expecting to meet, further adding to my loneliness.

     

    Even the Media Buyers were under-represented, I thought. Though, some of the top honchos, who are part of the organisation committee, were present none of their second-in-command were visible. My own media buying agency must have been hugely relieved, because they could be sure that none of their competitors were around to make a pitch to me after the third drink.

     

    The reason why Media Agencies or even the Creative Heads and Planners chose to give the fest a miss one can guess. After so many years, the attendance of Clients is negligible. So, Goafest provides very little opportunity to network for business development.

     

    The Conference itself has become huge and slick. The big budgets (Rs 8-10 crore, we were told) and the labour of love that industry volunteers cutting across levels put in for months were clearly showing.

     

    Moving to the Grand Hyatt from the earlier Park Hyatt gives it greater class but also makes it a more exclusive, which may not be quite conducive for a “fest”. Bambolim is a tonier part of Goa, close to Donna Paula and Panjim. No doubt a prettier location overlooking the sea. But, it lacks the ambience of Park Hyatt in Arossim with its beach, shacks and smaller hotels and bars in the vicinity. And, Martin’s Corner, without a meal there no visit to Goa can be complete, is a good 25 kilometers away.

     

    The speaker line-up, one could say, was high on entertainment quotient (Acharya Balakrishna of Patanjali fame, Viv Richards, Sanjay Dutt) and short on depth. But, who likes to listen to boring lectures at fests?Therefore, Laura Ries struck the right balance. But, inclusion of Maneka Gandhi to launch the industry initiative on Violence against Women, seemed like a force-fit.

     

    What was distinctive about the Awards was the invasion of the youth and the takeover by the boutique creative shops. Kids going up on stage to collect the prizes looked barely out of school and their bosses were trying hard to fit in – chopping their horns to be with the calves, as they say in Bengal.

     

    It was heartening that Taproot and Webchutney, who made their debut, only some years ago have become part of large international groups so soon. Even a new kid on the block like Pratap Bose’s Social Street announced their coming of age blowing trumpets all the way to the stage.

     

    Clearly the future is digital, social media and OOH (Out of Home). The days of traditional ATL media are numbered and, perhaps, it is also time for the old order to take a bow and move on.

     

    Following my own cue, if I come to Goafest next year it will be with a nubile companion. Since, at my age, that will be a challenge, it will have to be my daughter, who is just out of an art school and planning a career in Graphic Design. Otherwise, the bright and bold young ones, bursting with talent, give us the oldies a huge complex by the time we get back.

     

    Sandip Ghose is a roving marketer and popular blogger. He has worked extensively in FMCG, Media and other Brand categories.Twitter @SandipGhose The views expressed here are his own

     

  • And this is how the various entrants stacked up in the Creative Abby

    Entrants-wise tally – Creative Abby 2017

    And this is how the various entrants stacked up in the Creative Abby… note we have used the word entrants and not agencies, because some of the entries have been submitted by clients/advertisers directly.

  • Here is a list of all the awards given away on all three days

    All the Creative, Media & Special Awards

     

    Here is a list of all the awards given away on all three days

     

    Special Abby 2017

    Creative Abby – III (awards given away on Day 3)

    Creative Abby – III (awards given away on Day 2)

    Creative Abby – I (awards given away on Day 1)

    Media Abby 2017 (awards given on Day 1)

     

     

  • The Kyoorius Creative Awards ceremony will be held on Friday, June 2nd 2017 at the Dome, NSCI in Mumbai

    Kyoorius announces digital jury

    By A Correspondent

     

    As the fourth edition of the Kyoorius Creative Awards draws closer, the jury panel for the digital category has been made public. The panel will be led by Tim Malbon (Founding Partner, Made by Many) and comprises: Eric Cruz (Executive Creative Director, AKQA Shanghai), Lyndon Hale (Executive Creative Director, DigitasLBi APAC), Preethi Mariappan (VP Executive Creative Director, Emerging Experiences EMEA, Sapient Razorfish), George Kovoor (Senior Creative Director, OgilvyOne Worldwide), RoopakSaluja (Founder and Chief Executive Officer, The 120 Media Collective and Sooperfly) and PrashanthChallapalli (Chief Integration Officer, Leo Burnett South Asia).

     

    Said Rajesh Kejriwal, Founder and CEO of Kyoorius: “Over the last five years, the advertising and media industry as we know it, has seen dramatic and evolutionary transformations. The advent and growth of digital together with technology, has led to changes in the way we think, act and communicate with the modern day consumer. In this sea of change, the concept and execution of creative communications too has evolved leaps and bounds. And it is this outstanding creative excellence and innovation that Kyoorius aims to recognize and honour.”

     

    While entries for awards will close on April 19, 2017, April 26 will be the last day to submit physical entries.The Kyoorius Creative Awards ceremony will be held on Friday, June 2, 2017 in Mumbai.

     

  • Goafest & Abby Awards have been built brick-by-brick by them over the years, says Ad Club Prez Raj Nayak

    No industry event is as large as Goafest: Raj Nayak

     

    While he’s had the good fortune of trusted industry persons as part of his Advertising Club team, a glitch-free Goafest and more importantly the Abby Awards are feathers in his cap. Raj Nayak shared his thoughts with MxMIndia on Goafest 2017 and says his own role in raising the bar

     

    Your final thoughts on how Goafest andAbby 2017 have been? It’s your secondas President of the Ad Club…

    Last year, we got very good feedback. I wasn’t there due to backache, so as President of Ad Club, this is my first Abby where I’m physically present and seen what’s happening. If you look at numbers, we’ve grown over the previous year, more entries and things like that. That’s a good sign because it shows resilience of the industry and that it’s growing. That’s one good part. If you look at the sessions, the feedback from people also says the sessions this year were fabulous. Exceptions to the rule are one or two sessions that were not too great. The feedback that journalists also gave was that it was very well-curated.

     

    So what has changed?

    Many years ago at Goafestwe used to shy away from paying people to come and speak. We’ve broken that. Now we’re willing to pay for a good speaker, to fly her or him, we are willing to do things. I think that’s been a shift. Knowledge seminars have been excellent and Day 1 was packed, Day 2 was packed as was Day 3 was packed. Ah, the Day 3 morning saw lesser crowds as people were partying till 5 in the morning! I went to my room at 4am because it looked like a night festival! It was buzzing with activity! I think it’s a good thing. We’ve also drifted to a certain extent. That’s to be fixed. For senior management, giving four days is a challenge. I don’t have readymade answers on how to address this, but it’s one area we need to find a way a solution.

     

    Over the years, we’ve seen Goafest growing from a festival of advertising professionals to one for media and entertainment too…

    Yes! It’s a festival. I would like to change the name from Goafest to Goa Festival. It brings so many people together. There is so much of a camaraderie. It’s also a recruiting ground for seeking jobs. I know of my dear friends who conducted business deals in the two-three days. It all depends on how you look at it. Can we put a structure to it to say it can be a place to conduct job interviews and business? The problem is not in visualising or doing things. The problem is in the infrastructure.

     

    One of the things which a lot of people have said is that you have raised the bar after you took charge of Ad Club? But don’t you think you’ve raised it so high that it will be a tough act to follow?

    I don’t think I have. It would be unfair to all my predecessors in the past. It has been built brick-by-brick by them over the years. I’ve come at a later stage when three-fourth of the building is already built and I’ve put the roof and people say, oh, now the house looks complete.

     

    But you’ve put a lot of glitter and finesse on it.

    I think I bring a bit of passion to the table. I think that’s true for every person who’s been there before me and sometimes someone may have had a good or a bad year. And that’s the challenge. That’s what I want the whole industry to know. Next year, someone else will be the president. It’s a not for-profit kind of business. Everybody is giving their time pro bono. It’s an industry event, for god’s sake. If you’re from the industry, be a part of it. Don’t be an armchair critic. Drop in and say: “I will be a part of the committee. This is what is wrong with the Goafest, I want to fix it.” Have the balls to do it and you can quote me on it. Don’t criticise and say: “Oh no, we don’t want to do this.” Because there is no other industry event in the world which is as large as Goafest which is run by industry bodies. You heard Mr Amitabh Kant speaking. He said, “One of the things about the whole presentation. I was so inspired. All these were made by Indians.!” He mentioned Piyush’s and Sunil’s name.

    Your heart was swelling with pride because it was Make in India. Made in India. We have the talent, we have the people. This is an industry event where everything is about Make in India, made by Indians, for Indians… come be a part of it. I’m going to fade away into the sunset, but for the future generation it is important that leaders like us show the path and create something that the future generations should respect. It’s not about your or my ego. We’ll all go into the sunset. But, for the future generation, you have the opportunity to build something that history will remember you for.

     

  • The AAAI President on his fourth year as a key part of the organising committee…

    Lack of good work a prominent reason for agencies not participating: Nakul Chopra

     

    It is AAAI President Nakul Chopra’s fourth year as a part of the core organising committee of Goafest, and it must be acknowledged that the three-day festival has taken a quantum leap in his tenure. Although this interview was conducted much before the fest concluded, we asked Chopra on his expectations, his achievements on his view on the absence of some of the big agencies.

     

    Your fourth Goafest where you’ve been a key part of the organising committee. How would you say was this year’s edition vis-à-vis those of the past years?

    The year 2013 was my first year as the Goafest Chairman. I think A. the mandate was in a sense that it’s all going very well, continue with what’s being done. B. I think I had a lot of trepidation. I think I was given a responsibility I think I wasn’t 100% on top of it. So, 2013 was more a Goafest in which I felt my way around. What became very clear in my head that year was that we needed a fundamental change in the way we approached the festival. It’s a festival, as Raj said, that it’s a pro-bono effort by the associations. However, if you come here as a delegate, how do you care, whether it’s pro bono or for profit or not. You come here  and you see the value you receive from the festival for here. And so, when I came back in 2015 to do it, I remember I sat with the then President of Ad ClubPratap Bose and AAAI President AmbiParameswaran. I said I want your blessings on one thing. We are going to put up the best show we’ve ever put up. Even if it causes a negative financials on our part. But, we have to set a standard with this thing and not the other way around.

     

    While you are an industryperson and an agency leader, you are also known to be fairly aggressive in your approach. The fact is it needed a slightly bolder approach to doing things. Did that really help?

    No, I may have an aggressive personality but I haven’t been aggressive in the way I’ve done business. That’s another matter. Right here, the question was: are you willing to take the bait? Are you willing to say that we will spend the money and we’ll do a great show and the results will follow. And I think somewhere for me, this year in particular is a vindication of that. Because the journey really started in 2015 which progressed a lot in 2016. I’m very proud of the fact that the outlay of the fact has more than trebled in these 3 years! It’s not about me feeling good about it. But hopefully, that is the increased value we are bringing to people who are coming here.

     

    Since when you took charge and till now, are you happy or do you think there is unfinished agenda?

    I could almost say it would almost be a dream for me to do nothing else in the next 2 years. I’m not saying that’s what I want to do. But, in the limited context of GoaFest, there is so much more we can do. But it has to be somebody’s day job for 12 months of the year. It’s very difficult to do that if it is many people’s second job for six months of the year.

     

    Have you ever felt that like it’s with Cannes Lions, you should have a full-time organising team just for Goafest?

    I think there is glamour to Goafest that is endearing. The collective effort of the industry, not just the advertisers alone. The advertisers contribute to it by coming here, speaking. The media contributes in a very big way. You guys contribute to it. I think there’s some magic in that glamour. I don’t want to lose that. That’s part of Goafest! I think, within that context, there’s a lot more we can do.

     

    Anything that you think you wanted to achieve but have not over the last four years? What is that one thing you’d have wanted to achieve?

    I don’t think so. I have targets in my head every year. To say, this year these are the three-four new things you can do. I think we can still improve… not just improve… I think we can perhaps revisewhat we did three years ago…

     

    Does the absence of some big agencies matter to you?

    Of course, it matters. Not just as people who organise the festival. But I think it matters equally to associations who are doing everything they can to be as inclusive as possible. So of course it matters to us. As I have said many times before, I think different agencies have different reasons. Not necessarily all the same. So if there’s a list of things that I could change, that would be on top of my list. I think the real world is competitive and we have to respect that people have competitive reasons for doing what they are doing.

     

    Would you say that people who are not participating are not participating because they haven’t done good work?

    I can’t say that as a blanket thing for all those who haven’t participated. But, I would certainly say to you that seems to be one of the prominent reasons why some agencies don’t.

     

    You don’t mind me using that as a headline?

    I don’t mind it.

     

  • After all the news reports and interviews, we spoke to co-chair of the Abby Governing Council for an analysis

    No golds in digital and print was shocking: Ajay Chandwani

     

    [updated]

    Okay, you’ve read the interviews and reports after Goafest concluded. We spoke to Ajay Chandwani, veteran adperson and also Co-Chair of Abby Awards Governing Council for an analysis of the Abby Awards

    What’s the #1 takeaway for you from the Abby Awards 2017?

    Overall, I got a sense that entries have dramatically improved is execution. Finesse and execution, presentation of the ideas, execution in illustration, photography, typography, the craft has really moved up a notch in terms of the quality of entries. Whereas the ideas are almost static.

    But why no Grand Prix?

    For precisely this reason. Grand Prix or Best of Category comes in if the ideas have dramatically changed.

    So do you mean there’s no dramatic entry this year?

    Frankly if you ask me, there were. But juries feel when they start giving a Grand Prix they are in D&AD, you have to almost remind them that this is a desi Award. You’re not sitting in the Riveira…

    Juries appear to be functioning too independently. Shouldn’t they be given a directive to look at…

    The only guideline, not even a directive we give them is this. In the past we had a few years in which a lot of metals were given. We formed this rule of not more than four metals per sub-category unless the jury votes. So, for example, four metals means you can have 1 bronze, 2 silvers, 1 Gold or 1 bronze, 3 silvers, and if it requires more than 4, then the jury must decide, 5 or 6 or 7 or even 8. It’s being followed. But in most last two years my observation has been very few sub-categories actually have more than four medals.

    Why no Grand Prix? Is it that people are too strict?

    Grand Prix means it must change the way the category has been looked at. That it is a very strong differentiator.

    An example is an Adidas…

    Yes, could have deserved one. A Grand Prix has to be completely breakthrough… I feel that people feel a Grand Prix is too much of a spotlight. If most judges haven’t won it themselves for a long time, they don’t feel…

    So, dirty tricks?

    I don’t think so. I’ll give you an example. The last Grand Prix was won by Lintas for DaburVatika. That work was a unanimous Grand Prix. Even today, people remember that changed the category. It took a bald woman, one suffering from cancer to sell a shampoo which talks about a lush growth of hair. That is dramatically changing the way you look at the category. It answered that.

     

    You have a new #1…

    In terms of the number of Golds, yes., I don’t how you look at #1. Total metals, Golds. We don’t rank.

     

    Open Strategy and Design has 4 Golds

    Famous has got 13 metals with 3 Golds. Then there is Star India with 13 metals including 3 Golds. Star is of course not an agency.

     

    And you wouldn’t recommend comparing media houses..

    You see this is a new trend. Lots of media companies are entering into creative and they are winning also…Maxus, MindShare and companies. And did you see how many bronzes Marico got

     

    So takeways….

    I wonder how it has slipped your attention. Digital got the highest number of entries and has zero gold.

     

    That’s huge. Tell me, this whole thing of some juries being more liberal than other. I remember this an observation made last year too.

    Yes it was..

     

    Consequently, you have some agencies who are winning more golds. For example, the Design category has a lot of wins…

    Yes

     

    So you could see them far ahead of the regular creative agencies

    In fact if Open had entered those ideas in the advertising categories, they would’ve had a different score. Like Autumn Winter is in design and advertising.

     

    We’ve seen a fantastic rise of The Social Street. Taproot has done well, but it was #2 last year too.

    Yes, just in the second year of its existence.

     

    Do you think a Social Street has benefitted due to some liberal juries?

    No, no. A single agency can’t benefit. I will tell you why a single agency can’t benefit… because every jury is so diverse that the only way you can win a metal is if your competition votes you. There is no other way. Many people ask meif it is possible that a group of six people are friends with an agency. No it just cannot happen. That has been my biggest endeavor… not to create gangs. It’s a very difficult thing to do.

     

    Tell me now that the jury process has been streamlined…what will it take an Ogilvy and the others to participate?

    First and foremost, there are three things they must do to even consider this serious. Today, some of them are staying away for a combination of either budgets or…McCain clearly mentioned this… Contract clearly mentioned this…infact we thought Contract & Mudra are the agencies that have promoted the Abbys…forget about, whereas Ogilvy and others of the last 5 years have not entered…so I don’t expect Ogilvy & McCain to go out of the way. But, let’s say…there are 2 or 3 agencies …Ogilvy, Leo Burnett I don’t have their view, BDDO they have mentioned that if we did a fewer judges judging everything, they might look at it. However it’s not practical, it’s a D&AD model…works on fewer entries. This is what Kyoorious does… it’s like the Critics Award… Abby is like Cannes…like Cannes has so many jurors…same model…specialist jury…for example, a digital entry can’t be judged by a bunch of advertising people…they’ll be throttled…they will stop entering…one year I had an agency person in the jury, they revolted…they said if you are going to do this next year, we are not going to take part…because if it for Filmcraft by Filmcraft then don’t impose agency people. Likewise design this year look at the design jury. Take design for example, almost every jury member is from design not from advertising even Alok Nanda. Now more than 60% work is from design… in fact his growth is in design.

     

    And?

    I think this digital observation. If the ideas had been stronger, we would have had a Grand Prix. Golds and Silvers have gone up that’s because of execution. Earlier what would happen is ideas would falter in execution. That’s why silvers and golds were less. Now at least they have cracked that..

     

    Hypothetically, if Ogilvy and Lowe had participated, would the results have been different?

    Very hard to say. I cannot believe that some of the entries which won Goldswouldn’t have been Golds if others were there. None of the golds were by default. May be in one of two verticals.Take, for example, PR has had so many Golds. But these companies that you mentioned hardly have participate in PR and design. They are not big participants in digital also. For instance, they may have changed print. Because print hasn’t got a single gold. That was shocking.

     

    In print..

    In print craft there is, but not in print.

     

    So basically, two categories that have not got gold are print and digital.

    Yes, shocking

     

    But Print Craft has…

    This, by the way, is the trend abroad too, in Cannes for instance.Indian entries winning in craft, and technical aspects rather than ideation..

     

    That’s not a good commentary for our advertising.

    Yes, not a good comment.

     

     

  • In its tenth year now, the South-Asia Laadli Media Awards for Gender Sensitivity 2015-16 is being organised in association with International Advertising Association (IAA)

    IAA joins hands with Laadli to take Media Awards for Gender Sensitivity across South Asia

    By A Correspondent

     

    The International Advertising Association (IAA) is supporting the Laadli Media Awards for Gender Sensitivity to take the national awards across South Asia.

     

    In its tenth year now, the South Asia Laadli Media Awards for Gender Sensitivity 2015-16 is being organised in association with International Advertising Association (IAA). The event will be held at National Centre for Performing Arts, Mumbai, India on May 12, 2017.

     

    The awards are supported by UNFPA and this year, Colors is associated as the cause partner.

    Said Srinivasan K Swamy Senior Vice President IAA Global and Chairman RK Swamy BBDO:  “The IAA India Chapter has had a long association with Laadli and the subject of gender sensitivity, so supporting their Media Awards in the South Asia region seemed a natural corollary. This not just showcases the IAA’s keen interest in such activities, but also its ability to spread a good message across boundaries.

     

    Added Ramesh Narayan Vice President IAA: “We are very happy to lend our support to this meaningful award. Our Chapters and Associates in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Nepal and Bangladesh are working on selecting one journalist in each country who has done wonderful work in the area of gender sensitivity and that person will be nominated to receive the special IAA Laadli South Asia Media Award.

     

    Said Dr A. Sharada, CEO, Laadli: “The objective of The Laadli Media Awards is to draw the attention of the public to the positive efforts in the media with regard to gender sensitive reportage and provide a platform for showcasing such efforts. It does not focus on visible achievers but on media persons who are reporting from the field level – analyzing laws, policies, programmes, events and incidents using a gender lens.  Every year entries are sought from all over India. More than 1500 entries are received each year from across the nation from print, electronic and web media. Around 80 awards are given under 13 languages across the country, in each of the rounds.”

     

  • Harish Bahl & Manish Vij exit SVG Media, sell stake to Dentsu Aegis Network which launches Columbus in India

    Win-win for Dentsu & Smile co-founders as…

    L-R: Chirag Shah, Deven Dharamdasani, Ashish Bhasin, Anurag Gupta and Ashwani Mehta

     

    By A Correspondent

    This news could be looked at from two ends. That the Dentsu Aegis Network has completed yet another acquisition and become really big in digital. Or fro the Smile Group point of view, where the co-promoters Harish Bahl and Manish Vij have hit the jackpot yet again after selling Quasar to WPP in 2008. According to some industry estimates, the deal size is in the region of Rs 750 crore.

    So let’s hear it from the DAN pov first:

    Dentsu Aegis Network has announced the acquisition of SVG Media Private Limited, one of the largest independent digital agencies in India. SVG Media will join the network’s Asia Pacific digital marketingagency Columbus and will become SVGColumbus.

     

    Manish Vij (L) Harish Bahl (R)

    Dentsu Aegis Network claims to be currently Google’s largest search partner in India, and the addition of SVG Media will further strengthen the Group’s leading search position in the market. This acquisition will also support Columbus’expansion in Asia Pacific – now in nine markets across the region.

    SVG Media includes the flagship brands DGM, Komli and Seventynine. Founded in 2006, SVG Media comprises over 280 specialists across four major Indian cities Gurgaon, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru. It offers diverse digital media competencies including online performance marketing, mobile app distribution, representations, social and web services through its flagship brands. The group has one of the largest client bases in the Indian digital media sector with over 700 monthly active advertiser campaigns locally, as well as international clients in Dubai, Indonesia and China.

    Anurag Gupta,CEO of SVG Columbus & DGM, will report to Ashish Bhasin, Chairman and CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network South Asia. Anurag Gupta, CEO of SVG Columbus & DGM, Chirag Shah,CEO of SVG Media Mobile & Seventynine, Deven Dharamdasani,COO of SVG Media Mobile & Seventynine, Akshay Mathur, Business Head of Komli, and Ashwani Mehta,Finance Controller,will join the SVG Columbus Managing Board, which will be chaired by Vivek Bhargava, CEO of Performance, Dentsu Aegis Network India.

    Harish Bahl and Manish Vij, founder and co-founder of the Smile Group, will continue to focus on investments through the Smile Group and will no longer act as directors of SVG Media. It has also been agreed that the Smile Group will retain the TyrooTechlabs business.

    Said Ashish Bhasin,Chairman and CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network South Asia: “India is a significant market with rapid growth potential in its mobile and performance marketing business, and Dentsu Aegis Network India has a strong track record in the search and performance space to deliver this. Given its capabilities in data led search, performance marketing and mobile,SVG Columbus is ideally positioned to capture the fragmented long tail publisher market in India using technology and data. As a Group we have leading position in digital in India, particularly in search and performance and this gives us a clear leadership position in this area. We will now have over 1,300 digital professionals, accounting for over 35% of our revenues, well ahead of our competitors.”

    On behalf of SVG Columbus management, Anurag Gupta, CEO of SVG Columbus,,said: “We started out as a digital media group more than a decade ago, and for us to join forces with a clear market leader in digital, that is Dentsu Aegis Network, makes perfect sense. Their priority in placing digital at the forefront of their strategy and goals align perfectly with ours. We will continue to scale our offering in performance marketing and serving clients through the network and other agency networks. We are assured of their strong growth momentum, which will enable us to further enhance our scale as a business operationally and geographically. Their unique one P&L model also allows us to be part of that shared vision towards a digital world which will provide us with access to the latest industry technology and talent to deliver the best solutions for our clients.”

    Meanwhile, this is what Messrs Vij and Bahl have to say:

    Manish Vij Co-Founder Smile Group: “We built SVG Media with the philosophy of profitable growth and market leadership. This philosophy is not the most popular in digital industry but has been very gratifying for SVG Media founders and key leadership. We understand that media consumptions habits are changing rapidly therefore will now focus on building the TyrooTech business and other media incubations.”

    Harish Bahl, Founder at Smile Group:“At Smile we are proud to have continuously built successful JV partnerships or exits with large global firms as, Airbnb, Yahoo, WPP Digital, Scan Group-Africa etc. SVG’s market leadership and exit to DAN is another feather in the cap for Smile.  Our strategy of Investing, Building and JVs through one common platform, is uniquely attractive to global unicorns and entrepreneurs and has evolved over years of learnings.  We hope to share few more exciting announcements in 2017.”

     

  • JWT, Publicis Communications and Mindshare have bagged two shorlists each and Sapient Razorfish has bagged one

    BBDO’s Dads #ShareTheLoad for P&G wins 6 Tangrams Effectiveness shortlists

    By A Correspondent

     

    BBDO India’s Dads #ShareTheLoad for Procter & Gamble bagged six shortlists at the Tangrame Effectiveness Awards that are scheduled for late September 2017. Thirteen Indian entries find their way among the 259 that have made it through to the shortlist for Tangrams Effectiveness Awards.

     

    A panel of regional marketers and agency heads has reviewed all submissions to select the best in marketing effectiveness. The following number of entries have been shortlisted in each awards section:

     

    Effectiveness 100

    Media Strategy 53

    Digital Strategy 70

    Data & Analytics 22

    e-Commerce 14

     

    “As the quality of work increases year on year, the achievement of the shortlisted entries is all the more impressive and we would like to congratulate the finalists who have clearly demonstrated the effectiveness of their work.” says Andrea Hayes, Festivals Director.

     

    Other than BBDO for P&G, JWT bagged two shortlists for Godrej’s Good Knight, as did Publicis for Ambuja Cements and Mindshare for Hindustan Unilver. Sapient Razorfish has also bagged one shortlist for work done for Sapient Nitro.

     

    The winners will be announced at the Tangrams Awards ceremony held on the first evening of Spikes Asia Festival, Wednesday September 27, 2017. The Tangrams programme will also expand to includea two-day focus on marketing effectiveness at Spikes Asia on September 28 and 29.

     

  • Hosted out of Italy, A' Design Awards & Competition is world's largest design competition that recognises best design work

    Elephant awarded for design work on Britannia Breads & Voot

    By A Correspondent

     

    Design major Elephant has won the A’ Design Awards for Britannia Breads and also visual identity for Viacom18’s Voot.

     

    Hosted out of Italy, A’ Design Awards & Competition receives more than 18,000 entries across 110 categories from 180 nationalities. Each category sees seven tiers of awards in multiple numbers.

     

    Britannia Breads was awarded A’ Silver Award in Packaging Design category for outstanding concept & design. Platinum & Gold winners include Cloudy Tea from China, 7-Up Summer Series USA & Pepsi Emoji bottles, USA. The Voot visual identity was awarded A’ Bronze Award in Graphics & Visual Communication category for outstanding concept & design. Platinum & Gold winners include Shanghai Fashion Week, Singapore Art Museum & Nissan GT.

     

    The awards presentation will take place at Lake Como, Italy on June 9.