MxMIndia

Tag: Advertising Club

  • The Advertising Club President Bose speaks on how the awards have been this year, and whether the Ad Club will ever be able to bring Ogilvy and Lintas back to participate

    Credibility of Abby has been restored: Pratap Bose

    Is there anything to ask, Advertising Club’s Pratap Bose asked us, minutes after announcing the 2015 edition of the Abby Awards. The awards have been controversy-free so far, and save the non-participation of some of the bigger advertising agencies, they could be termed a huge success. In this Q&A, Mr Bose speaks to Pradyuman Maheshwari on how the awards have been this year, and whether the Ad Club will ever be able to bring Ogilvy and Lintas back to participate.

     

    Your broad view of how the Abby Awards have been this year…

    I think on the personal front I am happy because we continued with what we did last year. My objective was to deliver a fair and controversy-free process at Goa, which will ultimately bring back the confidence of most advertisers in the future. Now, whether they come next year, or the year after, I won’t hazard a guess. But I think the credibility of the event, the awards and the awards metals we gave out, have been restored.

     

    Would you say it was scam-free also?

    That’s a debate I can have for three days with you. What is the definition of a scam? We are not the Interpol at the Ad Club. It’s work that has ticked all the boxes in terms of the process. That’s been done and adhered to. It is very difficult to say it is a scam ad. Has it been created just for the awards? If that is the case, it’s been sanctioned, it’s been delivered, the client’s approved it and it’s gone out in the market, on even one release. Can you then call it a scam? I think you should be able to answer that question.

     

    JWT is the No 1 agency in terms of the number of metals (it has won). But then, Since you’ve not had an Ogilvy or Lowe participating in the Abby. Do you think JWT can rightfully say they are the No 1 creative agency in the country?

    We don’t take the position on whether they are No 1 or not. I think they have won the most number of metals in terms of the actual number of awards. In that sense they have been the most successful agency. It would be unfair of me to comment  on whether they are the most creative agency or not. Our job is to deliver an awards event that celebrates creativity. That’s always been the mantra at Goafest. We haven’t gone back to the old days where we declared an ‘Agency of the Year’.

     

    What do think will get an Ogilvy and Lowe to come back?

    I think it’s largely the leadership at the top which takes those calls. It’s not going to be easy. For example, Balki has clearly said I’m not going to enter the creative awards though the Grand Prix winner this year – Linen Lintas – is part of the same group. I don’t know whether he is going to smirk or have a smile on his face (because of this). But I think it’s difficult for anyone else to say whether they would participate or not because at the end of day, it is the boss who needs to decide.

     

    You’ve been leading the Ad Club and the Abby for two years. Must be sad to see these guys not participating. Is it a kind of unfinished agenda?

    Of course, if you had every agency in the country participating without exception, that’s always the best cake you could get. But life is not always about pretty roses.

     

    How do you take it to the next level?

    That’s something we need to get back to the drawing board for, because Goafest is a templated event over three days. It has graduated from two days, to three.

     

    Will Abby continue to be part of Goafest?

    Yes, that is the intention as we go forward.

     

    One of the reported reasons for an Ogilvy to not participate in the Abby is it’s not in Mumbai…

    Well, no one holds any one at ransom. An agency can’t decide where the awards ceremony is going to be held.

     

    You think combining an Abby with an Effie will help bring back Lowe and Ogilvy, both of whom participate in the Effie?

    Both the events are completely different. This is a creative show.

     

    One message to the people who did not participate…

    Goafest is a celebration of work. I would say there is nothing you gain by not participating. And you only stand to gain when you do. We are not ranking agencies over here; that’s the media’s job. But I think it’s for the younger people that work in the agency, to give them a sense of pride, a sense of achievement in their hard work. That’s one of the biggest reasons I would recommend every agency to participate.

     

  • … and the Ad Club’s Abby which has seen a 35% hike in entries + interview with Nakul Chopra, chairman of Goafest Organising Commitee

    All set for the 10th Goafest…

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    It’s that time of the year when advertising, media and marketing professionals head to the sunny climes of Goa for an annual dose of some knowledge, networking and winning awards. It’s also celebration time as this is the tenth edition of Goafest, the annual congregation organised by the Advertising Agencies Association of India and the Advertising Club.

     

    The latter brings to the party the Abby Awards which have been expanded since last year to include various members of the media ecosystem. What started as essentially a Creative Awards show now includes Media, Digital, Print, Film, Film Craft, Out of Home, Ambient Media and Design, Radio, Direct, Branded Content and Entertainment, Brand Activation and Promotion, Print Craft, Integrated Advertising, Public Relations, Broadcaster and Publisher. Awards will be presented category-wise on each day of Goafest – that’s starting today, April 9 through April 11.

     

    Yes, there are naysayers, but they’ve been silenced by the response that the event has generated.  After the inauguration today, the Industry Conclave will start mid-afternoon followed by the Media and Publishers Awards.

     

    Said Nakul Chopra, Chairman of Goafest 2015 organising committee: “It is our endeavour to make Goafest 2015 better and superior. We will bring together the best minds in the field of advertising, communications, marketing industry to discuss, debate, interact, offer thoughts and experiences, share ideas and questions on our industry.”

     

    Meanwhile, Ad Club president Bose is ecstatic about the number of entries he has received this year. While some of the leading agencies like Ogilvy, Lowe Lintas, McCann and Leo Burnett have not sent entries, Bose boasts of a near-35 per cent increase from 2014. “The fact that we followed a rigorous judging process last year brought back the faith in the system which had eroded in the previous Abby.”  The number of entries is up 900 to 3500 with participation from 200 creative and digital agencies. In the Media Abby, the number of entries has grown from 574 to 612 from across 53 agencies. “Agencies you thought weren’t participating are doing so,” Bose smiles. “Some clients have pushed their agencies to participate while many others have entered directly.” Talking of the new categories introduced last year, he said that Public Relations has shaped up well and so has the Broadcaster category.  When asked about efforts being taken to woo back the agencies which have boycotted the awards, he said: “We tried our best to persuade them.” Bose is of the view that agencies don’t gain by staying away. “For the sake of the young professionals who do some splendid work, they must enter.”

     

    At the time of writing, the final numbers of registered delegates at Goafest was not known.

     

    If there were no awards, you wouldn’t even have half the participation in Goa: Nakul Chopra
     

    This is the second year, Publicis’ CEO South Asia Nakul Chopra has helmed the Goafest Organising Committee. In an interview with Pradyuman Maheshwari, Chopra speaks on organising the festival and the controversies about some leading agencies staying away.

     

    Many sleepless nights because of Goafest?

     I never had sleepless nights because of GoaFest.

     

    But must be a thankless job?

    That’s why it must be done. I think you hit the nail on the head. To share an honest personal experience with you,  I got into Goafest actively because I was a vocal critic. I protested 2011 and was chairman of Goafest in 2013. It’s easy to sit and critique others. I’ve done both with a very cynical filter in how I saw things. Except, when you look at it from the perspective of what you said: It’s a thankless job. Somebody spends a lot of time and effort to make something happen and you don’t look at the stuff that worked or you could appreciate. Instead, you catch onto the three things that didn’t work or that personally pissed you off for some reason. It could be just the food or who got the awards…

     

    Last year you didn’t do it because the timing wasn’t right?

    Last year, the timing had to be changed, so, I thought it better if somebody else did it. This year, the AAAI President didn’t give me a choice. I think we all have to, turn by turn, take the responsibility. Either the association decides they don’t want to do it, so, they should parcel it off to some third party to do it. But, if the two associations want to continue to do it, somebody has got to take responsibility.

     

    Obviously, you run a network of agencies. Goafest is also more than a full-time job for a couple of months. It must be taking away from your time here at Publicis.

    It takes away from time at Publicis and at home. It does. I’m fortunate that we have a very strong team at Publicis. We have also a good team helping out with Goafest… many people pitching in to take on different responsibilities.

     

    You’ve done Goafest in the past, so you obviously know…

    But the grammar has changed from an organisation and logistics standpoint. There was the Beach GoaFest which was the first three or four years. Then there was the GoaFest at Zuri. When you do it on the same format with similar vendors, by Year 3, things become much simpler. You’ve learnt from the mistakes, you know what can go wrong. Last year was the first year at Grand Hyaat. Many of the things worked for us. From a sheer organisation standpoint, it wasn’t that well-organised, perhaps.

     

    What about the festival format? The general perception is Goafest is more about the beer than the knowledge or conclave or the people speaking…

     This is a little bit of an unfair pseudo comment to make. Firstly, is it fair to say Cannes Lions is more a corporate junket than it’s about people learning? If I’m not mistaken, there are maybe 8 to 10,000 delegates who register for Cannes. There isn’t even a room large enough to hold more than 1,500 of them and in most cases the rooms aren’t full. If you start seeing something in a uni-dimensional sense, are people studiously sitting in the knowledge seminars and listening? I don’t think that’s the only form of learning.  Second, Goafest, unlike really any other festival of its kind in the world, has an inverted participation where as much as 60 per cent or more people who attend are under-30. There are more people sitting in the room to listen and learn in Goafest than there are in any other such festival anywhere else in the world. Young people have something which is part of their nature. If you make Goafest an attendance-oriented class, the young people won’t come. They will learn in an atmosphere of fun and frolic. It’s an over-exaggerated view of the Goafest that it’s just about the booze and the beer. It’s not!

     

    Without getting into speakers are there one or two standout things this year that one could look forward to?

    I think Goafest is beyond that phase of being about one standout thing. We’ve consistently invested behind building some properties. And we amend or change or junk some of them basis the feedback we get. Last year was the first year we had three award nights and we are continuing with that.

     

    How critical is the Abby to Goafest? Last year, I remember, there was a statement made that the Goafest is not all about awards.

    It’s not all about awards, but it’s been around the awards as well. Goafest is not an awards fest, in which case it might as well have been in Mumbai. But it’s not fair to say, Goafest is more about the festival than it is about the awards either. I think it’s a balance of both. The celebration is more about the awards. The participation is more about the festival. At its peak, we have had more than 3000 people… Three thousand people don’t win awards.

     

    Ogilvy and Lowe have no issues participating in the Effie Awards. Obviously, there’s something wrong with the creative Abby  that stops them from coming there.

    I don’t think that would be a fair thing to say about the Creative Abby. There have always been some agencies, different ones in different years including Pubicis in one year that may have felt upset or slighted by something that happened and that’s understandable. In the case of the Effie, the points here are part of the global Effie agency rankings.

     

    If you had no Abby, you’d have Ogilvy and Lowe as part of fest?

    If that’s true, they can still send people to the Goafest. There’s no restriction on your coming and participating in the festival part if you’re not participating in the awards part. If there were no awards, you wouldn’t even have half the participation in Goa.

     

     

     

  • Melt-ing is the preserve of Goafest, industrypersons say. Unique alliance struck between Pratap Bose & Rajesh Kejriwal at a party late last year

    Kyoorius to partner Goafest?

     

    By Noor Singapuria

     

    Is the Kyoorius Melt Fest mulling a move to be part of Goafest?

     

    The annual extravaganza organised by the Advertising Agencies Association of India and the Advertising Club may have taken a decision to embrace Kyoorius Melt, the all-new festival of creativity that was announced by paper magnate-turned-media baron Rajesh Kejriwal yesterday.

     

    The idea reportedly came from a veteran advertising professional who has requested anonymity. His view: “When I first heard about an adfest called ‘Melt’, I thought it’s happening as part of Goafest. After all, in Goafest despite the beer and the babes and the beaches, you melt in Goa,” he said adding:  “Whether you are walking around in hardly anything or if you are wearing a black or green kurta like your boss, it’s damn hot.”

     

    According to the grapevine, the first talks happened at a party held late last year in New Delhi. As it happened, Advertising Club President Pratap Bose and Rajesh Kejriwal were standing at the bar. And after drinks were served to them, in a classic case of cigarette-lighting diplomacy, Kejriwal lit Bose’s cigarette, followed by his own and they got talking.

     

    Bose appreciated the gesture, a person close to the development told this writer. “This is the ultimate sign of humility in a man-to-man relationship,” she said referring to lighting of the cigarette. Plus for Goafest and the Abby and Kyoorius, it will be a win-win.

     

    It is learnt that Kejriwal is keen on organising the fest in January, just before the Republic Day. The weather is nice with a gentle breeze blowing over the Mandovi and the Arabian Sea. What grabbed the deal was the luxurious transportation on offer. “We are in discussions with a luxury cruise liner like QE3. The idea is to get everyone to celebrate the fest in Goa and then let it culminate in a cruise ride from Goa to Mumbai.”

     

    It is learnt that the original idea was to have the Creative Abby on the cruise, but then the security committee suggested that there is a risk. If an agency doesn’t win a coveted Abby, the NCD may want to dump himself or herself in the Arabian Sea. We don’t want all of this so our Awards Security Committee has suggested that you should conduct the awards inhouse. On his part, Kejriwal liked the fact that like him the Goafest folks also want to do their bit for the fraternity. “Right from the time the shortlists are announced, we now keep available a large number of shrinks. This year, we have tied up with a leading mental health hospital in South India. They will supply psychiatrists and counsellors  because people get awfully depressed and then mouth all types of expletives,” a committee member told MxMIndia. This is our way of giving back to the community. Click here to read the rest of this report.

     

  • CVL Srinivas, Rajiv Verma and Shashi Sinha address the Ad Club's Media Review in Gurgaon last evening

    Embracing the New Consumer

     

    By Shruti Pushkarna

     

    The Advertising Club’s popular annual event, Media Review 2014 was held at the DLF City Club, Gurgaon on Thursday (Dec 18) evening. In its 60th year, the Advertising Club decided to tweak the format of the media review in its latest edition. Unlike the previous editions, there were three eminent speakers speaking on varied topics. CVL Srinivas, CEO South Asia, GroupM spoke on ‘Redefining the role of media agencies in a borderless world’. HT Media CEO, Rajiv Verma also spoke on similar lines, differing only in restricting his topic to redefining the role of ‘print’ media. The third speaker, Shashi Sinha, CEO, IPG Mediabrands spoke on, ‘Separate and Together: The future is about being specialist and holistic’.

     

    There was a lot of talk of redefining and reinventing the roles of media agencies in the new digital era and what to expect of the future trends but Mr Sinha, summed it up in a most appropriate way when he said, “We have to manage our present in order to reinvent our future”. He emphasised on the need to tell stories in a way that they evolve and reinvent the future automatically.

     

    As in any other forum that takes place today, there was talk of integration, the need to align different cultures and different mediums to effectively send out a message. There was also anxiety expressed on whether older mediums like Print will hold value in the growing digital world. But the concluding remarks hit the notes of optimism that rode on the back of realigning and in assimilation of various models present today, to arrive at that ‘magic model’ of communication.

     

    Redefining the role of media agencies in a borderless world

    CVL Srinivas, CEO South Asia, GroupM opened his session speaking about the evolution of the media agency and trying to define a ‘borderless world’.

     

    He compared the evolution of man with the evolution of media agency, which he said was presently in its fifth stage. The first stage of media evolution, according to Mr Srinivas, happened in the mid 1990s when media buying shops were being set up in India. The next stage came when media planning business moved out of the creative agencies. After which most media agencies started to diversify, setting up allied businesses, beit outdoor or digital, in order toprovide what they called, 360-degree solutions.

     

    He said, “We started off as a little chimp who is standing right in the back, as being the backroom office and I was one of the chimps when I’d joined the industry in the early 90s, following the client servicing guys wherever they went, hoping to get my five minutes to present my 80-odd slides. From then to now, it’s been quite a journey. But where we are today is at a very interesting stage. Whatever changes have happened in the last four to five years have forced media agencies to take on an entirely new avatar.”

     

    Trying to define a borderless world, Mr Srinivas cited the example of a Facebook map which stands for a connected world. Since the world we live in has all the customers connected and well informed, there is an urgent need for brands to not just stay relevant but also remain meaningful. Mr Srinivas said he sees an opportunity for agencies in this newly connected world, He said, “Today it’s not enough to be a trusted adviser of clients. Agencies can move up the value chain by moving from advising clients to leading clients.”

     

    In the digital era, added Mr Srinivas, a lot of disruption is taking place because of exceedingly available data and technology. He also mentioned some disruptive trends that agencies can take advantage of by designing content strategies around them. One of them was multi-screen viewing, which as a study by Milward Brown on ‘ad reaction in India’ states, is a growing trend in the Indian market. More and more Indian consumers are involved in multi-screen viewing. Milward Brown notes that by 2020, it’s estimated that about 50 to 60% of mobile owning population of India will have smartphones. Mr Srinivas added, “If you put that alongside with the kind of decreasing involvement in TV viewership, the whole ball game completely changes.”

     

    Another disrupter is e-commerce or m-commerce as some would like to call it. Mr Srinivas observed that because now consumers are using a digital gadget to close the loop, agencies have an opportunity to interact with the consumer up to the last mile.

     

    Brands are also getting into publishing and that is turning out to be a disrupter too. They are standing for functional benefits. The more content a brand can keep sending out, the more they can interact with the consumers. “Brands realize that it’s important to become a franchise of content because then a consumer interacts with the brand in so many more ways”, said Mr Srinivas.

     

    Talking of new trends in audience planning, CVL Srinivas said, “We have to move from contextual planning to audience planning with the help of data and the digital. Manual processes will give way to automated processes. We also need to build different communities within the organization.”

     

    CVL Srinivas concluded his session by once again emphasising the importance of reinventing and redefining the role of media agencies and the need to take advantage of every new point where you can touch the consumer directly.

     

    Redefining the role of print media in a borderless world

    HT Media CEO Rajiv Verma started his session on a similar note as Mr Srinivas. He also started by talking oh the history of media and how it has shaped up through the centuries. He divided it into three eras, Pre Media, Mass Media and Infinite media. He confessed that all this talk of the ‘cool digital world’ has had him worried about the future of print but since the infinite media we live in is younger than our kids, he still had some hope. He said, “Infinite media is younger than our kids so it’s not even a blink of an eye in the entire chronologue of media evolution. Therefore it’s just the beginning.  And there’s scope for all mediums to coexist.”

     

    He talked about how reporting has changed over the years and yet the essence remains the same, finding out accurate information and putting it out there. “From one half-hour news bulletin in a day to the days of embedded journalism that began with the Iraq war to today’s day and age where the model of reporting has shifted from ‘one to many’ to ‘many to many’, we have come a long way,” he said.

     

    In a borderless world, media is no longer acting as a filter. It has become more ubiquitous.  He reiterated Mr Srinivas’ point of massive amount of disruption that is taking place today, which presents huge opportunities for business.

     

    But Mr Verma wasn’t all that optimistic as Mr Srinivas as he stated that the digital has its own problems. He said, “In the age of digital reporting, before the truth gets known, the virality takes over. The lines between blogs, tweets, photos are blurring; becoming a mish mash of data and information. The war for ad $s is leading more to noise rather than to news. And the pressure of ad $s is leading to trivialization of news.”

     

    He emphasized on the unique characteristics of print media, like, the written word is still the most trusted word. He said print can go beyond straight facts, presenting a range of views and building a sense of community among its readers.

     

    He concluded on an optimistic note stating that print will coexist along with other media given its unique characteristics. He said, “While all these disruptive forces are at play, the real question that comes to mind is that print media will have to go back to basics in figuring out its comparative advantages, what is exactly is the audience it’s trying to serve and try to go more hyper local in serving that audience because that’s the only unique characteristic of print media which differentiates it from others.”

     

    Separate and Together: The future is about being specialist and holistic

    The last session saw Shashi Sinha, CEO, IPG Mediabrands, reiterating the points made in the previous two sessions, adding a few new ones.

     

    Shashi Sinha, CEO, IPG Mediabrands, started the session with the word ‘Integration’. He talked of his own career where he started off with advertising and what integration meant in those days, and then talked of the need to integrate not just ideas and processes, but to integrate, mindsets, culture and philosophies, in order to remain relevant.

     

    He also emphasized on the need to embrace the new consumer. He said: “Consumer wants to be the protagonist, he/she wants to be at the center of communication. He/she doesn’t want to be bored with information. Just tell them how it impacts them and how can they participate.So there’s a need for consumers to be constantly engaged and constantly touched.”

     

    He added that what’s important in today’s ever-changing media environment is the need to tell a powerful story. He said, “The success of any model depends on the story and its storyteller. You have to play it together to tell a story. We have to manage the present and as we manage the present, the stories will evolve for us to reinvent the future. And keep your stories simple.”

     

    He concluded by saying that while we live in an increasingly specialist world, without integration we will not be able to remain relevant to the new age consumer. He said, “In this specialist world, where you have Starbucks, Café Coffee Day and Barista, I still have my coffee from the baker.”

     

  • This year the event will have three experts presenting for 30 minutes each followed by a QnA session with the audience

    Ad Club’s Media Review sets its date with members

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Advertising Club’s Media Review has been a hit with the members over the years. It started out with a solo speaker presenting his perspective and the luminaries that did the event as sole presenters included Sam Balsara, Sameer Nair and Subhash Chandraji.

     

    Later the format was tweaked and presented as a panel discussion. Some of the luminaries who were panelists included Nandini Dias, Pratap Bose, Punitha Arumugam, R. Gowthaman, Farokh Balsara etc. This year the event will have three experts presenting for 30 minutes each followed by a QnA session with the audience.

     

    Discovery Communications India has come on board as Presenting Sponsor whereas PepsiCo India Holdings Private Limited will be the Associate Sponsor.

     

  • The council provides Facebook with invaluable perspectives and ideas to better engage and educate the global creative community

    Ad Club invites Facebook’s Mark D’Arcy to speak

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Advertising Club is organizing an evening meet with Mark D’Arcy, Chief Creative Officer, Facebook Creative Shop on Tuesday, 28th October, 2014 at 6.30 pm.

     

    Mark D’Arcy is the VP, Chief Creative Officer of the Facebook Creative Shop. In this role, he leads a team of creative strategists tasked with creating and building ideas that transform how the world’s largest and most innovative marketers use Facebook to drive business growth.

     

    After two decades working as a writer and Chief Creative Officer in advertising and media, Mark joined Facebook in 2011 to better explore the creative potential of the Facebook platform.

     

    As part of this effort, last year he founded the Facebook Creative Council. Comprised of some of the most highly regarded and influential creative voices in the world. The council provides Facebook with invaluable perspectives and ideas to better engage and educate the global creative community, identify and celebrate breakthrough work and influence how Facebook develops to be an even richer and more engaging place to connect brands with the people they serve.

     

    Prior to joining Facebook Mark spent seven years at Time Warner in New York, as Chief Creative Officer of its Global Media Group. Here he co-developed the first truly creative media arts practice within a global media company designed to better leverage the company’s extensive television, film, print and digital assets for its key marketing partners.

     

    Mark has been widely recognized for his creativity and leadership in the creative industries and regularly speaks all around the world on the subject of creativity in social media, the transformation of marketing, the communication arts and the role and purpose of brands in society. Mark has served as a juror on numerous international awards shows including the CLIO Awards, LIA Awards, The International ANDY Awards and in 2013 served on the inaugural Innovations Lions jury at the Cannes Lions Awards.

     

  • The Adclub database has names from the domains of Advertising, Media, Marketing, Research, PR/Communication and Digital

    Ad Club attains a new milestone

    Being backed by a host of leaders and members from the ad industry, The Advertising Club attained another milestone as it announced about 825 out of 1300 members being registered as Life Members.

     

    Bipin R Pandit

    Bipin R Pandit, COO, The Adclub shared, “The Adclub Secretariat has its sight set on maximizing the count of Life Members. It is focussed and religiously follows a system that helps us to identify potential members from the industry. Post that we send out an email to them communicating about Adclub, its activities and benefits of enrollment.”

     

    While most of them immediately send their forms, in a few cases the Club has to be relentless in its pursuit, he noted.

     

    Today, the Adclub database has names from the domains of Advertising, Media, Marketing, Research, PR/Communication and Digital.

     

  • The Advertising Club, which completes 60 years of existence this year, has planned a series of new activities

    Josy & Aggie to present Ad Club Creative Review, event kicks off Club’s Diamond Jubilee

    By A Correspondent

     

    Josy Paul
    Agnello Dias

    The Advertising Club will revive its popular Creative Review with a  tweak in format. To be held at the Taj Vivanta in Gurgaon on February 28, it will be jointly presented by Josy Paul (Chairman and CCO, BBDO India) and Agnello Dias (CCO and co-founder, Taproot India).

     

     

    Colors is presenting sponsor of the Creative Review with Bharti Airtel and Pepsi being Associate Sponsors.

     

    Pratap Bose

    Meanwhile, a communique signed by President Pratap Bose notes that the Club which completes 60 years of existence has planned a series of new activities.

     

    For details: www.theadvertisingclub.net

  • The Effie 2013 awards night will be held on Wednesday, January 15 in Mumbai at the Turf Club.

    177 case studies shortlisted for Effie 2013

    By A Correspondent

     

    As the date for the 2013 edition of the Indian Effie gets closer, the Advertising Club has released the details of the 177 case studies shortlisted for Round 2 of the judging held in Mumbai and Delhi.

     

    The Effie 2013 awards night will now be held on Friday, January 17 at the Taj Lands End and not January 15 at the Turf Club as announced earlier.

     

     

  • DDB Mudra COO Pratap Bose takes charge from Shashi Sinha, CEO, IPG Mediabrands & Lodestar UM

    Continuing education, not awards to be focus of new Advertising Club prez

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    DDB Mudra Group Chief Operating Officer Pratap Bose was unanimously elected President of the Advertising Club. He replaced Shashi Sinha, CEO, Mediabrands India and Lodestar UM, who held the post since 2011.

     

    Speaking on his priorities, Mr Bose said that while awards (like the Abby, Effies and recently held Emvies) are important activities of the Club, his priority will be continuing education programmes for the industry.

     

    Mr Bose and 14 others would constitute the office bearers and managing committee of the Ad Club, the country’s premier advertising club constituting members of the advertising, media and marketing fraternity.

     

    Other officebearers include Ajay Kakar, Chief Marketing Officer – Financial Services, Aditya Birla Group (Vice President), Raj Nayak, CEO, Colors (Secretary), Ajay Chandwani, Director, Percept (Joint Secretary) and Umesh Shrikhande, CEO, Taproot India (Treasurer)

     

    The managing committee members are:

    in alphabetical order of last names: Punitha Arumugam (Google), Bhaskar Das (Zee Media), Kunal Jeswani (Ogilvy & Mather), Harit Nagpal (Tata Sky), Rohit Ohri (Dentsu), Josy Paul (BBDO India) and Ravi Rao (Mindshare).

     

    While outgoing president Mr Sinha (IPG Mediabrands, Lodestar UM) continues as Immediate Past President for a period of two years, Sunil Lulla (Times Television) and Prasanth Mohanachandran (AgencyDigi) have been co-opted on the committee.

     

    Said Mr Kakar on the constituting of the Ad Club’s top deck: “This year we are fortunate to have a very senior and strong committee comprising people who are not only committing their names but also their invaluable time to the common good of our industry,” Mr Bose too is happy with the core team. “It’s a good mix of people from across the spectrum,” he said.

     

    The Advertising Club annual general meeting was held in Mumbai on Wednesday (September 11) and the managing committee and officebearers were elected for the year 2013-14. The committee members can seek re-election next year.

     

     

     

    If processes are clear, there will be no problems with Creative Abby: Pratap Bose

     

    The new Advertising Club President’s has a day job that possibly has him work beyond 24×7. As Chief Operating Officer of the DDB Mudra Group and a member of the agency’s operating board, Pratap Bose joined DDB Mudra from Ogilvy & Mather in 2008, where he worked for 15 years in various capacities, and went on to become its youngest CEO in 2006.

     

    Excerpts from an interview with Bose where he speaks on his priorities, a problems-free Abby and how he hopes to drive the Ad Club forward.

     

    What will be your priorities as president of the Advertising Club:

    For a long time, the perception has been the Advertising Club is the purveyor of awards. While awards are important and they recognise the best in class, for me the focus is going to be on continuing education programmes. Giving back to the community in various forms - by not just awards, but also education, seminars and learning via interacttion with personalities.

     

    Speaking of awards and the Creative Abby specifically, while a lot has been cleansed, it touched a new low this year.

    Remember, the Emvies and Effies go without a hitch. It’s only with the Creative Abby. Mind you, there were no issues the year before. Last year, there were a couple of things that sprung up but we realise that these issues can easily be fixed. What I am looking to do is to institutionalise a very transparent and frank discussion on what needs to be done with all stakeholders well before Goafest. I am a strong believer that if you have a process that has a buy-in from everyone and it’s not a diktat, things will sort themselves out. If the processes are clear and there are no ambiguities, we should have no problems whatsoever.

     

    Some agencies have had reservations about going to Goa. Any thoughts of shifting the awards back to Mumbai?

    It’s not a Goa versus Mumbai debate in my mind. As long as the process is clean and you are fair, rational and honest, I don’t think there’s any issue about Goa and Mumbai

     

    The Bombay has been dropped from Advertising Club, how successful has the move to go national been?

    I think we’ve made a start. I believe the local ad associations - whether in Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Chennai should co-exist. We are happy to have them on board… at the end of the day, we are one community. The whole idea is to be inclusive and work for the betterment of the industry. We have made some progress by having the awards judging of Effies and Emvies in Delhi. And there’s no reason why it can’t go beyond Delhi. We could extend to Kolkata, Bengaluru…

     

    What else in the next two years?

    Well, we are going to looking at all forms of communication. We are talking of a two-day workshop for the entertainment industry and looking at people to help us on film production. So, it’s not just talking to creative guys or planners. We are also looking at developing a new website, a new logo, be relevant on Twitter and Facebook. All in all, lift the image of the club and not just an awards club.

     

    All this is going to take a fair bit of time… how do you take care of your day job at DDB Mudra?

    (laughs) Well, that’s the reason why I have picked a nice mix of people. I am going to entrust each of them with a responsibility that’s clearly defined and they will all take things forward.

     

    		  

    Abby should continue in Goa: Shashi Sinha

     

    IPG Mediabrands and Lodestar CEO Shashi Sinha on his two-year term as Ad Club President, the Creative Abby controversy and the demand to bring the Abby back to Mumbai

     

    The IPG Mediabrands and Lodestar CEO Shashi Sinha is widely regarded as ‘Mr Consensus’ in the Indian advertising and marketing industry. Known to take the industry along in whatever he does which may require wielding the stick at times, Mr Sinha is credited with cleansing Ad Club’s Creative Abby awards process a few years back. In a short interview with MxMIndia, Mr Sinha speaks on on his two-year term as Ad Club President, the Creative Abby controversy and the demand to bring the Abby back to Mumbai

     

    How do you feel relinquishing charge after an eventful two years as Ad Club President?

    Mixed feelings, frankly. We successfully moved from Advertising Club Bombay to Advertising Club, and making it more national in character. We’ve done well financially. Goafest and the Creative Abby was a problem last year, though my first two years were excellent

     

    Any unfinished agenda?

    We started with other markets very well, but I wish we had done more on continuing education. I think we got stuck with awards and the plan to go to smaller towns couldn’t be done.

     

    And the Creative Abby controversy. Any solutions, as you look back?

    We discussed that in the meeting. The solution is that there are rules, put them down clearly, publish them and let there be no deviation.

     

    There is a demand for the Abby to be held in Mumbai and not in Goa

    Goafest brings the industry together, and I think we should continue to have the Abby in Goa. We are one industry and it shouldn’t be a divided house.

     

    Do you think the Abby should be given to a private operator like it is at the Cannes Lions?

    Right now, the Abbys are for the industry and by the industry. While we make profits that’s not our primary objective. I think when you hand it over to a private player, the entry and delegate fees will go up dramatically.

     

    What next?

    I am already actively involved with BARC, heading the technical committee. In fact the last two months that has taken priority over most other things, but I am happy with the way things are going on that front.

     
  • It's the big night for media agencies as Advertising Club's Emvies 2013 will be held in Mumbai

    It’s Emvies 2013 tonight!

     

    As The Advertising Club hosts Emvies 2013 in Mumbai this evening (September 6), we bring you a curtain-raiser

     

    By Shephali Bhatt

     

    It’s interesting how you can draw parallels between Emvies shortlisted case studies presentation and video games. There are some levels of difficulty that you manage to overcome after repeated attempts, and yet others that you always fail to cross, which makes ‘Game Over’ a more likely scenario than ‘Game Won’.

     

    Last year, we highlighted the good and bad at the Emvies ’12 presentation and offered some tips to cross those tough levels. To our utter dismay, some of the hurdles remain intact.

     

    The AVs still pretty much parrot the points made in the preceding presentations. Only the production values are slightly slicker this time. And full points for the choice of music, guys.

     

    There were still some poetry recitals that had to be stopped midway yet again, because the agency didn’t time their presentation to the stipulated 10 minutes. But there were more levels won.

     

    Abdul Khan

    As noted by Abdul Khan, one of the judges and hub retail operations lead at Reliance, the presentations addressed a diversity of issues. One of the campaigns that ranked high on the popularity meter was Lodestar UM’s ‘Saridon – National Headache Reliever’, wherein the media agency used small segments on news channels and movie reviews as a medium to drive awareness for the “graveyard brand” in order to make it a currency to define degrees of headache.

     

    Movie critic Bhawana Somaaya was roped in to rate movies and replace her star ratings with how many Saridons a certain movie’s watching would require. For instance, if she gave a 2 Star rating to a movie, the viewer would need 3 Saridons. The initiative led to a 125 per cent increase in the brand’s preference score and revved up sales by 33 per cent as well.

     

    Then there was a potential winner that perhaps lagged behind on presentation skills but managed to impress the judges and some of the young presenters alike. This was IBS’s entry called Tata Docomo – Hyper Personalisation – World’s first CRM powered digital media campaign.

     

    The digital agency used Facebook’s sponsored feed to deliver personalised messages to its users based on their account details and usage. Outcome: Tata Docomo gained 3,50,000 lapsed users.

     

    Lubna Lanjekar, a young media planner from MEC, who handles online was impressed by how the study married technology with social media.

     

    Punitha Arumugam

    This time Emvies also had a few firsts to its credit, informs Punitha Arumugam, managing committee member, The Advertising Club. Judging sessions in New Delhi in addition to Mumbai was one such novel element. Introduction of new sub categories in ‘Best Media Innovation -TV and Print’, ‘Best Integrated Campaign’ and ‘Best Use of Research’, was another. Also, the category ‘Best Use of Sponsorship’ made a comeback this year.

     

    Creative and media agencies got closer on the Emvies platform. There were shortlists from Ogilvy India for Lifebuoy Roti Reminder and Akanksha Foundation – Joy of Teaching, both of which drove the message of social consciousness.

     

    Unlike strategy-heavy case studies that brought on ennui for participants from creative agencies, these presentations with mass appeal found a better connect with Pashyn Sethna, a young copywriter from DDB Mudra who was accompanying his colleagues from DDB Mudramax for the presentation on Birla Sun Life Insurance – Agent on Track.

     

    At the same time, some young media planners, like Mediacom’s Zarius Captain, felt that these, along with a few other case studies had a great insight and potential but were not presented very well.

     

    Most of the agency teams, involving at the most three to four members, had started working on these presentations only a week in advance even when they had two weeks between shortlists announcement and presentation. Perhaps that explains why some judges thought there was less meat and more gimmick in some of the case study presentations.

     

    Sanjay Tripathy

    On the other hand, Sanjay Tripathy, another jury member and senior executive vice president – marketing, product & direct channels, HDFC Life felt that this year, the quality of the work, as well as the presentations had gone up and there was some innovative work done on digital, be it search, social media, display or video. He adds though that more client participation during final presentations will definitely enhance credibility of the entries.

     

    Speaking of credibility of entries, some judges also raised issues on the awareness level scores and stated they would really prefer to hear more about how marketing drove business growth in real terms. To this, Ravi Rao, leader – South Asia at Mindshare, said, “They are right. Ad awareness or brand awareness doesn’t necessarily tell you about brand’s growth. But then how often do you get to know the story of which part of the medium pushed what?”

     

    Ravi Rao

    The presentation time is over now, the results will be out on September 6. One would only hope there will be newer mistakes next year. That the AVs will say something more than the PPTs that preceded them. And most of all, the poetry recitals, if any, won’t have to be stopped midway.

     

     

     

     

     

    Source:The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2013, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

    Licensed to republish

  • Piyush Pandey and R Balki are set to present the Advertising Club's Ad Review

    Piyush, Balki to present Ad Review as Ad Club revives popular event

    By Tuhina Anand

     

    Piyush Pandey

    In what may be a coup of sorts, the Advertising Club has roped in two of the most respected names in Indian advertising to jointly present the Ad Review this year.  MxMIndia learns that the Ad Club has will see advertising Piyush Pandey, Executive Chairman and Creative Director, South Asia, Ogilvy & Mather and R Balki, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer, Lowe Lintas to present the Ad Review. Both have reportedly agreed to jointly conduct the event, which has not been conducted since a few years.

     

    The Ad Review is a popular property of the Club and is presented by senior members of the fraternity. Interestingly, both Messrs Pandey and Balki have individually presented the \Review in the past.

     

    R Balki

    The Advertising Club, which shed the Bombay from its name last year, is working towards a wider footprint especially one which represents the large advertising and marketing fraternity in Delhi NCR.

     

    Ad Review is scheduled to happen sometime in the early part of the year though the exact dates have not been ascertained. Watch this space for more.

     

    Also read: Chalo Dilli, as Ad Club drops Bombay

    http://www.mxmindia.com/2012/09/chalo-dilli-as-ad-club-drops-bombay/