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Tag: Envies 2013

  • With agencies going in for their internal awards, that's the question many seem to be asking in adland

    Is it Goodbye Abby given internal & international awards?

    By Pritha Mitra Dasgupta & Shambhavi Anand

     

    What happens when an industry loses its faith in its own awards? In the case of Indian advertising, agencies seem to have found a solution by launching inhouse awards.

     

    While Lowe and Partners launched ‘The True Show’ a few years ago, Ogilvy & Mather just held its first internal award, the Envies.

     

    With other agencies too planning their own inhouse celebrations, does this mean that the days of the industry awards such as the Abby are numbered? “I don’t think so,” says Arvind Sharma, president of Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) that organises Goafest where the Abby awards are conferred.

     

    “The last 25-30 years that I have seen, big agencies tend to pull out of award shows. In ad award shows big agencies don’t count.

     

    It is the creatively hottest agencies that matter. People have come and gone in Goafest. While that decision should be respected, it has no bearing at all on the future of the show. The show will go on.” But the advertising industry remains divided.

     

    Piyush Pandey

    Piyush Pandey, executive chairman and creative director at Ogilvy & Mather India and South Asia, says that his and other agencies are sending out a message to the organisers of industry award shows by holding their own in-house awards. “If the industry comes up with an award show which is believable and credible then we will participate,” he says.

     

    R Balakrishnan, chairman and chief creative officer of Lowe Lintas, says that message has been going out for a while, but the ad fraternity hasn’t got it yet.

     

    R Balakrishnan

    “Advertising has a purpose and how creative you are is that purpose. Who better than the agency that has created it to judge it,” he says, predicting that winning an Envie will make creatives at O&M happier than winning an industry award.

     

    Raj Kurup, founder and creative chairman of Creativelandasia, which pulled out of Goafest this year, has been vocal about scam ads in Goafest and how the event has lost its focus. “Whether it is an internal award or an industry award, I would welcome anything that celebrates fantastic real work that has made difference to the business,” he says.

     

    Sajan Raj Kurup

    Leo Burnett, which has a global assessment team and a unique scoring pattern that evaluates the agency’s internal work, has planned something special for its Indian winners in 2014.

     

    “We have very big plans for Cannes Lion 2014 and we are planning to send 25 people including creative, account management and planners.

     

    Saurabh Varma

    Teams that will score high in internal assessment will be a part of this, so will be the employee of the month and the previous Cannes Lion winners,” Saurabh Varma, CEO at Leo Burnett India, says.

     

    While a senior official in Leo Burnett says that the agency will not participate in Goafest 2014 because it has shifted its focus to Cannes Lion 2014, Mr Varma says, “We are still making up our mind on Goafest.”

     

    In fact, there are many in the industry who believe that while internal award shows of Lowe and O&M make a great statement, the industry award shows will co-exist. Josy Paul, chairman and chief creative officer at BBDO India, believes the two should not be combined.

     

    “This is O&M seeking external input and I think it’s gonna be respected for that. If more people do things like this, it just shows the industry is more united,” he says.

     

    Rohit Ohri, executive chairman at Dentsu India Group, says the Goafest is a larger forum for discussing industry issues.

     

    “So there is nothing like loosing sheen. But yes the competitive spirit that agencies like Ogilvy bring about will be missed,” he says. Agrees Vandana Das, president at DDB Mudra Group.

     

    “Old forums such as Goafest are places where great minds get together to celebrate great work. But it is not necessary that there will be only one such forum. There can be more,” she says. Like all other issues, the Indian advertising industry will remain divided on this one.

     

    But if there is one agenda where they unite, it is that the industry bodies should introspect the reason for the plight of the agencies from the award shows and try and bring them back.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

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

    Licensed to republish

     

  • Take a look at the winning Envies 2013 ads

    And the Envies winners were…

     

    And these were the winning Envies ads:

     

     
     
     
       
     
  • And how the industry got together to salute the best from the best

    Envies 2013 | Industry’s Envy. Ogilvy’s Pride

    By A Correspondent

     

    When Ogilvy backed out of the Abby last year, the Oscars for the Indian advertising fraternity, the awards show had surely lost some sheen. But then Lowe, the agency headed by R Balki, had been skipping the Creative Abby for some years and the show had continued without a break.

     

    In June this year, Mr Balki held an internal awards called the True Show, celebrating 10 years of “not giving a damn about awards”. On Monday, Piyush Pandey and his core team of Abhijit Avasthi and Rajiv Rao played host to the Envies. Billed as Ogilvy’s finest, the entries were judged by a cross-section of industry seniors. The underlying message was clear: the winning commercials were not just the agency’s best, but also that of the entire Indian advertising industry.

     

    If Goafest had the seawaves, the Envies were held in a hotel overlooking the calm Powai Lake waters. The event started at 3pm and went on till past midnight. Adpersons-turned-artists Jiten and Sumer from the label ‘BoseDK’ showcase their works and rise to superstardom, followed by awardwinning journalist and radio storyteller Neelesh Mishra. There was fashion designer Sabyasachi Mukjerjee who was in his element in a Q&A. “Travel in the 3-tier compartment of a train to get a feel of India,” he said. Or this: “Convince large corporates to make Friday Dressing into wearing Indian woven clothes.” There was a stand-up comedy act by Tanmay Bhat and Rohan which had the audience in splits. After the bulk of the awards were done, Chief Guest Amitabh Bachchan made an appearance and was interviewed by former Storyboard anchor Anuradha Sengupta. Mr Bachchan was felicitated with a ‘Beyond Envies’ award.

     

    The Envies were internal awards of Ogilvy India, but the jury comprised biggies like DDB Mudra’s Sonal Dabral, BBDO’s Josy Paul, Taproot India’s Agnello Dias, CreativeLand Asia’s Sajan RaJ Kurup, Wieden+Kennedy’s V Sunil, McCann’s Akshay Kapnadak, Lowe Lintas’ Arun Iyer, Contract’s Ashish Chakravarty, Grey’s Malvika Mehra and Strawberry Frog’s Raj Kamble.

     

    Said Mr Pandey: ” I think Envies have to be interpreted in two different ways: the dictionary meaning of it is jealousy, which sounds a bit negative. In my mind, the Envies are about appreciating what others are doing and saying I wish I had done that kind of work.”

     

    And he added: “Normally in the industry awards you end up winning 60 or more trophies but at the Envies, we have confined  them to 25 per year. We are kind of being harsh on you but that is only to being in the spirit of self-improvement and raising our creative bar further.”  But this year, the organizers were more accommodative. Thirty-five awards awards were given away, but from next year, it will only be 25. The ceremony happened briskly, sans any speeches. Google’s Reunion ad won the Grand Prix or ‘Most Envied’ honour.

     

    The highlight of the evening was the presence of several industry veterans. When asked about internal versus external awards, Sam Balsara, CMD, Madison World said: “It’s a good thing to have them, but according to me it should not preclude them from participating in other industry awards.” Said Shashi Sinha, CEO, IPG Mediabrands: “They are not mutually exclusive. There is an internal awards that Group M does but they still participate in industry awards. So it’s an internal call but according to me they are two different things.” Sonal Dabral, Group CEO & MD, DDB Mudra too was of the view that external and internal awards are mutually exclusive. “Why an agency does not enter an external industry award is a decision that’s best taken by the agency itself.”

     

    When he announced Ogilvy’s decision to not participate in the Abby last year, Mr Avasthi, Ogilvy’s National Creative Director, had said the Abbys weren’t energizing his team as they would earlier.

     

    So does the conduct of the Envies mean that Ogilvy will not participate in the Abby at next year’s Goafest? Said Mr Avasthi: “There are certain changes that we are looking for at the Abbys and till the time they do not happen, we definitely would not be thinking about it.” And should the changes happen? “We will think about it then.”