By Our Staff
So what’s more important at the three-day advertising festival in Goa? The conclave – lectures and masterclasses and all the entertainment lined up or the awards?
That’s a question that will never be answered, though there’s no denying the fact there are undercurrents of a ‘they-owe-their-existence-to-us’ sentiment that’s been there for a while in certain quarters of the two organisers – the Advertising Agencies Association of India (3As of I) and the Advertising Club.
Hence, please do note: we are not to call them Goafest Abbys, which they are often referred to, by some of the organisers as well. They are the Abby One Show, the One Show suffix being the association with One Show, the globally renowned advertising awards enterprise.
But an international awards means that there is little scope for any corruption in the system. There is little scope for subjectivity, and even more little scope for personal biases to come in. Well, that last bit is ensured that it’s not one person who decides on the award, but it’s a slew of top professionals.
This year’s highlight is the return of the Mullen Lowe Lintas Group to the Abby fold, after over two decades of a self-imposed exile. McCann and Wunderman Thompson are also back.
So, the only agency that has decided to stay away is Ogilvy, but Piyush Pandey & Co do participate in Kyoorius Creative Awards (happening on June 2), so it’s not that they are allergic to creative awards. Note: Lowe in India had this huge allergy to creative awards, and the agency would stay away from them all. Though this wasn’t the case internationally. And in India as well, Lowe would participate – and very aggressively and successfully – in the Effie.
Let’s cut the chase, and move to Day 1’s big awards. The Media Abby, which unlike the Emvies, concentrates on the creative quotient. A total of 94 Media Abbys were presented. The tally being: 25 Golds, 33 Silvers, and 35 Bronze metails.
The highlight of the evening was the emergence of a new numero uno from within the GroupM fold. EssenceMediacom was Media Agency of the Year, and it won it for a total of 20 metals, and these were across many entries. EssenceMediacom won the Grand Prix for Whisper India’s campaign, ‘The Missing Chapter’.
We met Navin Khemka, the agency captain, and he was elated. The fact that it was not just on the back of one campaign was even more satisfying for him.
Also, announced the same evening was the Publisher Abby where 2 Golds, 5 Silvers and 6 Bronze metas were awarded. And there were 5 Merit recognised. With a total of four Metals, ABP Pvt. Ltd. was recognised as Publisher of The Year.
Final Winners for Press Release Media
