MxMIndia

Tag: Awards

  • …but the winners made me believe in advertising and communications once again, writes Chhaya Balachandran Aiyer

    Spikes Sidelights | Not a spectacular night

    By Chhaya Balachandran Aiyer

    Finally, the grand evening, the Awards Night for Spikes Asia at the Esplanade Theatre. I must admit the evening was not as spectacular as I thought it would be. It was a laundry list of awards being given out. But the highlights were, as it should rightly be to see the presentations and films for the Gold and Grand Prix winners. That I must say, almost all of them made me believe in advertising and
    communications all over again. It was fascinating to see some awesome craft and design work in particular. They did let the imagination take leaps and bounds.

    It felt very good whenever `India’ won something and whenever any Indian walked up on stage. It felt good to see Samsonite win the Advertiser of the year award and an `Indian’ who was the Asia-Pacific head, Dr Ramesh Tainwala of the Tainwala Group that Samsonite has its joint-venture with, walk up on stage to receive the award.

    A simple man, simply dressed, humble to say he is not used to it, and who said the best of things any agency, in this case JWT, would love to hear, and ensured that the Indian arm Contract got a mention too when he was up there on stage. That speaks volumes about the person, and I guess a reason why Samsonite is such a big success in the region, they got the best partners in India.

    I skipped the party thereafter at a place called `Indo Chine’ I think, hosted by Leo Burnett. Thought I would catch an early nights nap, for we leave the hotel tomorrow morning at 7 a.m for the airport, and that is 4.30 am India time.

    Signing out from Spikes Asia… thank you, it was fun and a great learning opportunity in many ways.

     

    Chhaya Balachandran Aiyer is founder-managing director, BC Webwise

  • Spikes Sidelights | No random networking

    By Chhaya Balachandran Aiyer
    It was an insightful weekend at the Mandarin Oriental Singapore reviewing some of the best works from across Asia. But before I get to that, let me say that the dinner on the evening before we actually sat together to review the work, helped to get together and know one another, be familiar with the professional backgrounds to set the pace of views and reviews that would be relevant over the next two days.

    Rather than an informal dinner setting I appreciated how Spikes Asia had organized a sit down dinner where each jury was assigned their table to group together with their co-members. So there was no random networking, and no one was left out of the conversation. It was a very
    productive dinner so to speak.

    The next two days we started really early, well yes by Indian Standard Time, it was a 6 a.m. Fortunately I was able to be wide awake for the prospect of reviewing work with people across the Asian region was definitely exciting, plus to have anyone from Crispin Porter + Bogusky to chair the meet was an equally if not more exciting prospect. And Jeff Benjamin, chief creative officer CPB, the jury chair, was someone I did learn from over the last two days. I was humbled of course by the kind of work that rest of Asia is producing. And yes, barring an idea or two, saw how far away we in India are from thinking beyond getting the basic’s right, executing great ideas, and presenting stuff in a manner that can capture the juror’s attention.

    We had some fun during the day of course. There was the jury photo shoot where the jury chair more than we women on the jury was concerned about the effect of blowing wind and his flying hair, and well, when a couple of guys decided that the silence from the next jury room was killing. So a `help me’ note was slipped under the door, a lot of sound effects were created so it would get noticed and we get some reaction, but the note was totally ignored :P.

    Finally the day was over. We finished with champagne by the poolside last evening after we had finally decided on the metals. It was refreshing. Jeff ordered some Singapore Sling shots, to top it, and that was a nice lift to the end of the day.

    Hope to catch up on the some of the sessions today at the Festival, and some of the after dark parties organized by some of the agencies here in Singapore this evening.

    Chhaya Balachandran Aiyer is founder and managing director, BC Web Wise

  • Day 2 of Spikes Asia gets underway

    By A Correspondent

     

    Spikes Asia took off in Singapore yesterday with India dominating the participating countries in the awards event with 612 entries. Celebrating creativity in advertising and communications, the three-day event is the apex congregation of the trade in the region.

    “As the largest awards in Asia Pacific, we are delighted with the continued support of the industry in the region, demonstrated by this incredible growth. Spikes Asia is the place to see the region’s great creative work across all the different disciplines, including the two new categories for this year – Mobile and PR. Winning a much sought-after Spike, provides important recognition, inspiration and motivation for both agencies and clients alike,” said Mr Terry Savage, Co-Chairman of the Spikes Asia. “With a record number of attendees this year, Spikes Asia is set to be a great event, with much to learn and discuss,” he continued.

    During his session, Mr John Wren, President & CEO, Omnicom Group had summed on the must-have’s among the people they hire-high energy, talented and nice. He also dubbed mobile as the core to change in future. He also pointed that Asia is the growth center for marketers and its here that they can achieve the greatest growth.

    Mr Stephen Kim, General Manager, Global Creative Solutions, Microsoft discussed the journey of storytelling and pointed that every brand and every consumer has a story to tell and as marketers, it is important resonate these stories with the consumers.

    There was also a presentation on `Lessons In Creativity And Innovation From The Simpsons’ by Mr Joel Cohen, the Writer and co-executive Producer of The Simpsons. Mr Cohen attributed the success  of the Simpsons to the environment in which it is created and also reminded the importance of connecting with the audience before innovating.

    There are many more sessions that delegates are making a beeline for. These include Creativity & Fear by Todd Sampson, CEO, Leo Burnett Australia, Does Creativity Make Advertising More Effective? by James Hurman, Planning Director, Colenso BBDO and The Gamification Of Marketing by Laurie Coots, Chief Marketing Officer, TBWA\Worldwide among host of others.

    The grand awards event will be held tomorrow evening.