The Hindu Business Line : New York Festivals

The New York Festivals has announced its awards and the Indian flag is fluttering high. McCann has struck it big with two Golds and a Bronze. The Golds are for a Sweetex banner advertisement and a direct mailer about breast cancer. The bronze is for a Coke advertisement. Cheers Prasoon, way to go.

Canco Advertising has won a Gold Midas (excellence in financial services advertising worldwide) for its HDFC print advertisement.

Others picking up heavy metal are Bates with a Silver for Knightqueen, Mudra with a bronze for its entry "polio ladder," and 1pointsize (a Chennai-based creative shop) a bronze for the brand Stori.

Incidentally, for those who came in late, Michael Demetriades, who currently runs the New York Festivals, was earlier in charge of the Clio awards. And, believe it or not, Ad Club Bombay was its representative in India. One remembers Michael visiting India when Mohammed Khan was nominated a jury member for the Clio awards. After leaving Clio, he set about growing the New York Festivals. For a while, the Brief (Remember that feisty advertising tabloid?) was the official representative for the New York Festivals. It was obviously inspired by the monetary and image-building success that the Times Group has had as the official representative for the Cannes festival.

With the Brief bowing out of the market, maybe one of the big media houses would be interested in being the representative for the New York Festivals (I'll claim royalty if they do). Awards are a big business today. Apart from the money and the relevant publicity that comes with the awards, the representative also gets to nominate one member of the jury. That's pretty neat.

Now you know why a big international media house has snapped up the Cannes awards a few days ago. Incidentally, a little bird tells me McCann and Canco will be getting a fancy trophy that is shaped like a real gold ingot. Hope it gets through Customs.

Brand Brandy

Well, if France has Champagne and Cognac, India has its brandy. McDowell's Brandy No. 1 has flowed all the way up to being the world's number one brandy in terms of sales. Well, that's another first for Brand(y) India. Hic Hic Hurray!

Olympics

With all the mega mania worldwide and the spotlight focusing on Athens, India seems to be in a kind of advertising rain-shadow. There's not too much excitement on the ad front. Samsung, of course, is going the whole hog as one of the principal sponsors. It should stand out without too much clutter.

Maybe media planners are waiting for the precise moment to unleash their "Games-oriented" advertising. With India riding on a lot of hope this time, one cannot but hope for the best. Let the games begin.

Triton

Most of the big agencies have foreign surnames now. Think of a true blue Indian agency, and you have to scan the top-20 list pretty desperately.

Against this backdrop, my busy little bird tells me that Triton is pretty close to tying the knot at the advertising marriage altar. Triton has been pretty aggressive in the market and has come up with quite a few good campaigns. Just the thing to ramp up those valuations. If the birdie is to believed, Munawar Syed and Ali Merchant have put a pretty big part of their holdings up for grabs. Is Triton going to have a foreign surname or is it in the periscope of Mudra? Wait and watch. In any case, we wish Syed and Ali well.

Without Comment

The Red & White Bravery Awards from Godfrey Phillips (the cigarette major) has a colour advertisement that shows a young man rescuing an old lady from a huge burning building. Say a wag, "There's no smoke without fire." No comment.

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