The Hindu Business Line : ABBY Awards

Kalpana Rao got the Abby awards off the ground. The Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) could not hold its flock together. Bruce Matchett of JWT proved that the creative fraternity is slowly but surely getting an upper hand in agencies. First it was Balki whom no one could rein in. Now, despite Colvyn Harris trying, Bruce (no doubt egged on by Piyush Pandey) decided to send JWT entries for the Abby any which way. To show her sense of preparedness, Kalpana and the Ad Club sent out a glossy four-pager with little articles from a few past presidents such as Pradeep Guha, Ramesh Narayan, M.G. Parameswaran and the man who branded the Abby, Shanta Kumar of Saatchi, where they all spoke highly of the Abby.

With Rediffusion, Everest, JWT and Grey having sent in entries to the Abby, O&M has successfully averted a catastrophic situation for itself. Now the "men in black" can win the Agency of the Year award, and come home with a smile and an armful of trophies instead of egg on the face.

AAAI Awards

The poster from the AAAI announcing its awards landed on several desks last week. Yes, as indicated by your favourite columnist on this page, it is in Goa on April 29 and 30 on a beach called Uttorda. It seems the sessions will be held at the Park Hyatt and the other action will take place on the beach outside. The poster had a dolphin taking centre-stage and it promised learning sessions, awards and lots of fun. An interesting line at the base announced that for under-30 creatives, the registration fee would include accommodation, food (liquid diet inferred) and all. Well, one can look forward to a young crowd landing up for sure.

Potential spoilers

The hype about a two-day creative festival is all very fine. Yet any awards show is called a success or a flop show depending on who enters their work and who judges it. Now if O&M, Lowe and JWT do not enter the AAAI awards, all the President's horses and all the Chairman's men would not be able to put Humpty Dumpty together again. Mr S. K. Swamy and Mr Arvind Sharma have their work cut out for them. It would really be odd if the apex body of advertising agencies conducts an awards show without three of the top agencies. The crack would really show deep and wide. Let's hope they can get their act together.

Dubai action

We met up with some of the lucky people who winged it to Dubai for the International Advertising Association (IAA) World Congress.

In short, the arrangements were quite impressive, the speakers all turned up (except Martin Sorrell whose mother sadly expired, our condolences to him), the content was predictable and the evening entertainment sessions, despite elaborate menus, were quite boring. Everyone benchmarked it against the AdAsia Jaipur, and we heard that the Indian flag was still flying the highest. We can all take a bow.

Two little parties

Sandeep Goyal

Our little birds who flew to Dubai told us about two smaller parties that were held amidst all the big parties at Dubai. One was hosted by Sandeep Goyal of Dentsu Marcom to celebrate the launch of his Dubai operations. The odd timing (right in the middle of the IAA Congress sessions) ensured that not too many serious delegates landed up there. The second was by Kunal Lalani of Crayons (a small Delhi-headquartered ad agency) also to launch its Dubai operations. Well congratulations Mr Goyal and Mr Lalani! We wish your overseas ventures well. We are glad the Indian flag is being

hoisted in many little ways in distant and not so distant shores. Meanwhile, it is said that the Indians took in the fabulous Dubai evenings in little groups as well. One media `leader' was even spotted dining at the ultra-plush Burj al Arab. Well, if you make a profit of over Rs 750 crore a year, what is a little dinner at the most expensive place in town? Even if the town is Dubai.

Victoria

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