The Hindu Business Line : Cannes victory

Hats off to Agnello Dias and his team at JWT! Their Lead India campaign has done us proud. We recall meeting Aggi sometime in September last year. The unassuming hero said that all he had on his mind at that stage was that campaign. Well, look what he’s made of it. A real campaign for a real client, pitched against real global competition and a real good victory. Now that’s what great advertising is all about. Something we can talk about with our heads held up high. No need for contrived explanations, excuses and glib answers. Finally, we do not blush when we are asked if we saw the winning campaign! May we extend our felicitations to all the real winners at Cannes. Creators of scam ads, please excuse.

JCPenney slams scam

Retailer JCPenney is livid. A Bronze Lion-winning film apparently made by a film production house has used its name and logo without its prior approval. The giant advertiser has slammed all concerned and said it has nothing to do with the winning entry. The Cannes organisers have apparently not responded to this scandal, but one must laud the open and forthright response from the advertiser. Will our advertisers please take note on how to respond to ads created without their express approval and payment?

UNFPA awards

The UN has an active family planning wing in India and they invited entries for awards for advertising material concerning gender sensitivity and the girl child. Looks like not many advertising agencies entered. Yet, the cause is noteworthy and some senior members of the advertising fraternity including Pops, Priti Nair, Ambi Parameswaran, Pranesh Mishra and Ramesh Narayan took time off to judge the entries. We look forward to the awards distribution night next week, and will keep you posted with all the latest on that event.

Outdoor’s the place

Forget the days when outdoor meant petty traders with the same inventory of hoardings that were hawked to a clutch of clients, mainly those going in for an IPO.

The OOH segment, as it is referred to now, is really going places. Technology has meant that the product is truly international, and the growing acceptance of this medium has finally translated into a big ticket investment in Laqshya from Warburg Pincus. The over Rs 250-crore stake really puts the OOH segment right under the sun. One can see relatively new players such as Ishan Raina (he brought and headed Euro RSCG in India) who have been quietly wiring up the city smacking their chops in anticipation. Are we looking at an out-of-home equivalent of the dotcom boom?

9X shining

Indrani Mukherjee, the CEO of the 9X bouquet of television channels, can’t stop smiling. 9X seems to have caught up with Sony in the GEC category and her music channel has grabbed the top spot ahead of both V and MTV. A little bird overheard her explaining the success of the music channel to friends over dinner: “No VJs, just music”.

Well, if that is true, we cannot help commiserating with channels that have spent time and money actually building up and projecting their VJs. The affable Peter Mukherjee evidently still enjoys the Midas touch. More power to his touch.

Emvies jackpot

Old timers at the Ad Club Bombay recall the time they had to sweat it out to get sponsorships for even their flagship event the Abby awards. Then came the media explosion, and TV channels such as Turner and Sony eyed the Abby awards as a great place to reach out to the community. Yet, the sponsorship amount was nothing to write home about. It was just a few years ago when the Emvies were launched by the Advertising Club Bombay. It met a real need. Media was exploding, and they needed to celebrate their performance and excellence. And now, we are told that NDTV Media has agreed to sponsor the Emvies for three years on the trot, and that too for a whopping amount that has not been heard of so far in the advertising industry. Industry watchers are amazed at the eight-figure amount being bandied about. Well, it bodes well for the media segment, and I guess it also an indication of the confidence that seems to be bubbling at Raj Nayak’s stable at NDTV Media. May they prosper. The industry can look forward to a bigger show and increased participation.

Now let’s see what some sponsor can come up with for the Effies. Meanwhile, a little bird overheard Bhaskar Das saying the GoaFest had made a little money after all. We know Das had to pull the entire weight of his organisation to make that happen. All’s well that ends well. _ Victoria

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