Whether it be the Cannes International Advertising Festival or Goafest, the high point of the event is the creative awards. In the case of AAAI's Goafest, it's the Creative Abbys, thanks to the continuing partnership with Ad Club Bombay.
And the biggest honour at the Creative Abbys is the Grand Prix, in the absence of an ‘Agency of the Year' title. Ogilvy walked away with the only Grand Prix this year, besides five Golds.
The Media Abbys saw Maxus score maximum — 10 metals, with two Golds. While celebrating these wins, one can't forget the rest of the winners — there were 11 agencies that won Media Abbys and an unprecedented 46 entrants who walked away with Creative Abbys.
Not all 46 entrants were agencies. A host of production houses were celebrated in the categories under Filmcraft. Those that won Gold were Bang Bang Films, Chrome Pictures and Footcandles Films. What is encouraging, say some ad pros, is the focus on ‘craft', something relatively new for Indian advertising.
Juju Basu, V-P and Senior Creative Director, Contract Advertising, noted, “In international awards there is very serious attention to craft. A few years ago in India the focus was only on the idea and never on the craft and the execution. It's nice to see that changing, and most entrants are paying a lot of attention to craft.”
While the atmosphere was expectedly electric with most of the 2,800-plus delegates thronging the Creative Abby awards venue, there were some significant moments a few hours prior at another stage within Goafest — where the Olive Crown Awards were announced.
The World Seeks Olive Crowns
Green is in. From Unilever to Toyota to Idea, there is no escaping the green wave. Within minutes of the first edition of the ‘green' awards constituted by the International Advertising Association's (IAA) India Chapter being presented, organisers started getting queries to take the awards international.
“We are proud to have started a movement in India for which there is already global recognition and a request to offer the franchise to other countries,” remarked Kaushik Roy, IAA India. The first edition of the awards saw Dentsu walk away with the ‘Green Agency of the Year' award, thanks to its campaigns ‘Save the Tiger' for Aircel and ‘NDTV-Toyota Greenathon' for Toyota.
Aircel was presented the ‘Green Advertiser of the Year' crown, while Idea and Nokia shared the ‘Green Brand of the Year' title. The Green Brand category was judged in consultation with TERI, the knowledge partner, while the rest of the Olive Crowns were judged by an eminent panel led by Sam Balsara, Chairman, Madison World.
The other big impetus to the Olive Crown Awards came in the form of the ‘green film' contest run on the Net in partnership with Hungama.com. In six working days, 21 films were posted online by entrants aged 30 years and below.
Olive Crown Green Hungama was won by an entry by Fatima Husain and Rajeev Roy from BBH India, titled ‘Bathing'. A cash prize of Rs 60,000 accompanied the Crown. A film by Corsair titled ‘Staircase' was awarded an Olive Crown Green Hungama Silver, and a prize of Rs 40,000. IAA will support the completion of the films (which were judged for idea, not execution) and help release the same on national television.
(Goafest pictures: Manish Chheda)