Ogilvy India and SAB won bronzes at the DMA ECHO held in Chicago for its direct marketing campaigns
At the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) ECHO Awards 2007 held in Chicago over the past week, Ogilvy India and SAB won bronze awards in the Consumer Publishing/Entertainment category. Ogilvy India won the award for its campaign, the ‘Chivas Art Experience’ invite, while SAB won its bronze for its TVC, ‘Fame X – The Hermit’.
Ogilvy India had to create a compelling invitation to an A-list event: The Chivas Art Experience. Opinion leaders, business barons, fashion gurus, style divas and the glitterati of the city got together to bid for the collective works of India’s leading contemporary artists. The objective was not only to get them to attend a Page 3 party, but also to buy the specially commissioned art on display.
Breaking through the inertia of an audience with a highly developed taste for art, Ogilvy India simulated an artist’s studio to give the invitees a first-hand feel of the tools that artists use to create masterpieces. The invitation was designed as an artist’s portfolio, while some of its content also captured the feel of an artist’s workbag. The miniature prints gave a preview of the art that would be on sale.
The other awarded work from India was by SAB, a division of SET India. Its ‘Fame X – The Hermit’ commercial showed a hermit in saffron attire going around asking for alms. The hermit is shooed away. Cut to the hermit shedding his saintly attire and starting to strum the strings of a guitar with incessant head banging. People throng to him and he is an instant hit. The voiceover says that you need more than singing skills, you need the X-factor. The voice then invites entries for ‘Fame X’. ‘Fame X’ is SAB’s show that searched for singing talent with an added X-factor.
The creative was handled by OnAir promotions, a division of SAB that handles TVCs for many of its shows.
The DMA ECHO Awards are international awards that honour excellence in direct marketing creativity and marketing strategy. They are bestowed by the Direct Marketing Association, the popular global trade association of business and non-profit organisations using and supporting direct marketing tools and techniques.
Of the 1,124 campaigns submitted for the 2007 ECHO Awards this year, six campaigns were honoured with special awards. Some 24 campaigns were honoured with gold ECHOs, 51 with silver ECHOs, and 55 with bronze ECHOs.
