Young Achievers Awards 2008: A step in the right direction

The Advertising Club of Bombay (ACB) held the first Young Achievers' Awards 2008 (YAA) on September 24 at Taj Land’s End, Bandra. The awards are intended to recognise and honour young talent in the advertising industry. The ACB plans to make YAA an annual event.

Nine awards were given out in three main categories: creative, media and business.

The evening had a casual vibe and was managed by Fountainhead Promotions and Events. Brian Tellis, chairman, Fountainhead, was the host for the evening. Bhaskar Das, president, ACB, gave the welcome speech. A new committee called Young Turks, with Sunil Lulla as its chairperson, was formed to manage the YAA.

Another interesting aspect of the award was the trophy, which is shaped like a milk bottle, and fondly called the Pappu Award.

The first award of the evening, in the Business category, was for Digital Person. Monaz Todywalla from Madison Media won this for her work on Cadbury Diary Milk (‘A Twist in the Tale’).

The Art Director award was won by Hetal Ajmera of JWT for SNC Jewels’ ‘Diamond Robberies Planners’ campaign.

The next award, sponsored and called the Big FM Radio Award, was won by Shekhar Banerjee from Madison Media for Saffola (World Heart Day – Radio Mumbai – ‘Bringing Mumbai Together’).

The next Business award, for Business Leader, was awarded to Anuj Singh from Digital Radio Broadcasting for Red FM.

The Copy Writer award saw the maximum number of nominations and was won by Simone Patrick of JWT for her work on DTC – Lead India – Poised.

The Brand Manager award was given to two people: Shivani Suri Dhanda of Reliance Communications for Reliance Mobile (‘From Power Brand to Iconic Brand’) and Harman Dhillon of Hindustan Unilever Ltd for Dove Hair (‘A Beautiful Story: Building a Rs 100 Crore Brand in One Year’).

Ritu Trivedi of Lodestar Universal won the Media Person award for her work on Amul (‘To Think the Unthinkable: The Amul Way’).

The last award of the evening, Creative Person, was won by Shirin Joshi of O&M for her work on HSBC (‘Swimming Pool’).

The evening was made more entertaining by famous stand-up comedian Ash Chandler, who had everyone in splits. A lively singing competition between the old cronies of the industry and the Young Turks, each with their own bands, was another thoroughly enjoyable act. To select the winner in this competition, people in the audience were expected to switch on the Bluetooth function on their mobiles and download an application which would enable them to vote for their choice. Based on the audience votes, the old cronies were declared the winner.