No great surprises in entries for Effies 2008: Chax

"The past year has been a real nice one for the advertising industry and the work that has been entered is proof of that," says Shashi Sinha, chief executive officer, Lodestar Universal, and chairperson of the Effies Committee.

The Effies will be awarded in seven categories: consumer products, consumer durables, services, corporate advertising, Internet advertising, mobile advertising and integrated advertising campaigns.

afaqs! met with a few jury members during the judging round to find out what they thought of the entries that they'd already been through.

KS Chakravarthy (known as Chax in the industry), national creative director, DraftFCB Ulka, felt that the work was a mix of the good and the not so good. "There were no great surprises," he said.

KV Sridhar, NCD, Leo Burnett, said he was glad that the largest category – consumer products – was done with. He revealed that some of the brands in the category really shone out. Among the case studies that were submitted in the category were Bingo, Tata Tea, Santoor, Bournvita, Sunsilk and Horlicks.

Dhunji Wadia, branch head, Mumbai, JWT, expressed his disappointment: "There has been repetition in some cases. Since the brands were present last year as well, some of them don't really hit you as a great idea."

Similar thoughts were shared by Prasoon Joshi, executive chairman, McCann Erickson India, and regional executive creative director, Asia Pacific, McCann Erickson: "Many of the case studies were rehashed versions of earlier ideas. And that worries me."

Joshi said that increasingly, campaigns – even in the West – have started using a social message as part of their communication.

Piyush Pandey said he was glad that many brands had used multimedia to convey the brand message.