Younger Piyush, Sam and Mash cheer for Young Achievers

The campaign, created by Rediffusion Y&R for the awards show, makes use of pictures of more than 20 industry greats in their youth. Here's how

After its debut last year, the Young Achiever's Awards are back for the young and the restless. Slated to be held on September 25, the Young Achiever's Awards (YAA) is an award formulated by the Young Turks (a committee of fraternity members set up by the Ad Club of Bombay) for the younger lot of the advertising fraternity. Sunil Lulla is the chairperson of the Young Turks committee.

Open to people aged under 30, the awards this year will accept entries in 10 categories, including Copywriter of the Year; Art Director of the Year; Film Director of the Year; Photographer of the Year; Designer of the Year; Digital Person of the Year; Media Person of the Year; Best Business Initiative of the Year; Brand Marketer of the Year; and Social Thinker of the Year. The catch is that unlike other awards, there will be no gold, silver or bronze metals but only one single award in each category.

Younger Piyush, Sam and Mash cheer for Young Achievers

Which is why one has to be 'young and great' to be eligible for the award, says Keegan Pinto, creative partner, Rediffusion Y&R, the agency that has created the campaign for the awards this year (

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to view the campaign). According to the brief received by the agency, "the job at hand was to go all out and make the awards a big event, giving it credibility like that of the Abby's," says Pinto.

After many ideas, the creative team settled on a play on the idea of 'young'. The campaign presents the greats of advertising in their earlier days. For example, one of the posters has a picture of a young Sam Balsara, when he had black hair!

Pictures of many other advertising stalwarts such as Vikram Sakhuja (GroupM); Piyush Pandey (Ogilvy India); Agnello Dias (TapRoot India); Sagar Mahabaleshwarkar (Rediffusion Y&R); Elsie Nanji (Red Lion Design); Jasmin Sohrabji (OMD); Sanjay Behl (Reliance Infocomm); and Atul Tandon (MICA) are part of the campaign, with even more being added as you read this piece. The posters have a stamp that says 'eligible'.

The creative team includes Keegan Pinto, Mandar Khatkul, Lionel Andrade, Suketu Gohel, Saurabh Sankpal and Shailesh Gaikwad; while the digital team comprises Jetesh Menon and Abhishek Sil. Sharad Chaturvedi is the account manager.

Online has been used to a great extent. A group has been created on Facebook, where members of the industry are joining in. Work of last year's winners will be put up as well, shares Khatkul. Also, the past winners will write small snippets in the discussion forum of the group that has been set up. The younger industry veterans have been revealed in this group.

The veterans, who are also part of the group, will write about their experiences from the days when they were 'the young and the great'.

The campaign's media mix includes posters, entry kits, print, outdoor, online media, radio and direct mailers.

Apart from the entire advertising, media and marketing industry, the campaign has also used mass media to speak to the student community, who are the future of this industry.

The jury for the awards will be decided soon. The last date for receiving entries is September 10.

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