Santosh Padhi and Ashish Chakravarty to judge Clio Awards

Santosh Padhi (aka Paddy), chief creative officer and co-founder, TapRoot India and Ashish Chakravarty, creative chief, McCann Erickson Delhi, are the only two Indians who have been chosen as jury members at the Clio Awards.

Eight teams of juries will judge various categories in the Clio Awards, which recognise creative excellence in advertising and design. The categories include Content & Contact; Design; Interactive; Print/Direct Mail/ Innovative/ Integrated/ Poster/ Billboard; Radio; Technique; Television/Cinema/Digital; and Strategic Communications /Public Relations.

Paddy is excited to be a part of the prestigious award function. While talking to afaqs!, he says, "I have nine Cannes Lions and close to 40 international awards at The One Show, Spikes, the New York Festivals and others, but not a single Clio. This will be a great opportunity to learn their criteria for judging, not to mention that it's a great honour to be a part of such awards jury panels, where some of the best minds of the world will come together to fight for the right set of ideas."

Chakravarty will be a part of the Television/Cinema/Digital Executive jury. This team, too, consists of eleven jury members including the chairperson.

Although Chakravarty has served as a jury member for Goafest and the AdFest earlier, he is thrilled to be a jury member at the international event, especially judging in the TV category. "I'm looking forward to seeing some ideas that'll get me jealous and make me question myself if I could have thought the same way," he says.

Chakravarty is also expecting a good amount of 'surprises' from the entries in the digital category. "I believe the West is way ahead of us in digital campaigns and thus, judging in this category will surely be an eye-opener for me."

However, both Paddy and Chakravarty accepted the fact that this year is not the best year for Indian advertising. However, they didn't totally rule out the possibility of some dark horses (in the form of regional works) coming up in the Clio Awards.

For the record, the Clio Awards is one of the world's most recognised international advertising, design and communications competitions. It celebrates and rewards creative excellence, honouring a powerful form of communication and its impact on modern culture.

This year, the judging will take place in April in La Jolla, California.