Dentsu wins big at the first Olive Crown Awards

Goafest 2011 hosted the first Olive Crown Awards conducted by the India chapter of International Advertising Association (IAA-IC) aimed at recognising responsible communication by advertising agencies and corporate houses. Among the various entries submitted by agencies and advertisers and judged by a panel of advertising professionals and environment activists, Dentsu emerged as the top agency winning the maximum awards, particularly for the 'Save Our Tigers' campaign for Aircel.

Dentsu picked up three golds and three silvers in all, and was also adjudged the Green Agency of the Year, amassing a total of 55 points, followed by Mudra Communications (20 points) and Umbrella Design (15 points).

Idea Cellular and Nokia shared the Green Brand of the Year gold metal, while Lowe Lintas' 'Save Paper Use Mobile' campaign for Idea Cellular fetched the agency the Campaign of the Year silver metal. The Green Brand of the Year award was judged in consultation with The Energy Resource Institute, the knowledge partner of the event.

Dentsu's 'Save Our Tigers' campaign fetched the agency a gold in the Campaign of the Year category. The campaign also won the agency a gold metal in the Print Production category. The third gold was won by the agency in the Events category for its NDTV-Toyota Greenathon 2 campaign for Toyota Kirloskar.

Umbrella Design won a silver and a gold. The agency bagged a gold in the Press: Consumer Products and Services category for its Eco Friendly Ganesha - The Sun's Light campaign for The Times of India.

The other agencies to have won gold metals were JWT India and Webchutney. JWT's gold was won for the agency's Jadugar campaign for National Geographic channel in television: Consumer Products and Services category, while Webchutney won in the Digital category for its Amar Prem campaign for MakeMyTrip.

Other winning agencies included Mudra (four silvers including one by Tribal DDB), DraftFCB Ulka (one silver), Interpublicity (one silver) and Chaos Design (one silver).

Every winner earned five points for a silver and 10 points for a gold. For the Campaign of the Year and Green Brand of the Year awards, the scoring was 10 for silver, and 20 for gold.

Talking about the awards, Kaushik Roy, president, IAA-IC, says, "The Olive Crown Awards is one that not only celebrates the work done by advertising agencies and the advertisers, but also supports concern for the planet. We are proud to have started a movement in India for which there is already a global recognition and a request for offering the franchise to other countries."

Bittu Sahgal, editor, Sanctuary Asia, was conferred the first IAA Olive Crown Green Crusader Award.

Sir John Hegarty, worldwide creative director, BBH, and the Guest of Honour at the event, remarked, "The advertising industry has always been known for 'selling'-now, it is time to be known for saving the earth."

Sam Balsara, chairperson and managing director, Madison World, led the panel of judges for the awards. The judges were Bobby Pawar, chief creative officer, Mudra Group, Bhupal Ramnathkar of Umbrella Design, Gangadhar Menon, wildlife photographer and activist, Lynn de Souza, chairperson and chief executive officer, Lintas Media Group, Russell Barrett, creative head, BBH India, Saumya Sen, developmental filmmaker and activist, and Sumanto Chattopadhyay, executive creative director, South Asia, Ogilvy.

The IAA, in collaboration with Hungama.com, also ran a contest on the internet, where contestants aged up to 30 years were invited to create a green film with the judging criteria being the idea, and not the film.

Of the 21 films posted online, Fatima Husain and Rajeev Roy of BBH won the Olive Crown Green Hungama gold for their film titled Bathing, while Corsair Films won the Olive Crown Green Hungama silver for its film titled Staircase.