N. Shatrujeet
News

Ogilvy India claims one Gold, one Bronze in Lions Direct <font face="Verdana" size="1"><b><font color="#FF0033"><u>Cannes Special!</u></font></b></font>

While O&M Delhi’s ‘blank magazine’ mailer for Businessworld has won a Gold Lion, OgilvyOne’s DM exercise for Hutch, Chennai, has landed a Bronze Lion

The Ogilvy network in India has claimed both the Lions that came India's way at this year's Lions Direct Awards. While O&M Delhi's ‘blank magazine' mailer for business magazine Businessworld was awarded a Gold Lion, OgilvyOne's DM exercise for Hutch Telecom, Chennai, landed a Bronze Lion. Interestingly, the only other Indian entry in the Direct shortlist was also from O&M - the ‘Losers Archive' self-promotion exercise from the Delhi office.

The Gold-winning Businessworld mailer essentially consisted of an issue of the magazine that was mailed to those Businessworld subscribers who had not renewed their subscriptions. The catch: The entire magazine comprised blank pages, with a reminder to renew subscription on the last page. On the other hand, the Bronze-winning campaign for Hutch was a Chennai-based exercise where personalized newspaper ads were carried in the Chennai edition of The Economic Times. Each ad targeted different high-value individuals, and personalization was achieved by addressing each pre-selected individual by name. Which means that every ad in the exercise was a unique piece of communication as it carried just the name of the individual whom it addressed.

Naturally, Piyush Pandey, group president & national creative director, O&M India, is a happy man. "The two pieces of work that won in Direct were fantastic, both in terms of idea and execution," he said, speaking from Cannes. "It just shows the creativity has nothing to do with specific media - it can blossom anywhere." The two Direct wins take Ogilvy India's Lion count to five (three from the Print and Outdoor categories), and Pandey is busy celebrating. "All I can say is this is fantastic. And I must add that this year, there's a God at Cannes, and He's on our side," he guffaws.

The two wins have also taken India's Lion tally up to six (three Gold, two Silver and one Bronze), the best ever for this country. And with results still due in Media, and the Film shortlisting yet to happen, there's quite a lot more for India to look forward to.

© 2003 agencyfaqs!

Have news to share? Write to us atnewsteam@afaqs.com