India nets one silver, four bronzes at AP AdFest 2004

Four Indian agencies - Leo Burnett India, O&M India, McCann-Erickson India and Saatchi & Saatchi India - have made a mark at the AP AdFest 2004 (Asia-Pacific Advertising Festival), which concluded at Pattaya, Thailand, the week before last. The four Indian agencies, between themselves, picked up a total of five awards across categories, and these included one silver award and four bronzes. In addition to the five pieces of metal, India had eight Finalist nominations - four from McCann, two from Ogilvy, and one each from Burnett and Rediffusion | DYR.

Burnett India is the proud bearer of the solitary silver award that came India's way this year. The agency won its piece of white metal for the ‘Italian seafood festival' print ad for Senso Restaurant in the Fast Food Outlets, Restaurants & Retail Stores category. Incidentally, no gold was awarded in this category this year, with Burnett India sharing joint silvers with BBDO Singapore (for KFC). It may be recalled that Burnett's Senso entry also won a gold (in the Services for the Household Sector category) at the recently concluded Abby Awards 2004.

O&M India claimed two bronze awards in Outdoor, both for champion adhesive brand, Fevicol. The winning outdoor entries from Ogilvy India are ‘cycle' and ‘ultimate adhesive'. McCann India also picked up its bronze award in the Outdoor category - for the Sweetex banner, which also, interestingly, won a gold Abby in Outdoor this year. The fourth and final bronze for India is courtesy Saatchi India. As in the case of O&M India and McCann India, Saatchi India too laid its hands on a bronze in the Outdoor category, making Outdoor a high-yield category for India at this year's AP AdFest. The agency's winning entry is the ‘harmful smoke' innovation for Bharat Petroleum. It must be added that Saatchi India's entry was also awarded a gold at Abby 2004.

If Outdoor brought India cheer at AdFest 2004, Film was disappointing. The best India managed in Film was a lone Finalist nomination in the Public Service Message and Cause Appeals category - for the ‘girl child' film for Datamation Foundation Charitable Trust, created by Leo Burnett India. The remaining seven Finalist nominations for India were for Coca-Cola (three nominations) and Sweetex (all from McCann), Fevicol and Crocin Pain Relief (both from Ogilvy), and Colgate (Rediffusion).

In comparative terms, India's showing at this year's AdFest was not as good as its performance last year. It may be recalled that at last year's AdFest, India had picked up eight awards (one silver and seven bronzes), of which, four had been claimed by Ogilvy, with McCann, Saatchi, Burnett and Enterprise Nexus accounting for the remaining four. This year's outing, however, is marginally better than that at the AP AdFest 2002 - where India had had just five bronze awards to show. © 2004 agencyfaqs!