20 Indian entries are Finalists at One Show 2004

If the Cannes Advertising Festival set a precedent last year by nominating 29 Indian entries (in the Print and Outdoor categories) for the prestigious Cannes Lions, this year's One Show jury, it almost appears, has decided to take the tip and place India rather high on the merit list. As a consequence, 20 pieces of communication produced by Indian advertising agencies are in the running for Pencils at the One Show 2004 awards, which are to be handed out in roughly a month's time. The 20 Finalist nominations - which would, at the very least, pick up Merit awards - better the nine nominations India had last year (the year before that, India had 10 nominations at the One Show awards).

Of the 20 Finalists, four are entries from O&M India, three each from Saatchi India and rmg david, and two each from Leo Burnett India and Ambience Publicis. McCann-Erickson India, Quadrant Communications, SSC&B, Adfactors Advertising, Design Temple and a freelance entry from Bangalore have one Finalist nominations apiece. Fifteen of the 20 nominations are in the main One Show category, while the remaining five have been nominated in the One Show Design category. While India has no nominations in the One Show Interactive category, nominations in the One Show Radio category are still to be declared… which means India could look forward to a few more nominations this year.

This year's nominees from India are in the Outdoor and Poster, Collateral, Exceptional Innovation in Marketing, Print and Corporate Identity sub-categories. While Ogilvy has picked up its four nominations for Pidilite Industries (the poster campaign for Fevicol), Glaxo Smithkline (poster campaign), Hutchison Essar (single ad) and Mid Day (in the Design category), Saatchi India's nominations are for Kuoni Travel (single poster), Bharat Petroleum (outdoor and poster campaign) and a corporate identity for Uttaranchal Bamboo and Fiber Development Board (in the Design category). rmg is in the race for Pencils through its ‘nests' outdoor entry for nature conservation organization WWF, and an entry for Windshield Experts. rmg david also has a nomination in the Design category - for the corporate identity it has created for itself.

The entries that have landed Burnett India its Finalist nominations are the single ad for Senso Restaurant (‘Italian seafood festival', which landed India its lone silver award at the recent AP AdFest 2004) and a single ad (‘tiger graph') for Sanctuary Magazine. Both of Ambience's nominations are for Planet M - one for a single Collateral, the other for the campaign in the Exceptional Innovation in Marketing sub-category. McCann's direct mail for the Lucknow Cancer Institute has fetched it a nomination, while Quadrant is in the merit list on account of its ‘journey' press ad for TVS Tyres. SSC&B's campaign for St Gobain, Adfactors' single posters for The Vatsalya Foundation, Design Temple's corporate identity for Arjun Bhasin and the freelance corporate identity entry from Bangalore (the last two in the Design category) round off India's merit list. Purely for the record, no Indian television commercial has found place in the Finalists listing.

Going by the law of averages - and experience tells us it isn't necessarily the best way to go - the 20 nominations from 11 agencies certainly improve India's chances of bringing back a richer haul of Pencils this year (as mentioned earlier, India had 10 and nine nominations in 2002 and 2003, respectively). As is the case of most international advertising awards, India hasn't enjoyed much of a hit-rate when it comes to the One Show. India, in fact, opened its One Show account only year before last, when siblings O&M and rmg david won a silver Pencil each for the ‘Second-hand smoke' ad and the ‘Gandhi' film for Essar, respectively. And last year, Saatchi India claimed a lone silver Pencil for its poster entry for The Terry Fox Foundation.

In a month's time, we'll know exactly how many of the 20 Indian nominations were found to be worthy of metal by the One Show jury. Till then, let's hope for the best and wish the concerned agencies the best of luck… © 2004 agencyfaqs!