Contract wins Gold, two Silvers at New York Festivals; SSC&B is finalist

Contract has won a Gold for Wildrift Adventures, and Silvers for Try It and everythingaboutwater.com at the New York Festivals. SSC&B also won a couple of Finalist certificates

Contract Advertising has won one Gold and two Silver awards at the recent New York Festivals for Advertising and Marketing Effectiveness. The agency picked up its Gold for its print campaign for Wildrift Adventures, in the Travel and Tourism category, and the Silvers for the Try It print campaign (in the Philanthropic Appeals category), and everythingaboutwater.com (in the Corporate Identity/Stationery category).

SSC&B is another agency that won itself honours by landing two Finalist awards at the Festivals. SSC&B won its Finalist certificates for Tops Security (in the Low Budget - Product and Service category) and Digene (in the Health category). What is particularly significant about both Contract's and SSC&B's achievement is that both have been awarded for efforts in print - which once again underlines the pool of talent present in the country for good print advertising.

The Wildrift campaign that won the Gold this time has been crafted by Bhupesh Luther (art) and Sonal Chhajerh (copy), and is a part of the work that Contract has been doing for Wildrift Adventures (a resort in Saat Tal in Himachal Pradesh) for the past eight-odd years. The Try It campaign, on the other hand, is the work of Bhupesh Luther (art) and Raj Nair (copy).

Incidentally, Try It is a ‘brand' that has been created by Contract Advertising. The agency has been running one self-financed campaign for Try It every year for the last six years or so, aimed at "inducing a behavioural change by exhorting people to try doing something, anything, for someone less privileged." Interestingly, Contract first did this as an exercise for a Doon School brochure, and as it won the agency accolades and admiration, the idea graduated to become an annual campaign in newspapers. In fact, Try It won Contract a Bronze at last year's New York Festivals too. The Silver-winning entry for everythingaboutwater.com - a B2B which specializes in water treatment solutions - was created by Pooja Wadhawan (art) and Suchitra Gehlot (copy).

Talking to agencyfaqs! Mohit Hira, senior vice-president, Contract Advertising, gives full credit to the creative "who deserve all the recognition". He adds that the wins obviously feel wonderful, because, "First, some very talented youngsters have won global acclaim, and this is what Contract is really about - fresh ideas that break old habits. Second, it demonstrates that print advertising is still a terrific medium to work on, and can match creativity on TV anytime."

As far as SSC&B is concerned, the Finalist awards serve as a reminder to the tryst the agency has kept with international awards. The Tops Security campaign and the work on Digene have taken SSC&B's toll of international awards to 60, in the last four years.

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