<b><font color="#FF0000">Effie 2004</font></b>: O&M bags the Grand Effie

The Advertising Effectiveness or Effie Awards concluded at the Taj Land's End in Mumbai on Monday, and ad agency O&M has emerged as the single biggest winner of the evening with a tally of two gold and two bronze trophies.

The agency also romped home with the coveted Grand Effie for the popular ‘Boy and Dog' campaign for brand Hutch. The same campaign got O&M its first gold Effie in the services category, while the second gold came in the corporate advertising category for the ‘Sweet Redemption' campaign for Cadbury.

Archrival McCann-Erickson too had reason to cheer with a gold and silver in the consumer products category for brands Coca-Cola (Paanch Matlab Chhota Coke) Chlormint (Dobara Mat Poochhna).

Contract Advertising bagged a silver and bronze in the services and consumer durables categories for the ‘Anti-FD' (Franklin Templeton) and ‘Akshaye' (Royale Luxury Emulsion) campaigns.

FCB-Ulka also took home two silver Effies in the consumer durables and services categories for the ‘Business Class' and ‘Guess who's just heard from us' campaigns for Tata Indigo and Naukri.com.

Lowe bagged a silver and a bronze in the consumer products categories for the ‘Lifebuoy Butterfly' and Pepsodent ‘Coach' campaigns. JWT and rmg david got a silver and a bronze respectively in the consumer durables and consumer products categories for the Philips DVD ‘Roti' and Alpenliebe Lollipop ‘Lagey Raho' campaigns.

The Alpenliebe campaign from rmg fetched the agency the People's Choice Award as well. This award is given to the campaign, which is presented in the most effective manner in the run-up to the awards ceremony.

rmg bagged the trophy on the back of its novel style of presentation, which consisted of a dialogue between a puppeteer and a laptop. "We had a ventriloquist with a puppet in his hands communicating in different voices," said Josy Paul, country head & national creative director, rmg david.

In all, the Effies this year attracted 79 entries; there were 62 entries last year. 22 case studies were shortlisted in the first round, which were whittled down to 14 in the second and final round.

These 14 case studies, which were deemed as the finalists, were eventually presented prior to the awards ceremony on Monday evening, and the best part of the show was that every case study bagged some metal or the other.

© 2004 agencyfaqs!