O&M, Grey, Bates shine at the sixth Sangbad Pratidin Srijon Samman Awards

The Srijon Samman Awards, which recognise excellence in Bengali advertising, were given away at a ceremony held at Saubhumi in Kolkata on Saturday last. Walking away with the maximum number of awards at the event were professionals from O&M Mumbai, Grey Bangladesh and Bates Kolkata.

O&M Mumbai won the much coveted ‘Agency of the Year’ award at the national level, while Bates Kolkata bagged the award for Kolkata, and Grey Bangladesh for the Bangladesh category. O&M won a total of 19 awards, 11 of which were won by O&M Kolkata for its work on Hutch, Khadim’s, West Bengal Aids and Apeejay Finance.

Sharmishta Dev, general manager, O&M Kolkata, said, “This win is significant for O&M, particularly because the awards we have won cut across categories and across our various client brands. The Srijon Samman awards are different because they recognise creative excellence in Bengali advertising.”

Bates Kolkata, on the other hand, won a total of 15 awards, including four gold, five silver and five bronze, most of which were for work done for Anand Bazar Patrika. Incidentally, this is the second consecutive year that Bates Kolkata has won the ‘Agency of the Year – Kolkata’ award.

Everest Mumbai also walked off with a gold for Parle G, and a gold as well as a bronze for Tortoise mosquito repellent. The agency was also nominated in the ‘Campaign of the Year’ category for its work on the Parle G account, but Response Kolkata bagged the award for its matrimonial campaign for ‘The Times of India’.

Dipankar Bose, assistant manager, marketing, ‘Sangbad Pratidin’, said, “The unique aspect of this year’s award ceremony was the fact that we commemorated the completion of 150 years of the famous book on the Bengali alphabet, ‘Barna Parichay’, written by Ishwar Chandra ‘Vidyasagar’. This was also the theme on which we based this year’s award ceremony.”

“The response this year has been excellent. Advertising agencies from various regions got a chance to showcase their talent,” he adds.

The award ceremony, hosted by ‘Sangbad Pratidin’ (a popular Bengali daily), was co-sponsored by Coca-Cola, Samsung, Seagram’s Royal Stag and Amar PC, among others.

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