O&M Concerned Communicator of the year

It was that time of the year when agencies are rewarded for putting on their thinking caps for the welfare of society – a welcome change from brand advertising. At the Rajasthan Patrika Concerned Communicator Awards held in Mumbai recently, O&M, JWT, Saatchi & Saatchi and Concept Communication walked away with the most honours.

For the record, the Concerned Communicator Awards were started in 1997 to reward outstanding press ads that have a social issue as their central theme.

O&M stood first and bagged the Concerned Communicator Award, and a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh, for its work for WWF titled ‘Save the Tiger’, created by the agency’s creative controller, Abhijit Karandikar. The CCA-UNICEF Special Mention Award went to Manoj Bhagat of the Mumbai based Jaya Advertising, for ‘Gender in Education’.

This was followed by several special mention (SM) awards. Sanjeev Singh, Interact Visions, Delhi, bagged an SM award for his work, ‘Against Corruption’. Next in line was Suhas Parab of Saatchi & Saatchi, who bagged two SM awards for ‘Road Safety’ and ‘Donate Eyes’.

Sanjay Sure of Concept Communication bagged another SM award for two ads that encourage people to ‘Communicate in Hindi’. Concept’s Dhananjay Khichi bagged an SM award for ‘Help Street Children’.

O&M’s creative director, Abhijit Avasthi, kept the agency’s flag flying high with an SM award for his press campaign, ‘Donate for Jaipur Foot’. Sumanto Chattopadhyay of O&M, Kolkata, bagged an SM award for ‘Save Trees’. JWT’s Raju Sarmalkar walked away with an SM award for ‘Save Girl Child’.

Mohit Arora of Lowe bagged an SM award for his ad on ‘Road Safety’.

Out of the 2,000 entries received from all across India, 50 were short-listed to form a list called ‘The Best of Concerned Communicators’. The list included Ravi Jadhav (FCB Ulka), Ryan Menezes (Mudra), Pankaj Kharode (OgilvyOne Worldwide), Vikram Gaikwad (Grey Worldwide), Orlando Caldira (Inter Publicity), Vijay Lalvani (Everest Brand Solutions), Sameer Kelkar (Everest Brand Solutions), Nitesh Tiwari (Leo Burnett), R Rajesh (McCann-Erickson) and Ajay Ahuluwalia (Publicis India).

The awards were judged by two ad veterans, O&M’s chairman and national creative director, Piyush Pandey, and McCann-Erickson’s regional creative director, South and South East Asia, Prasoon Joshi. Actor Anupam Kher was the special guest for the evening and the awards were given out by Gulab Kothari, managing director, ‘Rajasthan Patrika’.

Pandey spoke on the occasion, “These awards are unique in the sense that they recognise good work that can influence and change lives. Another highlight is the assurance that the press ads that win on this platform have a good chance of getting published in the media.”

The event was sponsored by IAA (International Advertising Association), UNICEF, INMA (International Newspaper Marketing Association of India), agencyfaqs!, ‘News Today’ (the evening daily from ‘Rajasthan Patrika’), Zee News and Seagram’s. The official media associate was MTV, and the event was encouraged by the Times Foundation.

© 2006 agencyfaqs!