1 Point Size, Mudra, South, and TBWA, Kochi, glimmer at Spark 2006

Spark 06, the 29th Ad Club of Chennai awards event, was held on March 9. Awards were given away for a total of 37 categories, including Press Advertising, Television Advertising, Print Advertising (posters, leaflets and brochures), Interactive Media, Direct Mail, Photography, Multimedia and Brand Bbuilding. In addition, the Copywriter of the Year, Art Director of the Year and the most coveted Agency of the Year awards were also given away based on points tallied across categories.

This year, the event attracted around 600 entries across all categories.

Ram Moorthi, convenor, Spark 2006, says, “We included some new categories this year. They are Published Self-Promotion, which was a move to isolate self-promotion entries by advertising agencies in any medium from the other product/service entries, and Chairman’s Best of Show, where the chairman of the jury chooses one piece of work that is his personal best across categories.”

The Agency of the Year award was bagged by 1 Point Size and with that, the agency also picked up the first rank for itself with 285 points. The second and third runners-up were Mudra, South, with 120 points and TBWA, Kochi, with 65 points.

1 Point Size bagged awards in the following categories: Press Service Campaign (silver), POP (gold and silver), Print (gold and silver), Calendar (gold, silver and bronze), Typography (silver), Photography (gold), Logo (silver), Retail Campaign (silver and bronze), Outdoor Advertising (silver), Rural Campaign (silver), Brand Building Campaign (gold), Unpublished Creative Work (gold) and Published Self-Promotion (bronze).

Mudra, South, picked up honours in the following categories: Press Product Campaign (silver), Single Press Colour (gold), TVC English (bronze), POP (silver), Retail Campaign (gold and silver), Occasional (silver), Multimedia Campaign (silver) and Unpublished Creative Work (bronze).

TBWA, Kochi, bagged awards in the categories, Single Press Colour (silver), Single Press Black and White (silver), Video Film (bronze) and POP (gold and silver).

Other agencies that rocked at the ceremony were Maitri Advertising, Orchard Advertising, Rajiv Menon Productions, Vijay TV, Rediffusion DY&R, IRIS Films, Radio Mirchi, MAA Bozell Communications, McCann-Erickson, Tellywise, Interface Communications and Square Circle.

The Copywriter of the Year award was picked up by Ananthanarayanan of 1 Point Size. The Art Director of the Year award was picked up by CP Sajith, also from 1 Point Size.

Moorthi adds, “This year, we also honoured the late RmK Viswanathan of RmKV Silks (a well-known silk retail brand of Chennai), who passed away in a tragic road accident early this year, with a Special Creativity Award. Viswanathan revolutionised the Chennai market with some very innovative promotions and we wanted to honour this spirit on behalf of the Chennai advertising fraternity.”

The awards event was crafted around the theme of ‘Pain Deserves Gain’. Moorthi elucidates, “This theme reflects the aches and effort that every creative person puts in – first to create a brilliant idea and then to convince people of its potential.”

The show was hosted by Channel V’s Lolakutty and Jagan of Vijay TV fame, who had the audience in splits most of the time. The stage was designed to look like a hospital and each award was brought in by people dressed up as patients – in stretchers, in casts, with drips, etc. Even the entertainment breaks were on the same theme, like the classical dance recital that told the story of pain and gain in advertising.

Talking about the jury, Moorthi says, “This year, we chose Josy Paul, chairman and chief creative officer, David, as chairman of the jury. With his brief, we went about selecting the best of judges from Chennai and Bangalore. They included the creative directors of leading Chennai and Bangalore agencies, national heads of agencies, account planners, top photographers and ad film makers, Chennai’s most happening RJ and winners of international creative awards.”

For the record, the Advertising Club of Chennai is a premium advertising association in India, with a membership base of 700. This year marked 50 years for the club. The year was kicked off with the Living Legends Night, a special silver service dinner event in Chennai, at which the 50th year logo was unveiled and some of India’s advertising legends, including Piyush Pandey, Mohammed Khan, Alyque Padamsee, Christopher Rozario, Ravi Deshpande and Rajiv Menon, honoured. Later this year, there will be an international marketing and advertising summit, called Advertising Future Shock.

© 2006 agencyfaqs!