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Who KAAN do it, Lowe or O&M?

The third Mirchi KAAN Awards, to be held today, will see O&M, Lowe, McCann Erickson, and Leo Burnett competing against each other

There is no dearth of awards to boost the morale of Indian advertising professionals. First it was the Abbys, then AAAI, followed by the numerous regional ad club awards. Now it’s the turn of the Mirchi KAAN Awards, which will be held on May 5.

But what the Bombay Ad Club’s Abbys or the AAAI award couldn’t do, the two-year-old Mirchi KAAN has done. It has pitched O&M, Lowe, McCann Erickson, and Leo Burnett against each other.

While agencies such as Leo Burnett, McCann Erickson, Lowe and David were already present at the previous year’s awards, this year Mirchi KAAN has been successful in roping in some new names such as O&M, Rediffusion DY&R, Contract, Everest, Percept, JWT and Mudra. In fact, the number of entries has also increased from 350 in the previous year to 550 this year.

Kaushik Ghosh, senior vice-president, marketing, Entertainment Network India Ltd (ENIL) – the title sponsor for this award – claims, “The fact that all these top agencies are participating proves the credibility of this award.”

He boasts, “We can claim higher participation than what Abby’s and AAAI witness. The popularity and effectiveness of radio has grown over the years.”

While Radio Mirchi just funds the awards, ‘Ernst and Young’ is responsible for the judging process. Like any other award, this one also has three ranks - gold, silver and bronze.

Like last year, the winners will be declared in the following categories -- Foods; Beverages; Toiletries and household care; Business products and services; Health and cosmetic care; Clothing, footwear & accessories, Consumer durables; Homes, décor and leisure; Automotive and accessories; Services for the household sector; Sports, entertainment, travel and leisure; Media; Public service/charity – fund raising; Retail outlets, fast-food stores, restaurants. Besides individual awards will also be conferred on the most outstanding ‘voice of the year’, ‘radio writer of the year’, ‘excellence in production’ and ‘client of the year’.

Further, Radio Mirchi will sponsor two radio creative writers below the age of 30 to the Cannes Advertising festival and will also refund the entry fees for the radio spots designated as the winner in the Gold category at the KAAN Awards, provided the entry has already made its way to Cannes 2006.

The panel of judges comprises renowned names such as Abhijeet Choudhary, Agnello Dias, Elsie Nanjie, Gangadharan Menon, K.S. Chakravarthy, K.V.Sridhar, Mohammed Khan, Piyush Pandey, Prahlad Kakkar, Prasoon Joshi, R. Balakrishnan, Rajat Dholakia, Ram Madhvani, Ram Sampath, Ravi Deshpande and Rekha Nigam.

© 2006 agencyfaqs!

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