Grey India wins a bronze at Effies for ‘Incredible India’

Grey Worldwide India has bagged a bronze in the Travel and Tourism category at the recently concluded EACA Euro Effies Awards held at Brussels. Grey Worldwide has thus become the first Indian agency to have won the much coveted Euro Effie Award.

The agency won the bronze for its popular global ‘Incredible India’ campaign (2005-06).

The ‘Incredible India’ campaign has won Grey Worldwide many laurels. Earlier in September 2006, it won a silver at the Asian Travel & Tourism Creative Awards 2006 held in Singapore. So, this is the agency’s second consecutive success on foreign soil.

The EACA Euro Effies are the Gold Standard in Commercial Communications Effectiveness Awards. It rewards not just traditional advertising, but campaigns from any discipline that have achieved proven effectiveness in two or more European markets. As the competition is open to agencies across the European continent, these are the toughest Effies to win.

The ‘Incredible India’ campaign for 2005-06 was aimed at attracting tourists to visit India. The campaign was given a kitsch look and was targeted at tourists who saw the country as a destination suited to fulfil their thirst for exploring areas such as Yoga, Ayurveda, spirituality and wildlife. The campaign was commissioned by the ministry of tourism, Government of India, to persuade affluent tourists from the US, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East to visit India. The campaign used channels such as print and outdoor media, interactive marketing activity and direct mailing to reach out to the concerned target group.

Announcing the win, Ashutosh Khanna, chief operating officer, Grey Worldwide, says, “Winning a Euro Effie is a pride in itself. We are now the first agency in India to be honoured with this award. The ‘Incredible India’ campaign brings together Grey Worldwide, G2, Grey Interactive and Mediacom to deliver a truly impactful campaign as well as a new benchmark in effective communication.”

Prathap Suthan, national creative director, Grey Worldwide, says, “Being nominated for the Euro Effies was an achievement in itself. Now that we have won the award, it makes us even more proud. The campaign has been the combined effort of all our departments and our clients – Amitabh Kant and Leena Nandan. What makes this moment even better is that last week at the World Travel Awards in the Caribbean Islands, India was voted Asia’s leading destination and the commercial was voted the World’s Leading Travel Destination Television Commercial. All of this should essentially redefine the potential and the trajectory of this campaign from now on.”

© 2006 agencyfaqs!