Piyush Pandey to be a judge at D&AD Awards 2007

Recently, the D&AD executives were in India as part of a 22-city global tour. They spoke of the awards, the D&AD education programmes and how Indian creativity is finally getting it right

Piyush Pandey, executive chairman and national creative director, O&M India, has been invited to be a judge at the British D&AD Global Awards 2007. He will be on the jury panel for the Poster Advertising category. Pandey will be performing this role for the second time. Incidentally, Prasoon Joshi, regional creative director, South and South East Asia, McCann-Erickson, will also be amongst the judges at D&AD 2007.

When asked about India’s prospects for a Pencil this year, Pandey says, “I would rather not speculate on the awards topic! I’ll be more focused about judging the entries, rather than concentrating on the Indian ones only.”

That Pandey would be on one of the D&AD juries was disclosed to agencyfaqs! by Heloise Hooton, deputy director, awards programme, D&AD. Hooton, and Laura Woodroffe, deputy director, professional development, D&AD, were in India recently, to popularise the awards. Their trip to India is part of a broader 22-city global tour, including such places as Japan, China, North America, South America, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Toronto and parts of Europe.

“Largely, the year 2006 has witnessed a number of changes in the D&AD structure,” says Hooton. “For instance, we introduced the Gaming category in a big way, to include PC games and multiplayer online games.” Further, D&AD got a new identity this year, with a new look and logo. Its Ambient category was split into two, Street Marketing and Experiential, to simplify things. The Integrated category had been split into Integrated Advertising and Integrated Design. “But that didn’t work, so now we’re back to having a unified Integrated category,” Hooton says.

The D&AD is also contemplating changing one of its oldest traditions. So far, the awards ceremony has always been held in London; it is being speculated that the venue may change to other countries in the future to encourage a sense of equality amongst the participating nations. But this is still in the ideation stage, Woodroffe reveals.

She discloses another interesting nugget of information: Almost 70 per cent of the work entered in the D&AD comes from outside the UK, which is a good sign of equal participation from all countries.

When asked about Asia’s contribution to the overall D&AD entries, Hooton remarks, “China is gaining ground fast on the creative front. We do get rather interesting work from Japan, Singapore and India. These three are amongst the top 10 nations which enter at the D&AD.”

Then why, in her view, has India not bagged a single Pencil so far at the D&AD?

“Well, India did pretty well at the 2006 awards,” Hooton says. “It got eight pieces of work in our annual and one nomination, which amounts to a bronze of sorts. Basically, Indian advertising is now focusing more on Indian nuances, local flavour and the ‘celebration’ of the Indian spirit, which is a step in the right direction.”

She adds that language is no barrier, and that although translation and a detailed report on the ad helps, a brilliant idea cuts through all these boundaries. “Our trip here has made us get a good understanding of the Indian market. According to me, television will continue to dominate this market for a while, while digital media is on the verge of explosion here,” Hooton continues.

D&AD is also consciously trying to give a push to its educational programmes aimed at students, tutors, practitioners in the advertising field and other professionals. “Around one third of D&AD’s revenues come from the awards; the rest of it is what constitutes a majority,” says Hooton.

For the record, D&AD is a not-for-profit organisation that represents the international design, advertising and creative communities. It sets industry standards, educates and inspires the next generation and promotes the importance of creativity, innovation and ideas within the business community. The D&AD Student Global Awards showcase the best emerging design and advertising talent from hundreds of colleges and universities around the globe and promote it to the creative community worldwide.

© 2006 agencyfaqs!