Ad Club Cochin calls for entries for Pepper Awards

The Advertising Club of Cochin is gearing up to host the annual Pepper Awards, scheduled to take place on March 26. Now in its 4th edition, the award recognises creative entries from advertising agencies in South India. The deadline for submission of entries is March 5.

The contest is open to advertising agencies of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

The awards will be given out in about 22 categories. There is also a category of Kerala specific awards, which will cover segments such as jewellery, real estate, textile, hospitality, ayurveda, media and unpublished, of which Media is the new category that has been added this year. The award winners will be presented with gold, silver and bronze awards and certificates.

"The awards basically celebrate creativity and the hard work of the people. They also encourage the local agencies from Kerala," says an executive who has been associated with the awards for the past four years.

The Advertising Club of Cochin expects more than 1,500 entries for the competition. Last year, there were about 1,000 entries. "Each and every entry is viewed by the judges and there is no shortlisting of entries, which makes these awards even more credible," says the executive.

"Leading advertising agencies from South India will take part in Pepper 2010. It's a unique event in which luminaries from the South Indian creative fraternity come on a single platform to evaluate and celebrate the advertising success and challenges in a professional manner," says Sudeep Kumar, president, Advertising Club of Cochin, in a press note.

The competition will be open for several categories such as Agency of the Year; Advertiser of the Year; Art Director of the Year; Copywriter of the Year; Special Jury Award; Campaign of the Year; Press Campaign; TV Commercial; Corporate AV; Outdoor; Radio; Interactive - Web-based; POP; Direct Mailer; Photography; Packaging; Logo Design; Unpublished Works; PR and Promos.

So far, the club has not finalised any sponsors for this year. In 2009, it had sponsors such as The Hindu, Malayala Manorama, Mathrubhumi and Daily Thanthi.

In Pepper 2009, Mudra South was declared the Agency of the Year and Mathrubhumi was named Advertiser of the Year. Mudra also won the Campaign of the Year for SimplyMarry.com.

The Ad Club of Cochin, having 560 members, has organised creative award functions for the past 13 years. The club also organises seminars and workshops to enhance the creative abilities of advertising professionals in Kochi. It also runs an institute which provides a one year diploma course in advertising, media planning, creativity and copywriting.