O&M, Burnett, Quadrant and Saatchi are Indian stars at AP AdFest

agencyfaqs! News Bureau

MUMBAI

O&M India, Leo Burnett India, Quadrant and Saatchi & Saatchi are four Indian agencies that have given Indian advertising reason to cheer at the recently-concluded Asia Pacific Advertising Festival (AP AdFest) 2002, held in Thailand. The agencies, between themselves, have returned with five bronze awards, apart from a handful of Finalist nominations.

O&M won two bronzes: one for the M-Seal ‘will' commercial (predictably), the other for the Fevicol's ‘bus' commercial. The Fevicol commercial, with its captivatingly ‘rustic' background score (by Ehsaan and Loy), also won O&M an award for Best Music. Three O&M ads also made it to the Finalist list: these were the ‘brothers' commercial for Yahoo! India; the ‘doctor' print ad, also for Yahoo!; and the print campaign for Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC).

Leo Burnett won its bronze for the ‘fishbowl' print ad for Bajaj Fans. Burnett also won a Finalist nomination for the ‘snake' commercial for Bajaj Midea Table Fans. Saatchi & Saatchi won a bronze for the visually stunning ‘beehive' print ad for Zandu Honey. This ad, incidentally, also won an award at this year's Abby Awards (in the Unpublished Work category).

Speaking about O&M's achievements, Piyush Pandey, group president & national creative director, O&M, said, "We have been winning at the AdFest quite consistently now. Of course, last year was a bit better for O&M as we won the Best of Show (for the Post-Its campaign), but it still feels good winning." Agnello Dias, executive creative director, Leo Burnett India, too is quite pleased with the results. "Burnett had won at the AdFest year before last. Last year we didn't win, so it's nice to have good work winning again."

Quadrant Communications has also won one bronze award and one Finalist nomination at the AdFest. Reporting this to agencyfaqs!, KS Gopal, creative director, Quadrant Communications, reveals that the 'owl' print ad for the Toshiba televisions picked up a bronze award. Gopal also reveals that the print campaign for Toshiba won a Finalist nomination. "The interesting thing about this campaign is that it did not win any award locally," says Gopal. "Which is pretty strange. Naturally, I'm happy."

Incidentally, this is the second year running that Quadrant has had a good showing at the AP AdFest. Last year, the agency picked up an award for the famous 'football pitch' commercial for Akai. © 2002 agencyfaqs!