India wins 19 Pencils at D&AD Awards

McCann and JWT win 6 Pencils each, followed by Ogilvy with 4 Pencils.

The Judging Week for the 53rd D&AD awards has concluded at London's Truman Brewery. The D&AD Awards this year saw high participation, with 85 countries and 197 of the world's top creative agencies vying for the 'most difficult award to win'.

India has won 19 pencils this year. JWT India and McCann Erickson have won 6 Pencils each.

McCann won the first Pencil in the Art Direction category for

Perfetti Van Melle Fruits

. The same entry also won four other Pencils in Crafts for Advertising, Crafts for Design, Graphic Design and Outdoor Advertising categories. The agency's sixth Pencil came for the same brand's 'Tangerine' campaign.

Meanwhile, JWT's lucky charm proved to be Nike India's 'Make Every Yard Count'. The entry has won Pencils in Branded Film Content & Entertainment, Digital Marketing, Film Advertising, as well as three Pencils in the Film Advertising Crafts category.

Ogilvy & Mather India won three Pencils. The agency won two Pencils for Pernod Ricard's 'Sufi Rock' campaign campaign in Art Direction and Crafts for Design category. The third Pencil came for Mondelez India's 'Buffering' campaign in the Branded Film Content & Entertainment category.

Handloom Picture Company won a Pencil in the Film Advertising Crafts category for its 'Mute. Unmute. Pause.' series of films. In the Graphic Design category, BBDO India (Gurgoan) won a Pencil for Visa India's 'DREAM2ADVANCE' campaign. In the same category, Mudra Communications' work for Volkswagen Group - Bi-Xenon Headlamps won a Pencil too. Lastly, Grey Group won a Pencil in Writing for Advertising category for Procter & Gamble's 'Positive and Negative Stories'.

While the winning entries have been announced on the site, the winners will have to wait till May 21 to see which Pencil they have won. The Pencils given out by D&AD - Wood, Graphite, Yellow, Black and White - are one of the most respected awards in the creative industry. It is pertinent to note that Wood Pencils were formerly known as the In-Book winners, while Graphite Pencils used to be the nominations.

D&AD's CEO, Tim Lindsay, commented, "It's been a very special year for D&AD Judging. We've flung open the doors of our new home at the Truman Brewery in East London, so members of the public can come and see how D&AD makes its decisions. A Pencil is the toughest creative award on Earth to win, and we're proud of the rigour the judges apply to their decisions. After all, their names end up in The Book, along with the winners."

The three-day judging process saw 848 Pencils being awarded in total. Out of these, UK took home the lion's share of 240 Pencils. US followed close with 145 Pencils. Brazil, Germany and Japan jointly have the third country-wise ranking, with their tally of 44 Pencils.

Out of all the global agencies, AMV BBDO got 21 Pencils, R/GA got 18 and BBDO New York got 13 Pencils.

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