Effie Awards 2002 slated for end October

The Bombay Ad Club has announced that the Effie Awards 2002 - awarded for effectiveness in advertising and communication - are being given away towards the second half of October this year. The tentative date for the award ceremony has been marked as October 21, 2002, while entries for the Awards close on September 12, 2002.

According to Kaushik Roy, executive director, Mudra Communications, and member, Bombay Ad Club, the first round of judging is scheduled for end September. "There will be two rounds of judging," he told agencyfaqs!. "The first will be based on the presentation of individual case studies alone. From this, we shall create a shortlist, and the shortlisted entries will then be judged along with their respective creatives in round two." This second round of judging is scheduled for the first week of October.

For the record, this is the second year that the Effies are being awarded in India. It may be recalled that the Effie was introduced in this country for the first time last year, to coincide with the India Advertising Festival - Synergy 2001. Last year's Effies were given away in conjunction with the Abby and Emvie Awards, and, in the process, managed drawing a fair amount of agency interest.

Surfers on this site may also recall that last year, a total of eight Effies had been awarded (18 entries had been shortlisted for the Awards). These included a Grand Effie, one gold Effie and three silver and bronze Effies each. The biggest beneficiary of last year's Awards was Contract Advertising, which had picked up both the Grand Effie and the lone gold - for Cadbury's Milk Treat. Lowe (then Lowe Lintas), HTA and MTV India had each pocketed one silver Effie, while FCB-Ulka, O&M and McCann-Erickson India had split the three bronze Effies between them.

Considering 2001 was a debut year for the Effies in India, the Bombay Ad Club had received a sizeable number of entries - approximately 60. Nowhere near the number of entries the annual Abby Awards receive, of course, but then it won't really be fair drawing such comparisons. As Roy points out, sending entries for the Effies isn't easy. "In the case of creative awards, all you need to do is pull out creatives and enter them. For the Effies, good, sound case studies need to be created methodically."

He adds that the Ad Club is not looking at numbers alone. "We want good entries… I think that is critical. Yes, we would also want more entries. We are expecting a 10-to-15-per cent increase here. Anything more than that would give us great joy." Incidentally, the official sponsor for this year's Effie Awards is Yahoo! India. © 2002 agencyfaqs!