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Follow UsWhile O&M once again donned the mantle of supremacy, the McCann-Coke combine won some significant awards to elbow its way into the spotlight
For all the pre-awards talk of some agency or the other standing up to O&M, no one actually expected any huge surprises at this year's Abby Awards. Needless to say, at the end of it all, no one was hugely surprised.
Certainly not when Diana Hayden - the hostess for the 36th Abby Awards ceremony, held in Mumbai last evening - announced that O&M was the Creative Agency of the Year for 2002. In retrospect, there never really was an argument on whether the agency could extend its run by one more year. And what little doubt persisted was quickly brushed aside as the evening progressed - and the trips made to the stage by the ‘men in black' began outnumbering those made by rival agencies by a sizeable margin. In retrospect, there really couldn't have been a different outcome.
Nothing speaks better than figures, and the figures settle the issue conclusively. O&M picked up 28 points at the awards, while second-placed McCann-Erickson India got 7 points - a quarter of O&M's tally. Enterprise Nexus and Mudra Communications shared the third spot with 6 points each, while Leo Burnett India, Publicis Ambience and Quadrant Communications tied for the fourth place with 5 points apiece. The combined tally of the five agencies that constitute the No 3 and No 4 slots is less than what O&M docked. So much for stretching the point…
So was it O&M all the way? No. McCann, for one, picked up some very significant awards, putting the spotlight on the agency. While Enterprise, Mudra, Ambience, Burnett and Quadrant (and, in a small way, Contract Advertising, Saatchi & Saatchi and Rediffusion-DY&R) broke O&M's march by picking up metals at regular intervals.
Before getting into the details, very briefly, here's how the points were tallied. Gold Abbys in the Single Ad and Campaign subsets carried two points, silver Abbys, one. For the Best Continuing Campaign of the Year and the Best Campaign of the Year (Special Abby categories), the gold carried four points, and silver, two. Winning entries in the Unpublished Work category were not awarded points.
O&M's 28 points came from a mix of two golds and 20 silvers. The agency won its first gold Abby for the ‘barber' commercial for Center Shock (for Single - Film, in the Foods, Beverages and Tobacco category), while the second came for the Amaron ‘claymation' campaign (in the Road Vehicles, Automotive Accessories etc category). O&M also picked up both the silver Abbys in the Best Continuing Campaign category (for Navbharat Times and Fevicol), and also won two silvers in the Campaign of the Year category (for Center Shock and Amaron). No gold was awarded in the Best Continuing Campaign category…
…but there was one for the Campaign of the Year. And it went to the McCann-Coke combine.
Although it managed only 7 points, McCann has lots to be proud of, with two gold Abbys and a silver. The first gold it won was for the ‘Thanda matlab…' campaign (in the Foods, Beverages and Tobacco category). The second - a Special Abby gold for ‘Thanda' - for the Campaign of the Year. And to add to the agency's cheer, National Creative Director Prasoon Joshi was named the Copywriter of the Year (though no points accrued to the agency from this). For the record, the Art Director of the Year award was not conferred this year.
Apart from O&M and McCann, three agencies won gold Abbys. Contract claimed one gold (it also won a silver) for a single press ad for Platinum (in the Clothing, Footwear & Accessories category), while Saatchi got its yellow metal for Ariel (in the Outdoor category). Interestingly, Virtual Marketing India won two golds - one for Mujhse Dosti Karoge (Internet Advertising), the other for Axe (Site Design for Brand/Company). Neither Saatchi nor Virtual Marketing added silver Abbys to their kitty.
Enterprise and Mudra picked up six silvers each, while Ambience, Burnett and Quadrant split 15 of the same equally. Rediffusion won four silver Abbys, Euro RSCG won three, while Lemon bagged two. Alok Nanda & Co, CHannel
Among the other awards given away this year were four Distinctive Recognition Awards. This year's recipients were advertising doyen Bobby Sista, media maven Roda Mehta, ad filmmaker-turned-middle-cinema-torchbearer Shyam Benegal and debonair model Kabir Bedi.
One of the highlights of this year's Abby Awards was the constitution of three new awards for the Best Actor, the Best Actress and the Best Director in television commercials. Adjudged by noted feature filmmakers Govind Nihalani, Mahesh Bhatt and Subhash Ghai, this year's awards went to Akhil Mishra (Best Actor, Aaj-Tak), Malaika Shenoy (Best Actress, Toshiba Dramatic Theatre) and Pradeep Sarkar (Best Director, Aaj-Tak). For the record, these three awards did not impact the overall points tally.
In what can qualify as one of the most keenly contested awards yesterday evening, three advertisers staked claim to this year's Creative Advertiser of the Year award. Amararaja Batteries (Amaron), Bennett Coleman & Co (The Times of India, The Economic Times and Navbharat Times) and Coca-Cola India (Coke) tied with 6 points each, narrowly edging out Perfetti India (Center Shock) by a one-point margin to share the honours. © 2003 agencyfaqs!
