Five Indian agencies score in Print at AP AdFest 2003

Five Indian agencies - Enterprise Nexus, O&M India, McCann-Erickson India, Saatchi & Saatchi and Leo Burnett India - find themselves among the winners in the Print category at the Asia-Pacific Advertising Festival (AP AdFest) 2003, currently underway at Pattaya, Thailand. The results of the Print awards - announced late last evening - include seven pieces of advertising produced in India last year. Of these, six won bronzes (O&M picked up three of the six), while one entry landed a silver - Enterprise's ‘cat-and-dog' ad for The Economic Times.

O&M won its three bronzes for the ‘baby in pram' ad for Center Shock, the ‘maut ka kuan' (Well of Death) ad for Fevicol, and the ‘organ transplant' ad for Hope (Human Organ Procurement & Education Trust). The last is an Ogilvy Healthcare client. Saatchi struck metal for its ‘clips' hoarding for detergent brand Ariel (the entry won a gold in the Outdoor category at this year's Abby Awards as well), while McCann's ‘crate' ad for Coca-Cola fetched the agency its bronze award. Burnett picked up its bronze for the ‘ozone layer' ad for Sanctuary Magazine. Interestingly, except for Burnett's ad for Sanctuary, all the other winning Indian entries at the AP AdFest have also won Abbys (in one form or the other) this year.

As far as India's score at the AP AdFest goes, this has been an improvement over last year. It may be recalled that at the AP AdFest 2002, India had bagged five bronze awards, courtesy O&M (two awards), Burnett, Saatchi and Quadrant Communications. This year, while Burnett and Saatchi have retained their place in the list with one bronze each, McCann has chipped in with a bronze. For its part, O&M has increased its tally to three bronzes. And Enterprise's headway into the ‘silver club' is another plus for Indian advertising. Seven awards (as compared to last year's five) so far.

And the operative words are ‘so far'.

For the awards in the Film category are to be announced only later this evening. Perhaps, Indian agencies might just have a few more awards to cart away…

So keep watching this space. © 2003 agencyfaqs!