<font color="#FF0033"><b>Abby Awards 2004:</b></font> Hutch has vision to raise the bar: Renuka Jaypal

Here's an interesting hypothesis. Let us, for a moment, assume that all the Hutch advertising that we've seen done over 2003 is the creation of some in-house agency - or an independent agency that has entered only the Hutch work for the 2004 Abbys. Now let's look at the awards that the work created for Hutch has won at this year's Awards. Three gold Abbys, two silver Abbys, one Special Abby gold (for Campaign of the Year) and one Special Abby silver (for the Best Continuing Campaign). Seven awards that add up to 14 points, that is.

Now, returning to our hypothesis, if Hutch advertising were the creation of an in-house or independent agency, it would mean that that agency would be the No 2 in this year's Abby tally - well ahead of McCann-Erickson India (8 points), and within a stone's throw of Ogilvy (19 points, if one subtracted the 14 Hutch points from O&M's final score of 33).

Such was the effect that O&M's fascinating Hutch campaign had on this year's Abby jury. And as a quick disclaimer for cooking up a creative hypothesis, may we add that Ogilvy has rightfully earned each and every one of those 14 points for creating one of the best-loved and most-talked-about campaigns in India's recent advertising history.

It goes without saying that the client, Hutchison Telecom (who also won the Creative Advertiser of the Year award on Saturday), merits more than a fair share of the credit for not only backing a simple, single-minded advertising idea, but also for keeping the spirit of the creative thought intact and undiluted right through the campaign. And Renuka Jaypal, national business director, O&M India, who heads the account, is quick to acknowledge the client's role in making the advertising a hit. "I have always told them (Hutch) that we are a good agency with some great teams, but the good work we do is only because of our clients," she says. "We in advertising say that clients get the work they deserve, and this is usually meant in a derogatory sense, but in the case of Hutch, I think it is the biggest compliment. They get great advertising simply because they deserve it."

Jaypal adds that it is the desire to do great work that sets clients like Hutch apart from the rest. "There are very few clients who have the clarity, guts and vision to raise the bar. Hutch is one such client, and they've always done it with Ogilvy. You must also realize that owing to the nature of the Hutch account, we are obliged to do a lot of product campaigns, and very little thematic advertising. Yet, the client has given us the latitude to express product ideas in simple thematic executions, which is why we have been able to win a silver in the Best Continuing Campaign category as well."

Jaypal is also extremely pleased to see Mahesh V and Rajiv Rao pick up the Copywriter of the Year and Art Director of the Year awards for the Hutch campaign. "Rajiv and Mahesh are so blindingly creative, and are yet extremely simple people - which shows in the advertising they do," she says. "I am so happy for them. And, of course, we always have Piyush's (Pandey, executive chairman & national creative director, O&M India) vision and creative experience to depend on."

The 14 points that Hutch won Ogilvy is evidence of the fact that one great campaign is often all it takes to make a clean sweep of any award show. Surely, in the case of the Hutch campaign, the party line should now read: ‘Wherever the campaign goes, the awards and accolades follow.' © 2004 agencyfaqs!