Rediffusion, JWT, Alok Nanda, Adfactors, Interface in the fray for metal at NY Fest

As the New York Festivals draw closer to the final stage, more and more news of Indian agencies getting finalist nominations trickles in. And, this time Delhi agencies are showing some promise.

With Mudra Delhi, Rediffusion, Delhi too joins the New York Festivals finalist club with three finalist nominations in the apparel category. This is for the Spring Collection campaign on W, a women's clothing store in Delhi. While two nominations are in the print category, one is in outdoor.

Shruti Jain, general manager, Rediffusion, Delhi, who is quite excited about the nominations, said the fact that many Indian agencies were achieving finalists position at the NY Fest was great news.

Now in its 47th year, the 2004 New York Festivals has had 4,000 entries from companies in 62 countries, a dramatic rise from last year. "The competition this year was fierce, and to have achieved finalist status indicates that your work was in the top ten percent of advertising or design excellence in the world," says Michael Demetriades, executive director, New York Festivals.

Besides the hopefuls from Delhi, there are contenders from Bangalore and Mumbai.

Levi's 150 Years campaign, created by JWT Bangalore's Mukund Sharma and Vivek Kakkad, has achieved finalist status at the New York Festivals, 2004 Design, Outdoor and Print Award Competition.

In fact, the work for Levi's was also featured in this year's Clio Finals and the D&AD Showcase. Incidentally, the Levi's campaign had also won an ABBY silver this year in the Single Print category, one of the three ABBY wins for JWT Bangalore.

"Our first year with Levi Strauss also happened to be the 150th year for the company, so there was a lot of reading and understanding to be done. The results are there for everyone to see," says, Dhunji S Wadia, senior, vice-president and general manager, JWT Bangalore. "We will keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best," adds Wadia.

JWT Bangalore has had its taste of the metal at NY Fest. In 2002, the branch had won a WorldMedal for Spice Telecom's Go Slow campaign, a Gold in 2003 in AME Award (Advertising and Marketing Effectiveness) for Taj Mahal Tea and a Silver for Spice Telecom's SMS Campaign.

The group account director of R K Swamy/BBDO, Samarth Shrivastava from Mumbai, had a similar news to share with agencyfaqs! The agency has been nominated in the outdoor/ transit/ posters pharmaceutical category for work on Cremaffin, a laxative brand from Abbott laboratories India. The campaign is a joint effort of creative director Chandrashekhar Vaidya and Vivek Nayyar, who has written the copy.

The second finalist nomination is for 'Say No to Dowry' public service campaign (outdoor/ transit/ posters public service category) done for the Society of Human Rights, India. It has been created by Vaidya.

Alok Nanda & Company (ANC) from Mumbai too has received a congratulatory letter from NY Fest. It is for the direct mailer titled Datepad done for Kaya Skin Clinic's anti-aging solutions that has been selected as a finalist.

The direct mailer conceived by Alok Nanda, managing director and chief creative officer, ANC and Prasanna Sankhe, senior creative director, ANC, was previously shortlisted at the Clios Festival this year.

"We are keeping our fingers crossed this time, so that the outcome might be better for us," says an excited Sankhe. To his credit, Sankhe has a WorldGold Medal at the New York Festivals for the Western Union Notes campaign that he had done while at Ambience.

Among others who are elated about the finalist nominations are Adfactors, Mumbai for 'Sleeping Boy' in Outdoor/Transit/Poster: Philanthropic Appeal, and Interface Communications, Mumbai for Nib AD in the category of Print Advertising (social education). This press ad was done for Nanhi Kali, a special project of the K C Mahindra Education Trust, which educates underprivileged girl children. This ad has been created by Ashutosh Joshi, creative supervisor, art and Robby Mathew, creative director. © 2004 agencyfaqs!