rmg david, Grey, Mudra South, JWT Mumbai, Canco finalists at NY Fest

With just a day to go before the winners of this year's New York Festivals are announced, the list of finalist nominations from India only seems to be growing. So after JWT, Bangalore, and Mudra Communications, Delhi, it is the turn of the two offices' counterparts in Mumbai and in the South to share the news of a few more nominations. Along with, of course, a few other agencies from across the country that also find themselves on the merit list.

JWT, Mumbai, has achieved a finalist position by virtue of two campaigns - a single press ad for Levi's Reversibles, and an ad for Promise anti-cavity toothpaste in the outdoor/transit/posters category.

Describing the ads, D Ramakrishna, creative head of JWT, Mumbai, says, "The first is a simple wordless demonstration of the Levi's ‘Reversibility'. The second, a typographic look at Promise's proposition." For the record, the Levi's ad has been created by Sandeep Bomble, senior creative director, while the Promise ad has been the joint effort of creative director, Joseph De Souza and Jacob Attokaren.

Incidentally, the Levi's ad was also shortlisted at this year's D&AD Awards. In fact, the Chennai office also has a nomination for Reynolds Pens for single press.

When asked how he felt about the nominations, Ramakrishna replied in jest, "It's great to be nominated at NY. That's where Madison Avenue is, right?"

From the south, the South integration of Mudra Communications has bagged three nominations under the print and direct mailer category.

The two nominations under press include campaigns done for Epson and Duroflex Mattress, while Cycle Agarbathis has been nominated under the direct mailer category. On the occasion of being nominated, S Radhakrishnan, executive vice-president, Mudra South, says, "What we have got is building upon awards that we got last year on brands such as Peter England, Duroflex and Paragon. This year, we have managed cut-through work on other categories as well, and bag nominations on brands such as Epson, Duroflex and Cycle Agarbathis. Our clients have backed us completely in our efforts to do brand-building work. We expect that Mudra South will manage to pick up awards as well."

Sanjay Daiv (art director) and Vijayan Jacob (copywriter) are the brains behind the Cycle Agarbathis mailer. While the print nominee for Epson was conceptualized by Saurabh V Doke (art director) and his team, Pavi Krishnan, (art director) has worked on the Duroflex ad.

Speaking on behalf of the creative team, Jagdish Acharya, executive creative director, Mudra South, says, "We are extremely elated about this. All the nominations are for ads done for our mainstream clients. Our aim is to make all our work edgy and win awards on at least a few."

In Delhi, rmg david has won a nomination at the NY Fest in the 2004 Design, Outdoor and Print Advertising Competition. The finalist entry is for a hoarding done for World Wildlife Fund (WWF), India, titled ‘Nests'. The campaign has been shortlisted in the outdoor: environmental issues, category.

‘Nests' is the brainchild of Amit Nandwani, creative consultant, rmg david, and art-directed by his partner Rohit Devgun, also creative consultant, rmg david. "Needless to say, the campaign was done under the supervision of Josy Paul, country head & national creative director, rmg david," says Nandwani.

The NY Fest finalist nomination apart, the hoarding entry has already won a One Show bronze Pencil and a silver Abby this year. In fact, the work has been selected for inclusion in the prestigious The Work 04, which features the best advertising from Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

Earlier this year, rmg had won a bronze medal at the NY 2004 Films Festival in the pharmaceutical category. It was a TVC for aphrodisiac One Plus Gold. The film was conceived by Nandwani and directed by Prasad Raghavan, now creative director, Saatchi & Saatchi India. And last year, the agency had won a finalist nomination for a poster done for Thofah, an eco-friendly store in Chennai.

"It feels great. We're pretty excited about it and are keeping our fingers crossed. If we win, this would be our second metal at NY Fest this year," adds Nandwani.

For Grey, Bangalore, the ‘Nothing else is 69' campaign for Lee has won it a finalist nomination at the New York Festivals.

In fact, the fall winter vintage print campaign for Lee: 69 created by Grey, Bangalore, had recently won a gold at the Chennai Ad Club awards.

An elated Sanjay Menon, regional creative director and associate vice-president, Grey, Bangalore, says, "The celebrations have already begun. The entire team of me, Anirudha Mukhedkar, Sangeeta Velegar, Padmaja Chandrashekar and Anil Rajagopal is extremely positive about the outcome."

Darshan Mehta, president, Arvind Brands, shares the enthusiasm of his creative agency. "We are very excited about the prospect of winning the nomination, and are looking forward to earning laurels for our communication, just like we have in our fashion circles," he says.

Canco Advertising from Mumbai has won a nomination for its print advertisement captioned ‘Tiger Claw' in the public service category. Created for HDFC, the campaign is a public service message, which HDFC keeps doing as a part of its corporate social responsibility programme.

While the copy credits go to Neelam Lakhani, art inputs have come from Dhananjay Khotpal. Sharing the news of achieving a finalist position at the NY Fest, Ramesh Narayan, managing director, Canco Advertising, says, "We normally do not send our work for awards. This being our 20th year, we decided to enter some of the work done by us in the public service domain for this award. I am obviously quite delighted to make the finals in our first foray." © 2004 agencyfaqs!