Bates 141 grabs the Yahoo! Big Idea Chair

The Yahoo! Big Idea Chair, which was so far part of the Effies each year, has now made a place of its own. The awards will henceforth be an independent event, with this year's edition being held last evening, just a few days ahead of the Effies.

Originally launched in the United States, the Big Idea Chair award has evolved to become a uniquely global award, which recognizes creative work in the digital community.

On the quality of campaigns, he says, "They were great, but are we at par at with global campaigns? I think, not yet, but we're surely getting there."

For the awards, Yahoo! received 183 entries from various creative and media agencies in India. Eventually, Bates 141 bagged the coveted Yahoo! Big Idea Chair Award for their Virgin Mobile campaign -- 'Indian Panga League'. The media agency for the campaign was Mindshare.

The Yahoo! Big Idea Chair winning campaign was selected on creativity in relation to the concept, originality of the marketing initiative, relevance to the brand and integration of marketing campaigns.

A delighted Sonal Dabral, managing partner, India and head of creative for Asia, Bates 141, said, "We're very excited. We're always happy when we have not only a big idea, but a great execution as well. So, we're very happy with this recognition."

In the Best Rich Media Ad category, the gold went to Interface Business Solutions for its Tata Docomo 'Diet SMS' campaign. Webchutney won silver for its work on Airtel 'Songcatcher'; while the media agency that won for this campaign was Madison. Here, the winners were selected on creativity in relation to concept, best use of ad format and execution (deployment of different techniques), art direction for navigation, and audio and visual (where applicable).

In the second category, that is, Best Engagement Idea, the gold went to Creativeland Asia for Hippo's 'Consumers Become Inventory Trackers'. Bates 141 won silver for Virgin Mobile's 'Indian Panga League' again, along with media agency, Mindshare. The campaigns were selected on their ability to engage users on the banner ad, uniqueness of the ad concept, execution with the ability to arouse interest, and engage participation and usability.

In the Best Mobile Solution category, Tribal DDB bagged the gold for its campaign for Idea Cellular, 'Idea tree - Use mobile save paper'. Mindshare was the media agency on this account as well. Mindshare also won silver for its work on Quaker Oats' 'Mission for India Healthy Heart'. The winners here were selected on creativity in relation to concept, that is, use of mobile technology to target on-the-go 'mAudiences', art direction for navigation, audio and visual, and campaign result, that is, the ability to meet the objective, efficiency/integration of mobile technology.

Bagging the gold for Idea had the Tribal DDB team cheering aloud. Max Hegerman, president, Tribal DDB told afaqs!, "A lot of credit goes to our client, who not only provides us support, but even challenges us to push the envelope in terms of creativity and ideas. In fact, we're trying to do suggest such creative ideas for other clients as well."

In the fourth category, Best Digital Brand Solution, Creativeland Asia won gold for its campaign on Hippo again. In the same category, Webchutney won its second silver for Tata Tea's 'Jaago Re' campaign. The media agency on this campaign was Madison. The campaigns were selected on efficiency of the role played by digital in the marketing plan, relevance with the brand, and uniqueness of the campaign with respect to the use of digital media.

On the wins, Raj Kurup, founder and creative chairman, Creativeland Asia says, "Right after it got applauded as one of the best social media case-studies in the world at the Twitter Conference in San Francisco, it's nice to win two golds for the Hippo Twitter activity at Yahoo! Big Idea Chair."

Nishi Kant, creative director, Webchutney commented, "We entered only two campaigns that we thought had chances of winning, and went on to win silvers for both. So, we're really ecstatic."

The entries were judged by eminent members from the advertising, creative and media fraternity, including Rajaram Narayanan, VP Lakmé and Haircare, Unilever; Kunal Jeswani, country head, Ogilvy One; Alok Bharadwaj, senior VP, Canon India; Anil Nair, managing partner, Digital Law & Kenneth; Karl Gomes, marketing consultant, emerging media strategist and creative technologist; Arun Tadanki, MD, Yahoo! India; and Nitin Mathur, senior director marketing, Yahoo! India.

Discussing the awards, Tadanki said, "Digital advertising provides an opportunity for brand marketers to give life to fresh, dynamic and unbridled ideas. The award celebrates innovation, creativity and the elusive big idea. We at Yahoo! are committed to grow the digital ecosystem with the help of our partners, to showcase the power of digital and to help brands foster an online relationship with its consumers."

The awards were preceded by a panel discussion that featured Sameer Sathpathy, head marketing, consumer products business, Marico; adman Prahlad Kakkar; Gowthaman Ragothaman, leader, South Asia, MindShare; Sanjay Tripathy, EVP marketing, HDFC Standard Life; Nitin Mathur, senior director marketing, Yahoo! India; and Graham Kelly, executive creative director, OgilvyOne. The discussion was moderated by Suresh Venkat, executive producer, CNBC TV18. The panel members discussed the 'Science, Art and Scale' of digital advertising strategies. The conversation touched subjects such as clients' readiness to spend on digital; whether India is keeping up with the global growth in digital advertising; how digital could build or break a brand's reputation and more.