Mumbai: The Advertising Club has been curating many idea exchange and awards platforms that celebrate extraordinary creative work. ABBY Awards presented by The Advertising Club is one such award that has been held for the past 50 years. Held every year at the prestigious Goafest, the awards have gone on to become the most coveted creative recognition in the Industry. However, it has taken an unprecedented happening – the COVID 19 and associated Lockdown, to break this consistency for the first time in the history of ABBY awards.
The Pandemic has most certainly thrown new challenges and has disrupted the schedules of many reputed and popular Global events. It has brought about changes which were hitherto unheard of. Despite these very challenging circumstances, the spirit of ABBYs was high and we received more than 2500 entries, which was extremely heartening.
The Organising Committee of ABBY Awards discussed the probability of holding or not holding the awards at length on multiple occasions. Given the current business environment and outlook, The Advertising Club and AAAI have unanimously decided that the money towards the submission of the entries be refunded and the awards be paused for the year. This is in the interest of the A&M community, given the need for cost optimization. A sum of Rs.1,40,00,000 (One crore forty lakhs) received through submission of entries, thus 99% of the money received, have been refunded.
Going forward, in the best interest of the entrants, we are contemplating submission of two years of work in the coming year so that they will not lose out on an opportunity to enter the good work done this year.
Commenting on the situation Partho Dasgupta, President, The Advertising Club said “We stand with the A&M community during these difficult times. It has been an unprecedented year requiring unprecedented decisions. In such circumstances, it is most important to optimize costs and focus on delivering business efficiencies. Given the pressure on cost and our focus on driving the industry’s growth agenda, it was imperative to pivot towards facilitating reduction in expenditure. We are sure that the tide will soon turn and we will see a definite recovery that will allow us to come back better and stronger.”
The Advertising Club will continue to work on behalf of the Advertising & Marketing industry and is optimistic that things will soon return to normalcy. The apex industry body will take fresh stock of the situation just before the commencement of the festive season.
