Mumbai : At The Advertising Club’s Effie awards for creative effectiveness, Ogilvy & Mather (O&M) made a comeback, beating last year’s winner Lowe Lintas to become Agency of the Year. Hindustan Unilever (HUL) appears on its way to a hat-trick, having bagged the prestigious Client of the Year trophy two years in a row.
O&M reclaimed top spot after winning several trophies on brands like Bournvita, Tata Sky and Star TV, which more than made up for having bagged only two Golds. Sister agency Soho Square won the Grand Effie for the Narendra Modi-BJP campaign. Speaking about O&M’s performance, chairman and chief creative officer, Piyush Pandey said, “What I feel best about is 49 shortlists. That means we are doing a lot of good work for many clients.
When it converts, it feels even better.” Abhijit Avasthi, until very recently national creative director (NCD) at the agency, said: “I feel there were a few pieces that deserved better. But a lot of the work that won here also won at our internal award the Envies. It proves that you can do great creative work that leads to great effectiveness.”
HUL won Gold for Kan Khajura Tesan, its mobile radio platform as well as a strong performance on Pond’s, Fair & Lovely and Red Label. Priya Nair, executive director, home care, HUL said: “I’m absolutely delighted, especially because these are awards for effectiveness,” adding that it was a vindication of the more experimental approach the MNC giant had to marketing.
Runner-up Lowe Lintas was a favourite with many sections of the crowd. It had reason to go back satisfied, having won a staggering seven Gold trophies on brands like HUL, Havell’s and Tanishq. Arun Iyer, NCD of Lowe Lintas, said that he was satisfied with the performance: “This time they’d made some changes in the calculation and included points for finalist entries as well. Ultimately, he who played the game well, won.
Since no Indian award is entirely free of conspiracy theories, it was speculated that giving points to finalists, a practice started this year, gave O&M an edge. However, a tally of the awards proves that even excluding finalists, O&M still is the clear winner albeit by a smaller margin. Second runner-up McCann-Erickson proved it was a strong No.3: stronger than it had been last year, winning on brands like Nestle, Coca-Cola and Perfetti. Prasoon Joshi, chairman, APAC, at McCann Worldgroup, said that the tally is inconsequential to him.
