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Big names, such as Ogilvy & Mather, Leo Burnett, Creativeland Asia and Grey, which are staying away from this year’s Creative Abbies, the country’s foremost creative awards held during the annual Goafest at the end of this month, are putting their might behind a new set of advertising awards instituted by the internationally recognised organisation D&AD.
To be held for the first time in India next month in partnership with a local non-profit body Kyoorius, the D&AD Awards were likely to attract close to 1,000 entries from 321 organisations, sources said.
The Creative Abbies, on the other hand, have received a little over 2,000 entries from 175 organisations, a third less from last year, when the number of creative entries alone was nearly 3,000.
“The drop was expected given that big names are not participating this year,” said Arvind Sharma, president, Advertising Agencies Association of India, which together with the Advertising Club of Bombay organises the Goafest every year.
“Typically, the big agencies send entries in multiples of 250. This has not happened this year. So, yes, there is a drop, but it is not as dramatic as perceived by many.”
Overwhelming response
Kyoorius, in contrast, had got confirmations from most advertising agencies barring McCann and JWT, its founder Rajesh Kejriwal said.
Even Lowe Lintas, which has stayed away from the Creative Abbies for over a decade, will participate indirectly through its Delhi-based advertising agency Pickle Lintas. McCann is not participating in this year’s Creative Abbies as well, sources said.
“The response has been overwhelming if you keep in mind that this is the inaugural year of the awards,” Kejriwal said.
“D&AD is known for its stringent standards of judging and agencies realise there is need for an unbiased, critical set of awards,” he said.
The judging for the Kyoorius D&AD Awards will happen between May 13 and May 15 in Mumbai by a mix of international and Indian jurors. Abhijit Avasthi, national creative director, O&M, Senthil Kumar, national creative director, JWT, Sonal Dabral, chairman and chief creative officer, DDB Mudra Group, and Agnello Dias, chairman and co-founder, Taproot, are the four Indian jurors on the eight-member panel.
The international jurors include Rosie Arnold, deputy executive creative director, Bartle Bogle Hegarty, Niel Dawson, partner at London-based creative hotshop Dawson Pickering, Graham Kelly, regional executive creative director, Isobar, and Woon Siew Hoh, regional executive creative director, Hakuhudo.
Arnold, an internationally recognised creative talent who had been the president of the D&AD Awards in the past, would chair the jury, Kejriwal said.
Unfortunate overemphasis
Interestingly, the judging for the creative as well as allied awards — media, publisher, broadcaster and digital — at Goafest would commence shortly, chairman of the 2014 Goafest Organising Committee Srinivasan Swamy said.
“There has been this overemphasis on awards during Goafest over the years, which I think has taken away from the core purpose of organising this festival. There are multiple things that happen at Goafest as at Cannes. It is time some attention is also devoted to the conclaves, seminars and knowledge sessions that happen at Goafest,” he said.
Measures
“Yes, there were some embarrassing moments last year, where awards were recalled and reinstated, but we are making sure this does not happen again and I believe that agencies will be back again in full force next year,” he added.
Among measures to improve the judging process this year will be a 10-day window between the first and second rounds of judging for the creative awards, where comments and feedback will be invited from the industry.
The organising committee was also expected to give auditors KPMG more time to do rigorous back-checks to find out if agencies were cheating, Swamy added.
