It was an unlikely position for rivals GroupM and Lodestar UM at the Media Abby awards announced on Friday.
The two traditionally compete tooth and nail at the Goafest. But for once, they found themselves in a tie with six metals each. GroupM’s Mindshare won one gold, two silver, two bronze and one grand prix, while Lodestar had one gold, two silver and three bronze metals.
The industry was divided following the awards, with some saying Mindshare was the clear winner, given that it had a grand prix, the first one given out at the Media Abby in the Goafest’s seven-year history.
“The judging standards were tough,” said Ashish Bhasin, chairperson of the Media Abby, declining to comment on who was the real winner of the evening.
But the Mindshare contingent, with its award-winning work for Hindustan Unilever’s Surf Excel (for which it won the grand prix as well as a gold), was clearly in a mood to celebrate.
Besides Surf Excel, Mindshare walked away with metals for Kissan, Nike, Axe and Kwality Walls. Lodestar, on the other hand, had work for Amul, Thums Up, Coca-Cola, and Indica Vista to its credit.
Other significant winners included GroupM agencies Maxus and MEC, with five and four metals, respectively. Sam Balsara-owned Madison Group’s Madison Media Infinity walked away with three metals.
Out of the 628 entries in media, 29 trophies were given out across 10 agencies, indicating how tough the judging standards were, said industry executives. Last year, 39 trophies were given across eight agencies out of 537 entries.
Entries in both years were whittled down after two rounds of judging, and at every stage, the come-down in tally was dramatic, pointed out Bhasin. “I won’t say the quality of work was bad. The work was good. It was the judging standards that were very high,” he said.
The brands that bagged gold included Reliance 3G (agency MEC), Samsung Galaxy Tab (Starcom), Parachute Advansed Ayurvedic Hair Oil (Madison Media Infinity) and Colgate Dental Cream (MEC), besides HUL’s Surf Excel.
