INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - APRIL 1st - APRIL 15th - 2008
LEO BURNETT DETHRONES O&M, JWT AT NO. 2, TWO GRAND PRIX ABBYS EACH FOR BURNETT, JWT
For the first time, it’s Abbys at Goafest. All agencies, with the exception of Lowe and McCann, are here to slug it out for the main awards, most notably the five Grand Prixs, which are being considered the premier awards at the festival this year. First, the breaking news: O&M, which has held a virtual monopoly over the Abbys for many years, has ceded its numero uno position to Leo Burnett. A resurgent JWT, not really up there in the creative league till a few years ago, is the runner-up, with Piyush Pandey’s O&M trailing at No. 3.
Let us add a rider before telling you the whole story. With the coming together of the Ad Club and the Advertising Agencies Association of India to host one single award for the entire industry, the Abbys has done away with the Creative Agency Of The Year award, something the Men In Black (read O&M) have fiercely dominated over the years. The jury also decided to do away with the tally system that the Abbys followed. Focus only on Grand Prix.
The jury instead preferred the Cannes style of focusing only on the Grand Prixs in key categories—print, film, outdoor, integrated media and radio. When Leo Burnett chairman Arvind Sharma, said, “Like there is no Hollywood person of the year in a film awards ceremony, we do not believe that an advertising awards function should have an agency of the year award.” He added, “The Grand Prixs are the defining works of these awards, and if even one of the five is a contender for the Cannes grand prix, then I think we would have arrived.” Balki’s Lowe, as always, stayed away from the Abbys and Prasoon Joshi’s Mc-Cann-Erickson refused to enter, citing a waitand-watch policy this time around.
The most creative agency trophy has moved out of the grip of O&M and into the hands of Leo Burnett. It’s followed by JWT, and it’s only in third place that one finds the Men in Black. Contract Advertising—incidentally the last agency to have won the Agency of the Year Abby before O&M’s unbroken run began—is in fourth place.
Sources within the Goafest jury said that Leo Burnett has bagged the Grand Prix in both the print and outdoor category for its work on Luxor Highlighters while JWT bagged the Film Grand Prix for its work on Nike (cricket) as well as the Integrated Grand Prix for the Lead India campaign (The Times of India). The Radio Grand Prix goes to Mudra for Cycle Agarbatti. The film craft jury, which decided to have a grand prix for the category, though none was planned initially, gave its Grand Prix to Nirvana Films for the Neo Sports campaign.
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