This could go down as one of the biggest scams in the history of the Indian advertising industry. In an official communiqu?, the Advertising Club of Bombay (Ad Club), the organiser of the advertising industry?s annual festival Goafest, along with the Advertising Agencies Associations in India, has finally admitted that ?the club has discovered that this process breach has occurred in 29 instances involving multiple agencies, out of 4117 entries for the awards?. It also says ?As the awards have already been handed over for the current year, the club has decided to point out the instances of this breach to the respective winners and would appeal to their conscience and better judgment to voluntarily return the awards they have received?.
The Ad Club started investigating the matter after it received complaints shortly after the festival concluded alleging that ?a part of the Abby judging process was breached as a result of some of the jury members voting for advertisements produced by their own agencies?.
While the Ad Club management committee is holding the names of the culpable agencies close to its chest, Ajay Chandwani, director of Percept and chairman of the Creative Abbys, the awards of which are in the eye of the storm, said, ?It is not just the process which is the issue, it is also about the individuals? approach towards the creative awards. Each and every jury member signed the NDA (non disclosure agreement) and that they won?t vote for their own work.?
He also said the Ad Club management committee is examining various options to ensure that such incidents do not happen again. ?Earlier we used to have secret voting and people came up to us and said we are matured enough and therefore we should have open voting. However, we are now examining that. We are also examining the ?pre-abstain form?.?
Colvyn Harris, chief executive officer of JWT, and chairman of the Goafest, however, could not be contacted to get his views on this issue.
Ernst & Young, the auditors of the Goafest, along with the management committee arrived at the decision of 29 instances where multiple agencies violated the voting process. The Creative Abbys jury comprises the who?s who of the Indian advertising fraternity. The jury members include KV Sridhar, national creative director, Leo Burnett India for the print category, Agnello Dias, founder, Taproot India for the film category, Piyush Pandey, executive chairman and national creative director, Ogilvy and Mather for the integrated category, Josy Paul, chairman and chief creative officer, BBDO India for the radio category, Bobby Pawar, chief creative officer, Mudra Group, DDB?s Indian partner for the out-of-home and ambient category, Elsie Nanji, managing partner, Red Lion for the design category, Sidharth Rao, chief executive officer and co-founder of Webchutney for the interactive and digital category and Prakash Varma, director, Nirvana Films, for the film craft category.
This year, Ogilvy India took home the maximum number of metals. It won a total of 43 awards, which included one Grand Prix, three golds, nine silvers and 30 bronze awards. The Mudra Group followed with a total of 26 metals which included four golds, nine silvers and 13 bronze trophies.