It was a boisterous evening at the seaside lawns of the plush Taj Land?s End hotel, as ad agency Lowe Lintas managed to win itself the ?Agency of the year? honour at the Effie awards, with a total tally of 165 points. The champagne flowed quite literally, as Lowe agency executives popped the cork off a bottle and streamed its contents in mid air, once it became known that the agency had pipped agency Ogilvy & Mather to the number one spot with six golds, five silvers and five bronzes. Ogilvy & Mather was perched at second place with a tally of 130 points, which included three golds, three silvers and seven bronzes while McCann Worldgroup was in third position with 60 points, with one gold, two silvers and five bronzes.
Lowe?s six gold medals were for Idea (Honey Bunny, Telephone Exchange), Lifebuoy (Help a child reach five), Tanishq (Tanishq and Sridevi – Coming Back Home) and HUL (Kissan 100 per cent natural seeded). It won the best of show- Grand Effie for its Lifebuoy Roti Kumbh mela campaign for advertiser Hindustan Unilever. The agency?s three Gold Effies were for Vodafone (Made for you, Earmuffs) and Bournvita (Aadat). McCann finished third on the points tally. Among its metals was one for advertiser Coca-Cola (how Coca-Cola won the battle for Indian teens). JWT India was the fourth most awarded agency with 40 points, with three silvers and two bronzes.
The Effie awards stand for effectiveness in the market place. In its 13 years of existence, this has been the year with the highest number of entries. This year, the Effie saw 419 entries, a 20% jump from the 357 entries in the previous year. A total of 71 entries out of 177 shortlisted case studies were awarded for their effectiveness in marketing and advertising.
Ajay Kakar, chief marketing officer-financial services of the Aditya Birla Group and chairperson of Effie 2013 Committee said that these awards were all about performance in terms of sales and market share. ?It doesn?t start with an agency and it doesn?t end with an agency. It starts with work and ends with success. Thereafter, may the best man win. The awards process remains as robust as before. The jury has a predominance of clients (advertisers.) There are senior business heads and planning heads as well. This year, we brought in heads of media planning and buying agencies too. The judging is paperless. It is all electronic. These are the standards that help us differentiate from other awards and help us maintain our standards.?
Asked whether the standard of the Goafest Abbys will improve if the gates were thrown open to advertisers ? if they were to also comprise a good part of the jury, Kakar said, ?The Abbys are about creativity, while the Effie is about effectiveness. The two are distinct. The creative awards have always been judged by the creative fraternity. At the Ad Club, we try and represent the voice of the industry. Today, the voice is that these awards should be judged by the creative fraternity.?
The awards culminated with a brilliant display of fireworks. R Balakrishnan, chairman of Lowe said that good advertising work is always fun to watch. ?For us, the awards are about a night to party. Irrespective of whether we win or not. Just because we have won this year, it doesn?t mean that we are better than the next agency or that they aren?t as good as us. Winning and losing is part of the game. I just think of it as good fun.? In Balakrishnan?s view, good advertising agencies will continue doing great work irrespective of awards. He is a huge fan of the Bournvita Aadat campaign, executed by Ogilvy & Mather, which has a mom competing with her son in a running race. Piyush Pandey, executive chairman and creative director, South Asia, Ogilvy & Mather India congratulated Balki and said, ?It?s been a fantastic day and Lowe Lintas has done a fabulous job. They deserved to win.? When asked if Balakrishnan is likely to reconsider his participation in the Goafest Abbys, even as his agency has stayed out for ten long years, Balakrishnan answered that he had other reasons for visiting Goa. Such as a long stay at Piyush Pandey?s Goa beach house.
