Organises first ever internal award show to appreciate the best works of 2012-13, Amitabh Bachchan comes as guest of honour
Sohini Sen | Mumbai | December 17, 2013
Who needs big award shows to recognise your work, when you are one of the biggest agencies of the country? Ogilvy surely doesn't.
O&M, Mumbai organised their first ever, internal award show - suitably called 'The Envies' - on December 16. The show, they hope, will become an annual event and grow in degree and reach. There would be 25 winners each year vying for the Envies, but this year there were 35 - since it is the launch year. Incidentally, Ogilvy boycotted the Goa Fest earlier this year.
“You all know that we don't take part in local award shows. But you all (present here) do so many nice works, that it becomes essential to appreciate it properly. The envies should make you feel that envy - so that you think, 'Oh I wish I had done that work myself' and then better your work even more. There lays the positive connotation of the term for us,” Piyush Pandey, Executive Chairman & National Creative Director Ogilvy & Mather India said during the opening speech.
The 35 awards were chosen from over 350 entries from across India. These included work done for different mediums. The 10 member jury which helped them in the process consisted of Agnello Dias (Taproot), Akshay Kapnadak (McCann Erickson Advertising), Arun Iyer (Lowe Lintas), Ashish Chakravarty (McCann Erickson), Malvika Mehra (Grey Worldwide), Raj Kurup (Creativeland Asia), Raj Kamble (BBH Mumbai), V Sunil (Wieden+Kennedy Delhi), Sonal Debral (DDB Mudra) and Josy Paul (BBDO).
“The Envies help us to recognise work done at Ogilvy. Secondly, it helps us to recognise our own people. But most importantly, Envies will set the benchmark to better our work going forward,” Pandey added.
Abhijit Awasthi, National Creative Director, Ogilvy, Mumbai pointed out “This show will help us to cull out the best work done within the industry. And we must remember it is never just a one person job. Everyone working on a specific account is then an equal winner. With such an eminent jury, so many nice suggestions came in. And one of them was to award and recognise works that is new age - even for Ogilvy itself."
The event was attended by some of the big names of the industry - who were also part of the Jury. Josy Paul, Raj Kurup, S N Rane, Sashi Sinha, Ranjan Kapoor, R Balki, Sam Balsara and David Levitt were noticed mingling in the crowd and cheering for the award winners.
“It was really difficult to narrow down to 35 from 350. We will keep it to 25 each year and we want to make it really tough to win an Envy,” Rajiv Rao, National Creative Director of Ogilvy & Mather pointed out.
The show started with a session by artist duo - Jiten and Sumer - who spoke about their label 'BoseDK'. After the hour long creative showcase, award winning journalist and Bollywood lyricist Neelesh Mishra took to the stage and impressed the audience. A quick tea break followed only to bring renowned designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee on stage. The last act was by stand up comedians Tanmay Bhat and Rohan Joshi who with their charm and humour brought the house down.
The evening session was a creative showcase and award ceremony. Though the awards were not given under any title, unlike regular award shows, the 35 awards were the best from the last two years of work from Ogilvy.
The first five set of awards, given away by Piyush Pandey, included 5 star (Patloon), Bournvita (Jeet ki aadat), Amaron Batteries, IDBI Bank (Bank aisa, dost jaisa) and 100 Pipers (Sufi Rock -Print). The next five were given away by SN Rane. These included Cadbury Silk, WWF (Print), Hindu (Stay ahead of the times), Centre Fresh (radio), Fevicol.
The third set saw Ranjan Kapoor giving away the awards. MP Tourism (colours), Operation Smile India, Tata Sky HD (Prison Break), Binani Cement and IDBI Federal Life Insurance won during this round. Sashi Sinha gave away the awards to Centre Fruit (radio), Hot Wheels (print), IPL (Carnival), Lifebuoy (Roti) and Nazrana (Slurp & Ring).
Balki presented the awards to the next five winners who were Ogilvy (Urdu and Persian), World for all (print), Hindu (Behave), Google Search (Reunion) and Fevicol Marine (Ferry). The next set of awards were given away by Josy Paul who presented an Envy each to 5 Star (Radio), 5 Star (No Hard feelings), Tata Sky (poochne mein kya jata hain), Gems (Raho umarless) and Bourneville (Mall proposal). The last five awards were given by Raj Kurup. The winners were Feviquick (Hassi brothers), Parle G, Akanksha Foundation (outdoor), Philips Led Torch (print) and Vodafone (Made for you).
Two of these works received a special mention - 5 star (no hard feelings) and Lifebuoy (roti). However, the grandprix or 'most envious' award went to the popular Google Search (Reunion) campaign. This was given away by the guest of honour for the evening - Amitabh Bachchan.
Bachchan was also in conversation with eminent journalist Anuradha Sengupta about his take on advertising and creativity.
"Advertising is one of the toughest and most admirable professions I can think of. What we, as movie stars or creators, have to think of and emote in 3 hours, these guys do in 30 seconds. That must take a whole lot of creativity," he applauded.
As the winners and viewers cheered, the evening came to an end, with a promise of a bigger award show the next year.
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