Abby 2018: The creative confusion

The Abby ‘Creative Agency of the Year’ does not include Still Craft, Video Craft, Design and Direct Abby winners this year. It came as a surprise with the final tally being announced by the Awards Governing Council on the last day of Goafest this year.

The Social Street became the 2018 Abby Creative Agency of the Year with a total of 17 awards, including three gold, seven silver and seven bronze Abbys won on Day 3. The tally did not include four medals won by the agency, including two gold and two silver in Still Craft, three medals (one gold, one silver and one bronze) in Design, one bronze in Direct.

Similarly, the only winner of Grand Prix this year, Early Man Films, was at No. 8 in the Creative Agency of the Year tally scoring a total of 12 points as the 16 medals forming 92 points earned by the production house in Video Craft on Day 2 were not included in the final tally.

A closer look at the winners tells us that the highly awarded entries in Still Craft and Video Craft categories did not win big in Still Print Ad, Audio Visual Long Form and Audio Video Short Form categories except a Grand Prix for Early Man Films due to classification of categories and sub-categories.

The winner of two gold Abbys in Still Craft, ‘Forgotten Pieces - Study, Kitchen and Washroom’ done for Alzheimer's and Related Disorders Society of India by The Social Street won a bronze Abby each in the Still Print Ad and Still Other categories. The entry was awarded two gold Abbys for Illustration and Art Direction but was worth a bronze only in the Public Service sub-category under the Still Print Ad category.

Except ‘The Story of Kaveri’ by Early Man Films – the winner of three gold, a silver and a bronze in various sub-categories of the Video Craft category that also awarded a Grand Prix in Audio Visual Long Form, none of the entries by Early Man Films won a medal in the Audio Visual categories.

When asked the rationale behind this, BestMediaInfo.com was told that the ‘Creative Agency of the Year’ tally was decided by master jury from the categories awarded by them and hence it was their decision not to include these four categories.

Does this also imply that Still Craft, Video Craft, Design and Direct categories, which are traditionally creative awards, were not judged by the master jury and hence they were not a part of creative awards?

It may be recalled that the AGC has for the first time created 'master jury' comprising 15 illustrious, award winning creative giants for Creative Abbys.

Info@BestMediaInfo.com