India leads with 23 shortlists at 2020 APAC Effies

Effie Asia Pacific has announced a shortlist of finalists who will vie for the highly coveted top honours at the 2020 APAC Effie Awards. Out of 122 shortlists from 12 countries, India leads the list with 23, and Australia and New Zealand tied with 22 finalists.

The Leo Group (six) has the maximum numbers followed by McCann Worldgroup India (five).

Among six shortlist entries of The Leo Group, two are #StopMithani for HDFC Bank India, two for Spotify’s ‘There's A Playlist For That’ and the remaining two for P&G India’s Bittu. All selected entries are from the agency’s Mumbai office.

Havas, Grey, WAT Consult and Infectious have one campaign each in the shortlist.

Of McCann Worldgroup India’s five shortlists, two are for Nestle India, ‘Selling Coffee In A Tea Nation’ and ‘Ok, Nestle: Tell Me More About Food’. The other three are ‘Overcoming India's Toilet Divide’ for Reckitt Benckiser India’s product Harpic, ‘The Conversational Contraceptives’ for Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation India and ‘The Living Will’ for New Delhi Healthcare at Home India.

Ogilvy Mumbai has secured two shortlists, ‘Protecting the Real Engine of India’ and ‘Making An Expert Feel Like Expert’ for Castrol India.

HUL’s in-house agency Hindustan Unilever Mumbai has bagged three shortlists, two for ‘Eesar Ek Ibadat’ and one for ‘Embracing Dirt as an Act of Faith’

Havas shortlists are for RB’s Right To Orgasm, Infectious for UltraTech’s BaatGharKi (Let's Talk Home), Grey India (Mumbai) for Gillette India’s Barbershop Girls and WAT Consult for SBI Life Insurance’s ‘Thanks A Dot’ campaign.

MullenLowe Lintas’ shortlisted works are Mobile Doctarni and Germ Nashini for Mumbai Unilever India.

The year-old 82.5 communications has been shortlisted for Bisleri India’s ‘Intelligent Know The Difference’ campaign.

On the agency network front globally, the shortlist is led by Ogilvy with 27 finalists, followed by BBDO with 12 finalists and McCann Worldgroup with 10 finalists.

The 122 finalists were shortlisted after four days of intensive assessment and evaluation by some 90 distinguished jury members. The final round of judging was moved to a fully virtual platform in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, with the jurors participating via video conferencing. 

David Porter

The judging was led by Awards Chairman, David Porter of Unilever, and eight distinguished Heads of Jury, namely Akira Mitsumasu of Japan Airlines, Anupriya Acharya of Publicis Groupe South Asia, Daniel Barnes of BC&F Dentsu, David Guerrero of BBDO Guerrero, KainazGazder of Procter & Gamble, Melissa Tang of Mindshare Singapore, Rupen Desai of Dole Packaged Foods and Susie Wong of Fuji Xerox Singapore.

"This year's judging was conducted under very different conditions and I would like to publicly thank the Jurors, Heads of Jury and our great organising team for their pioneering work. This is probably the first time a major competition in our industry has been managed virtually, from end-to-end.  We are all grateful to our diverse group of 190 jurors from 18 territories.  They participated in two rounds of judging and completed the process with all the rigour that the Effies is rightly famous for.  Evaluating so many high-quality entries has been a stimulating and rewarding experience for everyone involved. I am delighted to introduce our finalists and am looking forward to us unveiling the winners in September," said David Porter, APAC Effie Awards Chairman.

The APAC Effie Awards is the industry’s gold standard for assessing marketing effectiveness for the region.  Through spotlighting and recognising ideas that work and contribute to a brand’s success, the Awards continue to inspire and champion excellence in marketing communications.

The full list of finalists may be accessed at here.  The Awards Gala, originally scheduled to take place in May 2020, will now be replaced by a virtual Awards Ceremony in September 2020. 

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