The Hindu : Bangalore firm adjudged advertisement agency of the year

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 21, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Bangalore firm adjudged advertisement agency of the year

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI, MARCH 20. Bangalore nicked Chennai at the Advertising Club Madras Awards evening on Friday. J. Walker Thompson, Bangalore, was adjudged the Agency of the Year with its Chennai counterpart coming a close second.

Sparks went flying at `Spark 2004' and the IMAGE auditorium was bursting at the seams. The noise inside was deafening. While some cheered on through the evening, the others remained placid. At the end, it was a band of boisterous boys from Bangalore who cheered the longest and loudest.

Catcalls, hooters, pom-poms and balloons set the stage for the awards night, as the noisy bundle of creative talents in the advertisement industry almost brought the roof down. So warned the anchors of the show, Craig and Divya.

In 36 categories, JWT Bangalore won six gold medals, taking its total points to 210. Its Chennai counterpart secured three gold and a few silver medals, but fell short by five points.

The surprise package was One Point Size, a Chennai-based firm, which came third, bagging three gold medals and 155 points. TBWA Kochi with 115 points and Orchard-Bangalore with 80 took the next two places respectively.

The entire JWT Bangalore contingent was ecstatic, rocking away to a popular bhangra number, as they went up on stage to receive their trophy from N. Murali, Joint Managing Director, The Hindu.

For individual efforts, C.P. Sajid of One Point Size was given the Art Director of the Year award while Senthil Kumar of JWT Bangalore bagged the Copywriter of the Year award.

JWT Bangalore won its gold medals for a press recruitment ad for i-Flex, a more-than-30-seconds TV commercial for Levi's Sykes, a radio ad for Spice Telecom, a promotion for Levi's Jeans, a multimedia campaign for Levi's Sykes and for brand building for Lipton Ice Tea. JWT Chennai bagged gold medals for a press service campaign for Cholamandal, a single press (colour) ad for Reynolds and for an unpublished creative work for Ford Endeavour.

One Point Size won gold for Corporate Identities and Calendar design for Stori. It also secured gold in the photography category. There was loud applause from the audience whenever little girl Aarushi walked up to the stage to receive the awards.

Mudra Bangalore won the gold for a Public and Social Purpose advertisement for Bangalore City Traffic Police on the topic of drunken driving. It also bagged gold for the outdoor campaign for the same.

Earlier, setting the ball rolling, V. Kalidas, president, Advertising Club Madras, said there was a spurt of entries in the point-of-scale category as a fallout of Chennai emerging a major retail market. Similar was the case in radio advertising as FM Radio had given a fresh lease of life to this arm of media. A new trend was the growth in the less-than-thirty-seconds TV commercials "possibly because of media inflation and viewers' predilection for shorter duration ads."

Mr. Kalidas said the entries were scanned by an array of judges headed by K.V. Sridhar, National Creative Director, Leo Burnett, better known as `Pops' in the advertising fraternity.

Even before the awards night ended, R. Seshadri, Secretary, Advertising Club Madras, took the stage for a formal vote of thanks. It was like saying Amen before the prayer, or serving dessert before the main course, Mr. Seshadri said while he thanked a host of individuals and concerns for putting the show together. Vijay Xavier, past President and convener, Awards Committee, Advertising Club Madras, and Vishak Menon, Graphic Designer at Lowe, Chennai, were felicitated.

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