Agencies celebrate the hard work and the struggle at EMVIES'13

The sounds of dhols, trumphets, hootings and winning celebrations filled the air at the Taj Land’s End on Friday, September 6th, the day of reckoning for the advertising industry. All eyes were on the final announcement and on the culmination of the 13th Emvie Awards 2013.  And what an evening it turned out to be. While the winners celebrated the hard work without inhibitions, the non-winners too joined the party in congratulating and supporting their winner colleagues across the agencies.

Mindshare was awarded as the ‘Best Media Agency of the Year’ for the sixth consecutive time, the agency proving its expertise and talent once again. All the gangs of the agency were spotted in the entire ball room with black-tees and purple name flashing, celebrating the hard work that paid them well. Not only Mindshare but other agencies too were seen very excited and celebrating the uphill struggle. Mindshare won three golds, nine silvers and six bronze metals. Hindustan Unilever was awarded the ‘Client of the Year’ award. IBS’s Tata Docomo campaign took the Grand Emvie.

The second position was taken by Lodestar with five golds, seven silvers and one bronze; Maxus stood third with three golds, six silvers and three bronze awards while Ogilvy was at the fourth position with four golds, two silvers and a bronze.

It was a gala event with lots of fun and frolic everywhere. A lot of attendees and almost the entire advertising and media agencies were there in full enthusiasm and excitement. We at Adgully spoke to some of the agency experts to understand their views about the kind of work they had witnessed during Emvies 2013 and to understand whether the industry is heading in the right direction or not.

Shashi Sinha, President Adclub Bombay and CEO IPG Mediabrands India said, “I respect the concept of the entire event. This year we had received good amount of entries and an increase in the sponsors number too. The content that we saw was really good this year which marked the terrific enthusiasm and quality work by the agencies. The top three positions had a very close competition.”

CVL Srinivas, CEO, South Asia, GroupM was very much delighted with the performance of his team and all the agencies that portrayed their work. He says, “It was very good to see Maxus dominating all the digital category awards. Also agencies like Mediacom and MEC did amazingly well. It was good to see both our mobile unit and activation unit (Dialogue Factory), winning awards this year. Well, all the entries were amazingly well which marked the enthusiasm and growth of our industry.”

Ajit Varghese, Managing Director - South Asia, Maxus said, “Emvies 2013 has grown to be bigger and better this year in terms of reach, competition and quality of work. The competition seemed to be much tougher this year between the agencies and categories. I am very happy with the kind of work Maxus produced at Emvies this year despite the fact that we stood at the third position. I would definitely say that Mindshare did an amazing job and their work with HUL made them shine. I think we at Maxus would definitely focus towards working harder for the next year but it also is a moment of pride. Our agency which was born in the digital age actually won good amount of metals under the “digital categories’.”

He adds, “Of course looking at the kind of work being produced by the agencies this year, I would definitely say that there will be a lot more buzz in the industry in the coming future.”

On the client front, Viral Oza, Director Marketing, Nokia who was also one of the round 2 judges opined that the ideas are becoming all the more ‘Multi-media’ Y-o-Y. I would say all the mediums and categories had some or the other unique idea in it. It was good to see the fact that there was no domination of any medium and also all kinds of brands and across all categories and sizes had something unique to showcase.”

Navin Talreja, President - Ogilvy Mumbai & Kolkata said, “Yes I am happy to see the  a lot of innovation happening in the industry and new kind of work is being awarded in the categories like digital, social media, branded content. It makes us think about the competitive toughness that is increasing day by day. This is very proud moment for our country too and looking at what happened at Cannes, we had won more awards in our traditional categories. These awards mean a great positive response and motivation for me in terms of producing all the more good work.”

“Well, the industry is undoubtedly heading towards the right direction. I believe that the awards are a culmination of a lot hard work which people put in for years. It is definitely a motivation for all the people in the industry to be a part of something like Emvies. Industry is doing very good work I would say it is heading in the right direction for sure,” Talreja added.

Picture: Courtesy, Lalit Agrawal, OMD India