EFFIE 2011: Cadbury bags Client of the Year; Ogilvy bags Agency of the Year; Taproot bags Grand EFFIE

At the corner stone of completing a decade of celebrating creative works, The Effies 2011 Awards ceremony was held at the Turf Club, Mumbai. Celebrating its eleventh year, The Effie Awards ceremony, is organised by the Ad Club of Bombay, enjoys the participation of the entire advertising industry.

Ajay Kakar, Chairperson, EFFIE 2011, commented, "Effies is a great platform. It has always added new and exciting innovations to its basket. Likely last year the Gold Effie was introduced and this was for the first time that 97 entries from 20 agencies were shortlisted. I mean the participation level increased this year. There were 60 winners from 16 agencies. We never had Delhi as a judging place but we did that even. It was heartening to see the high and growing popularity of Effies."

Amidst high tension drama and crossed fingers, Ogilvy India, the highest scorer for the evening was Ogilvy India, had a total score of 195 points was awarded the agency won the Agency of the Year award. It won a total of seven golds, six silvers, and six bronze metals. Client of the year was Cadbury India Pvt. Ltd and The Grand Effie award was given to Taproot India for Pepsi, the Game changers.

In gold category, the agency won one gold for Dove's Ambush the Ambush campaign, two for the Cadbury Shubh Arambh campaign, one gold for the Meal-time Meetha campaign for the same client, two for Vodafone's BlackBerry for Everyone campaign and the rest of the golds were for CEAT's Be Idiot safe campaign.

Closely following the charts, at the second position this year was JWT India with 65 points with one gold and three silvers. With a tie, DDB Mudra and Lowe Lintas were at 45 points. JWT managed three golds, one silver, and two bronze medals, whereas Lowe Lintas included one gold, one silver, and four bronzes.

DDB Mudra, who was going hand to hand on the winning grounds but lost the track somewhere but won gold and silver effie for the campaigns; for Velocit, the joys of motherhood under the category healthcare, Volkswagen- the tail of innovations, Emirates- Guess where, fly there and for Volkswagen vento.

JWT won golds for Lay's Flavour of the World Cup campaign, Birla Sunlife Insurance's Children's Future Solutions, and the Nike Bleed Blue campaign under the catagories, Consumer products, beverages/drinks and confectionary food, Financial services and Consumer products C- Others respectively.

Whereas, Lowe Lintas's winning campaigns were, What an Idea, Sirji campaign, Fastrack bags, Lifebuoy superfast handwash, No Idea, Get idea MNP, Idea Languages and Tanishq Diamond Jewellery.

BBDO India won a gold for the ShaveSutra - How to Turn a Mundane Solitary Chore into a Pleasurable Duet' campaign for Gillette Mach3 Turbo Sensitive from P&G/Gillette.

Leo Burnett and McCann Worldgroup also made it to the Top Seven list at the awards ceremony, with 35 and 30 points, respectively. Contract Advertising, though with just 25 points but had gold and a silver effie in its kitty.

Winning campaigns for Leo Burnett were Tide- tide Collars, HDFC Life child plans, "Koi Bhi Sawaal Chotta nhn Hota' for Kaun Banega Crorepati and two for Mc Donalds: "shukra hai Mc donalds hai' and "How spicy is McSpicy.'

McCann world group, won effie for their campaigns like; Safola- World Heart day (Bronze), Dainik Jagran- Jan Jagran judicial reforms (Bronze), TVS scooty pep+- go babelious (Bronze) and Nescafe classic (Bronze).

BBH Communications won silver Effie for Parachute Advanced Ayurvedic, DraftFCB Ulka won a Bronze for its Tata Docomo campaign and for Hero Honda Pleasure. Whereas winning campaigns for Creativeland Asia were Audi A8 L, the world's first integrated 3D campaign (Bronze) and Audi- the Audi 24 hrs Le mans race (Silver).

Other agencies like, BBDO Proximity, Interface Communications, TBWA India, and Sapient Corporation also marked their presence at the Effies award ceremony.

We at Adgully, after the marvelous evening, took the reactions from the experts that were present and witnessed the most awaited awards of the year.

Joseph George, CEO Lowe Lintas said, "It could have been better. The ceremony was amazing. Some of our brands were not shortlisted but it was exciting to be a part of this evening. The year was really good for us but we will focus towards the betterment next year which is a challenge for us."

Pratap Bose, CEO Mudra Group, says, "I think we did well but could have done better. The evening was really exciting and for next year we fill focus more."

Abhijeet Awasthy, National Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather said, "It was an amazing evening for us. We were really lucky to get associated with such clients and the capability of doing different is across our team. I can proudly say that we have a phenomenally talented team."

Winning the Grand Effie this year, Agnello Dias, chairman and Co-founder, TapRoot said, "It was great to be a part of this evening. We compete with giant agencies. It was a gaming changing moment for us. We believe in one thing that whatever we do we have to do ourselves. Nobody would help us at any moment. Time is in your hand and we have to do it."

EFFIEs has always and will continue to add a profound insight to the concept of advertising awards. | By Aanchal Kohli [aanchal(at)adgully.com]