Indian Panga League grabs the Purple Yahoo! chair

The winners of Yahoo! Big Idea Chair 2010 were announced on the 1st of December in an award ceremony that was held in Mumbai. The awards recognized creative and innovative work in the digital advertising space by creative and media agencies. Bates 141 was awarded the Yahoo! Big Idea Chair Award for their Virgin Mobile campaign-"Indian Panga League'. The media agency for the campaign was Mindshare

The winner for the Yahoo! Big Idea Chair was selected keeping in mind creativity in relation to the concept, originality of the marketing initiative, relevance to the brand and integration of marketing campaigns.

There were five categories in all, which were- Best Rich Media Ad, Best Engagement Idea, Best Mobile Solution, Best Digital Brand Solution and the Big Idea Chair Award. Each category had a gold and silver which recognized the efforts by the creative agency and the media agency on a campaign.

Talking exclusively to Adgully about the awards, Nitin Mathur, Senior Director 'Marketing, Yahoo! India, says, "From our expectation standpoint there has been an overwhelming response. We got more than 180 entries and this is just the first year, we hit almost like 80 to 90% of all the big agencies. We think the quality of submission has also been fantastic in particular categories. We also think that as digital advertising grows we would like to add a couple of categories like social marketing. Besides we also do Yahoo! Big Idea Chair in other markets, so the level of sophistication in other markets is slightly different but we were surprised with the quality of work here too. We are looking at aggregating the quality of work at an Asia Pacific level by taking the Yahoo! Big Idea Chair at an APAC level."

In the Best Digital Brand Solution and the Best Engagement Idea categories, Creativeland Asia was awarded a gold in each category for their Hippo campaign- "Consumers become inventory Trackers". In the Best Mobile Solutions category Tribal DDB was awarded a gold for their Idea campaign- "Use Mobile, Save Paper."

Sharing his experience on being a part of the jury and winning an award, Max Hegerman, President, Tribal DDB India, tells Adgully, "Being a part of the jury was great. We meet each other three or four time in a year only in jury rooms or award shows, so I have become very familiar with the people who were on the jury with me. I think we have been able to create a rapport on what people like and what are things that are happening in the digital advertising space. In terms of us winning an award I am extremely proud and happy that we have a client like Idea that pushes us to do something innovative. Besides they are a wireless brand and it might be a little easier because we are dealing with a platform we really understand. But it is a challenge for us now to take mobility and leverage it to our other brands as well."

On winning the highest honour for the day, Sonal Dabral, Managing Partner (India) and Head of Creative (Asia), Bates 141, sharing his excitement with Adgully, says, "We are absolutely ecstatic. For the entire process of creative, management and planning and for everybody involved in the campaign true pleasure happens when you know you have a great idea and when it is recognised at a platform of this nature."

The media agency on the winning campaign was Mindshare, Gowthaman Ragothaman, Leader, South Asia, Mindshare, sharing his thoughts on the win, says, "I am pleasantly surprised with the winning Virgin Mobile campaign because somewhere in the entire scheme of things it did enter very well but I did not expect it to be such a big idea. It obviously had a lot of merit to it."

Originally launched in the United States, the Big Idea Chair award has since evolved to becoming a uniquely global award that recognizes creative works in the digital community. The award is promoted to the advertising, creative and marketing communities and they are invited to make a submission in any appropriate category. The awards starting this year will be an independent event; earlier Yahoo! Big Idea Chair was a part of the Effies.

Best Rich Media Ad

Media: Same as above

Media Madison: Silver, Airtel -"Song Catcher"

Best Engagement Ad

Media: Same as above

Media: Mindshare, Silver, Virgin Mobile-"Indian Panga League"

Best Mobile Solution

Media: Mindshare, Gold, Idea-"Grow a virtual Tree- Use Mobile, Save Paper"

Media: Same as above

Best Digital Brand Solution

Media: Same as above

Media: Madison, Silver, Tata Tea-"Jaago Re"

Big Idea Chair Award

Media: Mindshare, Virgin Mobile-"Indian Panga League"

By Prabha Hegde [prabha(at)adgully.com]