Indians have always been great storytellers: Kyoorius Creative Awards Jury

The two-day jury process for the 4^th edition of Kyoorius Creative Awards 2017 commenced in Mumbai yesterday, May 11, 2017. The award, which has creative ingenuity at its centre, is presided over by an illustrious jury of 28 experts from across the creative industry. This year, there are four Jury teams to judge entries for Advertising, Media and Digital. 

The Jury for this 2017 Kyoorius Creative Awards comprise: 

Advertising Jury 1:

• Jury Foreman: Sonal Dabral, Chairman & Chief Creative Office, DDB Mudra
• Santosh Padhi, Chief Creative Officer & Co-Founder, Taproot Dentsu
• Ashish Chakravarty, Chief Creative Officer, Contract India
• KV Sridhar, Founder & Chief Creative Officer, Hyper Collective
• Kainaz Karmakar, Executive Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather
• Sajan Raj Kurup, Founder & Creative Chairman, Creativeland Asia
• Swati Bhattacharya, Chief Creative Officer, FCB Ulka 

Advertising Jury 2:

• Jury Foreman: Josy Paul, Chairman & Chief Creative Officer, BBDO India
• Chris Baylis, Creative & Strategist            
• Amer Jaleel, Chairman & Chief Creative Officer, Mullen Lintas
• Gigi Lee, Chief, Creative Officer, TBWA Group
• Senthil Kumar, Chief Creative Officer, J. Walter Thompson India
• Raj Deepak Das, Chief Creative Officer, Leo Burnett India, South Asia
• Raj Kamble, Founder & Chief Creative Officer, Famous Innovations 

Digital Jury:

• Jury Foreman: Fergus O'Hare, Director APAC, Facebook Creative Shop
• Eric Cruz, Executive Creative Director, AKQA
• Lyndon Hale, Executive Creative Director - APAC Region, Digitas LBi
• Preethi Mariappan, VP Executive Creative Director - Emerging Experiences EMEA, SapientRazorfish
• Prashanth Challapalli, Chief Integration Officer, Leo Burnett
• George Kovoor, Senior Creative Director, OgilvyOne Worldwide
• Roopak Saluja, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, the 120 Media Collective & Sooperfly 

Media Jury:

• Jury Foreman: Shashi Sinha, Chief Executive Officer of IPG Mediabrands
• Vikram Sakhuja, Group Chief Executive Officer, Madison Media & OOH at Madison World
• Prasanth Kumar, Chief Executive Officer South Asia, Mindshare
• Kasper Aakerlund, Chief Executive Officer, IPG Mediabrands, Hong Kong,
• Susanna Cousins, Director of Strategy, MEC
• Rahul Welde, Global VP Digital Transformation, Unilever 

Adgully spoke to the four Jury Foremen – Josy Paul, Sonal Dabral, Fergus O'Hare, and Shashi Sinha – to find out more about the entries received this year, creativity in Indian advertising, significance of creative awards like Kyoorius and India at Cannes Lions this year. 

The judging process

Josy Paul, Chairman & Chief Creative Officer at BBDO India and Advertising Jury Foreman for Kyoorius Creative Awards 2017, believes it is great work that makes an award show great and not the other way around. On how the judging process was this year, Paul said, “We’ve seen about 100 pieces of work so far and there is a lot of stuff that I have seen before. So it’s good to see such mainstream work appearing in award shows. There is great diversity. You know a great piece of work when you see it and then you want to rush out of the room and tell your friends and family about it. For me, it’s about that feeling - something that moves you.”

Shashi Sinha, Chief Executive Officer, IPG Mediabrands and Media Jury Foreman, remarked, “Being in the media industry, we are so busy that we do not get time to see what other creative work has been done in the industry, but the work that has been showcased here is of extremely high quality and with international jury on board, Kyoorius sets the bar.”

Fergus O'Hare, Director APAC at Facebook Creative Shop and Digital Jury Foreman, added here, “It’s been good so far, but I haven't seen a ton of great work so far. Although it is interesting to see what people have created.” 

Sonal Dabral, Chairman & Chief Creative Office, DDB Mudra and Advertising Jury Foreman, remarked that since it was the first day of the jury process, there are a lot of entries, good and bad all together, but it becomes interesting when the cream rises to the top (after shortlisting). 

When asked about what kind of work the Jury was expecting to see this year throughout the judging process, Josy Paul mentioned he that he was looking for great work that inspires him to do great work and added that he was also looking for inspiration, energy and work that pushed him to places. While Fergus O'Hare mentioned that he was interested to see how people have used mobile for apps, Sonal Dabral revealed that he always hoped to see some really refreshing and inspiring ideas and some of what he saw have kept up to his expectations. 

On significance of creative awards like Kyoorius 

While stating that awards like Kyoorius are most important for young people in the industry as they need more recognition for their work, Josy Paul added that creative awards also help the industry understand where the advertising, marketing and communication world is headed. 

Shashi Sinha was of the opinion that today with numerous media industry awards and various categories in them, the best work is difficult to find and awards like Kyoorius help in recognising the best quality of creative work that has been done in the industry. 

While stating that creative awards inspires people to do better work and are in indicator of how digital the industry has become, Fergus O’Hare noted, “As we move away from Television and Print, digital is and will be largely important.” 

While explaining that creative awards are sort of barometer of creative health of an agency, industry and the nation, Sonal Dabral also believes that by awarding pieces of work which are selected by experienced juries, they become curators of great work. That work then goes out to inspire many youngsters to set that as the benchmark. 

Creative work in India 

According to Josy Paul, “While we are seeing an upward swing and resurgence of creativity in India, it is a good time to be in the business of advertising and as more industry people start circulating and going around the world and becoming ambassadors of India's work, more people around the world will understand the unique creative style and sound of India.” 

Having judged numerous media awards in India and globally, Shashi Sinha affirmed that though we may not be strong on integration of the technology, but from the ideation point of view, Indian creative work is very good and with the help of better technology, India can shine bright globally. 

On a similar note, Sonal Debral mentioned that although Indians have always been great storytellers, adoption of technology in communication and advertising is still a challenge. The work in terms of idea and storytelling via videos and films is exquisite in India. 

India at Cannes Lions 2017 

With the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity a little over a month away, there are talks on how Indian agencies will fare at the advertising festival. Last year, Indian agencies garnered 31 Lions and a special award. Will the work by Indian agencies be able to surmount the previous year and capture global attention? 

Josy Paul envisages that India’s reputation is getting better around the world with mainstream work that’s influencing the world. “With P&G’s campaign, #ShareTheLoad for Ariel, being recognised by WARC as the most effective campaign in the world, India is contributing and the country's work will do well this year at Cannes Lions, but one can never predict as there is some great work happening around the world,” he added. 

Looking back at last year, where various media houses including Mindshare won great accolades at Cannes Lions, Shashi Sinha is optimistic that India has a good story to tell at Cannes this year as well and it will be a good year for Indian agencies and creative work done in the country. 

However, on a different note, Sonal Dabral felt that though India had performed exceedingly well last year at Cannes, it would be a challenge to overreach last year’s tally as the quality of work last year was far better than what we have seen this year. 

Winners of the 2017 Kyoorius Creative Awards will be felicitated at the awards ceremony to be held on Friday, June 2, 2017 at the Dome, NSCI in Mumbai.