Industry thumbs up to Abby Awards' quirky OOH intro for its Master Jury

With just 20 days left for the Abby Awards 2018, held at Goafest, the highly coveted awards are all set to lay new benchmarks on scale and innovation this year. In its 50^th year, the awards that recognise and reward creative excellence, for the first time has formed a Master Jury. It has now rolled out an outdoor campaign to introduce them to the ‘aam janta’ in a quirky way. 

The 20 hoardings installed in different parts of Mumbai city display jurors from various verticals and describe their distinguished contribution into the industry and the work for brands. The aim was to reach out to the creative audience at large and urge fellow creative partners and agencies to participate in the Abby Awards 2018. 

Sharing his insights on the campaign, Ajay Kakar, Chair of the Awards Governing Council, said, “The Abby Awards are a brand by itself and for the Abby Awards 2018 the key USP was that we made one big change, we have created a master jury comprising 15 stalwarts of the industry. Therefore, there is no question of whether it is a good campaign, bad campaign, tactical campaign, or provocative campaign, it was a campaign for the USP of this year, which is the master jury. This year, we made the product the hero, the product is the awards and the awards are as good as the jury who judge it. And we have 15 of the best   to endorse the new features or the new USP of our awards.” 

According to Kakar, Mumbai is still seen as the ad capital of India and so the campaign is very Mumbai focussed. The organisers do not intend to expand it to other cities. 

He further said, “This was to create visibility and relevance for the Abbys, which has been a brand for 50 years. This is topical not tactical, like I said, the key differentiator of this year’s Abbys as compared to the past is the ‘Master Jury’ strategy. Tomorrow I’d love to hear people say wow, I have won with this jury or I lost with the jury, therefore I cannot complain.” 

When asked what more one can look forward to, Kakar replied, “You will get to see the best of work recognised by the best of the masters that the industry has so that you really create new benchmarks for the industry for the year and the years ahead.” 

Industry Speak 

While speaking on the significance of Goafest, Nisha Singhania, Co-Founder & Director, Infectious Advertising, said that Goafest is a great time for the industry to meet and review its work.  It is also a great place to connect and network.  

Terming the master jury as a novel concept, Singhania added that the Abbys is the reason for the Goafest to exist. And despite the plethora of ad industry programmes and awards platforms, Goafest has not lost its sheen. “The more the merrier,” she quipped.

Sharing his views on the campaign, Sudarshan Banerjee, Co-founder and Managing Partner Utopeia Communicationz, said, “I think it is a simple case of them having an outdoor partner and the availability of hoarding space to take this to town. I don’t know how they have planned it later, but maybe some of the things can be that the winning campaigns could come up on the same hoardings, thereby giving more acclaim to that piece of work than previously. Advertising today like content marketing has become – consumers are also sharing that content on their social media pages. So, they also probably would appreciate or like the fact that this one which I had shared has won. We are also one step away from having a popular vote of sort for awards. Advertising is also consumed by regular people like you and me and also can be judged by the jury that is evaluating the work.” 

He disagreed that Goafest is losing its sheen and affirmed, “It one of the oldest and most celebrated awards function in the industry and will continue to hold that position till some other awards function comes and uptakes it. That award should also come with the right backing of institutions like the AAAI and The Advertising Club. It has the most amount of recognition that an industry body can give. Regardless of whether or not you are a part of it, it will continue to be what it is for the industry.” 

The Abby Awards 2018 Master Jury boasts of 15 illustrious, award winning creative giants: 

Prasoon Joshi, Chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification  and CEO of McCann Worldgroup India and Chairman (Asia Pacific)

Agnello Dias, Chairman and Co-Founder, Taproot Dentsu

Amer Jaleel, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer, Mullen Lintas

Arun Iyer, Chairman & Chief Creative Officer at Lowe Lintas

Alok Nanda, Founder and CEO, Alok Nanda & Co. (Comms.) Pvt. Ltd.

Abhijit Avasthi, Founder, Sideways Consulting

‎Bobby Pawar, Managing Director & Chief Creative Officer, ‎Publicis Worldwide

KV Sridhar, ‎Founder & Chief Creative Officer, Hyper Collective Creative Technologies

Nitesh Tiwari, Filmmaker and Ex CCO, Leo Burnett

Prashant Godbole, Founder, Ideas@work

Raj Kamble, Founder CCO, Famous innovations

Raj Deepak Das, Chief Creative Officer, ‎Leo Burnett

Santosh Padhi, CCO and Co-founder, Taproot Dentsu

Senthil Kumar, Chief Creative Officer, J. Walter Thompson

Swati Bhattacharya, Chief Creative Officer, FCB Ulka

Presented by the Advertising Club and the AAAI, the Abby Awards 2018 will be a highlight at the leading advertising convention, Goafest, where once again the entire advertising and marketing fraternity is expected to come together from April 5 to 7 at The Grand Hyatt, Bambolim, North Goa. 

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