O&M bags first Gold for India at IPA Effectiveness Awards

Ogilvy & Mather Advertising, Mumbai, became the first Indian agency to win Gold at the IPA Effectiveness Awards held last night in London. The award was won for Cadbury Dairy Milk’s 7 year long ‘Kuch Meetha Ho Jaaye’ campaign in India. Launched in 2005, this campaign has led to Cadbury Dairy Milk increasing its business manifold, and has also contributed to increased revenues and profits for the company, Cadbury India Limited. This case also won a special award for ‘Best Use of Insight’.

The IPA, organiser of the IPA Effectiveness Awards, is the professional body for advertising, media and marketing communication agencies in the United Kingdom. Since their launch in the UK in 1980, the IPA Effectiveness Awards are recognised by agencies and clients as the industry’s most rigorous award scheme, because entrants have to prove their communications strategies have worked in hard business terms.

The rigourous judging process includes each entry being judged by two panels before it is considered worthy of an award – an industry panel and a client panel. The Industry panel decides the shortlist (by making sure that each shortlisted paper fulfills the requirement of clearly demonstrating a return on marketing investment). The Client panel then attributes each shortlisted paper a Gold, Silver or Bronze Award and allocates the special prizes.

The year 2012 has seen a total of 65 entries for the awards of which 35 entries made it to the shortlist. Ogilvy’s winning entry was India’s only shortlisted entry at the awards.

Piyush Pandey, Executive Chairman & Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather South Asia, and also the brain behind the ‘Kuch Meetha Ho Jaaye’ campaign had this to say about the award:  I am totally delighted that we have won India’s first ever Gold at one of the most rigourous effectiveness awards in the world - the IPA. And that too for Cadbury. As I have always said in the past, great work comes out of great partnerships. A big salute to you, Cadbury India. And heartiest, heartiest congratulations to my young colleagues at Ogilvy & Mather, Mumbai.”