One victor, many leaders: Emvies 2010

The Ad Club of Bombay (ACB) gave away the coveted Emvies Awards on 27th of August, Saturday. The ACB has also decided to have the awards in the month of March next year gathering from the excitement, strong participation, competition and talent that goes into making Emvies a success. Mindshare won the highest honour and was announced as the Best Media Agency of the Year. Maxus, Mudra Max and Lodestar UM also emerged as leaders in various categories creating a well competed scoreboard.

Adgully spoke to a few leaders and quizzed them about the overall experience at Emvies 2010. They say the winner takes it all and for R.Gowthaman, Leader, South Asia of Mindshare, the experience at Emvies was not only about winning the prestigious award of the "Best Media Agency of the Year' for the third time, but it was a satisfactory response to all the effort that went into preparations, submissions and the presentations. While Ajit Varghese, Managing Director, Maxus, the agency which was second on the scoreboard and lost with a small margin, felt that Emvies is always a good experience as it brings in some new learnings, new approaches, new surprises and a new challenger.

The Emvies this year not only saw the same winner but also saw fresh competition across most of the categories. Speaking exclusively to Adgully, Nandini Dias, Chief Operating Officer, Lodestar UM, said, "Every year the competition increases. I am very proud that out of the six awards in research and strategy we have won Gold in four and one silver. This is particularly special as last year was a tough year due to recession. Lodestar UM as an agency is known for strategic excellence and research capabilities. We have focused on strategically making a difference to the clients business."

On the other hand, talking about the neck to neck competition to well established agencies like Mindshare and Maxus, Pratap Bose, Chief Executive Officer, Mudra Max, seemed happy with the performance of his agency and with the fact that the agency performed well across various categories. However, when asked if Emvies should see more participation from smaller agencies, Bose says infact bigger agencies should participate more because he feels that "the big guns don't seem to be showcasing enough." Adding to this, Dias empathizes with the fact that being a small agency can be disadvantageous in terms to win the "Best Media Agency of the Year" award but at the same time smaller agencies have greater chances at winning in specific categories.

In an exclusive chat with Adgully, Varghese tried to deviate from the segregation in terms of small or big and added that, "I think smaller or bigger agencies; we are all part of same faternity. We all should participate more and give a tough effort to do some great work and put in the effort to enter and represent their people's work at these industry forums. Within the Group M stable Motivator won a Gold in the cinema category, it is a testament of "it's not the size that matters, it's all about the IDEA and bringing alive the CONSUMER CONNECT'. At the end of the day, it not only about being at the top ' it's also getting recognised for the small little things that one did differently and the learnings you get from other's work.

While the leaders believe that Emvies is a period of introspection and learning, there are quite a few clients looking forward to catch the right cue and agency. To read the client's mind on Emvies, Adgully spoke to Sanjay Tripathy, Executive Vice President - Marketing and Direct Channels at HDFC Standard Life and he said, "Emvies has been driving excellence in the media fraternity for the last ten years and has attracted more and more entries in comparison to the earlier years. This should encourage all other agencies, big or small, to find out what it takes to win, what do the winning agencies do differently, come up with fresh ideas, build brands for their clients, create an impact and value for their client's business and give the client better ROI. Participation should increase from both small and large agencies."

The overall experience though seems very positive and of a shared benefit and contentment, there are some learnings that the leaders have highlighted and are seeking to work towards getting them right. While Bose feels that the good work is not being showcased to the fullest and he wishes to see more and more participation from all quarters, whereas for Varghese with more than 350 best and selected work being represented, Emvies is full of learnings for young talent. However the leader with the winning streak, R. Gowthaman added that, "I think we can represent more work from our clients in this platform. There are some great work from Bangalore and Chennai which is not getting represented. Besides it is always very uncomfortable to win with such small margins."

The Emvies have concluded with a victor and many contented competitors. But it will be only interesting to see how the agencies gear up for the Awards in the beginning of the year from next year onwards, what will be the level of participation, will Mindshare retain its hatrick and if the zestful slogans and joyous victory dhols only get louder. | By Prabha Hegde [prabha(at)adgully.com]