Young Achievers Awards 2011, a momentous evening for young professionals

The third edition of the Young Achievers Awards 2011 organized by The Advertising Club of Bombay was held on 4th Feburary 2011, where young talent was awarded for excellent creative work. It is the only recognition in the advertising world for young professionals to get their work awarded and appreciated at an early stage in their careers. Hosted by Brian Tellis, Chairman, Fountainhead Promotions and Events, the evening began with the President of the Ad Club, Bhaskar Das' welcome address. "This is a good opportunity for young people to showcase talent. This year we saw some fresh, young and remarkable style in work," he said.

The panel of judges, chaired by Josy Paul, Punitha Arumugam, Bhaskar Das, President and Pratap Bos, Chairman, Young Achievers' Awards Committee included well known personalities from the Ad world like Ajit Martis, Amer Jaleel, Amit Akali, Ashish Khazanchi, Dev Amritesh, Divya Gururaj, Divya Radhakrishnan, Dnyanada Chaudhari, Girish Upadhyay, Jasmin Sohrabji, KB Vinod, Manas Mishra, Nandini Das, Robby Mathew, Romeen Yarkhan, S. Yesudas, Sagar Mahabaleshwarkar, Sandeep Poyekar, Sangeetha N., Sanjay Shah, Santosh Padhi, Snehi Jha Mehta, Sushma Jhaveri, V.Narayanan, Vikram Gaikwad, Vinay Bhatia, Zenobia Pithawalla.

Amer Jaleel, National Creative director, Lowe Lintas said, "It's fabulous to be famous while you are still eligible. It's a great initiative, there's too many of us oldies that need to be unseated quickly. I loved the whole experience of clashing with young thinking. Just one thing, all of us should promote this internally to have at least thrice more entries competing next year."

The awards were given across five main categories and a total of eleven sub categories.

Under Communication awards, the Copywriter of the Year went to Pallavi Chakravarti, Grey Mumbai, for her work in the brand, Akshara Women's Resource Centre- Begging Grooms. This position was shared by Huzefa Kapadia, Creativeland Asia Pvt. Ltd. for his work in Hippo Baked Munchies- Fight hunger, Fight evil. Ganesh Nayak, Leo Burnett was awarded the Art Director of the Year for his work in Tide ' Fold-A-Stain. Designer of the Year award went to Nadine Pereira, Leo Burnett for her work in Bajaj Appliances ' Package Design. Huzefa Kapadia bagged the Digital Person of the Year once again for Hippo Baked Munchies.

In Business Awards category, for the Brand Manager of the Year there were no awards but a certificate of appreciation to Vikass Bissa, Reliance Communications Limited for Reliance BIG TV ' Joy of Ownership. And for Best Marketing Initiative of the Year, Jake Joss from MediaCom Communications Pvt. Ltd. won for Gillette Mach 3 W.A.L.S ' Women Against Lazy Stubble.

The UTV bindass ' What I am Award went to Aatika Ansari, MediaCom Communications Pvt. Ltd. for Volswagen ' Media ventor. The Judges commended Pranav Sharma from Mudra Communications Pvt. Ltd. for his work for National Association For the Blind ' May I Help You?, campaign.

In the final category, Media Awards, Aatika Ansari from MediaCom won for the second time in the evening for Volkswagen ' Pioneering Innovations. The Media Innovation of the Year went to Aditi Patkar, Mindhsare, GroupM for Cornetto ' Luv Reels. And the Consumer Engagement of the Year award was bagged by Sneha Shenoy from Mudra Max for Disney Channel ' Art Attack launch and Huzefa Kapadia, Creativeland Asia Pvt. Ltd once again for Hippo Baked Munchies.

The winners were excited and most claimed to have gained inspiration from the industry as a whole and their respective mentors. | By Janees Antoo [janees(at)adgully.com]