O&M, Lowe & Mudra winners at Effie Awards

Ad agencies Ogilvy & Mather (O&M), Lowe Lintas and Mudra were the top three winning agencies at the Effie Awards, organised by the Advertising Club of Bombay here yesterday.

The Club, along with the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI), is also organiser of the popular Abby Awards, held every year in Goa.

While the Abbies are given to ad agencies for creative work, the Effies, in contrast, look at how effective a campaign has been in the market. That is, whether it has helped improve sales or aided top-of-mind recall for the brand being promoted.

Participating agencies typically make case study presentations to the jury, highlighting both the pre and post campaign scenarios. Marks are awarded based on tangible results achieved, as highlighted by the agency during its presentation to the jurors.

Judges at the Abbies, on the other hand, look for the creative idea in a campaign.

This year, close to 40 agencies participated in the Effie Awards, in comparison to the roughly 30 agencies that participated last year. The number of entries also doubled this year, touching 276 versus 148 last year.

O&M walked away with the Agency of the Year trophy with a tally of 145 points, followed by Lowe Lintas at 90 and Mudra at 75. Mudra entry’s into the top three meant that rival JWT was pushed to fourth position, with 65 points. Last year’s top three winners were O&M, JWT and Lowe.

Other winning agencies this year included BBDO, Draft FCB and Bates 141. BBDO and Draft FCB were tied at fifth place at 45 points each, while Bates 141’s score was 25.

O&M’s award-winning work included its Zoozoo campaign for Vodafone, ads for Bajaj Pulsar, Adidas, Cadbury’s and Fevicol. Lowe Lintas was feted for its work for Idea Cellular, Tanishq and Hindustan Unilever brands Knorr and Fair & Lovely, respectively. Mudra’s winning campaigns were for Volkswagen, Jockey and last year’s blockbuster film, 3idiots.

“We are happy with our performance,” said Piyush Pandey, executive chairman and creative director, O&M, South Asia. “Apart from defending the Agency of the Year title, the bigger victory for us was to see work for the same set of clients being feted at both the Abbies and Effies. It proves the point that work that is creative can be effective at the marketplace, too. We are not creating ads for the sake of it.”