Ogilvy likely to scale up in-house awards show

Entries from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan could be considered in future

If Ogilvy India & South Asia's executive chairman Piyush Pandey has his way, Envies, the agency's in-house advertising awards, could be scaled up to include entries from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan. "That is a fantastic suggestion that I've got. It is worth considering next year," Pandey, who recently released his book 'Pandeymonium', said.

"There are not too many ad awards in these markets and people there crave for appreciation, much the same way people here do. I'm sure they'd be excited with the idea," Pandey, who was the architect of the 'Abki Baar, Modi Sarkar' ad campaign that was instrumental in bringing the Bharatiya Janata Party to power during the Lok Sabha elections last year, said.

The Envies was launched in 2013, the same year when rival Lowe Lintas (now called Mullen Lowe Lintas) came out with the second edition of its in-house awards show called the True Show. While Mullen Lowe has since given the in-house awards show a break, Ogilvy has managed to keep the momentum going.

"This is the third edition of the Envies and what started out as an experiment has now been formalised. Youngsters are excited about it. They look forward to it, and when they do, you know you are in the right direction," Pandey says.

The last two editions saw 25 winners each, selected from 150 entries. This year has been no exception, Pandey says. "This year too, 25 winners have been selected from round about 150 entries. The work to be entered is selected by group heads within the agency. The entered work is then judged by some of the best minds in the business," Pandey says. The jurors this year included Ashish Chakravarty, national creative director, Contract India; Bobby Pawar, managing director and chief creative officer, Publicis Worldwide South Asia; Pradyumna Chauhan, NCD, McCann Erickson and Senthil Kumar, NCD, J W Thompson, among others.

There were nearly six winners in the digital category alone this year, says Kunal Jeswani, Ogilvy India's chief executive officer, as opposed to one last year and none the year before. "In many respects, the number of winning digital entries also indicates where the agency and its people's priorities are," Jeswani, who was chief digital officer at the agency prior to becoming its CEO, said.

Since taking over earlier this year, Jeswani says he has focused on greater integration of digital into the agency's creative product. "My endeavour has been to help people think digital at all levels - when pitching for business, when creating ads or servicing clients," he said.

Among the winners this year were Mondelez's 'Tayyari Jeet Ki' ad campaign for Cadbury Bournvita, the 'Incredible India' commercial for Jammu & Kashmir, the 'Geeta Phogat' ad for JSW Steel, the 'Speed is Good' campaign for Vodafone 3G and Tata Sky's 'Daily Dillagi', where ads were depicted as episodes of a daily show.

Phogat was also the chief guest for the evening, the JSW commercial featuring her emerging as the best of the best or 'Most Envied' ad of the third edition.

A digital case study for postpickle.com was judged the 'Envy for Good' entry.

"The chief guest has always been the surprise element of the show," Pandey says. "We had Piyush Goyal last year and Amitabh Bachchan in the first year. I will wear my thinking hat again to decide who should grace the occasion next year," he says.