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IPG Mediabrands and WPP's GroupM, the two groups that vie with each other in India and outside, were at it again at the Media Abbies, fighting for top honours on the first awards night at Goafest.
GroupM's Mindshare led, with 11 awards (or metals). Lodestar UM, which is part of the IPG Mediabrands network, bagged the most number of gold awards. It won three golds for Tata Motors, and Zest and Safari Storme in the television and cinema categories, respectively, and for Nerolac brand in the ambient media category.
Adman Sam-Balsara's Madison Media came second in metals tally, with 10 trophies, but it had no gold, just five silver and five bronze metals. Mindshare had one gold (for Nike's 'Make every yard count' in digital display advertising), four silver and six bronze metals. The number of golds given out this year was lower than last year's. It stood at 12 versus 14 last year. The total number of silver and bronze metals, on the other hand, was higher this year against last year's. Twenty-three silvers were given out this year versus 21 last year, while bronze metals stood at 39 versus 14 last year. So, the total number of Media Abbies given out this year was 74 this year versus 49 last year.
Lodestar UM and GroupM's Maxus were tied at the third place with nine metals each. Maxus, on the other hand, took home three silver and six bronze metals, and Lodestar UM had four silver and two bronze metals, in addition to its three golds.
"While there were fewer gold metals and no Grand Prix given this year, I will still say the judging standards were liberal, if you take into account the higher number of bronze metals given this year," Pratap Bose, chairman, awards governing council, Goafest 2015, said. Bose is also the president of the Advertising Club of Bombay, which, with the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI), is the organiser of Goafest.
Of the 25 winning agencies at the Media Abbies, there were four from the South Asian region, two from Bangladesh and two from Sri Lanka, respectively. These were Asiatic Mindshare from Bangladesh, which bagged a bronze; Mindshare Bangladesh, which bagged a silver; Mindshare Sri Lanka, which bagged a gold and TBWA Sri Lanka, which also landed a gold.
Bose said entries from neighbouring countries had gone up three times this year against last year's. This number could go up in the coming years, he said. In all, there were 674 entries this year against 619 entries last year.
Incidentally, in the Publisher Abbies, a new category introduced since last year, there were 17 metals given out, some to regional dailies and magazines such as Dainik Jagran, Lokmat and Chitralekha, as well as national dailies such as Hindustan Times and Times of India. But Bose said there was a need to reach more publishers. "We had 62 entries this year, which was the same as last year's."
