By A Correspondent
It was the Big Night for Effectiveness in advertising. The Advertising Club’s premier event for rewarding advertising effectiveness was held on Friday, January 5 in Mumbai. The venue was the usual – the lawns of the Taj Lands End, except this time there was lesser noise and hooting given the absence of the Mullen Lowe Lintas group. The agency did not officially enter the awards officially though some of its work did find its way.
But it would be unfair to say that Lowe’s absence saw IPG group sibling McCann rise. The agency did have some good work to showcase and although its tough to say what the final roster would’ve looked like had Lowe and all the Publicis Communications agencies participated – especially Leo Burnett which had bagged the Grand Effie last year.
Also, the margin with which McCann won over runner-up Ogilvy was significant.
Other than being runner-up in the final rankings, the agency also bagged the Grand Effie for work done on Star Plus’ NayiSoch campaign.
One 97 Communication Limited (PayTM) was adjudged as the Effie Client of the Year with long-time winner Hindustan Unilever coming second. Here the margin of win for the top rank was just 10
Speaking about winning the Effies, Vikram Sakhuja, President of The Advertising Club and Chairperson, EFFIEs said: “With the bar raised higher year on year, winning an Effie has become more competitive and rewarding. This year we are seeing a new Client of the Year and a new Agency of the Year. My congratulations to them and all the 93 winners.” Adding: “The four pillars of effectiveness are Strategy, Idea, Execution and Results. To win an Effie we are finding that Effectiveness in Advertising is getting increasingly medium agnostic. Accordingly, ideas are being brought to scale in a remarkable number of ways. The one area I would like to further challenge us all is in the description of results.”
Elaborating on the entries. Mitrajit Bhattacharya, Co-chairperson, Effies 2018 said: “The Effies 2018 once again witnessed patronage from industry veterans and category leaders , establishing its eminence as a coveted industry award that recognizes great ideas and superior execution. Effies2018 saw the entire fraternity come together to laud and celebrate successful campaign stories that are ahead of the curve on innovation and engagement.”