Effie Awards: McCann, HUL, Ogilvy, Mondelez among big winners

The Advertising Club hosted the latest edition of the coveted “Effie Awards India 2021 presented by Colors, Powered By MX Player and with Aditya Birla Capital as the Category Sponsor. Announced in a virtual ceremony, the awards celebrated the best work by agencies and clients that set new benchmarks in effectiveness in marketing and advertising communication. This year, The Ad Club received a record 950 entries and saw participation from 51 agencies. 

McCann Worldgroup India was named the agency of the year with a total of 30 metals, including one gold, nine silvers, and 4 bronzes. Hindustan Unilever Limited was judged the Client of the Year. The coveted Grand Effie was won by The Ogilvy Group, and contributing agency, Wavemaker India, for Cadbury Dairy Milk’s campaign “Melting Power Distance”. 

McCann Worldgroup India took home a total of 30 metals, including one gold, nine silvers, and 4 bronzes. The group also won a Gold for its Dettol campaign 'Using Virality to Fight The Virus' in the Influencer Marketing category. Other top agencies in the pecking order were Ogilvy, MullenLowe Lintas, DDB Mudra, and Leo Burnett. Ogilvy also picked the Grand Effie for its ‘Melting Power Distance’ campaign for Mondelez under the Integrated Advertising Campaign: Products category

Hindustan Unilever was named the client of the year with 10 metals, including four golds, three silvers and three bronzes. Some of the most successful of the brand were ‘H for Handwashing’ and ‘Use Any Soap’ both released during the pandemic to promote handwashing by the brand Lifebuoy. 

Other top clients were Mondelez, RB, ITC, and Nestle. 

Speaking about the participants and winners at the coveted EFFIEs, Partha Sinha, President of The Advertising Club said, “Looking at the cases that have won here today, you will know for a fact that this is the highest level of award in this country. Effie India today is the most definitive award in the country - and is revered by both the client and the agency. I want to thank every single member of the jury, the participating agencies and the sponsors. You know that this award has reached the level thanks to all of you. Let the celebrations continue but more importantly let the effectiveness culture continue. As I had mentioned before we are going to hold Effie effectiveness workshops in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru. Watch this space for more details.” 

Elaborating on the awards, Mitrajit Bhattacharya, Chairperson, EFFIE India said, “It gives me great pleasure to deliver the first virtual awards presentation of Effie India. It has been a long and tough journey over the past one and half years to bring this to life. To judge 950 entries over two rounds of judging by 520 judges, with minimal physical meetings has been quite a task. I thank each participating agency and client for their support. And a big thank you to our sponsors, the Ad Club managing committee, Effie committee and the Ad Club secretariat to make this possible.”