GoaFest 2008: MindShare gets a lion’s share of metals at Media Awards 2008; Lodestar Universal shines too

The dismay over the leaking of the ‘supposed’ Abbys winners list failed to dampen the enthusiasm of the Media Awards that took place at GoaFest 2008 on April 4. There was loud cheering throughout the Awards ceremony, and with two Golds, three Silvers and one Bronze, MindShare cheered the loudest. The agency got Golds for the work done for HSBC and Horlicks. MindShare Fulcrum, too, bagged a Bronze.

A total of 29 metals were given out. Following the GoaFest style of celebrating the discipline than the performance of individual agencies, the Media Awards didn’t award any agency in particular.

A close second was Lodestar Universal with five metals – two Golds, two Silvers and one Bronze. The agency bagged a Gold for its work on ‘Microsoft MS Office 2007 Launch’ for the category of Best Use of Newspaper and Magazine. The second Gold was for Amul Star Voice of India.

With a Bronze for MATES – Madison, Madison bagged four metals in all. Madison Media won a Gold for Saffola Life. The agency also bagged a Silver and another Bronze.

Next was Lintas Media Group, which bagged two Golds and one Silver. The Golds were given for the work done for Candyman and Bingo Tick Tock. Maxus, too, bagged two Golds for its work done for Reebok and Vodafone.

Starcom and Media Direction bagged a Silver and a Bronze each. O&M was the only creative agency to win a Media Award metal this year – a silver. OMS bagged a Silver too, while TME won a Bronze.

Winners Speak

The Media Awards were introduced for the first time in 2007. This time, with the third year of GoaFest, the Media Awards saw a vast improvement in the quality of entries as compared to last year. According to the organisers, the judging standard, too, improved dramatically this year.

Madhukar Kamath, President, AAAI, “The second year of Media Awards has seen drastic improvement on aspects right from increase in the number of entries to the quality of case studies and the judging standards.”

Sam Balsara, Managing Director, Madison India, “The Media Awards have seen a steady progress since last year. It is gratifying to see that there is so much of media expertise in the industry that the standards are going up every year.”

Nandini Dias, COO, Lodestar

“We are ecstatic to win a Gold for two of our works. Amul was a lovely case study we did this year, and think the way brand Amul has integrated branded content is unusual. Each of the aspects of the campaign was beautifully integrated – be it the tagline, the music, the characters, etc, were all in sync with the central idea. Our work on Microsoft was different in the sense that the launch of Microsoft Vista was huge, and the unique use of the newspaper medium made it an effective campaign.”

R Gowthaman, Managing Director, Mindshare India

“We have done very well in Multi-media and Digital. Somehow, we couldn’t do well in Print and Radio. But simply going by the number of awards, we are the number one agency in India. The Horlicks entry had done great in executing the idea across multiple channels, and I am ecstatic that it has bagged a Gold.

Chandradeep Mitra, President, OMS

“We are feeling good after winning an award. We hope that next year, we would better our performance and win many more metals. For our work on Yatra.com, we had a different idea which engaged the consumer. It had a good connect with the brand proposition, and use of media with an added advantage.

Pratap Bose, CEO, O&M

“It’s a terrific feeling to be winning an award, that too a Silver, despite being the only creative agency that took part in the Media Awards. Lifebuoy Gurudwara Activation was a unique proposition that we implemented in a Gurudwara by branding the taps and the areas around the Gurudwara.

Complete list of Media Awards 2008 winners: