Emvies 2005: Others envy, Mindshare’s Pride

NRS is no longer about readership;the weightage given to television suggests that it is time the study is renamed. Similarly, the Emvies is no longer limited to the recognition of media companies; each passing year sees non-media companies winning more and more accolades in what was originally intended as an award to recognise the media practitioner.

Media behemoth MindShare, did not disappoint this year, walking away with five Golds and four Silvers, allowing it the ultimate award of the night - 'Agency of the Year'. Ashutosh Srivastava, MD, GroupM and Vikram Sakhuja, MD, MindShare, were perhaps the two mostsatisfied attendees.

Srivastava says, "For the media side of the business, it is finally the clients, who tell you how well you have done. But awards like the Emvies motivate the team and help in establishing the agency's brand name better. We are proud of this award."

Sakhuja adds, "We work very hard in delivering value to our clients and we hope that this kind of recognition makes the point! We knew we had done well but we were up against some good work and winning these awards in the end is thrilling. We are looking forward to next year's battle already."

Emvies 2005 turned into a battle of media innovations. Every Gold winner received 10 points and a Silver winner got 5 points. MindShare's wins gave it a cool 70 points, followed by Lodestar Media and Ogilvy & Mather at 30 each with Lodestar getting two Golds and two Silvers and O&M bagging three Golds. Details of the award winning entries, where they were shared with Impact, are reproduced in this issue.

Shashi Sinha, President of last year's 'agency of the year', Lodestar Media, continues to be a pleased man, "Lodestar is a modest sized agency and in the work that we have done, we have performed splendidly. This recognition shows that. Emvies is very important for us and we are happy."

With its creative dominance, O&M doing well in a media award is another interesting detail of this edition. Even though he wasn't there at the event, John Goodman CEO, India & South Asia, O&M is cheerful too, saying, "Media is a creative business for us, and therefore we will continue to support these awards as part of our focus on big creative ideas. I hope we continue to be as successful as we are this year!"

Another creative agency, rmg david, took the fourth slot with 15 points, having won one Gold and one Silver. Josy Paul (who couldn't attend the event either as he was at Cannes) is a very happy man, "I have never seen the difference between media and creative. Everything is media, everything is creative! Some of the best ideas have come from people working in media. So if we have won at the Emvies, I see it as a normal thing. We were just trying to create a new medium with our creative idea. Look at our idea for WWF Trees - it is the only medium that grows when you water it. That said, awards like Emvies encourage us to continue with what we are doing."

MediaCom and Maxus also totted up 10 points - MediaCom with one Gold, which also resulted in its being honoured with the TAM Award for Best TV Research, accompanied by a Gold Medal, Certificate and a cash prize of Rs 50,000. The entry also saw MediaCom being awarded the Grand Emvie of the year. Jasmin Sohrabji, President, MediaCom, says, "Research has always been a strength for us and an area where we invest our energies substantially. We have worked very hard on this research paper and have won the most coveted award of the lot. We at MediaCom are very happy."

Maxus, with two Silvers is elated. "We had three entries, of which two won - we are very thrilled about it. The Emvies is a very important institution of the media fraternity today and it is very crucial for us to be recognised in the forum. The competition was a close one and we are very excited about these awards!" says Manjiri Kamath, GM, Maxus Mumbai.

Sony Entertainment Television and Living Media India Ltd., which were also the 'Media Marketers of the Year', had 10 points, each winning a Gold. Ajay Shukla, Publishing Director, Reader's Digest, speaks in the same vein as the other winners, as he says, "We have done some very good work on this particular campaign and we were very confident of winning an award. It feels great to know we were right about that!"

Amongst the other special awards that Emvies has in place, The Best Case Study Presentation (People Choice Award) threw up two winners - Lodestar Media and Madison Communications Pvt. Ltd. - for their entries 'Club Mahindra Mobile Holiday Rajdhani Express' and 'Nirvana Plus - The End of Reach' respectively.

As can be expected with a growing awards property, a few questions have been raised - particularly the paucity of information available to the public on what, in a particular entry, the jury saw that merited the recognition or lack of it. Ad Club, Bombay officials, M. G. Parameswaran (who has now stepped down as the Ad Club President on June 30, 2005 giving way to Kalpana Rao) and Emvies Chairperson, Apurva Purohit speak on this and other issues to Impact.