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At the time of filing this article, Colvyn Harris of JWT was in New York, Josy Paul of David was in Indonesia, Prasoon Joshi had just returned after judging the Asia Pacific Ad Fest in Thailand, CVS Sharma and Meera Sharath Chandra of Tribal DDB were in London, Raj Kurup of Grey was on his way back from Malaysia, Senthil Kumar of JWT was shooting in Sri Lanka, and O&M's Piyush Pandey was the closest to home, in Goa. People from the Indian advertising fraternity are going places. But when it comes to sending their work over, it's an increasingly difficult task for agency heads.
With so many award shows, it becomes a tough choice to make as to when its time to send entries. The top line shows remain, by a roughly calibrated consensus, Cannes, D&AD, Clio, One Show, followed by London and New York, and by virtue of its position in the events calendar and its proximity to home, the Asia Pacific Ad Fest. And then, there are awards that focus on specific industry segments like FAB, that are going out of their way to woo not just the agencies but also the players in that segment.
The just concluded Asia Pacific Ad Fest, in its ninth edition, recorded a total of 4,738 entries, it's highest ever. The split up of entries was: 983 (Film), 1396 (Print), 1402 (Outdoor), 133 (Film Craft), 227(DM), 235 (Interactive) and 362 (Print Craft).
Indian entries won 13 metals, and a host of nominations. Tribal DDB, Grey Worldwide and Saatchi & Saatchi won three metals each, while JWT won two, and Ogilvy and McCann one each. There was no gold, though, for Indian agencies. Prasoon Joshi, Regional Creative Director (South and South East Asia), McCann Erickson, was Chairman of the film jury at the festival. After the New York, London International, Clio and Cannes juries, and the Asia Pac Fest now, he is all set to take off again, as a juror for D&AD 2006. His take on the judging experience at the Asia Pacific Ad Fest: "It was a totally new experience for me. I have chaired juries earlier internationally, but they were national juries of the respective countries - Indonesia, Philippines, etc. There were many new learnings, and everyone who was part of the jury was a name in his or her own country. Taking so many opinions together and arriving at a consensus was quite an experience!
An award like the Asia Pacific Ad Fest is something significant for Asia. It has already become the highest regarded festival in Asia. Often, Asian sensibilities get ignored in international awards. Since the jury was purely Asian, we had to take extra care in analyzing the work. For example we had two Japanese creative directors - one of them was from Hakuhodo and the other from Dentsu, both of which are huge agencies in that country. One of them couldn't understand English. There was this commercial for promoting milk among teenagers that he was trying to explain to us. We needed to get in an interpreter all the time. We didn't think much of the commercial at first glance. It was not done by his agency, and he was defending the work because he understood the context of the creative route the ad had taken. Finally, it won! He successfully explained to us why it was great - for teenagers in Japan, milk is unfashionable. The commercial tackled that problem very creatively, taking an almost fantasy route. As I said, it was a learning experience for me."
The Thais have reinforced their hold over the creative awards, but Indian creative, like the people behind it, is going places too. Awards from the world over have given rise to healthy competition over the years, and sparked an eager sense of expectation from creative minds across the country. But one fails to understand how, the fraternity that churns out work for several countries in the Asia Pacific region, falls short of a country like Thailand whose agencies churn out spectacular work year after year - winning more metal, more best of shows, and more golds. Is it a cultural thing? Is the Thai creative template more universally acceptable than the formats of Indian work?
Supporting the hypothesis, if such a serious word is applicable in this context, is India's failure to win a single gold in the film category at Cannes, and several other festivals. While outdoors, ambient media and even print have seen some decent wins by Indian agencies, interactive is another new category where there seems to be a lot of promise. But film, is still relatively elusive.
At the Asia Pac Fest, McCann's Silver at the Asia Pacific festival came for work on 'Heal Foundation', for its entry 'Boy'. On the film, Joshi said, "It was about telling people that its society that gives birth to terrorists, about how a young boy wants to grow up and kill. The other won from India from JWT was a great piece of work - and done in-house too." On film being the elusive thread in the Indian quest for gold, Joshi added, "In outdoor and print, we have always done well. This year we've done better. But film is something where we have no Cannes golds. Indian films need to crack it internationally. It's a debatable thing. We need awards for sheer judging of the craft and the ideas. They are important. There are two kinds of films, maybe: one is the hit films, and the other is the kind of films we can feel proud about having done in India. There are films that are redefining the category. There was a sixminute film that won recently, that was fabulous. We need to understand that advertising is competing directly with entertainment. We need to create advertising that can stand the pressure of entertainment."