All About: Emvies 2011

It’s that time of the year in which media agencies and clients eagerly wait to see whether their work ‘worked’ or not.

Moving into its 11th year, the Ad Club of Bombay continues to honour the best in media through its media awards property, the Emvies.

On the changes the awards have undergone and how the Emvies line up for 2011, Sunil Lulla, chairperson, Emvies 2011, and managing director and chief executive officer - TV Business, Times Global Broadcasting, said, “Emvies has only grown in stature. It is the de-facto award every media professional wants in their hands. It represents recognition from the industry in terms of innovation, excellence and value creation for media. In 2000, the Emvies had 70 entries and in 2011 it has more than 700. The judging takes place over six days, two rounds and with over 80 judges from the media and marketing fraternity. The finale is expected to have a packed audience of more than 1000 people. If you receive an Emvie, everyone knows you are the chosen one.”

1. This year, the Emvies has changed the scoring system and added new categories for the awards. The Grand Emvie winner will be allocated 25 points this year. A Grand Emvie generally goes to an entry that 
is also a Gold winner in a particular category, but the points will only be allocated once.(The 25 points for the Grand Emvie 
winner and not the 15 points 
for the Gold winner). Two 
separate trophies (a Gold and Grand Emvie) will be given to the winners.

Along with this, the 11th edition of the Emvies also sees more in-depth digital award sub-categories. Search, Social Media, Mobile and Web are the four sub-categories under digital.
Creative agencies who showed ample proof of their role in media planning and buying are allowed to participate in the awards. On the criteria behind the entry of an agency, Lulla said, “Agencies are agencies be it creative or media or any other specialisation. They create intellectual value for brands. The Emvies requires an agency which is responsible for planning or buying media, that is the criteria.”

2. Commenting on the response received for this year’s awards, Lulla said, "The 717 entries received this year are the highest ever for Emvies, and is the sign of an evolving award property as well as the excellence and confidence of the media industry because more entries mean that there are more people believing that they are innovating and have the best solutions to offer."

3. Of the 717 entries received, there were 118 shortlists. This is the first time the number of shortlists exceeded 100 and was 52 more than the number received for the last edition of the awards. According to Bipin Pandit, general manager, Ad Club Bombay, the response the Emvies are getting is "staggering". He emphasised that the first year of the Emvies received fewer entries than the number of shortlists received in 2011. The case study presentations were held over three days at the Welingkars Institute in Mumbai on 16-18 August and only marketers were on the jury. Mindshare bagged the highest nominations amongst agencies this year with 33 shortlists. Lodestar UM came in second with 22 shortlisted entries. Maxus with 20 shortlisted entries came in third spot.

4. Organisers have also announced the ‘Band Baja Award’, a musical and entertainment competition amongst media agencies and media companies scheduled on the awards night. The category consists of – ‘Best Band Performance, Western’, ‘Best Band Performance, Indian’,‘Best Solo Performance, Western’ and ‘Best Solo Performance, India’. Points awarded for this category obviously will not be added for the media agency of the year. Judges for the category would be from the music industry itself. There have been three shortlists under each sub-category for this award.

5. In another Emvies innovation, the case study presentations were shown live

on the Ad Club’s official website www.adclubbombay.com. The awards, scheduled for 26 August at the Taj Lands End in Mumbai will be on line live as well on the website.

Agency of the year from the post Emvies

​2002 Lodestar Media

2003 WPP Media

2004 Lodestar Universal

2005 Mindshare

2006 Mindshare

2007 Lodestar Universal

2008 Mindshare

2009 Mindshare

2010 Mindshare

(There was no media agency of the year awards in 2000 and 2001)