Ogilvy takes home Yahoo Big Idea Chair 2012

The third edition of Yahoo! Big Idea Chair Awards concluded with an award ceremon on 9 November. While there were a total of 19 winners across seven categories, the much sought after Yahoo Big Idea Chair Award went to Ogilvy for its work on Kraft India - 'Date Fillum' campaign.

Among other winners, Maxus India, Innocean Worldwide and Interactive avenues bagged one Gold each.

Maxus India won Gold for Best Use of Technology for its entry - ‘Light Powered Media for Light Powered Watch’ for Titan Industries.

Innocean Worldwide India bagged Gold for Best Use of Social Media for its entry ‘Catch the Buzz – Live Reporting of Auto Expo’ for Hyundai Motor India. Interactive Avenues bagged Gold under the Digital 360-degree category for work on Mahindra and Mahindra, ‘Spark the Rise’.

Abhijit Avasthi, national creative director, Ogilvy, said, “It gives me great satisfaction that we’re not only producing award winning work in traditional media, but also in digital. We’re living in a digital world and it is very important to give the medium its due.  Yahoo Big Idea Chair Awards is a platform which recognizes outstanding work in digital media and we’re happy we’ve won this year. Next year, we will try and repeat our performance and hopefully we will win again.”

Nitin Mathur, senior director and head – marketing, Yahoo India, said, “In its third year, the Yahoo Big Idea Chair Awards has become bigger and better. In terms of number of entries, this year we received more than 370 entries as against last year’s 280. This year, I think, we saw entries that really demonstrated effective use of digital be it in terms of technology, innovation, social media, videos, display etc.  Plus, we’re now starting to see brands using digital as a platform to really engage and converse with consumers. They’ve really started to doing digital 360 campaigns as against traditional media advertising.”

The awards ceremony was preceded by a panel discussion on ‘Shift in Digital: From Presence to Excellence’. Panelists included Mallikarjun Das, chief executive officer, Starcom MediaVest Group; Suresh Venkat, editor, CNBC TV 18; Valerie Rozcki Wagone, founder and chief executive officer, Zipdial; C Abhiroop, head of media services, Unilever South Asia; and Nitin Mathur of Yahoo India.

Discussion ranged from topics such as measurement metrics, inadequate spends despite growing internet user-base, creativity and innovation, and last but not the least – the future of digital media in India in terms of growth vis-à-vis traditional media such as TV, press, radio and outdoor.