O&M, McCann win Agency of the year

Mudra Communications' campaign 'Jay Dev ……. Jay Dev' for Cycle Agarbatti won the Crystal Award at the fifth annual Radio Mirchi Kaan Awards which was held in Mumbai on Friday. The same campaign had also won a bronze at Cannes Lions 2008 and Gold at Abbys 2008. The Kaan awards, which honour the creative excellence in the field of radio advertising, had about 700 entries across 15 categories this year.

The best voice award was given to McCann Erickson's Prasoon Joshi. Joshi said, "Well, I keep trying new work. This year, I tried my voice and I am happy that it was liked. Radio requires innovation. It is a gentleman like medium, very quiet medium. It is very demanding. You might be happy that you have released a radio spot but that might not even get heard. You need innovative and fresh work so that the audience doesn't lose interest."

 'Chinese Song' for Hit won the best sound design award. For the agency of the year award, there was a tie between O&M and McCann Erickson. The client of the year was Chervolet U-VA (General Motors). The production house of the year award went to Autoedit Productions. The radio writer of the year was won by the McCann creative team.

The gold winners in the campaign category included McCann Erickson's Chevrolet U-VA (Space) Campaign for Chevrolet U-VA and Mudra Communications' Jai Jagdish Hare, Jay Dev….Jay Dev for Cycle Agarbatti. In the Single category, the gold winners were Mudra Communications' Jay Jagdish Hare and Jay Dev…….Jay Dev for Cycle Agarbatti, Publicis Ambience' Chinese song for Hit and McCann Erickson's Chevrolet U-VA (Space) – Moustache and Dandruff for Chevrolet U-VA.

The silver winners for the campaign category included McCann's Alpenliebe for Alpenliebe, O&M's Gunshot, Soap Opera and Table Tennis for Integra Widescreen LCD TVs and JWT's Lead India - Bant Singh, Manjunath, Satyendra Dubey for The Times of India. The silver winners for the single category were Leo Burnett India's Bood Bood for Creamfillsxtra, Highway for Reliance Mobile, McCann Erickson's Alpenliebe (Greed) - Govt Guy and Alpenliebe (Greed) – TV for Alpenliebe, Chevrolet U-VA (Space) - Double Chin for Chevrolet U-V, O&M's Non-stop 1 for Centerfresh, Soap Opera for Intergra Widescreen LCD TV, "Postman"Gujrat for Apex Ultima and Grey Group's Bathroom for Pepfiz.

The bronze winners for the campaign category included Contract Advertising's Baby -Ambulance, Heart-Knock, Condome - Cold Relief for Fortis Healthworld, Leo Burnett's Eunuch, Daddy, Pakkaoo Shayar, bank Call for Tiger Balm, McCann Erickson's Chlormint ( Thrashing) – Campaign and Chlormint ( Anytime) – Campaign for Chlormint, Vision 2000 (Mataji)  - Campaign for Vision 2000. O&M's Arz Kiya hai and Dil Aur Dimag for Dairy Milk and Campaign for Fullerton India Credit.

The bronze winners for the single category included Bates David Enterprise's Darbar and Mushaira for Barbeque Nation, Contract's Aquarium for Jindal Pipes, Everest Brand Solutions' Fire Brigade for Parle Mustt Bites, JWT's Paedophile for Prerna, Leo Burnett's Pyar Ki Keemat, Judge Ka Khoon and Ias Ka Sapna for Perfetti Van Melle, Underwear for Whisper, Railway Station and Sawaal for Reliance Mobile, Eunuch, Daddy and Bank Call for Tiger Balm; Subjective Term for McDonalds, Lowe Lintas' Loud & Clear for Luxor (Highlighters), McCann Erickson's Chlormint (Any Time) –Bull for Chlormint, Mudra Communications' Nirod Kumar for Ehsaas Foundation, O&M's Non Stop – 2 for Centerfresh, Dabne Dabanewale for Dairy Milk, Dabba and Thali for Protex Happydent, Air Conditioner for Just Dial, Gun Shot for Integra Widescreen LCD TV, Dust Free Up and "Airport" Gujrat for Apex Ultima, Divorce for Fevicol, Bond Leela for Star Gold and Mama for Corporate and Publicis Ambience' Pervert for Sil red Chilli Sauce.

Prashant Panday, CEO, ENIL (Radio Mirchi) said, "The quality of the entries was apparent. If you see the kind of campaigns and single entries that have won this year, its completely different from the quality that you would have seen two or three years back. There has been a sea change in the quality of radio advertising. Also, more importantly, there is a lot of intelligent work happening on radio.  It's not just banal stuff. It is very good, targeting different kind of audiences. Yet if you think about it, there were just five golds in fifteen categories so there is still lot of work to be done in this category."