Portfolio Night 12: “It was like the IPL of advertising”: Amer Jaleel

Lowe Lintas and Partners hosted the Indian edition of Portfolio Night 12 for India in Mumbai. The event, conducted simultaneously in 20 plus cities across the world, aimed to identify young and upcoming talent and mentor them on the opportunities that lay ahead.

 

Mayank Bhayana from Bangalore bagged the Portfolio Night ‘All Star’ title from India and will be flown to New York to take part in a week-long creative challenge on a specific brief.

 

The evening saw a turnout of 75 young creative aspirants who presented their work to 25 creative directors of the country.

 

Sharing his views on the turnout that the event received, Joseph George, CEO, Lowe Lintas and Partners said, “With advertising arguably having lost its monopoly over being the coolest job to have, it was critical that as an industry we kept looking at ways to spot talent who are not just promising but fans of the profession. It was also very gratifying that all the creative stars from across the industry agreed to participate without any hesitation whatsoever. With the kind of response that we received from the candidates as well as the creative directors, it demonstrates the industry’s shared priority of ensuring that this profession remains exciting and attractive to young talent.”

 

Amer Jaleel, NCD, Lowe Lintas and Partners, said, “It was like the IPL of advertising. It was the place where raw 'quickies' and talented 'big-hitters' got spotted. There were many from the industry who were on a keen lookout for rising stars of the night. Seeing the enormous energy being exuded by the participants, I wished I too were playing under the floodlights!”

 

Arun Iyer, NCD, Lowe Lintas and Partners, said, “The event was a great opportunity for Lowe Lintas to give back to the community and the industry of advertising. The way the young creative guys came in and engaged the attention span of the CDs for over three hours was worth the whole effort. They not only got a sense of what the real world is all about, but also received enough encouragement and opportunities from a widely appreciated platform such as Portfolio Night.”

 

For the review process, aspirants were divided into three batches and each aspirant got the opportunity to get their portfolio reviewed by three creative directors. Each CD met three candidates individually for 15 minutes and reviewed their work, ideas and offered them valuable feedback.

 

As part of its association with Portfolio Night, Olx.in will offer one candidate a chance to work as an intern for three months on a brief set up by the client. The candidate will be chosen from the final set of nominees shortlisted from the various individual stages.This year’s Portfolio Night was supported by global sponsor - Shutterstock, Twitter and SquareSpace. In India, the event was supported by Godrej HIT, Idea Cellular, Tanishq, Micromax, Lifebuoy, OLX.in and Myntra who came onboard as Brand Sponsors for Portfolio Night.

 

The creative heads who reviewed the work at the event included Piyush Pandey, Abhijit Avasthi and Rajiv Rao of Ogilvy & Mather; Bobby Pawar, Publicis; Josy Paul, BBDO;  K S Chakravarty, FCB Ulka; Deepak Singh and Parixit Bhattacharya,  TBWA India; Kapil Tammal, Scarecrow Communication; Malvika Mehra, Grey Worldwide; Pradyumna Chauhan, McCann Worldgroup; Raghu Bhat,  Scarecrow Communication; Ramki D Ramkrishna, Cartwheel Creative Consultancy; Tista Sen, JWT; Vikram Gaikwad, Underdog; Ashish Chakravarty, Contract India.

The creative heads from Lowe Lintas who were part of the judging panel included Amer Jaleel, Arun Iyer, Shriram Iyer, Ashwin Varkey, Sagar Kapoor, and Rajesh Ramaswamy.