R K Swamy bags agency of the year at Advertising Club Madras’ Maddys

With 4 Gold, 6 Silver and 7 Bronze awards, R K Swamy bagged the ‘Agency of the Year’ title at the first edition of Advertising Club Madras’ Maddys.

Chennai-based creative shop The Communication Central (TCC) was the runner-up. TCC bagged one Gold, five Silver and 14 Bronze awards.

Stark Communications stood third, with a tally of one Gold, two Silver and 10 Bronze metals.

Gutfeel, Chirpy Elephant, Grey worldwide, McCann Erickson, Black Box Films, Banana Brand works and Feswa are the other big winners of the night.

The awards were distributed on March 30, 2013 at a function in Chennai.

Speaking to Campaign India, Navneet Virk, executive creative director, RK Swamy BBDO, said, “We never participated in a big way earlier. This was not part of our agenda. Times have changed. The agency’s orientation is different now and there is a greater focus on awards. A hit rate of 17 out of 19 entries is a pleasant surprise. We would have won more, had we had more entries.”
She added, “It’s good to win. We have a young, passionate team and it’s showing in the results. These are baby steps and there is more to come.”

The award show, which was earlier ‘Tamizh Awards’, had been renamed Maddys in order to increase its scope and give opportunity to more organizations to participate. Prior to becoming the Tamizh Awards - to celebrate excellence in advertising in the Tamizh language - it existed as ‘Spark’.

Jury for Maddys 2013 comprised KV Sridhar, chief creative officer - India sub-continent, Leo Burnett; Ramakrishna Desiraju, CEO, Cartwheel Creative Consultancy; and Pavan Padaki, director - insights and creative, Brand-Comm.

Advertising Club Madras received 328 entries for the inaugural Maddys competition from 48 organizations, against 270 entries from 40 organizations last year for the Tamizh Awards.