Video: In conversation with the winners of Effie 2011

Towards the end of Effie 2011, the winners shared their thoughts on what worked for them this year and how they plan to excel this year's performance for Effie 2012.
On winning the Agency of the Year, Madhukar Sabnavis, country head, discovery and planning, Ogilvy & Mather, said, "We have won this award three years in running now, and four times in five years. The best part is that this time we have not just won on clients like Vodafone and Cadbury but on 12-13 clients, so the spectrum is spread across diverse categories."

JWT was the first runner-up for Agency of the Year and Colvyn Harris, chief executive officer, JWT was exhilarated on their performance. He added, "We've built a new team at the creative helm and we will have all guns blazing early next year."

Bobby Pawar, chief creative officer, DDB Mudra (designate chief creative officer, managing partner, JWT), commented on DDB Mudra winning awards on Volkswagen campaign which revved up their tally so as to make them a second runner-up for Agency of the Year. He shared how the brand has gained a lot of visibility in the last two years with the kind of creative work that the team has been doing on Volkswagen. He mentioned, "It's great to win awards on interesting creative work that one does but you can't rest on your past laurels, you've got to move on and that's exactly what the team would do now."

Joseph George, chief executive officer, Lowe Lintas, shared his views on what works with the jury since he was a part of one this time. Lowe Lintas tied at the third place with DDB Mudra as the second runner-up for Agency of the Year. George said, "If you look at the MNP (Mobile Number Portability) campaign for Idea, it has worked extremely well in the market and it has worked at all communication levels."

On winning the Grand Effie of the Year for Pepsi - Change the Game campaign, Agnello Dias (Aggi), partner, chief creative officer, Taproot India, said, "I think it was a campaign that made an Indian sport (Cricket) universal and was enjoyed by every member of the house." Commenting on the road ahead hereon for Taproot, Santosh Padhi (Paddy), partner, chief creative officer, Taproot India, said, "We have been making dents in this space ever since the inception of Taproot India. We'll try our best that we continue doing so and are hopeful things will only get better with time."

Ajay Kakar, chairman, Effie 2011 committee, (chief marketing officer, Aditya Birla Financial Services Group) was overjoyed with the way the event unfolded. He added, " The client participation has overwhelming this time and there have been 60 awards awarded to 16 agencies. One can see more agencies coming up with interesting award winning work now, and that is definitely a high."