|
While the radio station has received about 160 entries till date,
they are expecting about 250-300 entries.
A total of 13 eminent personalities from the advertising industry
have been roped in to adjudge the awards. The jury list includes
McCann-Erickson national creative director and executive vice-president
Prasoon Joshi, Lowe national creative director R Balakrishnan, Black
Magic's Abhijeet Choudhary, creative consultant Deepak Kakkar, Ambience
Publicis vice-chairperson and chief creative officer Elsie Nanji,
Oxygen partner Gangadharan Menon, Leo Burnett national creative
director K Shridhar, Enterprise Nexus Communications chairman Mohammed
Khan, music director Rajat Dholakia, Equinox's Ram Madhvani, Saatch
& Saatchi national creative director Ramesh Ramanathan, Lemon,
founder, Euro RSCG chief creative officer Ravi Deshpande, and Vihaan
Communications managing director Rekha Nigam.
That apart, the organizers have got international auditor Ernst
& Young as its official notary and tabulators.
In its inaugural year, the radio station has instituted awards in
14 categories, ranging from foods, beverages, toiletries and household
care, business products and services to Public Service and Charity
Fund-Raising. Speaking about the categories Radio Mirchi national
marketing head Gautam Gulati offered, "Besides 14 categories,
we also have instituted Crystal award that will be given to the
exceptional work of the year."
 Radio
Mirchi will also institute special awards for the most outstanding
radio writer, voice-over artist, production house and client of
the year 2003. Entires from un-released ads are also invited.
Each of the 14 categories will have Gold, Silver and Bronze award
winner. Special trophies have already being designed for the awards.
Based on the Grammy model, the awards will have a gold, silver or
a bronze colour mike fixed on a wooden base. The two lucky winners
will get a chance to go to the Cannes Awards in July 2004.
But the awards have had their share of teething problems. For starters,
the main qualm people had about the awards, instituted to laud the
performance of the clients advertising across the radio channels,
was its transparency. "We instituted the awards to encourage
the creativity and category building. To ensure that fairness of
the award all the ads are tabulated by Ernst & Young and later
on transferred on to a CD for the jury to look at. Our personal
bias isn't given a chance to seep in."
What about the entry fee, Rs 750 for a single entry and Rs 1500
for each campaign entry? "We decided to ask for the entry fee
just to convey the seriousness of the awards. Even AAAI, Abby and
RAPA have an entry fee. Any way we will give away the money for
charity once the function is done," says Gulati.
As for the actual event , the underlying theme will be voices. With
dignitaries from Bollywood being the special invitees, the organizers
are toying with an idea about Bollywood acts for the event. While
the company will be spending about Rs 350-400 million for the two
hour event to be held at either Grand Hyatt or NCPA, it isn't keen
on taking up any sponsors for the event.
It is however making its presence felt in the media circles via
print ads issued across the Times network and radio spots on their
channel. While the ads are innovative enough, even the entry form
has a wry humour element to it. Interesting.
The awards will be aired differed live on the channel and the radio
station is in talks with the CNBC and NDTV for a special programme.
Let the music begin...
|
