VARCA, GOA: It‘s raining metals at the Abbys in Goa. Joining Interface Business Solutions in the advertising hall of fame at the 2013 Creative Abbys, Grey Worldwide and McCann Worldgroup have each picked up a grand prix for their work in the integrated category (sub category clothing, innerwear, footwear and accessories) and print category (sub category business and home services) respectively.

McCann Worldgroup finished this year‘s campaign with 56 Abby statuettes; seven gold, 15 silver and 33 bronze Abbys apart from the grand prix. Grey pocketed 14 metals in all adding seven silver and six bronze honours to the grand prix.

A total of 442 metals were awarded this year to 73 winning agencies. Calling it a celebration of creativity, Leo Burnett India and South Asia CEO Arvind Sharma said, "It is not only the number of entries that has increased, but the number of agencies participating has also seen a hike. This shows the confidence that every member of the advertising fraternity has in the Abbys."

And a celebration it is going to be at the Publicis Groupe’s creative hotspot as Leo Burnett picked up 71 metals with nine gold, 35 silver and 28 bronze Abbys, though the grand prix eluded the agency.

The agency won one gold in the integrated (media and publications) category for its work on SET India‘s game show KBC-6, one in the film category (media and publication) for SET India’s Girl Child campaign, one in the outdoor category (public service, appeals and charity) for Indian Red Cross Society’s Gift Blood this Christmas, two in the radio category – one for Tata Salt Lite’s Society campaign in the subcategory food and one for creating the KBC Anthem for SET India in the subcategory media and publications, two in the radio craft category – Tata Salt Lite Society campaign and the KBC Anthem for SET India(subcategory writing), one in the print craft (illustration) for its work on the Heinz Tomato Ketchup brand and one in the design category (environment design) for the reflection of music installation it created for MTV’s Coke Studio.

Leo Burnett Solutions, the creative agency’s digital arm also bagged three metals (two silver and one bronze), taking the network’s tally to 74.

Despite the withdrawal of 13 entries at advanced stages of judging, JWT India bagged 48 Abby metals this year including five gold, 17 silver and 26 bronze awards. ideas@work advertising took home 29 metals with one gold, 14 silver and 14 bronze Abbys.

Other agencies to pocket a gold include Taproot India, The Dentsu Group, BBDO Proximity, Bang Bang Films, Contract Advertising, DDB Mudra Group, Scarecrow Communications and Publicis Communications.

The creative Abbys received a staggering 4300 entries (50 more than last year) from nearly 173 agencies.

This year saw the inclusion of of a new category in the creative Abbys in Branded Content. The category had 12 winners in its first year with two entries winning gold, five winning silver and five winning bronze. JWT India took one gold for Zinkdagi Abhi BAki Hai for Birla Sun Life Insurance and the other went to Scarecrow Communications for the brand B’LUE’s Reveal Yourself: 1 song, 1500 lyricists.

"With the inclusion of this category, we have opened the doors of partcipation to not only creative and media agencies but also entities like broadcasters, content companies and production houses,"said Percept Ltd’s Ajay Chandawani.

This year, the creative Abbys had its fair share of controversies. First leading agency and consistent award winner Ogilvy and Mather declared that it would not participate in the awards. Last year, Ogilvy emerged the leading award aggregator with 51 metals, including a grand prix for its work on Fox Crime. The next scam to erupt was the Ford Figo poster campaign conceptualised by JWT that started the debate on scam ads and the accountability issue in the client-agency relationship anew and saw the exit of Bobby Pawar from his post as managing partner and chief creative officer at JWT India.

JWT India‘s entries for its campaign for Ford Figo were withdrawn from the awards.

As a consequence of this development Creativeland Asia (CLA) founder Raj Kurup decided to withdraw his name from all the juries in the creative Abby judges process and also requested that all entries from his agencies be revoked. The latter request was however denied since the judging process was almost 90 per cent complete. CLA completed its run at the Abbys this year with seven metal – three silver and four bronze.

Summing up the creative Abbys this year Sharma said, “In the end, its been a successful year. Let us look at this way – this year, we have recognised and awarded over 400 creative ideas which i believe is a great thing for the industry."

We will raise a toast to that! Sante!

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