MUMBAI: For the ones who want to create a mark in the creative world, 21 May was the night. Lowe Lintas and Partners hosted the Indian twelfth edition of the world's largest advertising portfolio review-cum-recruitment event- Portfolio Night.

The event that was conducted simultaneously in 20 plus cities across the world sought to unite the advertising and design communities in every continent for a common purpose – 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 an impressive turnout of 75 young creative aspirants who presented their work to top 25 creative directors of the country.

 Sharing his views on the over-whelming candidate participation and turnout, Lowe Lintas and Partners CEO Joseph George 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.”

Lowe Lintas and Partners NCD Amer Jaleel 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!”

 The agency’s NCD Arun Iyer added, “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.”

 Extending his gratitude to the numerous clients who made it a point to support the event, George said, “It was heartening to see the speed with which the clients wanted to participate with us on Portfolio Night. We are thankful to them for realizing a shared passion of spotting young and aspiring talent and giving them the opportunity to see their dreams come true.”

 Portfolio Night is a platform for young creative aspirants to have their work sampled by at least three top creative directors from the industry in a single evening. While it helps youngsters gain constructive feedback and guidance on their skill sets, the top Creative Directors get to spot potential talent.

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

The creative heads who reviewed the work at the event included Ogilvy & Mather executive chairman and creative director south Asia Piyush Pandey, Ogilvy & Mather NCDs Abhijit Avasthi & Rajiv Rao, Publicis CCO Bobby Pawar, Josy Paul, BBDO chairman & CCO Josy Paul, FCB Ulka NCD K S Chakravarty (Chax),  TBWA India Nation head – art Deepak Singh, TBWA India CCO Parixit Bhattacharya, Scarecrow Communication ECD Kapil Tammal, Grey Worldwide NCD Malvika Mehra, McCann Worldgroup NCD Pradyumna Chauhan, Scarecrow Communication, founder/director Raghu Bhat,  , Cartwheel Creative Consultancy owner Ramki D Ramkrishna, JWT NCD Tista Sen, Underdog founder Vikram Gaikwad, Contract India NCD Ashish Chakravarty.

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.

 As part of its association with Portfolio Night, India’s leading classifieds entity – 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.