The 23rd edition of the "Big Bang Awards" of the Ad Club Bangalore brought to fore the rising talent poll in the advertising industry. With Mindshare bagging four out of the top nine most coveted BIG Bang Awards, The Social Street once again bagged the award for the Creative Agency of the Year Award.
The fact that over 1150 entries from across the country vied for various categories sent a strong signal to the Ad-world about the emergence of the new talent pools in the sector and growing emergence of Bengaluru as a major city in the business.
The Big Bang Awards for Excellence in Communication and Media were given away in a grand function on Friday, September 28 at The Ritz Carlton, Bangalore.
The who's who of the industry attended the mega event which saw several celebrity hosts and guests.
Hemant Mallik, Chief Executive ITC Foods, in his keynote address highlighted " The advertising agencies have a Bigger responsibility now, in the internet era. The challenges posed by social media can undo a great Ad campaign. The agencies have to learn to respond to such challenges, quickly and aggressively"
It was once again a celebration night for Mindshare and The Social Street who were the big winners of the night bagging the various awards for Media & Digital Agencies of the year. Commenting on the awards, Malavika Harita, Chairperson Big Bang Awards Committee said, "We have made every effort to recognize talent and acknowledge it. The fact that the Jury had a tough task at hand was evident from several new faces amongst the winners. Keeping in line with the #For the Love Of Advertising, the participants displayed it's not merely a profession but a creative platform".
"I have a very old association with Advertising Club Bengaluru has having been its office bearer, I am glad that the BIG BANG Awards have become such a big and coveted affair. I look forward to them being re-named BIGGER BANG Awards" observed Raj Nayak, COO Viacom 18 in his interaction with Prabhu Kannan, VP Marketing Technology Eplison India highlighting the emergence of tech tools in the Creative field which till a few decades ago was dependent paint brushes, pencil sketches etc.
Hindustan Lever Limited Won the Client of the Year Award-winning it across several categories.
Another special highlight was the presence and interaction of the Old Lintas Man, Film Director R Balki at the event. In his interaction with Sridhar Ramanujam, Balki recalled his earlier years in the advertising world where digital support was minimal and creativity more crucial. R Balki said " The advertising Industry is going through a churning, it sends ripples across, but the Industry should stabilize in a maximum two years time"
This year the Big Bang awards were presented under several categories. The BIG BANG Awards once again saw the Advertising Club keeping the assessment process fully transparent with an online jury selection process. A panel, of 46 senior Advertising, Marketing, Media, PR and Digital industry experts and thought leaders were deployed by Ad Club. "We are the only Indian Ad Club using a sophisticated Online Jury Process. Every jury member scores independently based on the facts presented in the Entry Form. No jury member knows who else is in his group and the identity of the entrant", explained, Arvind Kumar, Executive Director of The Ad Club Bangalore.
The club uses a State-of-the-Art Online Platform in association with Global Best Awards of the USA to receive, collate and judge entries online, on par with other International awards.
