ABBYs 2023: The craft of creating winning campaigns

Ahead of the ABBYs, Social Samosa has a brief chat with the Award Governing Council which includes Partha Sinha, Rana Barua, and Ajay Kakar. The trio talks about the fundamentals of the awards and gives a view of the new categories.

For 54 years, The ABBY Awards, which is co-hosted by AAAI and The Advertising Club, has held a pivotal role in recognizing creativity and innovation in India’s advertising industry. This platform has become a voice and representative of this industry. 

This year, the ABBY Awards have seen an increase in entries. From last year’s 3021, the total number of entries has gone up to 3301. 

The Advertising Club (TAC) has decided to go back to the basics this time and has proposed to give the categories a renewed and refreshed sheen. 

For example, the Print category has been renamed to ‘Still’, further subdivided as Still Print and Still Digital. Similarly, ‘Films’ has changed to Audio-visual, which will include TV, Cinema, Digital, OTT, etc. And lastly, Radio will now be called Audio. 

Commenting on these changes, Ajay Kakar, Managing Committee Member, The Advertising Club & Co-Chair, The ABBYs Award Governing Council says “It is not just a name change but is meant to accommodate new categories like podcasts. So, this year, we have widened the category and subcategories to represent the new world and emerging media.”

TAC has also introduced a new category titled 'Young Maverick', dedicated to the youth keeping in touch with the current times.

Apart from the newest category, some changes have been made in the existing categories as well. Talking about this, Rana Barua, Group CEO, Havas Group India & Chairman, The ABBYs Award Governing Council mentions, “We have reshaped certain categories because we have had multiple Town Halls, where we have heard from all the senior people in the industry.”

But, what truly makes ABBYs? 

Partha Sinha, President, Times of India Group and President of The Advertising Club shares the parameters of winning work have remained constant from the last 54 years. 

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“At the Advertising Club, our sole agenda is excellence. We celebrate, discuss and help people work towards excellence. We look forward to witnessing a lot of innovative work this year that will go on to live up to the reputation of being the most coveted award property in South Asia," adds Sinha.  

With this, Sinha says that ABBYs Awards has now acquired global stature and recognition.

“A great campaign is 80% idea and 80% execution,” says Sinha. 

Concept, Concept and Craft are the basics of creating a winning campaign; Sinha also mentions this is something the jury follows as well. He mentions that craft is where the power of execution comes into play, most ideas get trashed by juries because of the craft. Metals often get decided by craft. 

Creativity is another aspect of packaging a winning campaign and the definition of creativity has changed over time; a big reason for that is the digital overtake. 

This change is because of the internet and globalization, says Sinha. With it, creativity has become democratized which means a small agency from Cochin has an equal chance of winning a Grand Prix as a big shot in Mumbai. 

He further added that the industry needs to create a system where equal opportunity is accessible to all, and with ABBYs, the Advertising Club aims to do that. 

Talking about how packaging truly matters, Sinha advises participants to look through past winners and their entries. He further adds that it's important for aspiring participants to attend The ABBY Awards at Goafest to learn the tricks; learning first-hand is critical. 

“There is no shortcut; agencies and clients make serious efforts to make a campaign presentation come alive; just smoke and mirror never do the trick,” Sinha shares.

Jury beyond borders

The ABBY Awards has yet again teamed up with The One Show with the aim of further raising international standards for judging, jury selection, and transparency, elevating and improving the ABBYs. 

After the onboarding of One Show, this year’s jury consists of internationally renowned and toasted names to a mix of seasoned and young celebrated professionals as Jury Chair. 

“We believe that an award is as good as the jury who judges it. With that definition, we have the most coveted Jury Chairs and Jury members, representing a diverse range of international, Indian, young, and experienced veterans,” says Kakkar. 

The names that have been announced as of May are:

• Nick Law, Creative Chairperson - Accenture Song
• Wesley ter Haar, Co-founder - Media.Monks
• Prajato Guha Thakurta, Founder & CCO, MANJA
• Avinash Pandey, CEO - ABP Network
• Valerie Pinto, CEO - Weber Shandwick
• Ahmed Aftab Naqvi, Global CEO & Co-founder - Gozoop Group
• Ashwini Deshpande, Co-founder - Elephant Design
• Emmanuel Upputuru, Founder - Efgh Brand Innovations
• Sabyasachi Mitter, Founder & Managing Director - ibs + Fulcro
• Bobby Pawar, Chairman & CEO - Havas Group India
• P G Aditiya, Co-founder & CCO - Talented
• Guneet Monga, Founder - Sikhya Entertainment
• Mangesh Rane, Founder & Creative Director - Open Strategy and Design
• Russell Barrett, CCEO - TBWA\India
• Mandie van der Merwe, CCO - Dentsu Creative
• Pallavi Chakravarti, Founder & CCO - Fundamental
• Rajdeepak Das, CEO & CCO - Leo Burnett

This year, ABBYs will see a diverse jury that will evaluate work across new categories that are truly representative of the ever-evolving advertising industry.