Goafest 2023: Leo Burnett bags Creative Agency of the Year

The committee saw 1145 entries across 15 categories on day 3 of ABBY Awards, out of which, 407 were shortlisted. Winners went home with 1 Grand Prix, 33 Gold, 87 Silver, 109 Bronze, and 86 Merit Metals. Leo Burnett India bagged the Grand Prix.

On day three of Goafest 2023, ABBY Awards celebrated work across Creative, Brand Activation & Promotions, Branded Content & Entertainment, Video Craft, Young Abby, and Young Maverick categories. These categories were further divided into 1t sub-categories. 

Leo Burnett won ‘Creative Agency of the Year’, ‘Branded Content & Entertainment Specialist Agency of The Year’, and ‘Brand Activation & Promotions Specialist Agency of The Year.’ On the other hand, Good Morning Films bagged Video Craft Specialist of The Year.

Rajdeepak Das, CEO & CCO Leo Burnett South Asia said “It’s been a long journey to this point and each piece of work which has won today is uniquely Burnett – impactful, creative and new age. As we say at Burnett Epic Brands, Epic Work! And to see so many of our brands winning across categories is truly what makes this special.”

Dheeraj Sinha, CEO Leo Burnett South Asia & Chairman BBH India said “The most gratifying part of this win is that it proves we’ve built a culture of creativity at Leo Burnett. The ambition always was to build success at scale and with global impact. Agency of the Year across two years in a row along with the Digital agency of the year and 3 Grand Prix, that too across multiple clients and campaigns is a testimony to everyday, relentless push for excellence at the agency. This moment belongs to all the Leo Burnetters, their loved ones who let us keep them away for long hours, to all our clients who put their unflinching trust in us and our partners in production and technology who leave no stones unturned to give shape to our ambitious ideas. This is also a moment of gratitude and humility, to stay hungry and work hard to be the best in the world, bar none.”

Creative

The category saw 14 Gold, 37 Silver, 53 Bronze, and 44 Merit metals, making it a total of 148 metals. Leo Burnett won five Gold, nine Silver, and four Bronze awards. They were followed by Law & Kenneth Saatchi & Saatchi Pvt Ltd grabbing four Gold metals and FCB Group India won two Gold. 

Brand Activation & Promotions 

The next category saw one Grand Prix, two Gold, 12 Silver, and 15 Bronze. Leo Burnett grabbed one Grand Prix under the ‘FMCG - Foods & Beverages’ sub-category for Oreo #BringBack2011. The group also won two Gold metals. 

VMLY&R won four Silver metals. 

Also Read: Goafest 2023: Leo Burnett India wins Digital Specialist AoY, Mindshare bags Mobile and Tech AoY

Branded Content & Entertainment 

The category saw four Gold, 11 Silver, 16 Bronze, 4 Merit, and a total of 35 metals. Leo Burnett India won two Gold, three Silver, and 2 Bronze. The network bagged the Gold for Burger King’s The Great Celebrity Hack and Airtel 175 Replayed.

Airads Limited bagged the shiny metal under the sub-category ‘Best fictional program…’ for Interactions - Elephant in the Room.’ Creativeland bagged Gold under the sub-category ‘Best use of integration of user-generated content’ for Netflix Playback 2022. 

Video Craft

This category saw eight Gold, 17 Silver, 17 Bronze, and 16 Merit. With a total of 58 metals, the category saw Good Morning Films emerging as Video Craft Specialist of The Year. They bagged five Gold, six Silver, five Bronze, and four Merit. 

Other agencies to win the Gold metal under this category include Scarecrow M&C Saatchi, Chrome Pictures Media LLP, and Grey Group. 

Young Maverick

In this newly added category, McCann Worldgroup India’s Vasudha Roy, Abhijith SS, and Amaljith P bagged a Gold. McCann’s Kabir Mehta and Dhruv Khanna bagged the Silver and Bronze metals. Kartik K Prakash from Mindshare won a Silver metal.

Speaking about the Abby One Show Awards 2023, Partha Sinha, President of the Times of India Group and President of The Advertising Club, said, Goafest has yet again proven to be an extravaganza that brings together the entire media and creative fraternity together. From the staggering number of entries to the jury, to the wins, and more, every aspect of this fest has been nothing short of astounding. We're setting international standards and pushing boundaries with ABBY One Show; you all have witnessed it! We take immense pride in calling ourselves the voice of the industry, the representatives of this industry and this year's fest is a testimonial in itself. The atmosphere was buzzing with creativity and excellence, and it was truly inspiring to see so many talented individuals coming together and manifesting all that we have witnessed this year."