In its 50th year, the ABBY awards presented by the Advertising Club and the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) – is poised to set new benchmarks on scale and innovation with the upcoming 2018 edition.
The apex industry award, to be held between April 5 and 7 this year at Goa, has for the first time announced the formation of a Master Jury.
The Master Jury boasts of 15 illustrious, award winning creative giants who have consented to be the filter for the creative standards of the Creative ABBYs, and the work that will be worthy of an ABBY.
The Master Jury comprises of Prasoon Joshi – chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification and CEO of McCann World group India and chairman (Asia Pacific), Agnello Dias – chairman and co-founder, Taproot, Amer Jaleel – chairman and chief creative officer, Mullen Lintas, Arun Iyer – chairman and chief creative officer at Lowe Lintas, Alok Nanda – founder and CEO, Alok Nanda & Co. (Comms.), Abhijit Avasthi – founder Sideways Consulting’s, Bobby Pawar – managing director, chief creative officer – Publicis Worldwide, K.V. Sridhar – founder and chief creative officer, Hyper Collective Creative Technologies, Nitesh Tiwari – filmmaker and former CCO – Leo Burnett, Prashant Godbole – founder, Ideas@work, Raj Kamble – founder CCO, Famous Innovations, Raj Deepak Das – chief creative officer, Leo Burnett, Santosh Padhi – CCO and co-founder, Taproot Dentsu, Senthil Kumar – chief creative officer, J. Walter Thompson, and Swati Bhattacharya, chief creative officer, FCB Ulka.
According to the press release, the Master Jury has been entrusted with the task of first, as one body, screening all the entries received, across all the categories and verticals, to identify those worthy of being short listed.
The Master Jury will then deliberate on which of the short lists is worthy of winning an ABBY. This Jury will help ensure that the ABBY 2018 will be the most sought-after Creative awards in the industry.
The 2018 edition of ABBY will also see a number of categories and sub categories being rationalised, to ensure relevance and effectiveness.
The Agency of the Year Award will also be reinstated in this edition of ABBY. During Goafest 2018 Creative Agency of the Year, Design Specialist Agency of the Year, Digital Specialist Agency of the Year, Direct Specialist Agency of the Year, PR Specialist Agency of the Year, Branded Content & Entertainment Specialist Agency of the Year, and Media Agency of the Year will also be announced.
All work released between February 1, 2017 and February 15 2018 will be eligible to enter the award show. The last date to receive entries will be February 26.
