Sure shot success: The Levis Strauss advert featuring Deepika Padukone

From Coffee Houser adda to new-age galli cricket played on bus tops, Saturday’s Advertising Club Calcutta Consumer Connect Awards 2008, organised in association with The Telegraph, saw the best ideas in advertising fight it out to establish “who really knew and connected with the consumer”.

“In its fourth edition this year, the Consumer Connect awards were instituted with the objective of recognising and awarding not just creativity or the strategy behind an advertising campaign but the entire communication value chain,” said Siddhartha Roy, president, Advertising Club.

The first half of the day saw a conclave where each participant had to make a presentation that included the campaigns, an explanation on the advertiser’s objective and field questions. The entries were divided into four categories — consumer products (FMCG), consumer durables, consumer services and public services. Each entry was judged on their Consumer Resonance Impact Score, the judges’ score and the audience vote. The score, determined by Indica Research, was evaluated on the basis of the target consumers’ opinion in terms of brand recall and how the advertising connected with them.

The FMCG category saw four campaigns from JWT Gurgaon including Pepsi Gold, Kurkure’s family face on pack, Boost Secret, Pepsi’s emoticons music and gaming and one from Publicis Ambience’s Nihar Natural Oils-Ami Nandini. Genesis Advertising, with its Sreeleather heavyweight officer campaign, was the only agency to compete from Calcutta.

“I was very impressed with JWT’s campaign for Kurkure. The whole idea of interactive advertising was unique and broke through the clutter,” said Sudhir Chand, ex-director corporate affairs, Exide Industries.

In the consumer durables category, JWT Bangalore was the crowd favourite with its Nike’s Mean Street campaign and Levis Strauss Signature fatal attraction campaign. While among the two Calcutta campaigns by RK Swamy BBDO for Senco Gold and JWT Calcutta’s Exide Loves Cars, JWT Calcutta was the popular choice.

“Nike’s Mean Street campaign, where they showed common people playing cricket even after the traffic jam ends was very impressive. It worked because it reflected just how passionate about the game people are. And I loved the idea of a love story between Exide car batteries and cars. The whole idea of a Valentine’s Day card from the battery to cars was wonderful,” said advertising enthusiast Suman Sen.

The consumer services category livened things up with FCB Ulka’s unique presentation of their Tata Indicom wedding wows campaign, that was showcased in the form of a phone conversation between two colleagues. JWT Mumbai also impressed with their Sunsilk Gang of Girls launch that portrayed the website as a girl zone to network, get ideas, and discuss problems.

Bates David Enterprise scored well with its campaign for Friends 91.9 FM that capitalised on nostalgia of Coffee Houser adda.

From Calcutta, Inner Circle impressed with its presentation on the Sangbad Pratidin’s Srijan Samman 06 campaign.

The public service awards saw just one entry from the national category with JWT Gurgaon’s Apollo Tyre’s campaign and three from Radio Mirchi’s creative team. The Radio Mirchi team showcased its three public interest advertisements on World AIDS Day, safe driving and on using public toilets (instead of, guess what, walls!).

And though advertisements were what kept the audience entertained, a performance by Chanelle and Francis Lepcha was much appreciated too.

The winners

Hall of Fame inductee: Sam Balsara, chairman and MD, Madison Communications

Public Service: No awards

Consumer Services: JWT Mumbai for Gang of Girls (national)

Bates David Enterprise for Friends FM

Consumer Products (FMCG): JWT Gurgaon for Kurkure (national)

Genesis Advertising for Sreeleathers (Calcutta)

Consumer Durables: JWT Bangalore for Nike (national)

JWT Calcutta for Exide (Calcutta)

Campaign of the Year: Kurkure family face on pack

Agency of the year: JWT (nationwide),

Bates David Enterprise and Genesis Advertising (Calcutta)