BWI: JWT India is Adfest’s ‘Network of the Year’ in 2009

Press release from Business Wire India
Source: JWT
Monday, March 23, 2009 01:44 PM IST (08:14 AM GMT)
Editors: General: Consumer interest, Entertainment; Business: Advertising, PR & marketing, Media & entertainment; Technology
Release no: 19528
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JWT India is Adfest's 'Network of the Year' in 2009
Wins Accolades as the Most Awarded Agency in the AsiaPac Region

New Delhi, Delhi, India, Monday, March 23, 2009 -- (Business Wire India) -- JWT India Wins The First ever Film Craft Lotus Roots Gold Award, two silvers, one bronze and finalist merit at Adfest 2009: the Best of Asia Pacific Advertising Festival. The Theme of the 2009 festival was "Made in Asia" and a Made in India film for The Times Of India: A Day in the Life of Chennai set to the Naaka Mukka Beat was the only Gold Winner for India this year at the festival.

The cup for the most awarded Asian Campaign of the year also went to JWT India for The Times Of India: Lead India campaign, which has won awards at every possible award festival in the world, including India's first ever Grand Prix at Cannes 2008.

The Two Films from JWT India that struck heavy metal in the region are:

TOI: A Day in The Life of Chennai - Lotus Roots Film Craft Gold & 2 Silvers in Film & Music.

Sulekha.com: Arjuna The Archer 2008AD - Silver in Film & Bronze in Film Craft.

It's not surprising that, both these films have featured in the International Luerzers TV Archive among the top 100 commercials of 2008 from around the world and are set to feature in the next issue of the international Shots Film Magazine.

An elated Colvyn Harris, CEO, JWT India said, "This victory is the result of our continuous drive towards creative excellence in everything that we do for all our clients. The ambition to create something extraordinary without losing focus on the immediate task at hand has rewarded the agency year after year. It's imperative that we solve everyday marketing problems for clients with work that redefines the category or shakes up the marketplace, delivering sales, improving brand image scores and of course becoming benchmarks in this business of big ideas."

Executive Creative Director, JWT India, Senthil Kumar said, "The work that has won this year at Adfest is just a sign of the work that's yet to come from JWT India. In fact, both the films that hit the bullseye at Adfest are rooted in the diversity of our country's cultures. If 'A day in the life of Chennai' captured the life of the Tamil people like never before, becoming the anthem of the city, Arjuna The Archer built a bridge between Mythology and Technology and brought a thousand year old dying traditional art form of Orissa back to life, ensuring that the lost art of Patta Chitra Katha gained currency in the global art circuit. The awards are plain proof that to be recognised in the international creative circles, all we have to do is be more Indian with every new idea that we come up with."

Here is a short synopsis of both the winning ideas:

01: A Day in The Life of Chennai: The Times Of India

The strategy was to capture the intrinsic duality of Chennai. To celebrate its citizens who are rooted in tradition but ever ready to embrace modernity. And how else did JWT do it but put the two sides of the city's content together. By bringing alive the bridge between cinema and politics in a raw and edgy photo journalistic treatment that documented this insight about the city and presented the communication in an anthemic real time capture of life in the Cinema Capital of South India.

"A day of double roles that stretches from cinema to politics, from reel life to real life, from the right party to the wrong party, from rising cutouts to burning effigies, from popular hero to lonely scarecrow, narrated through the life of a giant cardboard cutout character on the streets of cinema city. A short satire on all the film actors who also play the role of ministers, switching from cinema to politics and vice versa on a daily basis in Chennai. And extremely topical with National Elections just a few months away. The story of this film is narrated in ancient folklore fashion with the narrator singing the story to the hottest Tamil track of 2009: NAAKA MUKKA."

The Origin of Naaka Mukka: Deep inside the underbelly of an ancient coastal city lurked a potent Tamil phrase: Naaka Mukka - meaning Mother Tongue/Father Nose. A double entendre that captures the duality of daily life in Chennai (Madras). Naaku/Mukka also has another meaning: used as an expression by rural folk, when you dance like its your last dance and stretch your Naaka so far that it touches the tip of your Mukka.

"This expression has now become part of mainstream and is top of the music charts as the anthem of the city after The Times of India film, spawning a 90 second film, two full length music videos, ten Naaka Mukka Double Role Documentaries, 22 new steps in the genre of Koothu street dancing, over 100 street double side cutout installations and thousands of Naaka Mukka video responses."

Created by JWT India for The Times of India

Creative Director & Copywriter : Senthil Kumar

Art Director : Karthik Sekhar, Agency Producer : Mark Manuel, Director: Shashank Chaturvedi , Produced by Good Morning Films.

Naaka Mukka Track : Music Director Vijay Anthony And Folk Singer Madurai Chinnaponnu

02: ARJUNA THE ARCHER RESCUES A 1000 YEAR OLD LOST ART FORM

Sulekha.com, India's largest online yellow pages went beyond the search engine to find a thousand year old lost art form and revive it forever. Patta Chitra Kathas - the world's first published stories, once patronized by royalty, are now confined to just two villages on the east coastof Orissa. This historic hand printing craft was handed down through generations of Chitrakars, the nomadic artists of a bygone era. It was in these unassuming villages that hundreds of intricate hand made patta chitras were painstakingly handcrafted by the original artists. Mythological characters were etched with bold lines on dried patta leaves and handloom cloth. Ready to be given a fresh breath of life through animation.

ARJUNA THE ARCHER IN 2008 AD: " The short film is a modern day Chitra Katha in animation that celebrates this ancient art form. Arjuna the Mythological Archer adorns this first ever handmade version of The Great Indian Yellow Pages, in a vivid story that simplifies online yellow pages and encourages online transactions through the life of Arjuna in 2008 AD. The film features Aaj ka Arjuna, who goes about selling his bike and buying a car, buying gifts for his girlfriend, getting married, buying furniture, selling his old stuff, buying new stuff and so on, all by shooting arrows that hit the bullseye target : Sulekha.com to get him everything that he desires."

Created by JWT India for Sulekha.com

Creative Director & Copywriter : Senthil Kumar

Director: Suresh Eriyat , Produced by Famous House of Animation

About 2009 Adfest Theme & the Lotus Roots Grand Prix Awards: MADE IN ASIA: The theme of Adfest 2009, symbolizes Asia's proud heritage of local creativity and diversity. "With the growth of globalization and an increase in integration, ADFEST believes it is vital that each culture takes pride in its legacies.The Asia Pacific is rich in its history and traditions, and should share this richness on a regional platform to be recognized globally," says Vinit Surapongchai, chairman of Adfest. Adfest prides itself in embracing the uniqueness of each local culture with the Lotus Roots Grand Prix Awards. ADFEST is an annual regional advertising event that celebrates creativity in the Asia Pacific region. It is a platform designed to elevate creative standard and promote communication within the advertising and production industry.

About JWT India

JWT India is one of the leading integrated communications companies with interests in advertising, digital, activation, public relations, direct marketing, design, social and rural communications. It operates through offices in six cities and partners India's best and most admired blue chip clients including Airtel, Bharti Retail, Pepsico, FritoLay, ITC, Hindustan Lever, GSK Consumer Healthcare, Hero Honda, Sony Vaio, Sony Bravia, Nike, Nestle, Levi's, Pizza Hut, Diamond Trading Co, , Kellogg's, Tisco, Exide, Ford and GE, among others. JWT works with 26 of the top 100 super brands ranked by Superbrands India, and 9 of the top 25 Most Trusted Brands in India as per the Economic Times Brand Equity Survey. JWT is a WPP company.


CONTACT DETAILS
Aparna Srivastava, IPAN, +91 (11) 42492108, Aparna.srivastava@ipan.com

KEYWORDS
CONSUMER, ENTERTAINMENT, MARKETING, MEDIA, TECHNOLOGY

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