The awards given by ‘Ad Club Bangalore‘ happens to be the biggest awards in Advertising industry.  This and the annual event have been happening since nearly 23 years. An amazing evening into the ‘World of Advertising‘ with loads of knowledge sharing, entertainment, discussion, key-note address and of course the awards. Award ceremony happened at Ritz Carlton Bangalore.

About Big Bang Awards 2018

A record 1150 entries were received for this year’s Big Bang Awards. Main sponsors for the event were COLORS TV (Viacom18). In all, 90 advertising agencies from all across India sent their entries for the awards. The agencies were mainly from Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kochi, Trivandrum, Kolkata, Chennai and Delhi. For this award, they had the biggest jury of 46 prominent Advertising professionals.

Key-note Address

Ad and Marketing Gurus Hemant Malik, CEO ITC Foods was the keynote speaker.  He shared a lot of insight about how the advertising industry has evolved.  He also shared info on the different kinds of ads created for ITC Food over the past year. To give a few examples – Using celebs for advertising (Dark Fantasy), Fun Ads (Bingo), Healthy food option for mothers (Nutrilite), Sharing a bond between teacher & student (Sunfeast) and more.  Few points that he made.

• A lie is a lie – unless proven otherwise.
• A lie told repeatedly can be perceived as truth.  Once firmly embedded n minds, very difficult to dislodge.
• Create with heart build with the mind.

In Conversation with Legend

Special conversation on stage between Film-maker R. Balki and Ramanujam Sridhar. Balki has directed some of the famous movies like Ki & Ka, Pad Man, Paa, Cheeni Kum and many more. He also known for his contribution to advertising industry for catchy ads that become very popular – “Daag Achche Hain” for ‘Surf Excel’, “Jaago re” ads for ‘Tata Tea’ and the “walk when you talk” Idea Cellular. Few points that he shared.

• Person creating the ad is more important and not agency.
• It’s important to appreciate the seniors as they would bring in wealth of knowledge.
• If you in a creative idea, one should stick to it rather than changing it on someone’s suggestions.
• Celebrities need to be used efficiently to advertise brands.
• Using cheesy lines will be no good for the brands.

MC/Entertainment Awards Ceremony

Saad Khan – young filmmaker was the MC for the evening. He entertained the crowd with his comic timing. To add to him, RJ Shaayan Bhattacharya from FM 93.5 team also played his bit to entertain the crowd.

Awards for Ad Agencies

Awards were given in various categories and there were 3 winners in each of them. Special trophies were given for Gold & Silver, whereas for Bronze winners, the names were announced.

Final Thoughts

I was extremely happy to be part of such an amazing event and getting to interact with many folks from Advertising industry.  Each of them I met seemed to exuberant confidence and hunger to create something unique.  Its was an eye-opener to know a little more about the Advertising industry.  Looking forward to being part of the awards on a regular basis going ahead.