Outdoor Advertising Awards '13: A battle of wits and creativity

It was a night studded with glamour, humour and competitive bonhomie as creative honchos slugged it out vying for the much coveted Outdoor Advertising Awards (OAA) 2013. Held as a fitting finale to the well attended 9th edition of the Outdoor Advertising Convention (OAC) 2013, held at the Grand Hyatt, Bambolim Goa, the OAA '13 ceremony saw a close battle between agencies DDB Mudra and Milestone Brandcom, apart from Kinetic Worldwide, who between them grabbed most of the awards across categories.  A total of 55 awards were presented during the Awards evening, which included 21 Gold, 17 Silver and 16 Bronze winners.

Among the many interesting nominees shortlisted for'Campaign of the year', DDB Mudra Max bagged the gold for the'Post It' campaign, followed with Milestone Brandcom bagging a Silver for'Spicefest' campaign and DDB Mudra bagging the bronze for the Masterchef Campaign. The other interesting nominees included Kinetic Worldwide for its  Horlicks'Ahaar Abjiyan', campaign which won many awards across categories including Gold under the Best Use of Ambient Media category and MOMS Outdoor Media Solutions Pvt Ltd which won a Bronze for the Keo Karpin 'Unmanageable Bad Hair' campaign under the Traditional Billboards category.

Among media owners, Pioneer walked away with a Gold under the category'Zonal Media Owner of the Year - for both the West and East zones and a Silver for the North zone. The Gold in this category for the North zone was won by TIMDAA.  Pioneer also won the Silver for the category      
'National Media Owner of the Year'.  
 
As a new addition in OAC this year, the'Young Outdoorian' challenge was also held as part of the OAC to encourage fresh new ideas. Five teams from across agencies participated in the contest and the winners were Team Emerald and Team Turquoise.

Instituted to acknowledge excellence in creativity and innovation in the OOH industry, OA Awards have been growing in popularity over the years with the number of entries growing every year. Vasant Jante, MD -- VJ Media Works, Organizers of OAA '13 and publishers of the Outdoor Asia magazine said, "The results of the OA Awards '13 reflect a well balanced distribution of awards between the agencies. It was also a great learning experience. We look forward to next year's OAA, which will see some major changes in the categories and in the rules and regulations for entries.”