Santosh Padhi ‘Paddy’ to Chair Jury of OOH Advertising Awards 2024

The distinguished Jury of the upcoming OOH Advertising Awards 2024 contest will be chaired by the highly accomplished Santosh Padhi, Chief Creative Officer (CCO) of Wieden+Kennedy India. 'Paddy', as he is popularly known, had previously chaired the Jury of OAA 2022 & 2023 contests.

The 18^th edition of OOH Advertising Awards, formerly known as the Outdoor Advertising Awards, is designed to celebrate the most outstanding works executed in the period April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024. The awards will be given away at the OAA 2024 awards function that will be held at at Hilton Garden Inn, Embassy Manyata Business Park, Bengaluru on July 27, 2024.

Speaking about the power of OOH advertising,  Paddy says: “OOH is one of the biggest canvases for brand world to express creativity and talk to the world’s largest consumer base, with variety and versatility of mediums and platforms, right from wall painting to tech experiential stuff. You just think of a great ideas and it can happen in OOH.”

Reflecting on his experience as the OAA Jury Chair, he says: “This is my third year as a Jury chairperson, and every year I was blown with the depth and scale of this medium. Sky is the limit for this medium. Having said that, every medium has its strength, so does OOH. I love the fact that more and more brands are seeing the role of this medium to reach out to consumers and at times have solely used this medium for the reach. That says all about the power of this medium.”

“OOH has witnessed some brave campaigns every single year. I would love to see more of cutting age brand work where tech/digital have been used to tell a brand story.”

Paddy started his advertising career 26 years ago with DDB. An art graduate from Mumbai, he later moved to Leo Burnett, and 13 years later decided to create his own path, culture and approach towards advertising. He co-founded Taproot in 2009, and in no time he took the agency to greater creative heights by setting high standards of creativity with a unique work culture. 

After 12 years of unmatched creative success at Taproot, in India and the overseas, by winning at every local and international advertising creative shows, Paddy finally decided to moved out of the Taproot/ Dentsu network. In March 2022 he joined W+K network as Chief Creative Officer W+K India to take their creative legacy forward in India by taking over Delhi office and setting up W+K’s 9^th global office in form of Mumbai.

Paddy has won every single creative advertising award in last two and half decades. With over 200 international and over 300 local awards, multiple golds, Grand Prix titles under his belt, he is one of the most awarded creatives in India.

Paddy has deservedly served as a jury member and jury president at numerous local and international award shows across the globe including Cannes Lions, Clio, D&AD, OneShow, New York Festival, London International Awards, Dubai Lynx, Adfest Pattaya, AdStar Busan, ADC, ANDY etc.

These days he passionately promotes running and fitness along with creativity, as he himself has experienced how a healthy body leads to healthy mind/ideas.