The Mudra Group’s design unit, Water Consulting has won the IAA’s Creative Lantern Award.
The Creative Lantern Awards are given by the India chapter of the International Advertising Association (IAA), in collaboration with The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI).
The agencies were to work on the initiative called Lighting a Billion Lives to enter for the awards. Lighting a Billion Lives aims to donate solar lanterns to villages in India that have no access to electricity. The thought behind the initiative is that there are still 78 million households in India that are in the dark. The aim of the ad campaign is to raise funds for the solar lanterns. Individuals can donate Rs 3,600 (for one lantern), while corporates can donate Rs 3,00,000.
Around 113 entries wre received from which five entries were shortlisted by a jury that included Preeti Vyas (VGC), Abhijit Awasthi (O&M), Adrian Mendonza (Dentsu Marcom), Agnello Dias (Roots India), Bobby Pawar (Mudra Group), Goutam Rakshit (Advertising Avenues), Josy Paul (BBDO India), Rahul Welde (Hindustan Unilever Ltd) and Sam Balsara (Madison Media). The chairman of the jury was Pradeep Guha, who was earlier with the Zee Group.
The final five agencies were Quadrant Communications Mumbai, Interface Communications Mumbai, JWT Delhi, Triton Communications Mumbai and Water Consulting.
The final selection jury included Kumar Mangalam Birla (Chairman, Aditya Birla Group), Nitin Paranjpe (CEO, HUL), Naina Lal Kidwai (group general manager and country head, HSBC), Shobhaa De (novelist and columnist), Farhan Akhtar (director and actor), Jaideep Bose (Editor, TOI), Piyush Pandey (Chairman, O&M), Pradeep Guha (convenor of the jury and IAA area director, Asia Pacific) and Raj Nayak (CEO, NDTV Media, and President, IAA, India chapter). Rajendra K Pachauri, recipient of the Nobel Prize as chairman, IPCC, and director general of TERI, was the chairman of this jury.
While speaking about the award, Ashish Mishra, chief strategist, Water Consulting, said, “We looked at the ad as a movement, and not just an ad campaign.”
The campaign is expected to be released in the coming months. It will be executed in phases over a period of a year.
The Creative Lantern Awards function was held at the ITC Grand Central, Parel, in Mumbai. The show, which was originally scheduled for November 28, 2008, was postponed because of the terror attacks in the city.
While commenting on the win, Bobby Pawar, CCO, Mudra Group, said, “Many people do not know about the fact that so many villages in India do not have electricity. The campaign we have done will increase their awareness about this issue. Our ambition is to transform the cause into a national movement of sorts.”