MediaCom wins first gold and silver for India at Media Lions

MediaCom gets India its first gold and silver for its “To Shave or Not” campaign for P&G’s Gillette Mach 3 in two categories. Totally eight Indian entries have won metals at the Media Lions 2009.
Commenting on the win, Divya Gururaj said, “We are absolutely thrilled with this win! Gillette India Votes has won at all the award festivals this year - Goa, Valencia, AME and even the global MediaCom Results Awards. But a Cannes gold and silver is a huge honour! What makes this even more gratifying is the business results that this innovation delivered. We are really thankful to P&G for trusting us on this "big idea" and collaborating with us to make it happen.”
Maxus has won a bronze each for “20 Million Experiences” for Tata Sky and for “Midas Touch” for Nokia 5800 XpressMusic.
O&M Bangalore has won a bronze for “The Elusive Coaster” for SABMiller India’s anti-drink driving campaign. While Publicis India has bagged a bronze for “Currency” for In Gandhi’s Shoes (non-profit organisation), Madison Media has won a bronze for “Say Condom Aloud” for BBC World Service Trust. 
Lodestar Universal has won a bronze for “The Power of Nano Innovations” for Tata Nano.
Talking about the Indian entries, Lynn de Souza felt that the quality of Indian entries had been very impressive this year and the presentation of the case studies was also of very high quality, although she did feel that work had not been entered in the mobile and digital categories from India, which was disappointing.
Advertising agencies in India have, in previous years, fared better in the Media category than media agencies themselves. A common cause for this has been attributed to the quality of presentation of the entries. In total, 122 metals were awarded in the Media Lions category. 
Nick Brien, president of the Media Lions jury said that this year, they had up-weighted the focus on ROI. “This year, we focussed on the level of integration between mainstream and digital components in a campaign. After the judging, I can safely tell you that the Media category is alive and kicking. The Japanese entry which won a Grand Prix shows how the agency created a whole new media device,” he said referring to Nestle’s Kit Kat Mail 2009 campaign. The campaign involved Nestle partnering with the government owned Japan Post to create a specially designed Kit Kat Mail which consumers could mail to friends and family to wish them luck for their exams. The exercise generated $11 million in free publicity and was a huge success.