MAM
Big Bang Awards 2021 set for offline event on 8 April
Mumbai: After skipping the 2020 edition due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Ad Club Bangalore has announced that it will be holding the Big Bang Awards 2021 in an offline event on 8 April. The award ceremony will celebrate the Indian advertising and marketing fraternity and honor excellence in creative, media, digital and marketing.
The Big Bang Awards are sponsored by Meta and supported by Manorama Max, Manorama News, The Hindu, and some other media houses. The event will take place at Hotel Ritz Carlton in Bangalore.
Ad Club Bangalore is a three-decade-old advertising club, known as one of the oldest ad clubs in the country. The ad club started the Big Bang Awards two decades ago. Every year it includes a jury from the advertising, media, and marketing industry. However, this year the entire judging process was online due to the pandemic restrictions.
Sharing inside details, Ad Club Bangalore president Laeeq Ali told, “We received over 400 entries this year from agencies and clients across the country and decided to wait till April so we could kick-start our activities for the year with an offline event.”
The awards have separate categories for consumer, B2B, media, entertainment and sports, brand and corporate communication and social causes. There is a separate category for healthcare and wellness covering Rx and OTC products.
“I have been involved with the Big Bang Awards for the last 20 years,” said Big Bang Awards chairperson Malavika Harita. “This year, we saw a lot of emerging creative, media and digital agencies with innovative and exciting ideas. Adding a category for marketing excellence rounded off the entire gamut of marketing activities covered.”
In order to pay homage to its late executive director Arvind Kumar, this year they have two special prizes for the best young media professional below 30 years and the best media team in his name. The MAA Group will be presenting the Ayaz Peerbhoy Award for the ‘Creative Agency of the Year’ as they do every year, said the statement.
Brands
DeVANS sparks buzz with self-chilling beer can April Fools campaign
Godfather stunt racks up 7 million impressions, blending humour with hype
NEW DELHI: DeVANS Modern Breweries has stirred up the marketing pot with a playful yet high-impact campaign teasing a futuristic “self-chilling beer can” under its flagship Godfather label.
What began as a seemingly bold product innovation quickly turned into one of the most talked-about brand moments online, before being revealed as an April Fools’ Day prank. The reveal, however, did little to cool the buzz.
The campaign clocked over 7 million organic impressions across platforms including LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and X, with users debating whether the concept was a genuine breakthrough or clever marketing theatre. Thousands of shares and comments turned the idea into a full-blown conversation, drawing in both consumers and industry insiders.
The hook was simple but effective. A self-chilling can positioned as an on-the-go convenience product tapped into the imagination of younger, urban audiences. Add the timing around April Fools’ Day, and the campaign struck the perfect balance between curiosity and scepticism, keeping audiences guessing.
Marketing experts have pointed to the campaign as a case study in leveraging cultural moments. By leaving just enough ambiguity, the brand invited audiences to participate rather than simply observe, turning passive viewers into active contributors to the narrative.
“Godfather has always been an iconic brand, but iconicity must evolve to stay meaningful,” said DeVANS Modern Breweries chairman and managing director Prem Dewan. “The ‘Self-Chilling Can’ was our way of showing up in a cultural moment with confidence and a sense of humour.”
Beyond the numbers, the campaign signals a broader repositioning for Godfather. Long seen as a legacy beer brand, it is now leaning into youth culture, digital-first storytelling and topical engagement to stay relevant in a crowded alcobev market.
In a space where attention is fleeting, DeVANS has shown that sometimes the coolest idea is the one that keeps people guessing.
