MAM
Effies 2012: Ogilvy tops 4th time in a row
MUMBAI: Racing ahead of competition by a humungous margin of 215 points, Ogilvy and Mather retained its title as Agency of the Year for the fourth consecutive time at the Effie 2012 awards. It also landed with the coveted award, the Grand Effie.
Ogilvy India‘s final scorecard read: nine gold, 11 silver, three bronze metals and the Grand Effie. Led again by Piyush Pandey, creative director, South Asia, Ogilvy India, the agency totaled 280 points, bettering its last year record of 195 points with seven gold, six silver and six bronze.
Also retaining its position on the leaderboard, Ogilvy‘s Cadbury India was adjudged the Client of the Year at this year’s awards with 85 points.
O&M won the Marico Uncommon Sense for its campaign ‘Satyamev Jayate – Managing a Billion Expectations‘ for Star India’s Aamir Khan show on social causes. It also won the Lenovo Tech-Doers Award for ‘The Photographs Case‘ campaign it created for Star India’s Fox Crime.
The campaign for Satyamev Jayate won in the Services and Integrated Advertising category, while ‘The Photographs Case‘ bagged the honour in the Digital Advertising and Integrated Advertising category. The Undumb India campaign created for The Hindu won in the Services category. The other gold metal winners were: Vodafone India’s ‘Drive Into the Big League‘ campaign (B2B Advertising), Madhya Pradesh Tourism’s ‘How Madhya Pradesh became Incredible in Incredible India‘ campaign (Best On-going Campaign), Asian Paints Apex’s ‘Yeh Badhiya Hai‘ campaign (Best On-going Campaign) and Fevicol’s ‘The Ultimate Bond – 20 Years and Still Going Strong‘ campaign (Best On-going Campaign).
The agency’s 11 silver Effies came from ‘Have You Felt Silk Lately?‘ for Cadbury India Dairy Milk Silk (Beverages, Drinks, Confectionaries and Food); ‘Tayyari ki Jeet‘ for Bournvita (Beverages, Drinks, Confectionaries and Food); ‘As Aamir Steals Light, Titan Steals a March Over Competition‘ (Consumer Products – Others); ‘Chalta Nahin Daudta Hai‘ for Bajaj Discover (Automobiles, Autoparts, Two Wheelers and Auto related); ‘Aapke Sachce Advisors‘ for Max Life Insurance (Financial Services); ‘Poochne Mein Kya Jaata hai‘ for Tata Sky (Services – Others); ‘The Date Fillum‘ for Cadbury 5 Star (Digital Advertising); ‘Loving ‘em Back‘ for Mumbai Indians (Digital Advertising); ‘The Photographs Case‘ for Fox Crime (David v/s Goliath); ‘Drive into the Big League‘ for Vodafone (Integrated Advertising Campaign); and ‘Seedhi Baat No Bakwaas, Freshology‘ for Sprite (Best On-Going Campaign).
O&M won bronze Effies for its work on the Cadbury Bournville’s ‘Have You Earned It?‘ campaign (Services and Integrated Advertising); Hindustan Unilever’s ‘Swasthya Chetna‘ campaign (Rural Advertising); and Bosch and Siemens Home Appliances’ ‘Bosch: Genetically German‘ campaign (David v/s Goliath).
Second spot winner McCann Worldgroup won three Silver and seven Bronze metals with a total of 65 points. It had to go home without a gold. McCann‘s performance this year was far better as it improved upon its previous year‘s ranking of No. 7 with 30 points.
Lowe Lintas and Partners followed close with 60 points. The agency won three silver and six bronze Effies. Taproot India stood fourth with three gold Effies. Leo Burnett raked in eight bronze metals to stand fifth in the metals tally.
This year the Effies saw the addition of two categories – Direct Marketing and Digital Advertising. This also was the first year when the entire judging process took place online.
Brands
GUEST COLUMN: Beyond layoffs, India emerges as creative-tech hub
Shift in hiring and AI-led workflows is reshaping global media and marketing
MUMBAI:The global narrative around layoffs in media and technology may suggest contraction, but a deeper transformation is reshaping how creative and tech capabilities are built and deployed. For Sanjil Zaveri, general manager – India at Brandtech+, this shift is less about decline and more about redistribution, one that is positioning India at the centre of a new global operating model. In this piece, Zaveri explores how integrated workflows, AI-powered production, and evolving talent demands are redefining the creative-tech ecosystem, why India is emerging as a strategic hub for global content and innovation, and what this means for the future of media, marketing, and talent.
The global headlines around layoffs in technology and media continue to dominate industry conversations. From platform restructuring to reduced marketing spends, the narrative suggests a slowdown across the creative and digital ecosystem.
But beneath these headlines, a different shift is underway, one that is quietly redefining how creative and technology work is delivered globally.
Hiring is not disappearing; it is being redistributed. And India is increasingly at the centre of this transition.
A structural shift in the creative-tech ecosystem
The media and marketing landscape is undergoing a fundamental reset. Brands today are moving away from fragmented agency models and siloed teams toward more integrated, agile structures.
Creative, technology, and media are no longer operating in isolation. Campaigns are now built through connected workflows, where ideation, production, and optimisation happen simultaneously.
This shift is forcing organisations to rethink where and how teams are built. Increasingly, the focus is on capability, speed, and scalability, rather than geography alone.
India’s emergence as a creative-tech hub
India’s role in this evolving ecosystem has expanded significantly.
Traditionally positioned as a backend execution market, India is now playing a far more central role in global campaign delivery. Teams based here contribute not just to production, but also to strategy, content development, and performance optimisation.
This is particularly relevant in a market where content velocity has increased dramatically. With the rise of digital platforms, OTT, and always-on marketing, brands require high volumes of creative assets without compromising on quality.
Industry insights from Ernst & Young point to India’s growing strength as a global content hub, while NASSCOM continues to highlight the scale and depth of the country’s digital talent pool. Together, these factors create a compelling case for India as a foundation for more efficient, integrated content ecosystems serving global markets.
A global company’s perspective on India
At Brandtech+, this shift is already shaping how we operate.
As a global organisation working across creative, marketing, and technology, our talent strategy is increasingly driven by capability rather than location. India has therefore become a key market for both scale and strategic talent.
In the first quarter of this year, we have significantly accelerated hiring in India across creative, technology, and operations roles, moving well ahead of plan and continuing to build strong momentum. We are actively hiring across multiple functions, with India playing a central role in delivering integrated creativetech solutions for global brands.
These signals reflect a broader change in how global companies view India, not as a delivery centre, but as a hub for connected creative, data, and technology capabilities.
“While much of the global narrative is centred on contraction, what we are seeing in India is a different kind of growth,” says Sanjil Zaveri. “As a global company, we are investing in talent that can work across creative, data, and technology, because that is where the future of marketing is headed.”
AI and the new content economy
Artificial intelligence is playing a critical role in enabling this transformation.
In today’s media environment, the demand for content has scaled exponentially. Brands are expected to create, adapt, and optimise creative assets across multiple platforms in real time. The scale of this demand would be difficult to sustain through traditional production models alone.
AI is helping make this possible.
Rather than replacing roles, AI is streamlining workflows, automating repetitive tasks, accelerating production timelines, and enabling faster experimentation. This allows creative and strategy teams to focus on higher-value outputs.
“AI removes the mundane and elevates the meaningful,” says Zaveri. “It allows teams to focus on ideas and storytelling, while technology drives efficiency.”
For media platforms and advertisers, this is redefining how campaigns are built, moving from linear production cycles to continuous, data-driven content creation.
What this means for media talent
For professionals across media, advertising, and digital, this shift is redefining skill requirements.
The traditional boundaries between creative, media planning, and technology are blurring. Content creators are expected to understand performance metrics. Media professionals are working more closely with data, platforms, and automation. Collaboration across disciplines is becoming a core skill.
This is creating demand for hybrid talent, professionals who can operate across disciplines and adapt to rapidly changing workflows.
India’s talent ecosystem is particularly well suited to this environment. With strong capabilities across content, design, engineering, and analytics, the market offers a unique combination of scale and versatility.
Importantly, global exposure is no longer tied to relocation. Professionals in India are increasingly working on international brands and campaigns, collaborating with teams across markets in real time.
Looking ahead: India at the centre of the reset
What we are witnessing today is not a temporary phase; it is a structural reset in the global creative-tech ecosystem.
Layoffs may continue to shape short-term narratives, but they do not capture where long-term growth is being built. That growth lies in new operating models, integrated workflows, and markets that can deliver both scale and innovation.
India is firmly at the centre of this transformation.
As global media and marketing organisations continue to evolve, India’s role will only become more critical, not as a support market, but as a strategic hub for content, creativity, and technology-led innovation.
The future of creative-tech will be defined by collaboration, speed, and adaptability. And increasingly, it will be shaped from India.
Note: The views expressed in this article are solely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect our own.
