MAM
Goafest 2012: Mindshare takes home Grand Prix at Media Abbys
VARCA, GOA: Mindshare snapped up the Grand Prix at the Media Abby Awards 2012, the first to win this prized award in the category in six years.
Mindshare won the sole Grand Prix and Gold for Surf Excel ‘Little Big Film Maker‘ in Best Use of Branded Content. The WPP agency also took home two silvers for Axe (‘Male Fantasy Theme Parks‘ in Youth marketing) and Kissan Jam (‘Kissan Jammy Art‘ in Best use of special events and stunts/live advertising) and two bronzes for Nike Cricket (‘Bleed Blue‘ in Best Use of Internet and Digital Media) and Kwality Wall’s Cornetto (‘Cornetto Luv Reels’ Take 2‘ in Youth marketing).
MEC won two Golds for Reliance 3G in the Best Use of TV category and Colgate Dental Cream in the Best Use of Outdoor and Ambient Media category. The agency also won a silver for Reliance Mobile (‘Ego search‘ campaign) in the Best Use of Internet and Digital Media and a bronze for the same client for ‘Mera v/s Tera Network’ campaign in Best Use of TV.
|
Agency
|
Grand Prix
|
Gold
|
Silver
|
Bronze
|
Total
|
|
Mindshare
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
2
|
6
|
|
MEC
|
|
2
|
1
|
1
|
4
|
|
Lodestar UM
|
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
6
|
|
Madison Media Infinity
|
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
|
Starcom Worldwide
|
|
1
|
|
|
1
|
|
Maxus
|
|
|
2
|
3
|
5
|
|
Madison Media Plus
|
|
1
|
|
1
|
|
|
Mediacom Communications
|
|
|
1
|
|
1
|
|
DDB Mudramax
|
|
1
|
1
|
||
|
Interactive Avenues
|
|
1
|
1
|
||
|
Total
|
1
|
6
|
10
|
12
|
29
|
Lodestar UM bagged six metals including a Gold for Bombay Psychiatric Society (‘Zindagi Se Dosti‘ in the Pro Bono Marketing category). The agency also bagged two silvers for Coca-Cola (campaign-Coke studio woos India, category-Youth marketing) and Amul (campaign-Amul Masterchef India 2, category-Best use of Sponsorship). The Interpublic company won three bronze metals for Amul MasterChef India-2 in the Best use of Branded Content category, Indica Vista (Vista Blogger Outreach Programme) in Best Use of Internet and Digital Media category and Thumps Up (Thumps Up Hunt for the thunder star) in the Best Use of Sponsorship category.
Maxus took home two silver metals for Google Mobile Services in Best Use of Sponsorship and Google in Best Use of Cinema. It also bagged three bronze for Reliance Mobile, Askme (Infomedia) and ABT associates.
Madison Media Infinity took one of each metal at the media awards today, while Starcom Worldwide managed to win Gold for Samsung Galaxy Tab.
Madison Media Plus and Mediacom Communications bagged one Silver each while DDB Mudramax and Interactive Avenues took home a Bronze each.
Goafest 2012, India’s biggest advertising and awards festival, gave away 29 awards this year as compared to 44 awards that were given last year. Media Abby saw 620 entries from 33 agencies, which according to Media Abby jury head and Aegis Media CEO Ashish Bhasin is a record in itself and is almost 16-17 per cent more than the last record set.
Bhasin said that digital got the largest number of entries and was “the single biggest category to judge.”
Click here to open the complete Media Abby Awards‘ list.
Digital
Anthropic eyes $900bn valuation in new funding round ahead of IPO: Reports
Claude maker may surpass OpenAI as investor interest heats up sharply
SAN FRANCISCO: Anthropic is exploring a fresh funding round that could value the company at more than $900 billion, potentially making it the world’s most valuable artificial intelligence startup, according to Bloomberg reports.
Citing sources familiar with the matter, Bloomberg News reported that the Claude maker is in early-stage discussions with investors and is entertaining offers at more than double its current valuation. No deal has been finalised yet.
The interest marks a sharp jump from February this year, when Anthropic raised $30 billion at a valuation of $380 billion. Since then, investor appetite appears to have intensified, with multiple pre-emptive offers on the table.
According to TechCrunch, the company has received proposals to raise around $50 billion at valuations ranging between $850 billion and $900 billion. A decision is expected to be taken at a board meeting in May.
If the deal goes through at the upper end of that range, Anthropic would overtake OpenAI, which was valued at $852 billion in March, to become the most valuable AI startup globally.
The potential fundraise also comes against the backdrop of a possible initial public offering, which could be launched as early as October, the Bloomberg report noted.
The company counts tech heavyweights such as Amazon and Google, part of Alphabet, among its key backers. Both firms have continued to deepen their ties with Anthropic through multi-billion-dollar, performance-linked investments.
Interestingly, earlier reports had suggested that Anthropic was cautious about raising funds at valuations of $800 billion or more. The latest developments, however, indicate that market enthusiasm for advanced AI models and infrastructure may be shifting those thresholds quickly.
As the race for AI dominance accelerates, Anthropic’s next move could set a new benchmark for startup valuations, and signal just how high investors are willing to bet on the future of artificial intelligence.
