Brands
Kyoorius Launches ‘The Shortlist’
MUMBAI: Make informed investment decisions that maximise your award efforts. Let your work be audited in The Shortlist by a world-class jury before entering international award shows.
It’s no secret that the advertising, media and digital agency businesses are challenged with pressure on margins, forced by increased competition. In this environment, agency management is searching for areas in which costs can be cut without compromising on the quality of their output.
It’s this simple understanding of what the agency is going through that has provoked Kyoorius to launch ‘The Shortlist’, an initiative that helps agencies manage costs in the area of awards entries.
Rajesh Kejriwal, co-founder & CEO, Kyoorius, comments, “Our continuous dialogue with the marketing communications fraternity is the reason behind The Shortlist. Awards are expensive investments – the reasons for entering an award show are many. As the economic climate in which agencies operate gets tougher, wiser decisions have to be made to ensure better ROI. The Shortlist provides valuable feedback and validates what eventually can or should be entered into awards shows.”
Every entry to The Shortlist will be evaluated by a world-class jury comprising international and Indian judges, as has been the case with every Kyoorius award, such as the Kyoorius Creative Awards, the Kyoorius Design Awards, the Times of India Power of Print Awards, the STAR Re-Imagine Awards, etc.
“The Shortlist is the truth told by some of the best creative minds in the world,” says Josy Paul, chairman and chief creative officer, BBDO India. “It’s not just about awards but a honest and objective assessment of where our ideas stand in the larger global scheme. Think of it as the qualification round for the creative world cup. Winning is the byproduct.”
“Kyoorius seems to have hit on a super pragmatic idea for today’s cash-strapped times for agencies,” comments Amer Jaleel, group chief creative officer and chairman, MullenLowe Lintas Group. “All of us rue the fact that there are too many awards these days but to take that insight and come up with a pre-awards idea, takes a special talent. To me this idea sounds as big as The Gunn Report which aggregated points for agencies post awards. This one is pre and it can be used as a predictive tool so agencies can focus on where to invest their increasingly hard-earned revenue.”
“I believe The Shortlist is a great idea that I wish existed a decade ago,” says Sidharth Rao, co-founder and CEO, Dentsu Webchutney. “All agencies will agree that there is huge wastage of time, resources and money when it comes to selection of entries to awards that we all aspire to win. A high quality jury will help the industry optimise its budgets, resources and expectations.”
“It is much needed insightful initiative by Kyoorius,” says Manish Bhatt, founder director, Scarecrow M&C Saatchi. “In the 1990s, legends like Neil French and David Droga used to help award aspirants personally in Ogilvy and Publicis (respectively) to shortlist and curate award-worthy ideas from our international wish-list. New age agencies and young aspirants of today's era need such world-standard mentorship to shortlist their dhobi-list of potential entries especially in this financially challenged phase of our industry. What better than a dynamic platform like The Shortlist to take a step in this direction and help the industry meaningfully.”
“This is an idea that CCOs and CFOs will love,” says Bobby Pawar, chairman and chief creative officer of Havas Group India. “It’s so on the nose, so obviously brilliant that I wonder that no one (including me) thought of it before. In far too many cases the approach to entering awards was ‘spray and pray’. The Shortlist can effectively put a bullet to the head of the long-shot and ‘no shot’ entries. There is the added advantage of being able to tell teams who won’t quit whining, ‘If your work can’t make The Shortlist, it has a snowball’s chance in hell of making it anywhere.”
“The Shortlist will ensure nothing but quality and pure creativity,” says Santosh Padhi, co-founder and chief creative officer, Taproot Dentsu. “The Shortlist to me is like the Ranji Trophy format which ultimately helps the Indian team, it’s a good platform to focus country first, which we have always played on the backfoot. Another advantage is most of the time when we enter the work it’s finished and released so the bullet is already fired, in this case one can send semi-finished ideas too and if the feedback is well defined, well directed and if implemented accordingly this can make a great difference to the final product”.
The Shortlist has been set up in partnership with Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd, and with the support of The One Club For Creativity, organisers of the prestigious One Show and the ADC Awards.
"The Shortlist is a highly useful new resource that will greatly assist creative directors as they determine their awards show entries,” says Kevin Swanepoel, CEO, The One Club for Creativity. “The decision to enter a piece of work to an award show must be well thought-through, and The One Club has worked closely with Kyoorius to develop this platform to help agencies make that determination. The Shortlist utilises a robust evaluation process, designed specifically to provide an actionable audit. At the end of the process, creative directors will have greater confidence in then submitting their 'shortlisted' work to The One Show global awards."
Details on the call for entries, categories, submission guide and jury to be revealed soon at theshortlist.kyoorius.com
The evaluation of entries to The Shortlist will be announced in February 2019.
Since 2006, has been at the forefront of connecting the creative community in India through programmes that inform, inspire and stimulate. An initiative of Transasia Fine Papers, Kyoorius is a not-for-profit organisation that celebrates all aspects of creative communication and marketing. Through events, regular publications and other initiatives, Kyoorius is committed to galvanising creativity in India and inspiring future innovators.
Brands
Dunkin’ Donuts to exit India as Jubilant FoodWorks ends 15-year franchise deal
The quick service restaurant giant is ending a 15-year franchise partnership with the American doughnut chain, even as it renews its Domino’s agreement for another 15 years
NOIDA: Dunkin’ is done in India. Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd, the country’s leading quick service restaurant operator, has decided not to renew its franchise agreement with the American coffee and doughnut chain, and will wind down its Indian stores in a phased manner before December 31, 2026, bringing a 15-year partnership to a quiet, loss-laden close.
The decision, approved by JFL’s board on March 30, 2026, ends a relationship that began with a Multiple Unit Development Franchise Agreement signed on February 24, 2011. JFL will now evaluate and undertake what it described in a regulatory filing as the “rationalisation and/or cessation of certain operations and/or sale, transfer or disposal of assets and/or assignment or transfer of franchise rights,” all in consultation with Dunkin’s brand owners and strictly within the terms of the original agreement.
The numbers tell the story bluntly. In the financial year 2024-25, Dunkin’ India posted a revenue of Rs 37 crore against a loss of Rs 19 crore — a haemorrhage that was always going to test the patience of a parent company recording revenues of Rs 6,104 crore and a profit of Rs 194 crore in the same period. Doughnuts, it turns out, were never going to move the needle.
The contrast with JFL’s handling of its other marquee franchise could hardly be sharper. Even as it walks away from Dunkin’, the company has just doubled down on Domino’s, signing a fresh Master Franchise Agreement on March 31, 2026, granting it exclusive rights to develop and operate Domino’s Pizza stores in India for 15 years, with an option to renew for a further 10.
JFL, incorporated in 1995 and promoted by the Bharatia family, operates a network of more than 3,500 stores across six markets — India, Turkey, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Its portfolio includes Domino’s and Popeyes on the global side, and two home-grown brands: Hong’s Kitchen and COFFY, a café brand in Turkey.
For Dunkin’, India was always a stretch. The brand never quite cracked the cultural code in a market where filter coffee and chai command fierce loyalty and where the doughnut remains, at best, an occasional indulgence rather than a daily habit. Fifteen years, mounting losses and a parent with better things to spend its capital on was always going to be a difficult equation to solve.
The doughnut has had its last day. The pizza, however, is staying.
