MAM
Six top creatives in India named to ADC 103rd Annual Awards Jury
Mumbai: The One Club for Creativity has announced six leading creatives in India who will serve on the diverse global jury for the ADC 103rd Annual Awards, the world’s longest continuously-running global competition celebrating excellence in craft and innovation in all forms of design and advertising.
Dimpy Bhalotia, photographer and creative director based in Mumbai, will serve as Jury President for the Photography discipline.
Other ADC 103rd judges based in India are:
Soumitro Ghosh, partner, Mathew and Ghosh Architects, Bengaluru (architecture/interior/environmental design)
Anushka Sani, founder, CD, Thought Over Design, Mumbai (brand/communication design)
Poornima Seetharaman, associate general manager, Take Two – Zynga, Bangalore (gaming)
Sumitra Sengupta, ECD, FCB India, Gurugram (advertising)
Juhi Vishnani, art director, November, Mumbai (typography)
The complete ADC 103rd Annual Awards jury can be viewed here.
Judging will finish in April 2024, with finalists announced in May. Gold, Silver and Bronze Cube winners will be announced at the ADC 103rd Annual Awards ceremony during Creative Week 2024 in New York, taking place 13-17 May.
Entries can be submitted now, with fees increasing after each deadline period. Regular deadline is 26 January 2024, with an extended deadline of 16 February 2024, and the final deadline is 1 March 2024.
New for 2024
One notable change for the ADC 103rd Annual Awards is Best of Discipline honors will be awarded to brand-based work only. Entries for non-profit clients are no longer eligible.
This year will also mark the show’s first Best of Non-Profit award, presented for the top-scoring work from across all disciplines done for a non-profit client as voted by the entire jury. Best of Non-Profit will receive the same points as a Best of Discipline winner.
Other highlights for the ADC 103rd Annual Awards include:
1 Rankings points – All awards will receive rankings points, multiple awards for the same work within a discipline will not be de-duped.
2 Storytelling categories – Advertising discipline expanded with new categories for Storytelling in Humor and Drama genres.
3 Continued partnership with creative community Working Not Working on event and content collaborations, as well as the special Freelancer of the Year award.
4 ADC Members’ Choice Award, where freelance members of both The One Club and Working Not Working are invited to cast votes for their favorite entry amongst the year’s top-scoring works in all ADC Design disciplines.
Tiered pricing
A special tiered pricing structure makes it easier for smaller agencies, studios and freelancers to participate. Larger agencies and brands pay the standard entry fee; smaller shops get a discount on entries (amount varies by discipline), and freelance creatives and one-person shops are eligible for an even greater reduction in their entry fee.
Unlike for-profit awards shows, The One Club is a non-profit organization that puts revenue generated from awards entries into programs that serve the industry under the club’s four pillars: Education, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Gender Equality and Creative Development.
The One Club for Creativity – home of The One Show, ADC Annual Awards, Art Directors Club of Europe (ADCE), ONE Asia Awards, Type Directors Club and competition, TDC Ascenders, Young Guns, Young Ones Student Awards, Next Creative Leaders, ONE Screen Short Film Festival, and more – is the world’s foremost non-profit organisation whose mission is to support and celebrate the global creative community. Revenue generated from entries to its global awards shows goes back into the industry to fund programming under the organization’s four pillars: education, inclusion & diversity, gender equality, and creative development.
MAM
VML India lands two finalist spots at Cairns Hatchlings 2026
The Mumbai agency is back in Australia with two teams, a UN brief and 24 hours to impress
MUMBAI: VML India is heading to Australia again. The Mumbai-based creative agency has secured two finalist spots at the Cairns Hatchlings 2026 competition, one in the Audio category and one in Design, making it the only Indian agency to have reached the finals in both editions of the contest since its launch in 2025.
Four people will make the trip. Senior copywriter Shilpi Dey and senior art director Raj Thakkar will compete in Audio. Art directors Shabbir and Shruti Negi will go head-to-head with the world’s best in Design. The finals take place at the Cairns Convention Centre from 13th May, culminating in an awards ceremony on 15th May.
The work that got them there is worth examining. For the Audio category, Dey and Thakkar tackled a brief for LIVE LIKE MMAD with a campaign called Inner Voice, Interrupted. Using spatial audio techniques, the campaign recreates the overwhelming self-doubt that descends after a long workday, physically panning negative thoughts left and right before cutting the noise entirely to reveal a confident inner voice. Strategically targeted at commuters via Spotify during evening rush hours, the campaign reframes the hours after work as an opportunity for personal growth and charitable action.
For the Design category, Shabbir and Negi worked on a brief for Canteen’s Bandanna Day, a campaign highlighting how cancer pushes teenagers out of their own defining moments. Using a pixelated design language to create stark contrast between a blurred world of isolation and a focused world of connection, the campaign, titled The Flipside of Cancer, shows teenagers fading into the background of birthdays, skateparks and school proms. As a Canteen bandanna appears, the blur flips and the teenager snaps back into sharp focus.
Kalpesh Patankar, group chief creative officer of VML India, made no attempt to disguise his satisfaction. “We are immensely proud to see our teams consistently excel on the Cairns Hatchlings platform since its inception,” he said. “They have masterfully tackled challenging briefs across diverse categories, demonstrating both layered storytelling and a unique creative approach. This exceptional teamwork is truly inspiring.”
Dey and Thakkar, returning to the finals after last year’s run, were candid about the demands of the audio medium. “It’s one of the most demanding mediums, where we only have a few seconds to capture a listener’s world with sound alone, so absolute clarity is essential,” they said. “The true measure of creative work is its ability to create positive change, and our audio submission was made to help those who need it most while encouraging people to silence the inner voices that hold them back.”
Shabbir and Negi, competing in Design for the first time, described the experience as “a completely different beast.” “We see it as an opportunity to showcase our expertise, raise the bar, and challenge ourselves in new ways, while also learning from creative minds from across the globe,” they said.
In Australia, the four finalists will face a live 24-hour brief from the United Nations before presenting in a live pitch session. Twenty-four hours, one brief, one shot. VML India has been here before. It knows exactly what is at stake.
