DDB Mudra is South India’s Pepper Ad Agency of the Year

DDB Mudra was chosen as the Agency of the Year at the 7th edition of the Pepper Creative Awards 2013, the annual creative competition jointly held by The Advertising Club Cochin and the Pepper Creative Awards Trust. Nirvana was the runner-up.

The Agency of the Year award is accorded on the basis of maximum points received in all categories of the competition.

TTK Prestige won the Advertiser of the Year award, while Shelton Pinheiro, Kerala NCD of Stark Communications, was awarded the Special Jury Award for Excellence in Writing for the Grand Kerala Shopping Festival campaign.

The event, known for its vibrancy and glamour, was inaugurated by film director Kamal in Kochi. It began last Friday.

Pepper 2013 received overwhelming response with more than 1,070 entries from 80 agencies in 104 competition categories.

Prominent agencies which participated in the competition include Saatchi & Saatchi Focus, Contract Advertising, M&M Connect, RK Swamy BBDO, Nirvana Films, JWT Mindset, Stark Communications, DDB Mudra, Maxus, Dentsu, Disha Communications, Maitri, and Bates Sercon, among others.

The entries were judged in Mumbai on 23-24 March 2013 by a three-member panel comprising Rajeev Raja, chief executive officer of Soundsmith@Brandmusiq; Prathap Suthan, managing partner, Bang in the Middle; and Raj Nair, CCO, BMB India.

''From a humble beginning of being a state level competition, Pepper today has become the largest and most sought after creative awards in South India. We are proud to say that Pepper has become a platform for most creative agencies across South India to send in their entries to be judged by a neutral jury,'' said P K Natesh, chairman of Pepper Awards 2013.

Some commentators had a wry laugh at the state of Indian advertising, when the chairman of the event could mix a metaphor so clumsily as to equate a judge with a jury.

''The strength of Pepper so far has been the jury panel which included Josy Paul, Agnello Dias, Prathap Suthan, Raj Nair, Priti Nair, Ramanuj Shastry, Sagar Mahabaleshwarkar, Rajeev Raja, Dinesh Warrier, to name some. Next year onwards we will also have a separate award for 'Kerala Agency of the year,'' Natesh added.

''Pepper is currently one of the most respected creative competitions in the Indian advertising industry. Our endeavour is to make the creative award competition of the Ad Club Cochin a globally benchmarked premium event every year. We hope the legend of Pepper and the creative spirit of the present would jell well to create a niche for Cochin in the global creative space,'' said Sandeep Nayar, President of Advertising Club Cochin.