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Tag: Gokul Krishnamoorthy

  • Maddys 2025 celebrates creativity with record entries and global reach

    Maddys 2025 celebrates creativity with record entries and global reach

    MUMBAI: The Advertising Club Madras proudly announced the successful completion of the 43rd edition of Maddys, presented by Dinamalar and powered by Peps, marking a grand celebration of creativity, media, digital, design and strategy under the theme “AI vs AI: Awesome Ideas vs Awesome Ideas.”

    The gala evening brought together the best of India’s creative, digital, and media industries and witnessed one of the most competitive editions in the award’s storied history, with 929 entries across 155 categories from over 106 agencies and clients spanning India and Nepal.

    Advertising Club Madras, secretary, Surej Salim said, “Maddys 2025 was an incredible celebration of ideas that inspire culture and transform businesses. Congratulations to all the winners whose creativity continues to be the heartbeat of our industry.”

    Demonstrating its credibility and fairness, Maddys 2025 employed a two-stage judging process, with each entry independently scored by at least three jurors in the first round and then deliberated upon in the second round by panels chaired by respected leaders, under the guidance of eight jury chairs, 27 industry experts, and jury convenor and process auditor Gokul Krishnamoorthy.

    This rigorous system resulted in 340 shortlisted entries and ultimately 184 awards, including four Grand Prix, 31 gold, 61 silver, 76 bronze, and 12 special recognitions across creative, media, digital, design, print, film, and audio categories, making this year’s edition a milestone in scale and competitiveness.

    With its legacy of 68 years and an active calendar of more than 50 programmes in just the past two years ranging from adtalks to student initiatives, the Advertising Club Madras reaffirmed its role as a driving force in the creative ecosystem, and through Maddys 2025, proved once again that this is where legends begin.  
     

  • Maddys 2025 goes global, gets glossier

    Maddys 2025 goes global, gets glossier

    MUMBAI: The Advertising Club Madras is bringing the heat with the 43rd edition of Maddys, giving India’s longest-running advertising awards a slick new sheen – and a global passport. This year’s rebooted avatar doesn’t just honour great work, it redefines the very format with new categories, a heavyweight jury, a transparent scoring system, and an international welcome mat.

    Themed ‘AI vs AI – Awesome Ideas vs Awesome Ideas’, Maddys 2025 goes all in on the creative wars in a tech-saturated world – and the stakes are high.

    For starters, it’s going international. The awards will now invite entries from across borders, aligning themselves with global benchmarks. With 155 categories across six streams – Creative, Digital, Media, Design & Print Craft, Film & Audio Craft, and Regional Pride (Tamil) – this isn’t just a celebration, it’s a campaign for creative excellence.

    The 2025 edition also introduces Grand Prix honours, a one-day celebration that starts with breakfast and ends with a cocktail, and a robust, two-tiered judging system scored on Strategy & Insights, Originality & Creativity, and Execution & Impact – minus the fluff of performance metrics.

    The dream jury team includes:

    . Karthi Marshan, former Kotak CMO, and Senthil Kumar of VML India co-chairing Creative MADDYS

    .  Ajay Gupte of Wavemaker chairing Media

    .  Dr. Apurva Chamaria of Google helming Digital

    .  Filmmaking duo Gayatri & Pushkar chairing Film & Audio Craft

    .   Santosh Padhi of Into Creative on Design & Print Craft duty

    .   Chocka of OPN taking charge of Regional Pride Maddys

    Process czar Gokul Krishnamoorthy returns as honorary jury convenor and process auditor, ensuring the judging stays squeaky clean and crystal clear.

    Aside from bragging rights, agencies and clients can win titles across streams. Grand Prix winners bag 30 points, with Gold (15), Silver (7), Bronze (3), and Shortlists (1) rounding out the leaderboard — all contributing to the prestigious “Agency of the Year” and “Client of the Year” crowns across categories.

    From art directors to Tamil-language storytellers, from global digital campaigns to handcrafted print ideas — Maddys 2025 isn’t just turning up the volume, it’s tuning into the future. Ready, set, pitch.
     

  • Pandit hits the write note with memoir on adland, music and more

    Pandit hits the write note with memoir on adland, music and more

     MUMBAI: From the buzz of boardrooms to the rhythm of raag, Bipin R. Pandit’s journey finally finds its hardcover harmony. At Goafest 2025, amidst Abby cheers and industry nostalgia, The Advertising Club’s beloved COO Bipin R. Pandit launched his long-anticipated biography titled Impassioned. The launch wasn’t just ceremonial, it marked the culmination of 28 years spent scripting not just award shows, but a legacy in Indian advertising’s cultural corridors.

    Released by Ad Club President and Havas India group CEO for SEA & North Asia, Rana Barua, the book dropped during the 58th edition of the Abby Awards, a fitting venue, given Pandit has helmed 28 editions himself.

    But Impassioned is no dry professional recollection. Co-authored by Gokul Krishnamoorthy and supported by Gour Gupta’s Tribes, the book oscillates between Pandit’s rise from Castrol’s data division to becoming the backbone of India’s most prominent advertising secretariat and his other passions: cricket, Kishore Kumar and Khumaar, the live music IP he founded.

    It also swings into his personal innings, including a rooftop romance in Dadar that turned into a lifelong partnership. Reflections from industry stalwarts Piyush Pandey, Prasoon Joshi, Ramesh Narayan and Barua himself add emotional resonance to a story that’s both deeply personal and distinctly adland.

    The book also traces the birth of now-iconic properties like the Effies and Emvies, first conceptualised under Pandit’s watch in 2001 as part of a three-day Mumbai festival alongside the Abbys. Today, these awards stand as pillars of the Indian advertising industry.

    “Writing started with a LinkedIn blog post post-Abbys,” Pandit shared. “Rana called me and said ‘You need to make this a book’. The rest, as they say, got written.”

    Barua added, “Bipin’s been the pulse of the Club steady, smiling and always switched on. This book lets us meet the man behind the magic.”

    Adding heart to history, Pandit has pledged 10 per cent of all proceeds from Impassioned to the Light of Life Foundation, which supports underprivileged communities.

    From overseeing award ceremonies to belting out old classics, from managing committees to cricket trivia debates Bipin R. Pandit hasn’t just worked in adland, he’s lived it. And now, finally, it’s all on record with rhythm, recall and a whole lot of raag.