Kyoorius Awards: O&M leads but DDB Mudra has the edge Sebi picks Murthy to head start-up panel

For the second time in a row, advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather (O&M) has walked home with the most number of Elephants, the trademark trophy, at the Kyoorius Awards, the show organised in partnership with London-based D&AD and non-profit body Kyoorius.

The WPP agency, whose employees are known for the black outfits they wear at the award shows, bagged a total of 15 Blue Elephants across the advertising (13 Blue Elephants) and digital (two Blue Elephants) verticals. This is three more than the number they bagged last year (they had 11 Blue Elephants back then across advertising and digital).

But unlike last year, when O&M bagged three Black Elephants, it got none this year. A Black Elephant is selected from winners of the Blue Elephant.

That honour, interestingly, went to rival DDD Mudra, part of the Omnicom Group, which took home the only Black Elephant of the evening, for low-fat spread Nutralite. This was a campaign done by tying up with a Ganesh Mandal in Andheri, Mumbai, to promote healthy living. Organised during the Ganesh festival last year, the initiative was called health cha shree Ganesh (Let's say hello to good health). Everything at that Andheri pandal reflected this theme — from a Ganesh idol sporting six-pack abs to a priest or pujari with six-pack abs, prasad made from healthy ingredients to dieticians on call.

Ad sources said this was the first time a brand association during the festival had moved beyond the realm of traditional banners and hoardings, which is why it bagged the Black Elephant this year.

DDB Mudra also had the secondhighest tally of trophies after O&M at the Kyoorius Awards. It had six Blue Elephants, in addition to a Black Elephant. While WPP agency Contract walked home with five Blue Elephants, independent ad agency ideas@work and film production house Early Man were tied at three each and Omnicom-owned BBDO got two. In digital, the big winner besides O&M (which had two Blue Elephants) was PHD. This agency, part of the Omnicom Media Group, also bagged two Blue Elephants during the course of the evening for Hindustan Unilever's Tresemme and Vim, respectively. Capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) named Infosys founder N R Narayana Murthy to head a panel to devise rules on a new funding platform for homegrown start-ups, it said on its website.

In March, Sebi had announced an alternative investment platform targeted atthecountry'sstart-ups, relaxingrequirementstoencourage them to list at home.

Murthy's alternative investment policy advisory panel will devise policy and rules for the platform, and is modelled after other panels that advise Sebi.

The regulator released the details on its site. Rules have made start-up listings difficult in India, where rules restrict, for example, early exits of original shareholders.

Reuters reported this year that Sebi has been working to change the rules to make listing on Indian exchanges easier for homegrown start-ups, at a time when large e-commerce players such as Flipkart are said to be considering an Initial Public Offering on US exchanges.

The 18-member panel includes some of India's best-known private equity and venture capitalists, including KKR India chief executive Sanjay Nayar, Piramal Group Chairman Ajay Piramal and Devinjit Singh, managing director of the Carlyle Group India. Others include Saurabh Srivastava, who founded start-up incubator Indian Angel Network, and Sebi, RBI and the finance ministry representatives.