ABBY awards - given for creative excellence is advertising - are the Oscars of the advertising industry in this part of the world. The number as well as the quality of entries it receives makes ABBY rank close to prestigious international awards. Last year over 3000 entries were received and 30 of them merited an award!
ABBY awards are probably the most noticeable and visible face of The Advertising Club Bombay. The Advertising Club Bombay was incorporated in the year 1954 with the objective of creating a fraternity of industry professionals and raising the standards of excellence through organising talks, training sessions, awards, publications and events.
The Club celebrated its Golden Jubilee this year in August, 2004. The Advertising Club Bombay, is the largest association of its kind and, according to many, also the busiest. It has over 1,700 members drawn from the advertising, marketing, media, communications and research field. Over the years it has acted as catalyst in developing the industry through creation of a dynamic platform for professional interaction.
The ABBY awards have gone from strength to strength and will enter their 38th Year. The 38th ABBY will be for entering the work released for the first time in the calendar year 2004. Creative and agency heads are looking passionately forward to entering their best creative work this year and hoping that they will be winners and will be recognised in the presence of one of the largest gatherings of the advertising community.
Over 2000 advertising and marketing professionals come together during the month of March for the glittering ABBY Awards ceremony in Mumbai. It is a spirited show of togetherness and healthy competition where one's own work and also that of the competitors and peers is applauded with equal gusto. The suspense-filled function is attended by all the industry leaders and receives an overwhelming response from the media.
The month of March is when winter wanes and spring takes over and is just right for the gathering to watch the best of advertising from the Rs 100 billion Indian advertising industry, and network furiously over cocktails and dinner thereafter. Apart from these, millions of TV viewers look forward to seeing the ABBY Awards Night over the international footprint of SONY TV, the sponsor of the ABBY Awards Function.
The ABBY judging committee invites about 60 of the best and the brightest from the advertising and related industries to judge the advertising which is entered in over 20 categories. This year ABBY expects professionals from Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka too to be there.
Indian and South Asian advertising is on a bull run with the national economies growing at a fast clip. This year the Advertising Club Bombay's ABBY Awards will honour the best of the best from the subcontinent.-PR