Pepper Awards calls for entries

The Advertising Club of Cochin and Pepper Creative Awards Trust have jointly announced the 6th edition of the annual Pepper Creative Awards. The last date for the receipt of entries is March 10.

The Advertising Club of Cochin, along with the Pepper Creative Awards Trust, has announced the call for entries for Pepper Awards 2012/02. Started in 2007, the Pepper Awards is an annual event that recognises creative work from ad agencies in South India. The last date for submission of entries is March 10.

The jury for the awards include Agnello Dias, founder, Taproot India; Prathap Suthan, chief creative officer, iYogi and founder, The Advisory; Priti Nair, founder, Curry-Nation; and Raj Nair, ECD, Contract Advertising.

The organisers say that the jury is one of the biggest USPs of the awards. "The four persons have proven credentials in heading juries of a similar nature at national and international levels," says Oommen Kurian, chairman, Pepper Creative Awards Trust.

Like every year, the sixth edition of Pepper will have an exclusive category for participants from Kerala, covering jewellery, real estate, textile, hospitality, ayurveda and other industries.

The awards had registered approximately 1,000 entries till 2010. However, in 2011, there were only 750 entries due to the slowdown. "We are expecting more than 1,500 entries for the competition, which has become a stepping stone for the creative fraternity from this part of the world to take part in other major peer-reviewed national and international competitions," says Sudeep Kumar, president, Advertising Club of Cochin.

At the Pepper Awards 2011, there were talks of making the event a pan-India one. Kumar adds, "Some basic ground work is needed from our side before we expand the awards to the country level. We have decided to invite agencies from all over the country to compete for the creative awards next year on."

The competition will be open in more than 30 categories such as Agency of the Year Award, Advertiser of the Year, Art Director of the Year, Copywriter of the Year, Special Jury Award, Campaign of the Year, Press Campaign, TV Commercial, Corporate AV, Outdoor and Radio.

The Interactive section will include entries competing in categories such as Web-based, POP, Direct Mailer, Photography, Packaging, Logo Design, Unpublished Works, PR and Promos.

The award function will be held at Le Meridien, Cochin Space Frame on March 30.

Stark Communications emerged as the top agency at the Pepper Awards 2011. Other agencies which won the runners up include TCC, Nirvana Films and Fingerprint. Karnataka Tourism and Classic Polo shared the Advertiser of the Year award.