Goafest 2013: Leo Burnett and McCann won 7 Golds each

Further, McCann Worldgroup won a Print Grand Prix, while Grey Worldwide won an Integrated Grand Prix

The Goafest authorities have consciously refrained from ranking the winning agencies on a number scale. Rather, As Burnett's Arvind Sharma, chairman of the Awards Governing Council, put it, "We leave it to you media guys to figure which agency is No. 1, which is No. 2, and so on."

Sharma's statement makes sense because agencies can be ranked based on one of several parameters: maximum number of gold awards, maximum number of awards (metal-agnostic), presence of Grand Prix, and so on.

Since the Grand Prix is essentially 'the gold of golds', a look at the agencies that won this glory:

There are three Grand Prix awards this time. The agencies that took away this coveted award include Grey Worldwide India, Interface Business Solutions and McCann Worldgroup.

Grey Worldwide won a Grand Prix for its 'Water Savers' campaign for a brand that has fetched the agency many award nominations in the recent past -- Killer Jeans. The work was entered in the Integrated category (sub-category: Clothing, innerwear, footwear and accessories).

Interface Business Solutions won its Grand Prix for its web banner for Tata Docomo. The campaign was promoted as the world's first CRM-powered personalised web banner. This winning campaign was entered in the Digital category.

Finally, McCann Worldgroup won its Grand Prix in the Print category for the brand Active Total Security Systems (for its 'Villa', 'Bank' and 'Highrise' ads).

If the yellow metal is considered to reign supreme, then some agencies literally struck gold at this year's Goafest. Leo Burnett and McCann won the highest number of gold awards (seven each), followed by JWT India (five).

Burnett's metals were pulled in by its work for Heinz (Print Craft), Sony Entertainment Television (KBC Integrated campaign and Girl Child Film campaign), Indian Red Cross Society (Outdoor), KBC Anthem (Radio and Radio Craft) and Coke Studio (Design).

McCann won gold metals for its work for Videocon (Print Craft), Stayfree (Integrated), Chlormint (Film), Young Presidents' Organisation (Design), Dish TV (Design - Posters as well as Craft in Design) and Big CBS Spark (Direct).

JWT India's gold metals came for its work on Birla Sunlife Insurance (Integrated as well as Branded Content), Helix (Film), Khaitan (Ambient) and Gripone Tubeless Tyre (Radio).

Other agencies that struck gold this year include Bang Bang Films (one), BBDO Proximity (two), BC WebWise (one), Code Red Films (one), Contract Advertising India (two), DDB Mudra Group (one), Dentsu India Group (one), Footcandles Film (one), Hungama Digital Services (two), ideas@work (one), Jamic Films (one), Publicis Communications (one), Ramesh Deo Production (one), Scarecrow Communications (one), Taproot India (one) and Thmbstrk, a division of Indigo Systems & Technology Consulting (one). XOX Design, a division of The Flagship Advertising, won three gold metals.

Moving on to sheer volume, some agencies deserve special mention as their total awards tally made it to double digits! So, agencies with more than 10 metals to their credit, in descending order, are Leo Burnett (67, excluding the three metals won by Leo Burnett Solutions Inc.), McCann Worldgroup (56), JWT India (48), ideas@work (29), Taproot India (18), DDB Mudra Group (16), Grey Worldwide (14), Scarecrow Communications (13), Publicis Communications (12) and BBDO Proximity (12).

Speaking of special mentions, Ogilvy India was conspicuous by its absence; many youngsters were overheard talking about how they were missing the agency's men and women in black going "O-Gill-V", "O-Gill-V..." in an eerie chorus at the awards ceremony.