afaqs! announces the first edition of Digital Agency Awards

The afaqs! Digital Agency Awards 2014 celebrates and honours the best digital agencies of the year based on an evaluation of their whole body of work by an expert jury in seven different categories. The awards will be given on July 18, at the Leela Kempinski Hotel, Gurgaon.

Digital has gone mainstream in India, with no brand being able to resist the medium anymore. This growth has become particularly more pronounced in 2013-14, with brands hitherto resistant to the medium's charms, finally succumbing.

This exponential growth of the medium has led to the inevitable boom in digital agencies, both from start-ups and the established houses. Finally, clients have a choice of strong, well established agencies to choose from, instead of the young, exciting but volatile start-ups of the early 2000s.

For us at afaqs!, this added maturity makes it the perfect time to host a digital swayamvar, to celebrate and honour the best work from the digital agencies. The first afaqs! Digital Agency Awards 2014 will aim to celebrate and recognize digital agencies with a capability to deliver solid, breakthrough work across categories for clients.

Prasanna Singh, chief operating officer, Banyan Netfaqs, says, "While it has been great to see awards come up to celebrate quality work in the category, we felt the industry needed to start looking at a wider body of work from agencies. Though an outstanding idea at work is a superb sight, a stream of super ideas across digital categories is what really makes an agency stand out for a client. The Digital Agency Awards will seek to identify those agencies."

Unlike most other awards, afaqs! Digital Agency Awards does not reward a one-off campaign in a category but is a much larger representation of an agency's work in different categories that will establish its credentials for innovation, quality and consistency.

14 awards will be given under seven different categories including Display, Website, Viral Marketing, Social Media, Mobile, Apps and Integrated. The awards will be conferred on July 18, at a ceremony in Leela Kempinski, Gurgaon.

The jury for the awards include some of the renowned names from the industry such as Alok Mittal, venture capitalist, entrepreneur in Internet, media space, Canaan Partners, Neville Taraporewalla, general manager, India advertising and online, Microsoft Corporation India, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder, chairman and managing director, One97 Communications, Vidyadhar Kale, agency head, global marketing solutions, Facebook, Satyan Gajwani, chief executive officer, Times Internet.

Commenting on the awards, Alok Mittal says, "It's time to gather all the great campaigns you have worked on in the past year and compete to win the afaqs! Digital Agency of the Year Awards 2014."

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder, chairman and managing director, One97 Communications, says, "Digital is today's main stream media and creativity on multiple digital screens is a great opportunity for agencies. Come over and share your best shot to find India's best digital agencies."

Vidyadhar Kale, agency head, global marketing solutions, Facebook, says, "Digital is no more a new medium but it is THE medium. So it's only fair that the digital agencies too get their share of limelight. Really looking forward to some pathbreaking body of work that has delivered on the business and given goosebumps to the agency teams."

Over 30 agencies have already participated with close to 400 entries for the first edition of the awards.

The eligible campaigns for the awards are required to be launched between 01 April, 2013 to 31 March, 2014. Also, agencies are required to submit atleast three of their campaigns to participate.