Most major OTT players get lucky at vdonxt awards

The big surprise winner was The Quint, which wowed jury and audience alike with its stunning work in news, features and documentaries.

The best of online video was awarded at the vdonxt awards at The Westin, Goregaon, Mumbai, last night. The awards took place after the conclusion of the seventh edition of the vdonxt asia conference.

Nearly every major OTT player and production house, took away one or more trophies, including the likes of Disney Star, SonyLIV, Amazon Prime Video, Viacom18, TVF, Applause Entertainment, Pocket Aces, among them.

The surprise this time around, was the unusually strong participation of news brands such as TV9, CNBC-TV18 and The Quint.

The Quint, the pure online player which has become a leader in creating stunning, hand-held mobile video reports, was the surprise of the evening. It wowed the jurors and audience alike, and swept all the news-related categories: documentaries, news & features, social awareness and aerial videography. It took away the most metals, including three gold, four silver and two bronze.

Viacom18 Media won six metals, including one gold, two silver and three bronze for its work in best innovation in sports, brand integration - web series, most innovative use of social media, comedy and kids categories.

News9 Plus (TV9 Network) took home six metals, including two silver and four bronze for its work in brand integration - stand-alone, action, best smart-budget show/film, aerial videography and lifestyle categories.

vdonxt awards is made up of two super-categories: pure content and brand-related. These two together include 23 categories.

The entries were judged by a 17-member jury of well-known names from the world of advertising, media and marketing, including Arun Iyer (Spring Marketing Capital); Rohit Malkani (L&K Saatchi & Saatchi); Sambit Mohanty (McCann Worldgroup); Amit Sethiya (Syska); Elizabeth Venkataraman (Kotak Mahindra Bank); Karthik Yathindra (Jockey); Prateek Malpani (Wakefit); Vanda Ferrao (WOW Skin Science); Amit Doshi (Pratilipi); Arindam Biswas (SVF Entertainment); Karan Sabde (Warner Bros. Discovery); Manpreet Bumrah (Eros Now); Zaheen Ekhlas (SonyLIV); Aradhana Bhola (Fremantle India); Kailash Surendranath (Kailash Picture Company); Rishi Negi (Endemol Shine India); and Tusharr Kumar (Only Much Louder).

The jury rated the entries on a 1-10 scale. Each entry was submitted for review to between five and seven jurors. One important innovation that was introduced in most of the awards, organised by afaqs!, was a minimum scoring system.

So, to get a gold metal, an entry had to be the top scorer in its category, and also receive a jury rating of at least seven points. Similarly, the minimum scores for silver and bronze metals were six and five, respectively.

This ensures that even if there is, hypothetically, only one entry in a category, it doesn’t automatically ensure that it will win gold. The jurors will have to give it a score of at least seven points.

The average jury rating of all the entries (not just the winners) was 5.9/10, which showed that the overall standard of entries was high. The event was a tribute to the trailblazers who continue to push the boundaries of innovation and transform the digital landscape in profound ways.

Click here to view the complete list of winners.