15TH PEPPER AWARDS ANNOUNCED

OPN Advertising wins Pepper Agency of the Year Award 2021

OPN Advertising, Chennai, has won Agency of the Year Award at the fifteenth edition of the Pepper Creative Awards ceremony held here on Friday. Mathrubhumi Group bagged Advertiser of the Year award. Raj Kamble, one of the most awarded and globally recognized Indians in advertising and founder and Chief Creative Officer of Famous Innovations, was the chief guest of the function. Pepper Creative Awards is the most coveted creative awards in South India and the second largest in India.

The awards were presented in 25 categories, including Agency of the Year, region specific Agency of the Year and Advertiser of the Year award. Awards were also specifically presented to Kerala-based agencies in the jewellery, real estate, textile, hospitality, ayurveda and media categories. While TBD (To Be Defined) bagged the Best of Kerala Award, the Best of Karnataka Award went to Signpost India.

Speaking on the occasion, Raj Kamble, said, “Covid really changed things dramatically - not only in our life but in our industry as well. Digital transformation, business solutions and strategy are the future. We should embrace this change with open arms, but at the same time we shouldn’t forget that in a world where tech has become a commodity, our only differentiator is creativity. So fight hard for creativity and hold on hard to creative talent. Creativity is about to become our most precious resource. Awards like Pepper represent that and I congratulate them for flying the creative cause high.”

The awards included 13 gold, 31 silver and 40 bronze and 100 Finalists. The winners were selected by a jury comprising Prathap Suthan, Co-founder and CCO, Bang In The Middle; Raj Kamble; Santhosh Padhi, Ex- Founder and CCO, Taproot Dentsu, Mumbai; Burzin Mehta, National Creative Director, Indigo Conusulting Mumbai and George Kovoor, Group Creative Director, Ogilvy South, Mumbai.

More than 250 people from across South India had participated in the grand gala function held at Le Meridien Hotel Kochi. The icing on the cake was a special video message wishing the very best for Pepper Awards 2021, from the doyen of Indian advertising, Sri Prasoon Joshi, poet, writer, lyricist, screenwriter, and communication specialist and marketer. He is the CEO of McCann World group India and Chairman APAC, a subsidiary of the global marketing firm McCann Erickson. He was honoured with the 'Indian Personality of the Year 2021' award at the recently held International Film Festival of India (IFFI).