Commward celebrates 50 ad campaigns

Commward, an initiative of Bangladesh Brand Forum or BBF, has awarded 50 advertising campaigns to recognise and inspire creative communication.

Nineteen advertising agencies and producers received 62 awards on Saturday in 20 areas, including print, television, radio, outdoor, copywriting, campaign for women, marketing and direction for ad film.

Twenty awards were given in the Grand Prix category, 28 in Gold and 14 in Silver, at a ceremony at Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka.

Shariful Islam, chief executive of BBF, said the purpose of the awards is to recognise creativity in the communication industry.

“We want to become a more creative nation, as creativity is the most important and valuable thing in the field of communication,” he said.

About Tk 2,000 crore is being invested in the local industry a year, according to Islam.

A panel of global and local experts selected the winners from around 367 nominations from 36 advertising agencies and creative departments of different companies.

Grey Advertising and Adcomm received the highest number of recognitions, each bagging 12 awards, followed by Bitopi Leo Burnett with seven.

The popular ICC Char Chhokka Hoi Hoi campaign won the highest number of Grand Prix awards in jingle, social media and integrated digital media categories.

The winners in the new category -- Campaign for Women -- were Fair and Lovely Foundation, Rise Up for Women and Meril's Splash – Fresh is Beautiful.

The BBF has been giving such awards in business and marketing since 2009. It organised this year's Commward in association with Cannes Lions, The Daily Star, Rakeen Development, RFL, WebAble, Masthead PR, Maverick, Roaring Lions and Aamra Technologies.