In an initiative to create a common platform to judge advertising creatives Yahoo India has launched Uncannies. Uncannies is basically an advertising portal which can act as a showcase for creative excellence in not just online as one might expect but even traditional media including print, radio and TV. This follows an idea that has often been echoed in various discussions that we need to better the standards of creativity and treat each media with equal but distinguished respect. This initiative from Yahoo certainly puts the equality debate in place at the least I expect.
The official Yahoo word came through Nitin Mathur, Director – Marketing, Yahoo! India, “An excellent creative speaks for itself. Uncannies from Yahoo! India brings together all creative minds of the industry to share their best advertising work. It’s also a great platform to discover fresh ideas and showcase top talent in advertising,” he said in the release.
More than just being a portal, Uncannies is also a recognition and award forum and is running a contest to find the best creative piece of advertising in each media with some exciting prize for the winners. In order to take part in this contest, participants must submit their work before 28th February’ 2009. The entries can be at an individual or agency level, with a maximum of 200 entries per person.
Also, the entries will be judged by an independent panel of experts from industry. Users will also get a chance to rate the shortlisted creative for the entire contest duration. However, the expert panel’s decision would be final. Top 3 winners will walk away with an Apple iPhone each, while the next top 100 participants will get interesting Yahoo! merchandise as consolation prizes.
As one of the leading publishers in India Yahoo is sure to have got the wrong end of the stick often with crappy creatives dished out for the web. Initiating such a step would mean improving the standards of advertising creatives which will benefit online advertising as well and thereby bettering Yahoo’s revenues as well. The contest of course being the bait for people to participate actively and make the venture a success in the quantitative sense. Regardless of Yahoo’s intention, one has to admit that it is an innovative step.
While Afaqs already has a showcase of advertising creatives on their website, it is not a benchmark of quality nor is it a platform to judge. Knowing what the best practices are and a judgment on what’s cool has been one of those areas which wasn’t addressed till now. Yahoo has put itself in a position where it can address this divide, whether it will of course needs to be seen.
