Kyoorius, a not-for-profit initiative by Transasia Fine Papers, and D&AD today announced the expansion of Kyoorius Awards to include Kyoorius Advertising Awards and Kyoorius Digital Awards, alongside the existing Design and Student components. Advertising continues to be a crucial medium for companies to communicate with customers and communicate their brand. However, it has become increasingly complex, since agencies have to create unique messages for multiple channels and platforms to resonate with customers. This called for a critical assessment when defining awards categories –‑Kyoorius Advertising Awards are comprehensive, and structured to recognise individual components as well as entire ad campaigns. The overarching structure of the Kyoorius Awards is to only award work that is worthy of merit. No matter how big the brand, or how small the names behind it; how wide the media reach is or the number of retweets; the ultimate goal is to create outstanding work that works.

Merit involves beating your own best work and setting new benchmarks for creative excellence. This is why Kyoorius Awards have no winning tier structure –‑no gold, silver or bronze, and it is thejury’s prerogative to award one or multiple Blue Elephants in any one category, whereas none in another, if entries are not up to the mark. For the Advertising Awards, international jury members include Rosie Arnold – Deputy Executive Creative Director, BBH, as Jury Foreman, accompanied by Graham Kelly – Regional Executive Creative Director, Isobar, and Woon Siew Hoh – Regional Creative Director, Hakuhudo. From India, jury members include Abhijit Avasthi – Executive Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather, Agnello Dias – Chairman & Co-Founder, TapRoot India, Senthil Kumar – National Creative Director, JWT, and Sonal Dabral – Executive Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather with more to be added soon.

Together with D&AD, Kyoorius has chosen this specific mix of the top international, regional, and Indian creative minds to ensure that work is compared against industry best practices, while keeping the Indian context in mind. Further, Kyoorius and D&AD aim to create a truly neutral and ethical platform that recognises the best of the advertising industry solely on the basis of merit. Unlike any other advertising awards, alljury members gather in India to review, discuss and elect the best of the best over an intensive three-day session. All voting is private, never by a show of hands. Kyoorius Advertising Awards are unlike any other advertising awards in India, not only because of the rigorous judging standards, but also because entry fees are fed back into the industry. Funds are used in developing Kyoorius FYIdays, an initiative aimed at stimulating creative professionals and educating students –‑India’s future creative superstars.