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Mumbai, Sep 20: Miami Ad School, Mumbai student Sonika Gilbert Baptist has been selected for prestigious Clio awards.Sonika Baptist along with Miami Ad School students Rushad Patel and Himanish Ashar prepared a unique advertisement to support thousands of people displaced during the recent earthquake in Nepal. Clio which recognized the help the advertisement gathered when it was published through Facebook and youtube, selected Sonika for the award.

Sonika Baptist had worked on Graphics in the advertisement and she created the advertisement with the vision of several pro people projects.Sonika is the daughter of Malaika Group of company’s managing director Gilbert Baptist and Marceline G Baptist. Sonika is the sister of Malaika and Yashika. Gilbert Baptist is the resident of Shambhooru in Panemangalore of Dakshina Kannada by origin.

 That’s how you make things clio(asianage.com)

A campaign designed by three advertising students from Mumbai has been nominated for the prestigious Clio Awards that will be held at the end of this month in New York

Three young advertising minds from the city have put India in the list of nominees for the prestigious Clio Awards, touted as one of the highest honours in the field of advertising. Sonica Baptist, Rushad Patel and Himanish Ashar, students from Miami Ad School, Mumbai will be competing with entries from around the world to win the award under the Student Innovative category for product/service. They are the only students from Mumbai to be competing with cities like Oslo, Miami and Seoul to name a few.

(Sonica Baptist,Rushad Patel and Himanish Ashar)

A public service message calling for aid for the victims of the Nepal earthquake, their campaign is called “Watch for Nepal”, but the principle is not limited to just Nepal. The core thought was to reward people with the feeling of having donated by working around YouTube’s “skip ad” button. Himanish shares, “After Nepal was hit with a massive earthquake, we noticed something really interesting - big brands were bringing the world together. Think of the world’s most visited websites today, Facebook and Google and they were the first ones coming to the rescue of Nepal and other areas affected by calamities using the safety check notification and person finder.” He continues, “Then it struck us that the world’s second largest video search engine, YouTube, could easily make a strong impact with just one simple change in human behaviour.” And that behaviour is the tendency to skip ads.

“Let’s be honest. Even being a part of the advertising world does not stop us from skipping ads regularly. So we thought of making the experience of watching a complete ad more rewarding,” says Rushad, a copywriting student. So they devised the campaign in such a manner that when the “skip ad” button would appear on YouTube, alongside would be seen another button that said “watch to donate”. Clicking on that would enable the user contribute, through the brand, $0.01 to help Nepal or any other area affected by a natural calamity every time the ad was watched. It’s a win-win situation for both the brand and the YouTube user —the former’s ad would be viewed entirely and the latter would be left with a feel-good experience of having contributed to a cause. In an hour, where about one million ads are skipped on YouTube, the “watch to donate” button would be able to collect a substantial amount to help victims around the world.

Being nominated for the Clio Awards has taken their idea one step closer to turning it into a reality. “In all honesty, for us, it’s not about the awards. It’s about getting the word out so the right people in the world pick up the idea and implement it. Imagine having the key to unlock all problems in the world but you’re unable to crack open the correct lock. And now with this nomination, maybe we’ve finally done it! We’d love to work with YouTube and the brands of the world to help make this idea come to life,” Himanish says.

The team tells us that the brief given to them by their mentors was simple — think of an idea that would impact people’s lives. Raj Deepak Das, Leo Burnett’s creative honcho was their guide. He says, “They have worked beautifully and the idea is very touching. They have spent hours in my office thinking and ideating. My only mentorship was to give them a guardrail so that they didn’t lose focus.” It also helps that three ad students share great work chemistry. “Himanish and I had similar thoughts and there was a point when we were completing each other’s sentences. We were actually dancing and prancing around when we realised that we had something good. We immediately made the rough draft and sent it to our mentors who were ecstatic and helped us fine-tune the idea,” Rushad says. The diverse suggestions only helped enrich the idea. “We all had different views and opinions which somehow gave this idea so much more depth. With every good idea there will always be debates, arguments and different ways of executing, but we managed it all pretty well,” says Sonica who worked on the graphics.

The erratic late night calls, sleepless nights and tiring days are getting rewarded now. “It has been all worth it. During this whole process I realised, that it’s not enough to just come up with a clever idea. You have to constantly keep looking at it from different angles to make it perfect. Packaging a good idea is as important as the idea itself,” Sonica adds. The nomination did not come as a surprise to their mentors. “We are extremely excited about being nominated. Although winning would just be the cherry on the cake but we want this idea to live beyond the award,” Sonica says. Himanish adds, “The nominations this year were all amazing. We have nothing but respect for every student who brings brilliant ideas to the table. A win or not, we’re happy to be a part of such a talented list of nominations.”

Even though they won’t be able to attend the award ceremony which will be held on September 30 in New York, Himanish has his own plans for the day. “I can already see myself refreshing the homepage every 15 seconds to see if we won. Yes, I’m very excited and if we do win, it will be one of the greatest achievements of my life,” he says.