MUMBAI: Whistles didn't stop blowing at the Mirchi Kaan awards held at Mumbai's Trident on Friday evening, where the advertising fraternity turned out in full strength to applaud creativity in radio.

Armed with whistles and banners displaying �Vote against Mediocrity', the theme for the 6th Kaan awards, the message was clear - radio is emerging as a powerful medium.

The Mirchi Kaan awards this year received 750 entries across 15 categories like Food, Beverages, Toiletries and Household care, Business Products and Services, Health and Cosmetic care, to name a few. It was a high decibel event with Dhols being played after every winning nomination and the creative teams hooting for their respective agencies.

McCann Erickson bagged 20 awards, including four Golds for Chlormint, five Silvers and 11 Bronzes. An elated McCann Erickson executive chairman Prasoon Joshi says, It has been a great evening for us with our agency bagging many metals. The script forms an important part of radio advertising as we have to make listeners imagine. It is very encouraging to be recognised and it also means that radio is marking a niche for itself....

The evening saw Leo Burnett win 14 awards, including one Gold for �Lingo Sound Design', one singles Silver for Shiksha and nine Bronzes. Mudra bagged eight awards and the Crystal award for the most exceptional radio commercial for its Islamic Research Foundation. Incidentally, Mudra had bagged a Bronze pencil at the One Show 2009 in New York on 6 May by becoming the only Indian entry to pick up a trophy. Mudra was also the recepient of the Crystal award last year, for the Cycle Agarbatti campaign.

The other awards include Rediffusion Y&R winning four awards and Bates 141 winning a Gold and two silvers for Virgin Mobile. Pickle Advertising picked up two Golds for Sab TV, Ogilvy bagged five Bronzes and Pulicis bagged four Bronzes.

Towards the end of the awards with McCann Erickson bagging many metals, it became obvious that the Agency of the award would be bagged by them. The Perfetti Van Melle won the client of the year award for their Chlormint radio creatives. Chlormint being a product for masses, radio is an apt medium for advertising because of its massive reach and appeal.

Ogilvy Dakshin Consulting Partner and Creative Director Suguna Swamy said, We should build more creatives, innovations just as we do in films to carry the medium further. It might be interesting to marry content and advertising which we aren't doing much....

BBDO India chief creative officer Josy Paul said, The creatives winning the Kaan awards were innovative but there are many creatives in the interiors which are innovative but have not been showcased in Kaan. Radio is redefining itself and portraying itself as powerful medium with personal connect which media brands insist on....

Compere Vir Das, hosting the evening for the second consecutive year, kept the humour quotient at a high throughout the evening with his humorous take on contemporary issues like recession, general elections, politics, swine flu etc. Adding to his outstanding humorous act, Das also performed a hilarious gig with his band, �Alien Chutney'.

The Mirchi Kaan awards jury included top-notch names in the business like Agnello Dias, Ashish Khazanchi, Bobby Pawar, Deepa Krishnan, Gullu Sen, Josy Paul, K S Chakravarthi, K V Sridhar, Mohammed Khan, Piyush Pandey, Pradeep Sarkar, Prahlad Kakkar, Prasoon Joshi, Priti Nair, Pratap Suthan, R Balakrishnan, Rajat Dholakia, Ram Sampath, Ramanuj Shastry, Ramesh Ramanathan, Ravi Deshpande, Rekha Nigam, Senthil Kumar, Shantanu Moitra, Suguna Swami and Sunil Thoppil.

Click here for Slide Show of 6th Edition of Radio Mirchi Kaan Awards