Officials from five top ad agencies in the city gave presentations on their `dream campaign' as part of `COMBAT 99'. Ad agency executives went into the intricacies of how a campaign is arrived at, the choice of brand models and the pay-offs at the end of the day.

For Kawasaki Bajaj Caliber, Chaitro Leo Burnett agency showcased the motorcycle's capabilities through the model -- an `unshakeable' man who takes on all odds with a smile. This was correlated with Caliber's USP -- `the bike to beat bad roads and portholes'.

For the HTA team that came up with the De Beers campaign, the problem was different: While India has one of the world's biggest market for gold, diamonds were seen as too expensive to be bought by justabout anyone. HTA, after conducting research, hit upon `emotional' campaigns, using diamonds as a symbol of love. It worked, said the agency official, as sales picked up well later.

Enterprise Nexus explained how before their `complete' Raymond man ad, textile ads were confined to shots of products and goodlooking models, the agency executive remarked. ``By going beyond that, we brought a creative, and emotional, thrust in an unlikely category, ie, fabric advertising'' he added.

While O & M chose to take on the challenges posed by social advertising with their dream campaign being that of an oral contraceptive, Trikaya Grey executives looked back upon how they made Mauritius a dream destination, from a remote unknown country. They were presented the Best Press Campaign award, while the award for best overall campaign award was won by HTA for De Beers. On the jury were Kiran Khalap, CEO, Bates Clarion, Gautam Rakshit, MD, Advertising Avenues, Ramesh Narayan, MD, Canco Advertising and Digvijay Singh, CEO,The Indian Express, among others.