Here are the outstanding achievers of the Ad-Media-Marketing domain this year... Who will win the crown at the awards ceremony on December 5?
Sam Balsara
Chairman and Managing Director, Madison World
Sam Balsara’s reputation of running Madison with transparency and integrity helped him crack the deal for the biggest media campaign in India this year –the Bharatiya Janata Party’s campaign for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls – and see it through with a high degree of success. While detailed work on constituency level media planning and market prioritizing helped Madison bag the mandate, precise implementation created the Modi Fever, in what will probably go down as one of the most successful branding exercises ever undertaken. The efficiency displayed by Madison, with Balsara at the steering wheel, is what made the BJP campaign the talking point not just in India but globally, and is one of the factors that resulted in BJP’s landslide victory. The relationship with the BJP was strengthened when Madison again led the party’s media strategy during the state elections in Maharashtra and Haryana.
Balsara is one of the most influential persons in the Media & Entertainment industry. Madison World, an independent agency, has held out as a strong David against the many MNC Goliaths.
Punit Goenka
MD & CEO, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL)
Punit Goenka has led the Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) network from the front, not only making it profitable, but expanding its reach to 169 countries across the world, and its reach to over 700 million viewers. Goenka’s focus on content and digital play is all set to achieve the company’s target of reaching 1 billon viewers by 2020. His hands-on approach has been instrumental in steering the ZEEL empire to new frontiers of success and profitability. Zee has expanded its bouquet across genres and notched up impressive numbers - the total revenues for FY14 was up 19.5% at Rs 44,217 million while its Profit After Tax was up 23.9%. ZEEL explored different genres and took the bold step of introducing Pakistani content on Indian TV through its new Hindi GEC, Zindagi.
In the industry, as Chairman of the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India, Goenka spearheads the industry’s ambitious drive to overhaul the crucial television audience measurement and ratings system in the country. Goenka also dons the hat of Vice President – Measurement at Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF).
Prasoon Joshi
Chairman, McCann WorldGroup APAC & CEO, McCann Worldgroup India
Adman, author, poet , lyricist , screenwriter - Prasoon Joshi wears many hats and excels on every front. The highlight of this year for him has been the elevation to an APAC role at McCann Worldgroup and expanding its multi-platform capabilities, as well as writing the anthem ‘Saugandh is mitti ki…’ for the BJP’s political campaign. His APAC role is acknowledgement of his creative talent at a global level, while his role in the country’s most famous political campaign is testimony to his understanding of Brand BJP and its communication needs. Therefore, Narendra Modi, the then Prime Minister designate, connected with Joshi to deliver the party’s message and communication line. Another major feather in Joshi’s cap was being the first Asian to be Chairman of the Cannes Titanium Jury this year.
Looking beyond the world of Advertising, Joshi has been honoured with the National Award by the President of India for his socially impactful work in Cinema and the Arts and his work in feature films has won multiple awards.
Piyush Pandey
Executive Chairman and Creative Director, South Asia, Ogilvy & Mather India
‘Ab ki baar Modi Sarkaar' – this line penned for Narendra Modi’s poll campaign did come true and the man behind the line which resonated with millions of Indians is none other than ad veteran, Piyush Pandey. Even as Ogilvy’s sister agency, Soho Square brought 200 commercials, 1,000 print ads in all languages and 100 radio scripts in quick succession during the campaign phase, it was Pandey who took the lead as the driver in the seat. Besides the Modi campaign, Pandey and his agency’s prolific work through the year on Cadbury, Titan, Vodafone, Fevicol, Google was highly appreciated in the industry.
Few in adland can match his achievements that include bagging the commercial of the century (Fevikwik) and campaign of the century (Cadbury) from the Ad Club of Mumbai, being voted Asia's Creative Person of the Year at the Media Asia Awards, and many more. He is well known for writing the lyrics of the patriotic song ‘Mile Sur Mera Tumhara’ for the National Literacy Mission of India in 1988.
BD PARK
President and CEO, Samsung S West Asia (also Samsung India)
B D Park oversees the operations of Samsung India Electronics, Samsung India Software Operations (SISO) and Samsung's R&D centre in India and bets big on India becoming the next global factory overtaking China for Samsung. He expects Samsung, the fourth largest MNC by revenue, to be the leader in India soon and has been instrumental in growing the Korean company’s market in India. Despite intense competition in the mobile handset space, Samsung has managed to retain its leadership position in the overall mobile market with a market share of 17%. Among the many Samsung products launched by Park in India during the year are Samsung Galaxy CORE 2, Samsung Galaxy Star 2, Galaxy Star Advance and Galaxy Ace NXT, the 4G variant of its latest flagship, Galaxy S5, Samsung Galaxy K Zoom, Galaxy Tab S, Curved TV range and Smart Digital Inverter Air Conditioner series with an innovative design.
Park is known within Samsung for his practical management style, innovative channel management and customer-oriented approach.
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Sachin Bansal & Binny Bansal,
CEO and COO, Flipkart
Making headlines has become second nature for Sachin and Binny Bansal, ex-IITians who founded the e-commerce retail website, Flipkart in October 2007. Since then, they have been at the helm of the phenomenal rise of the e-commerce sector, pushing brands across the industry to enter it and hence creating immense demand for services and opportunity for the advertising industry. The year 2014 is the “red-letter” year for Flipkart which raised $1 billionin funding, taking its valuation to $5 billion, according to estimates. The Bansals also acquired India’s biggest fashion portal, Myntra, and became the exclusive retail platform for the Indian launch of the mobile phone Moto G in February. The overwhelming success of that launch prompted exclusive tie-ups (and even more successful sales) with Motorola Mobility and even Xiaomi Tech. This high-octane growth resulted in the company crossing the milestone of $ 1 billion in sales in 2014, a year ahead of schedule. The next goal-post for Flipkart, as the Bansals say, is becoming a $100 billion company in the next five years.
