By Ankur Singh
As we get closer to the country’s first marketing awards event, exchange4media has announced the pre-screening jury for Indian Marketing Awards (IMA) 2014. IMA will have a rigorous two-stage judging process. The judges will look to reward innovation, strategic thinking, results and key outcomes that brought value to the respective organizations.
The Judging Process
Debabrata Mukherjee of Coca Cola, Vivek Sharma of Philips, Dinesh Garg of TTK Prestige, Devender Chawla of Future Group, Prabhakar Tiwari of Ceat India, Aarti Ahuja of TCNS Clothing (Brand 'W'), Girish Shah of Godrej Properties, Sandipan Ghosh of Ruchi Soya Group, Anshul Punhani of Monster.com, and Apurva Chamaria of HCL will form the pre-screening jury. Besides this, three new members -- Harit Nagpal of TataSky, Kamal Bali of Volvo India, and Saugata Gupta of Marico -- have joined the galaxy of industry leaders who will be part of the IMA jury headed by Vinita Bali, former Managing Director, Britannia.
With an aim to advance the marketing profession, unlock the potential of ideas, markets and businesses and realize their true value for customers and organizations, IMA 2014 is looking at setting new standards of marketing excellence, while recognizing and honouring creativity, originality and effectiveness delivered by marketers.
Top Categories
Till the time of going to Press, 140 entries were received and the number was rising. The top categories are brand activation with 36 entries, digital marketing, social media, mobile marketing with 32 entries, and new brand, product or service launch with 14 entries.
Key driving factors of success in business like brand activation, brand extension, brand revitalization, among others, reflect strategic marketing objectives that are common to all organizations. As the industry, at large, expects marketers to master every channel and technology that pops up, to integrate them flawlessly and to realistically be able to forecast what’s next, the Indian Marketing Awards 2014 aim at recognizing and celebrating the most innovative and effective campaigns for their strategy, execution and delivery.
Jury Talks
Vinita Bali, former Managing Director, Britannia, who will be heading the jury at the Indian Marketing Awards 2014, feels that the most significant challenge for marketers is driving the concept that “brands are businesses” right through the company. “This implies that the entire value chain of brands must be designed and engineered to deliver sustainable and profitable growth. The ‘business of brands’, therefore, becomes the rallying cry for the company and not just its marketing department or brand managers. That also means that brands and the business they generate become an increasing part of conversation in board rooms,” she says.
Jury member Prema Sagar, Principal and Founder, Genesis Burson-Marsteller, says, “I am looking forward to see the IMA Awards recognize the best of campaigns that are creative, have a high recall value and have left an impact on the business and consumers as well.”
“I am hoping to look at the innovation of the marketing community and the impact that the Indian marketing fraternity has had on building brands, especially the smaller ones,” says Amarnath Ananthanarayanan, CEO & MD, Bharti AXA General Insurance. He is also part of the jury.
Advertising Angle
exchange4media has also partnered with Contract Advertising to launch IMA 2014. Contract Advertising is jointly working with exchange4media to put forth a campaign that celebrates the value a marketer creates for the consumer and the business by being innovative and effective.
“We are very happy to be closely associated with the launch strategy and campaign of IMA. The ethos of this initiative is very much in line with our beliefs and philosophy at Contract. It is all about marketing excellence and building brands which have sustainable value. An environment where brave ideas win,” says Rana Barua, CEO, Contract India, on Contract’s partnership with exchange4media for IMA.
