The list is out. After scoring by the jury, the nominations for the June 3 Indian Digital Media Awards Finalists have been announced. Readers can go to exchange4media.com to see the full list of nominees, and follow the links to the entries themselves.
The jury went through a list of 530 entries which were then shortlisted to five entries per category, and had two rounds of discussion, one in Delhi and one in Mumbai, where they have now given their scores to these entries.
The jury had already scored these entries individually earlier to create the shortlist, but the idea of the second round was to allow them to look at shortlisted entries in greater depth, and also to share their individual perspectives by bringing them all into the same space for the exercise.
Lakshmikant Gupta said, “While there were some very good entries, I think that for the next round of the awards, we have to be stricter about the entries. Some were just a URL while others were properly prepared entries, and some were not a good fit for their category. I believe that these awards can have a very positive impact on the industry, but only if we showcase only the highest quality of work.”
Manish Vij said, “The awards are very important because they provide a real reward to the people doing good work in the digital industry today. Digital is a unique medium which blends technology and creativity, and requires proper recognition.”
For the jury members, all seasoned marketing professionals themselves, the process also offered insights into the digital media industry, and enabled a greater understanding of the possibilities of the medium. Anand Singh said, “It was a very good exercise and I was very happy with a lot of the entries we saw. Through judging the entries and interaction with my fellow jury members, I have also been able to learn some new things about digital.”
Amongst the nominees, Gopa Kumar, Director, Isobar said, “We’re quite hopeful that we will walk away with the top prizes, and the reason is that the work we have done in the past one year has received a lot of accolades. We are particularly enthusiastic about the Indian Digital Media Awards because with the kind of jury process here, it adds credibility and gives us motivation, as an indication of good work.”
Carlton D’Silva, Creative Director Hungama said, “Every project that we take on at Hungama is done with earnestness and with a lot of pride ... We hope the judges like our submitted entries as much as the fun we had creating them ... If we are in the running for the awards we are quite hopeful of winning as any team would be.”
He added, “Every award that we win is recognition of the effort that we have put in and winning an award here would definitely make a difference to our organization coming from E4M and being judged by our peers.”
D’Silva also said, “We believe that Digital is the future and awards such as the IDMA only promotes the medium and gives it the due credit that it should get. Awards such as this will only prompt improvement in the quality of advertising in the Indian Digital space that falls behind as compared to other countries.”
List of shortlisted entries available on http://www.exchange4media.com/idma2011/
