Adgully Exclusive | AdAsia 2011 will be a landmark event: Madhukar Kamath

AdAsia 2011, Asia’s biggest Marketing, Media and Advertising Congress recently announced an addition of 10 speakers to its existing list of 27, taking the total to 37 confirmed speakers. Confirmation is awaited from a few more speakers/panelists which should take the total tally to 45. The key topics to be discussed by these renowned speakers at the much awaited symposia to be held in the capital from October 31 to November 03, 2011 were also highlighted during the announcement.

 

Madhukar Kamath, Group CEO and Managing Director,Mudra Group, and Chairman, AdAsia OC, tells Adgully, “This is a Congress wherein we are raising very relevant questions and seeking answers from people of stature and from their rich experience.”

 

The theme of AdAsia 2011 is “Uncertainty: The New Certainty.” We live in a dynamic world that is currently at an inflection point witnessing a realignment of global economic leadership. Post the global meltdown, Asia leads the world on the path of recovery, thus attracting attention from the world over. There is a new paradigm as far as Asia is concerned, and the one thing that is certain is uncertainty. Brands are on an experimental spree through multi-layered communication channels right from Twitter, Facebook to mobiles and micro-blogging as the new evolving mediums. Mastering this ever-evolving operating environment and its impact on business is gaining critical significance to long-term sustainability. AdAsia 2011 will not only chronicle the changes but also provide a glimpse of impending opportunities and challenges that lie ahead in this dynamic field of advertising and marketing.

 

Kamath adds, “The theme is the principle element through which we went about deciding on our agenda for the Congress.”

 

Water , Mudra India’s brand strategy and design consultancy SBU worked on the logo and also worked very closely on the theme with Dr.Bhaskar Das, Executive Vice President, The Times of India Group who is a part of the AdAsia Organising Committee.

 

AdAsia 2011 presents its 27th edition which will be held in India after a gap of eight years. The last Congress hosted by India was in 2003 in the pink city of Jaipur and was considered a landmark event. Kamath excitingly adds, “This is perhaps the fourth time that AdAsia is being held in India and it is a joyous moment because the pitching process has to be initiatied nearly four years in advance. So it took us a lot of planning and precision to get AdAsia 2011 to India.”

 

As a part of creating the buzz around the mega-event A series of mailers have been sent out to all the participating bodies, ISA (Indian Society of Advertisers), IBF (Indian Broadcast Federation), INS (Indian Newspaper Society), AAAI (Advertising Agencies Association of India) and ACB (Ad Club of Bombay).

 

“We have also conducted road shows in various countries. We have sent across written communications to various industry leaders and Aidem helped us by sending mailers to their database. Our Convention partners ICE are using their international offices to spread the message. We also have a social media presence across sites like Facebook and Twitter. Moreover we have sent across Linkedin invitations and as we draw closer to the day, we will drive more promotional buzz for the event,” he adds.

 

The team AdAsia 2011 is looking forward to have approximately 1000-1200 delegates, of which they are looking at around 70% of Indian participation and 30% of international delegates.

The agenda of AdAsia 2011 includes 20 exciting and stimulating sessions conducted by global stalwarts of the Corporate, Marketing, Advertising Media & Communications community that will explore the business ecosystem and understand the nature of disruption. Time tested tools which have never failed the industry along with new tools, methods, applications and ever booming digital medium will be discussed in detail. The topics have been carefully selected to rouse exciting and cutting edge debates on concerns vital to the marketing, advertising and media fraternity.

 

Talking about the enormous amount of learnings to be accumulated, Kamath says, “Learnings are linked to the issues, the uncertainities and problems of the industry that we want to answer in the span of this Congress. We will have to answer various issues against the backdrop of the ever changing consumer needs, and I beleive AdAsia 2011 will conclude with some very insightful learnings.”

 

The team is also in talk to introduce webcasting a few key sessions atleast.

 

While signing off, Kamath says, “Please go out and register quickly because the opportunity to listen to nearly 50 quality speakers who are rich in experience and from diverse industries unified under one singular theme is a chance one should not miss.”

 

AdAsia 2011 is being organized under the aegis of the Asian Federation of Advertising Associations (AFAA). | By Prabha Hegde [prabha(at)adgully.com]