Ex | Awards are a great encouragement: Star Jalsha's Kevin Vaz

STAR Jalsha, one of Bengal’s largest general entertainment channel, has bagged two coveted awards, ‘The Olive Crown’ and ‘The Bloomberg Brand Leadership Award’ for Sustainable Marketing Leadership - for its industry leading green initiative that reduced tons of toxic waste from West Bengal’s capital city Kolkata. STAR Jalsha won these awards in recognition of the ‘Chalo Paltai’ or ‘Let’s change’ campaign to recycle a staggering 7,000 kilogram of toxic waste every day in Kolkata.

Star India has been on the roll, from top TRPs to awards, the road seems quite set, exciting and challenging for the group.  Adgully caught up with Kevin Vaz, President and General Manager, Star Jalsha and Jalsha Movies to congratulate them and to know more about the accolades.

Speaking on the occasion he said:  "We are honored to receive these prestigious awards. These awards are a great encouragement for us to continue doing our bit for the society. We are also thankful to the people of West Bengal and all other dignitaries who supported us in our endeavor.”

The Confederation of International Advertising Association in partnership with Asian Federation of Advertising Association awarded STAR Jalsha the prestigious Olive Crown earlier this month for the channel’s eco-friendly initiatives that aimed at reducing air pollution in Kolkata.

Elaborating on the initiative that led to this recognition, Vaz said, “The entire initiative was a part of our rebranding exercise for Star Jalsha. With this step the idea was to take Star Jalsha to the next level. We wanted to bring in a change not like every time by getting new and more and more shows on our channel but with something different and for the environment too. The initiative was called ‘Chalo Paltai’.”  

The initiative ‘Chalo Paltai’ was started as a part of its brand re-launch in 2012. The channel then converted 7,000 kilogram of waste generated from flexes billboards every day by recycling it into shopping bags, folders, CD covers, table mats, wall hangings and other useful items. These billboards are usually disposed of by burning, a process that emits several harmful toxics into the city’s atmosphere every day.

“Well, this initiative was undertaken to contribute towards a change in the environment and now that it has given us this award, we would surely take it ahead. The growth strategy would remain as simple as always that is to entertain our viewers with more and more exciting shows as always,” he added.

Speaking about how to take this development ahead, Vaz explained saying that the idea was not to win an award but to create awareness. Yes of-course there is lot to be done to take this initiative ahead for sure.”

Earlier in February this year, STAR Jalsha also received ‘The Bloomberg Brand Leadership for Sustainable Marketing Leadership’. The award, endorsed by CMO Asia and Asian Confederation of Business, recognized the channel’s earnest attempt to recycle toxic and household waste into functional, day-to-day use items.

STAR Jalsha’s green campaign was developed in association with globally renowned advertising agency, Ogilvy & Mather. The campaign received a tremendous response from every part of the city with several well-known celebrities and influential leaders lauding STAR Jalsha’s efforts. The campaign took a 360 degree route covering on-air media and off-air routes too. He says, “the channel believes in reaching out to their audiences quite literally and hence we wanted to cover all possible ways to reach out to them whether its trough traditional media or online media.” 

Piyush Pandey, Executive Chairman & Creative Director, Ogilvy& Mather South Asia, said: “Recycling is an age-old tradition in India and I am extremely happy that Star Jalsha, through Chalo Paltai, has stayed true to our traditions. I sincerely hope that other corporates step forward to adopt a noble cause like this.”

The ‘Chalo Paltai’ initiative, that touched nearly 50,000 lives, gave waste from flex a new lease of life and is being replicated across Kolkata. The campaign carried forward the channel’s philosophy of bringing about a significant change in the society.