Mindshare India and Madison Communications led the most wins at the 2018 Smarties India Awards, receiving 14 and 7 awards, respectively, across 19 categories, ranging from Brand Awareness, Most Engaging Mobile Creative and Social Impact/ Not for Profit, among others.
Back for its seventh season this year, the Smarties India Awards were held by the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) in conjunction with MMA Forum India. In this edition of Smarties, a total of 46 awards were given away that honoured the most creative and innovative across the mobile marketing ecosystem.
In the industry awards segment, Flipkart Internet was awarded ‘Publisher of the Year’, Mindshare India was recognised as ‘Agency of the Year in Mobile’, while MTV Roadies clinched both the ‘Marketer of the Year’ and ‘Best in Show’ with ‘When India Dared to Stare’ by Madison Communications.
Before the Awards ceremony, the MMA Forum was held, where topics around managing the complex marketing landscape, and mobile attribution were discussed. There were also conversations around mobile video and over-the-top (OTT) distribution.
“The Smarties India Awards gives marketers and agencies the opportunity to showcase their best work to the world. India is developing into what is known as a mobile-first economy and an increasing number of organisations are turning to mobile to reach out to their consumers. We believe that helping them recognise outstanding work in the mobile marketing landscape through the awards not only acknowledge the powerhouse of talent in the industry but also hopefully influence their marketing strategies. Having the award ceremony after a day of very valuable discussions around the mobile landscape in the region at the MMA Forum makes it all the more impactful, as brands get to showcase the practical aspects of what would have been discussed throughout the day,” said Moneka Khurana, Country Head, MMA India.
Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director of MMA in Asia Pacific, added here, “As more brands realise the importance of mobile marketing, producing outstanding campaigns becomes a challenge. The Smarties Awards encourages marketers and agencies to push beyond their comfort zone. Year after year, the standards and creativity put forth continue to impress us. I also believe that the Forum serves as a great launch pad for new ideas, which we will see in the upcoming Awards next year.”
Priya Nair, Executive Director of Homecare Hindustan Unilever Limited, and Jury Chair of MMA Smarties India, commented, “This year’s winners exhibited beyond the brand’s story and connected with the user. Their campaigns showcased creative concepts and innovative technology that lead to real business impact. With so many outstanding and innovative campaigns competing against each other, the jury panel inevitably had a tough time choosing the winners. Congratulations to all, the awards are truly well-deserved.”
The Gala also included a presentation by Kantar Millward Brown, Knowledge Partner and observer for MMA Smarties India. The research-based consultancy presented their key insights on the winning campaigns as well as key drivers in the mobile advertising and marketing landscape.
“Smart marketing on Mobile is an acquired skill. As we know, the ability to overcome the short attention span of mobile users to communicate in the environment of their choice is critical to the success of a campaign. This year’s entries for the MMA Smarties have proven to be engaging in comparison to last year’s entries and robust user engagement stood out as one of the highlights for winning campaigns,” expressed Vishikh Talwar, Managing Director of South Asia, Kantar Millward Brown.
The winners were selected by a panel of judges comprising senior level brand marketers and agency leaders, who deliberated over the submissions across four criteria – creativity, execution, strategy and most importantly, business impact. The Jury comprised:
Abhishek Joshi, Head - Marketing, Subscriptions and Content Licensing – Digital Business, Sony Pictures Networks India
Asha Kharga, Chief Marketing Officer, Axis Bank
Avinash Kumar, CGM and Marketing Head, Patanjali Ayurved Ltd
Gaurav Suri, Senior Executive Vice President, UTI Asset Management
Kartik Jain, Executive Director of Digital Bank, DBS Bank
Nitin Gupta, VP and Head of Digital Marketing, Hotstar
Priya Nair, Executive Director of Homecare Hindustan Unilever Limited
Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director, Mobile Marketing Association Asia Pacific Limited
Sandeep Singh, Director of Marketing and Alternate Channels, Bira 91
Shabnam Panjwani, Chief Marketing Officer, Edelweiss Financial Services
Siddharth Banerjee, Executive Vice President, Marketing, Vodafone India Ltd
Viral Oza, Chief Marketing Officer, Lodha Group
Vishikh Talwar, Managing Director of South Asia, Kantar Millward Brown
Pre-screeners were conducted by 37 senior brand and agency marketers from around the region.
MMA has also partnered WARC to launch the first-ever Business Impact Index to identify, rank and award agencies and brands delivering the highest level of business impact, by analysing winners and finalists data from all Smarties Awards globally. The results will be published early next year.
Submissions for Smarties India Award 2018 featured 90 shortlisted entries from across industries out of hundreds of entries, covering marketing strategy, channel/ media, enabling technology, creative and industry awards. The Smarties India Awards was held in conjunction with MMA Forum India and proves the increased awareness of mobile marketing and its promising future in India.
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