IAA Leadership Awards recognise marketers across categories

Sam Balsara (Media Agency Head), Piyush Pandey (Creative Agency Head) and Gayatri Yadav (Media and Entertainment) were awarded as Marketers of the Year. Pradeep Guha, managing director, 9X Media was the recipient of the IAA Hall of Fame award.

The first edition of the IAA Leadership Awards established by the International Advertising Association's (IAA) India chapter took place on February 2 at the Grand Hyatt, Mumbai. The annual event felicitated 21 individuals in the fields of marketing, advertising and media, who have made significant professional contributions and delivered business success to their companies.

The chief guest at the event was Manish Tewari, Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, who, along with
Srinivasan Swamy
, president, International Advertising Association, gave away the IAA Leadership Award trophies.

In his address, Tewari said that these unique awards recognise the efficiency, creativity, talent and hard work from the media and entertainment industry.

IAA had roped in marketing research company A C Nielsen to conduct the nomination and final selections process, while Ernst & Young audited and validated it.

According to IAA, the winners were decided in a two-stage selection process; the first stage including nominations and shortlisting by seasoned marketing, media and advertising professionals; and the second stage selected the winners by a voting process involving senior industry peers.

While 15 award categories were dedicated to the corporate segment, with four-six nominations in each, five awards were announced on the spot. The ones announced at the event without specifying the nominations beforehand included Brand Endorser of the Year (male and female), which went to actors Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif, respectively. Rajdeep Sardesai (CNN-IBN) was awarded the Best News Anchor of the Year; Shobhana Bhartia (Hindustan Times) was voted the Best Media Person of the Year, and Jaideep Bose (Times of India) was the Best Editor of the Year.

The event was partnered by Colors. Raj Nayak, CEO, Colors, said, "We at Colors realise that participating in the advertising, marketing and media community in a meaningful way is a great way of showing all the leaders how much value we place on the relationships we enjoy."

Among the other winners, Y C Deveshwar (ITC) won the award for the CEO of the Year, while Sam Balsara (Media Agency Head), Piyush Pandey (Creative Agency Head) and Gayatri Yadav (Media and Entertainment) were awarded Best Marketers of the Year in different categories. Pradeep Guha, managing director, 9X Media was the recipient of the IAA Hall of Fame recognition.

Apart from these, the other awardees were Sujit Ganguli of ICICI Bank (Marketer of the Year- Banking); Rita Bhattacharya of LIC (Marketer of the Year-Insurance); Amit Syngle of Asian Paints (Marketer of the Year-Household Products); Chandramouli Venkatesan of Cadbury Kraft India (Marketer of the Year-Food and beverages); Arun Srinivas of HUL (Marketer of the Year-FMCG-Personal care); Rahul Saighal of Samsung Appliances (Marketer of the Year-FMCG-Consumer durables); Anuradha Aggarwal of Vodafone (Marketer of the Year-Telecom products); and Manish Kalra of Make My Trip (Marketer of the Year-Travel and hospitality).

Also, in the Automobile section, the three awardees were Mayank Pareek of Maruti Suzuki (Marketer of the Year-Passenger vehicles); UT Ramprasad of Tata Motors (Marketer of the Year-Commercial vehicles); and Anil Dua of Hero MotoCorp (Marketer of the Year-Two Wheelers).