India wins IAA Chapter Excellence Award

Pradeep Guha received the Samir Fares Award and Pheroza Bilimoria was inducted as IAA Honorary Life Member.

IAA India Chapter has been awarded the IAA Chapter Excellence Award for 2014. The other competitors for this coveted award were the Austria, Lebanon and Serbia chapters. The India Chapter has earlier won the award in 1998 and 2010.

According to Heather Leembruggen, chairman, IAA Awards 2014 Committee, "IAA India Chapter had stiff competition from three other countries, but the variety of events across India and the quality of each event put IAA India Chapter on top to win this coveted recognition."

The IAA Chapter Excellence Award is awarded to the IAA chapter judged to have made the best overall contribution in achieving the aims and objectives of the IAA over the previous two years.

The presentation of the 2014 IAA Chapter Excellence Award was made during the well attended 43rd IAA World Congress in Beijing on May, 10.

Faris Abouhamad, chairman and worldwide president, IAA expressed his happiness and extended congratulations and invited Srinivasan Swamy, president, India Chapter (also chairman, R K SWAMY BBDO) to receive the award.

Abouhamad praised the work the India Chapter has done in the past two years and said he was indeed pleased with the chapter for making an outstanding contribution to the core values and mission of IAA - particularly in providing a forum for international industry debate, advocacy and professional development opportunities and an exceptionally healthy growth in memberships.

"The inventiveness shown by the India Chapter is commendable and will, I am sure, resonate to all other chapters so that we can hear about similar initiatives by IAA chapters in other countries," Abouhamad added.

Swamy said that it was the cumulative result of the good work by all the managing committee members at IAA India. He also thanked the IAA members in India for their continuous support and involvement in IAA initiatives.

The Chapter Excellence Award (formerly called the Golden Tulip Award) is presented to the IAA Chapter judged to have made the best overall contribution in achieving the aims and objectives of the IAA over the previous two years. The award was established in 1957 by the IAA Holland Chapter. It was originally presented to the European company recognised for the best international advertising campaign. Then, at an IAA Pan-European meeting in Amsterdam on February 22, 1973, it was decided it would in future be for IAA Chapters in the European Area. From 1980 it was extended to embrace all Chapters worldwide.

Some of the former recipients of IAA Chapter Excellence Award are 1973 Portugal Chapter, 1978 UK Chapter, 1980 Paraguay Chapter, 1982 Austria Chapter, 1984 Finland Chapter, 1986 Turkey Chapter, 1988 Lebanon Chapter, 1990 Mexico Chapter, 1992 Swiss Chapter, 1994 UAE Chapter, 1996 Hungary Chapter, 1998 India Chapter, 2000 New York Chapter, 2002 Hungary Chapter, 2004 UAE Chapter, 2006 Jordan Chapter, 2008 Romania Chapter, 2010 India Chapter.

Pradeep Guha, past president and area director, IAA Asia Pacific (also managing director, 9X Media) was honoured at the World Congress. He was the recipient of the Samir Fares Award for his contribution to IAA, making him the 12th beneficiary since its inception in 1990.

The past Samir Fares Award Winners are Claude Chauvet (1990), Archie E Pitcher (1992), Heather Leembruggen (1994), Gohei Kogure (1996), Loula Zaklama (1998), Senyon Kim (2000), Peter Combaz (2002), David Hanger (2004), Michael Lee (2006), Jean Claude Boulos (2008) and Hervé de Clerc (2010)

Commenting on the award, Guha says, "I never expected this and I am humbled. I am thankful to the IAA Executive Committee and the Global Board for this honour. I do hope I can contribute more to further the cause of this respected body."

Another important recognition went India's way when Faris Abouhamad announced that Pheroza Bilimoria was given honorary life membership of IAA for her contribution to the global body. Bilimoria was till recently the honorary secretary of IAA Global and has been actively involved in IAA India Chapter since its inception. She was given the certificate of IAA Honorary Life Membership at the IAA Young Turks Forum.

Bilimoria (former MD, Business India) says, "I am so deeply touched, honoured and, most of all, humbled, by this gracious recognition. I used to often sit in the audience at IAA World Congresses to admire and applaud those of my seniors who were the deserving recipients of this honour; so it came to me as such an amazing delight to find that I have now joined their ranks!"

In addition to the top three awards mentioned, the India born Indra Nooyi, chairman and CEO of PepsiCo Worldwide was the recipient of the most prestigious IAA Award for her contribution to global marketing and advertising.