IDMA 2011: Entries closed; jury in scrutiny mode to judge the best

BY IMPACT Staff

With the jury selection finalised and the entry process closed, the work of going through over 530 entries for the second Indian Digital Media Awards, which will be hosted by the exchange4media group in Mumbai this May, is underway with full gusto.

The awards, which have generated a lot of interest within the digital media industry, will be given out across seven broad categories. The total awards that will be given out will be 27. The jury will be going through the entries online to see them in the same form that the audience would and will rate these ads on how effective and creative they are. Mahendra Swarup, Chief Mentor, Smile Interactive Technologies Group, and Shashi Sinha, CEO, Lodestar UM India, will co-chair the Jury this year.

The jury process will be based on the following parameters: concept, execution, originality, simplicity, and, ease of access and navigation. For viral and social media entries, the jury will also look for effectiveness in terms of results.

Jury chair Mahendra Swarup spoke about his enthusiasm for the awards, and said, “I am very happy to serve on the jury for the Indian Digital Media Awards because I think that digital is one of the most important areas in advertising today. It is going to increase by leaps and bounds, and I feel that the advertiser spend on digital will continue to pick up even beyond the amazing rate it is today. It is going to become a must for all brands very soon, and so I am happy to be involved in a prestigious event like this, which will be able to showcase the creativity of advertising on the Internet, and build awareness about the medium among marketers.”

The rest of the jury includes industry veterans who have experience as marketers both in digital and outside it. The full jury comprises of Abhijit Saxena, CEO, Netcore; Alok Mittal, MD, Canaan Partners India; Anand Singh, Director Strategic Planning, Coca-Cola India; Arun Tadanki, MD, Yahoo! India; Atul Hegde, CEO, Ignitee; Bobby Pawar, CCO, Mudra Group; Chhaya Balachandran Aiyer, CEO & MD, BC WebWise; Hari V Krishnan, Country Manager, LinkedIn; Kartik Iyer, MD, Carat India; Lakshmikant Gupta, VP & CMO, LG India; Manish Vij, Founder, Vun Network (Quasar, Tyroo, Zoomtra, Letsbuy) ; Pat Burns, Executive Creative Director, BMB Madison; Praveen Kulkarni, General Manager – Marketing, Parle Products; Rahul Jauhari, NCD, Everest Brand Solutions; Rajeev Kapoor, President & CEO, Fiat India; Ravikant Sabnavis, VP – Marketing, Kingfisher Airlines; Rishi Khiani, CEO, Indiatimes; Roshan Abbas, CEO, Encompass; Sanjay Tripathi, EVP, Marketing & Direct Channels, HDFC Life; Shashank Srivastava, Chief General Manager, Maruti Suzuki India; Sudip Ghose, Director – Marketing, Samsonite.

Jury member Sudip Ghose, Director – Marketing, Samsonite South Asia, said, “Digital media is very interesting and as marketers we at Samsonite spend a lot on digital. As a marketer, I’m naturally interested to see how other corporate and agencies are doing digital, so for me personally, I wanted to be on the jury because it’s very interesting and a learning opportunity. As a marketer, I will know good work from bad, and in the process I’ll learn something too.”

“I tend to believe that digital is impacting everything. The way we speak, write, read, interact, live. Everything is touched by digital. At the IDMA, I look forward to interacting with likeminded jury members who come from a cross section of organisations with a strong belief/experience in digital media. And then, of course, a first-hand chance to debate some of the finest work done in the digital media space. Rewarding the right kind of work goes a long way in inspiring others to create newer benchmarks in the years to come,” said Rahul Jauhari, National Creative Director, Everest Brand Solutions.

Anand Singh, Director Strategic Planning, Coca Cola said, “I believe that digital media is going to become more and more important as we go forward and any event that recognises good work and brings different work under the same forum for people to share, learn and develop from others’ thought will go a long way in promoting this media.”

Sanjay Tripathy, EVP & Head, Marketing & Direct Channels, HDFC Life said, “Being a jury for the awards will give me an opportunity to see some of the best works in digital marketing. Also, it gives me immense pleasure to be on the judging panel of IDMA, an excellent effort by E4M to recognize creative digital advertising in India.”

The participants in the awards too are gung-ho and enthusiastic about the awards. Deepak Khanna, Director, Artificial Reality, remarked, “Participating in IDMA awards is an affirmation of setting a milestone in quality benchmark, it will help us to get identified in this competitive digital space. Selection of high quality work by IDMA and bringing it out in front of the country will definitely help others to think differently and inspire them to create innovative campaigns that will in turn enrich the user experience, qualitative information results in consumer attraction, which brings business for clients and increase in business means the increase in the economic growth pattern of the country.”

Nirvan Biswas, Business Head - Mobility, NetCore, said, “To be a part of the fraternity that recognises talent overall and also done for the first time in the industry definitely is a reason for participation. On the Indian Digital Media landscape, for a very long time we did not have a platform that would recognise not only publishers but creative talent from different genres as well at the same time. The first time the event was organised, it firstly got the industry people together and secondly, got the media to recognise such a body does exist.”

Rajiv Kumar, Founder and CEO, RockeTalk, added here, “exchange4media as a platform has a high credibility and these Awards are a triumph for the digital media domain. These Awards have provided the much needed approach to the fraternity as they aim to recognise digital media as a platform and not just technology.”

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