August 2018^115OAA 2018
Kaushik Prasad, GM — Consumer Marketing, Ford India
“I think the quality of entries has been pretty good this year. They seemed to be a
lot more structured. I was particularly impressed by the work where the advertisers
have tried to get two mediums to talk to each other, drive consumer engagement
with the brand & product being very core to the idea. I think the organisers
have been strict with the rules and guidelines as they are driving the agenda of
transparency, getting only those campaigns on board which have seen light of the
day, something which is very important for the marketing & advertising fraternity. I
think it is important that the industry embraces new technologies.”
Rajneesh Chawla, Group Head- Marketing & Communications,
Indiabulls Group
“All the entries were really good, creative & innovative in their own space. To
the industry, I would say, please continue to innovate. Static displays beyond a
point become obsolete and turn out to be a blind spot. We have to continue to
innovate and launch more 360-degree campaigns and see if we can create more
engagements with the end consumer.”
Pramod Patil, AVP - Media, Kotak Mahindra Bank
“The entire process was very transparent. Some of the best, intelligent and credible
marketers were part of the Jury. I judged a few categories that I generally don’t
interact with and I realised that those are important categories -- like printer of the
year or media owner of the year categories. A key takeaway is that when you are
buying, evaluate the smaller options because there are smaller vendors who have
the right media but because they don’t have scale, we miss-judge them but they
have the right media and ready to work with you. So, look out for them specifically,
especially the regional ones.”
Ashish Morone, Sr. VP & Head Marketing Communication,
HDFC Bank
“We saw quite a few interesting entries. At the pace that India is adopting technology,
we are seeing a lot more innovations and interesting work happening, so hopefully
the way we have done Cannes this year, a lot of our outdoor innovations should
have representations in international forums. I think the future is good with the
kind of work I have seen. Overall, I think we should push the industry to do more
innovations but the critical part is not to look at the innovation for the sake of
innovations; there has to be some relevance in terms of categories operating from,
and if that works then I think we will have amazing output.”