Pratap Bose, chairman of the Awards Governing Council revealed that three entries came close to being considered for the Grand prix but then it was decided that they did not merit the grand prize.
The awards council reviewed 674 entries, an increase over the last year when 619 entries were accepted from agencies in the country and Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Earlier in the evening Anand Kripalu, MD and CEO, Member Diageo Global Executive Committee, United Spirits Ltd in his speech said that technology was driving change, something which made a lot of people very uncomfortable. It was also leading to greater fragmentation which then made it mandatory for greater specialization due to the growing complexity of the evolving market.
There was a shift from analog to digital and the next space that brand battles would be fought would be the mobile screen. There would also be a greater role for digital in retail with technology analyzing movement in the store. The next few years would witness internet advs gaining importance over television advs. He also highlighted the fact that the freedom of the digital space ensured that the consumer was really king.
Another speaker D Shivakumar, chairman and CEO Pepsico India said that companies in India had access to a lot more intelligent data and the time was ripe to have data scientists in the marketing department to analyze them.
In India he said it was quite common to witness companies conducting new surveys even when there was a lot of data available in house. People he said would have to be more savvy, ask more questions and train for skills.
Brands would have to be less tactical and more strategic in a time when the average life of a company had shrunk to 12 years from a time when companies lasted generations.
