Marquees 2018: What the winners have to say on the accolades received

Winners of Marquees 2018 were announced by the Advertising Club in Mumbai last evening (August 29). The second edition of Marquees brought together thought-leaders and industry stalwarts of the marketing world to announce the names of brands that either created a space for themselves in a cluttered market or managed to positively shift perception that led to behavioural changes. This edition was presented by Zee and powered by Colors and Republic TV in partnership with One India. 

The entries at this year’s Marquees were judged by a high-powerd jury headed by Sanjiv Mehta, chairman and managing director, Hindustan Unilever and executive vice president, Unilever South Asia; CVL Srinivas, country manager, WPP India; Harsh Goenka, chairman, RPG Enterprises; Agnello Dias, founder and chief creative officer, Taproot Dentsu; Naveen Chopra, Senior Advisor, TPG Capital; and Raj Nayak, chief operating officer, Viacom 18. 

Partho Dasgupta, CEO, BARC India and Chairman, Marquee Awards, said, “At the outset, I would like to congratulate the winners of Marquees 2018. The awards are a recognition of your efforts and contribution to the world of marketing. I hope these awards are a stepping stone for creating transparent and credible marketing initiatives that will reinforce the brand values of your company and connect deeper with your stakeholders.” 

Vikram Sakhuja, Group CEO, media and OOH, Madison Communications & President, The Advertising Club, added here, “I would like to congratulate each Marquee winner and thank them for setting standards that inspire us.” 

The Winners 

Maruti Suzuki, Honda Motorcycles & Scooters, Reliance Jio, LG, HDFC Life, State Bank of India, Paytm Mall, Xiaomi, Parle, Brooke Bond, Surf Excel, and Colgate were the Sector award winners at Marquees 2018. 

Winners of the special category included:

AMFI under ‘Breathing New Life into a Category’

IPL under ‘Creating a Global Impact’

Carvaan by Saregama under ‘Reimagining for the Better’

Nykaa.com under ‘Carving out a Niche’

Hotstar under ‘Digital Media Property’

Winner Speak 

Kumar Ajit, Vice President – Sales and Marketing, Saregama (Winner under ‘Reimagining for the Better’ for Carvaan):
“This is fantastic. I really thank Marquees 2018 and the entire journey, and most importantly, the team and the customers, for making Carvaan such a success. This was a product that was not there in the market before and when we reached out to consumers, especially the older people, to know about their usage pattern, we found that though they liked listening to music, they were hesitant to try out a new medium like digital or mobile. It then struck us – we have the biggest repertoire of old songs, why not present them in a format that would be easy to use and unlike the radio, let them listen to the music they liked in an uninterrupted way. Thus we came out with the product – Carvaan. The response has been fantastic. It has been one and a half years since we launched the product during which we have hardly advertised, yet the product is doing so well. It’s a simple need, not big science – keep the product simple, reach out to the right TG and things will work.” 

Falguni Nayar, Founder and CEO, Nykaa.com (Winner under ‘Carving out a Niche’):
“It is a real pleasure to win this award. It is good to be recognised for what we’ve done so far in terms of building the brand, which comes as a little surprise with a lot of satisfaction. Besides, coming from the big stalwarts of marketing, it means a lot to me. We have a large business in e-commerce and we also have 21 stores, which is slated to go up to 45 stores by the end of the year. We truly believe in an omni-channel business. We also have brands like Nykaa Cosmetics, Nykaa Naturals and there are more to come. So, it’s a very integrated business plan and we continue to add value to it through our customers, which began with beauty but could extend to other categories.” 

Nitin Agarwal, VP - Marketing, Hotstar (Winner under ‘Digital Media Property’):
“It is indeed an honour to be validated by the Jury. It is great to see some industry love as well. I think we are going from strength to strength, this year with IPL we hit more than a million users on the platform, which is about 17 per cent of the Internet base in the country. Next year, we are looking at a much larger number. Our Internet user base is growing at a very fast pace. We already have a lot of content on the platform from sports to entertainment and originals are also, of course, on the radar. You will very soon see some content from our side.” 

Jaskaran Singh Kapany, Vice President - Marketing, Paytm (Sector award winner – E-commerce):
“I am both humbled and overjoyed. It is an absolute privilege to win such a momentous award. This year has been fantastic for us as the brand has done fantastically well. We won at various forums – both national and international, including Cannes. We won ‘Client of the Year’ at Effies. We did very well at the EMVIES as well. We often get talked about as a big company, but our mindset is that of a big small company. We are still very small and work as a small group of likeminded individuals who have big dreams for India. Humbled is the word and privileged is what comes to mind. 

If you ask me, it is sort of a natural product pipeline progression. The ultimate aim is to be the leading fintech player in the country. I’m sure you are aware that we have a Paytm Payments Bank. A couple of days back we launched Paytm Money, which means we are now into mutual funds distribution as well. We have dreams in the wealth management space as well and we believe that if we play our cards right, and with God’s grace, we can help half a billion Indians by financial inclusion. That’s the end aim – to help India. In the next five years, we aim to be 5x of where we are currently.” 

Pankaj Gupta, Chief Marketing Officer and Head Strategic Alliances, Speciality Sales and Bancassurannce, HDFC Life (Sector award winner – Life Insurance):
“Feeling ‘sahi hai’! Our campaign strategy was to reach out to all households that have a banking account and make mutual fund a household name.” 

The Marquees 2018 awards ceremony was attended by more than 500 high profile industry leaders of the advertising, marketing, media, research and communication fraternity. The Ad Club is a catalyst in not only guiding the advertising industry but also creating an ecosystem for positive marketing.

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