Sharath Chandra to judge Innovative Advertising at New York Festivals

The national creative director of Mudra Marketing Services has earlier judged various international ad fests such as the One Show, One Show China, Clio Awards and Clio Future Gold Awards

The national creative director of Mudra Marketing Services, Meera Sharath Chandra, is to be judge at yet another international ad festival, the Innovative Advertising competition at the New York Festivals 2008. The competition was earlier called the Interactive and Alternative Media competition. Sharath Chandra is on the Art Directors Club and Chillies Sri Lanka juries as well this year.

The Innovative Advertising competition recognises the best innovative marketing and advertising ideas in non-traditional media. Non-traditional media can be escalator stairs, sewer covers, banner ads, mobile phones, etc. Sewer covers are not interactive, mobile phones are. The judging will begin in early March 2008 and the winners will be announced on April 3, 2008. The bulk of the judging will take place online.

Sharath Chandra

Calwyn D’Abreo at the Mumbai office of the New York Festivals says, “Sharath Chandra has the wherewithal and talent to take a decision on evaluating entries that are accepted by NYF to the jury bench. Her experience at being a fair judge at other international events in mass communication prompted us to invite her to the board of judges.”

Sharath Chandra has been in advertising for the past 18 years. Her last post was as vice-president and senior creative director of J Walter Thompson in India. She has more than three years of international new media experience as executive director and president of Avigna Technologies. At Mudra Marketing Services, she heads the creative function of Tribal DDB India (interactive and new media); Rapp Collins India (direct response and CRM); Primesite (out of home and retail); Kidstuff (promotions and events) and Mudra Health and Lifestyle (a specialist vertical). Before joining Mudra DDB, Sharath Chandra was vice-president, creative, at Contract Advertising and headed Team HSBC, Contract Health, iContract and DesignSutra, and serviced mainline clients such as Walt Disney, Cadburys and Platinum Guild International.

“International awards are much different from the ones held here. The quality is really high, making it a tough job to filter the entries,” says Sharath Chandra. The initial elimination is a comparatively easy job, but it gets extremely competitive when a winner has to be picked out. She adds, “It does open up your mind to so many more possibilities.”

Sharath Chandra was on the Interactive jury of the One Show, One Show China, Clio and Clio Future Gold last year. She also has a bagful of awards for her work in the field. She has won awards at the London International Advertising Awards, New York Festivals, Cannes and the Asia Pacific Adfest. More recently, she won four Diamond awards, Webbys for two years in a row, and two silvers and nine certificates of excellence at the Rx Club. She already has two entries shortlisted at the New York Fest Global Awards and her cub team won at the Young Guns Awards show.

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