Atul Nath to judge Promo Lions at Cannes 2009

Nath has an experience of 13 years in brand activation and promotion

Atul S Nath, co-founder and managing director of BTL (below-the-line) agency Candid Marketing, has been invited to be a part of the jury for the Promo Lions at the Cannes 2009, the world's largest advertising festival, to be held on June 21-27 in France. Nath is the only Indian representative on the jury.

Nath has been in the activation industry for 13 years and has worked on brand activation programmes, events and promotions for clients such as Unilever, Nokia, STAR TV, Cadbury, Pepsi, ESPN STAR Sports and ITC Foods.

Atul Nath to judge Promo Lions at Cannes 2009

Speaking to afaqs! about where India stands in the field of promo marketing, Nath says, “Like all forms of communication in India, promotional marketing is growing fast. However, I would say that we are a little behind compared to developed markets such as the US, especially in the creativity, content and engagement platforms.”

However, Nath believes that the Indian promotional industry is better at logistics, given a complex country such as ours.

When quizzed about the key factors in judging the entries, Nath says, “The most important criteria are consumer engagement and clutter breaking creativity.”

For the purpose of these awards, Cannes describes sales promotion as an “activity designed to create immediate activation and/or offer for the sales of a product or service.” This may be done through sampling, tie-ins, competitions, events, in-store advertising (display and point-of-purchase material), PR, exhibitions or direct marketing.

Promo Lions entries will be accepted in three categories, One Product or Service, Best Use of Media and/or Best Integrated Campaign led by sales promotion. An integrated campaign is defined as one which uses three or more types of media for the purpose of sales promotion.

There are four criteria on the basis of which the entries will be judged: creativity (30 per cent weightage), strategy (20 per cent), execution (20 per cent) and results (30 per cent).

The awards presented will be the Grand Prix and the gold, silver and bronze Lions.

The deadline for sending entries is March 13.

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