Now an award for effective use of 'Product of the Year' title

Product of the Year (POY) India, which rewards products sold in retail outlets on the basis of their innovativeness and allow brands to use POY title in their communication material, has decided to judge the effectiveness of the advertising campaigns of the winners of 2009 awards. It implies that effectiveness of only those campaigns will be judged wherein brands have used the POY title.

Winners of the POY 2009 awards have to submit all communication material carrying the POY title, such as TVC, print ads, point of sale material, posters, direct marketing material, web banners and mailers.

The two best ad campaigns will get the advertising award and the brand teams of both the ad agency and the manufacturer or client will be rewarded with a free international trip.

POY has also added a few more product categories for its upcoming 2010 awards. Some of the new product categories include fashion, lingerie, household and kitchen appliances.

For the uninitiated, the POY awards are finalised on the basis of a multi-stage process. In the first stage, companies are invited to enter the contest by submitting details of their retail product, launched in the last 24 months. A company can submit as many products as it wants in the listed categories of more than 26 products, including air conditioners, biscuits, credit cards, paints and youth phones.

In the second stage, a panel of jury members consisting of experts from various fields such as manufacturing, marketing and journalism shortlist products based on the innovativeness and create a list for the final round. In the final round, a consumer survey of more than 40,000 respondents is conducted by Nielsen, a market research firm, and a list of winners is created.

POY allows manufacturers of the winning products to use the 'Product of the Year' logo on the packaging, promotions and advertising of its products for a period of 12 months.

Venugopal Dhoot, chairman, Videocon Industries says, "India has come to the forefront of innovation in several categories. Product of the Year is an excellent platform to give our products national and global recognition. This has given our consumers a new compelling reason to choose us as the preferred washing machine."

Kumar adds that the POY awards indicate the credibility and competitive edge of the product or brand and actually help winners to increase their sales volume.

Soma Ghosh, marketing director, Nivea India, says, "The POY award recognition enabled us to leverage the claim of the Number one male grooming product across media, especially at point of sale and TV. Internal sales for the brand grew by 35 per cent on year-on-year basis and recorded a market share gain of 2.6 percentage point (PP) at an all India urban level in the month of April 2009, following the airing of the TV commercial with the POY claim."

Nivea won the 'Product of the Year' award in the 'Male Grooming' category for its Nivea Men Advanced Whitening Moisturizer.