Festival of Media, Asia: UM, Ikon And Coca-Cola Bag FOMA Glory

UM swept four out of 12 awards to be named the Network of the Year at the inaugural Festival of Media Asia Awards held yesterday amidst a gathering of over 400 industry folks.

Lodestar UM from India also won an award for Coke Studio in the Best Entertainment Platform category.

Held at a gala event at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Singapore last night, the awards were given across three top categories and 12 open categories.

The Festival of Media Asia Awards drew an overwhelming response - 410 entries from 16 countries, which were cut down to a shortlist of 81 from which the winners of the open categories were selected.

"I am extremely proud of our accomplishments at the inaugural Festival of Media awards. The awarded campaigns showed considerable innovation and creative marketing solutions that not only engaged consumers but also provided our clients with impressive business results," Daniel Simon, chief operating officer, Asia, World Markets & G14, UM said.

"Curiosity is the backbone for how we work and our consistency across multiple markets and looking for ways of doing things differently clearing came through in our performance in these awards."

The rigorous selection process was completed under the guidance of Rahul Welde, chairman of the Jury, The Festival of Media Asia 2011 and vice president, Media (Asia, Africa, Middle East, Turkey & Russia), Unilever.

The judges' panel includes leading industry voices from brands and agencies like ZenithOptimedia, Havas Media International, Carlsberg, Cheil Worldwide, Aegis Media APAC, Mindshare, Lintas Media, Hilton, and others.

"There were a number of outstanding cases which just stood out as sure wins, and there were some close calls in a number of categories which stimulated very engaging discussions," Welde said.

"It was particularly heartening that the campaigns were very sophisticated, but still managed to get the basics right. The stand-out aspect was that these came from a broad cross-section of advertisers, agencies and channels. The jury faced a difficult selection process, having to pick out the very best from a field of outstanding submissions," he added.

The Festival of Media Asia 2011 ran in Singapore from November 13-15, 2011. The dates for 2012 will be announced in the coming months.

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