JWT steals the show at All-India Promo Awards 2003

The highpoint of Day 1 of the two-day promotional marketing workshop, Promo Power 2003, was the McDowell's Signature All-India Promo Awards hosted in the evening of September 10, at hotel Intercontinental Park Royal, in Nehru Place, New Delhi. JWT stole the show notching up three important awards.

JWT's Delhi office picked up a Gold in The Best Promotion category for World Cup Ke Shikari campaign, while the Silver for The Best Promotion went to Radio Mirchi for its promo Kismet Khol De. JWT, Delhi, made a second trip to the stage to receive the award for Best Product Launch for Pepsi's Mountain Dew. Next it was the turn of JWT, Mumbai, to take a bow before the audience when it was awarded the Best Trade Promotion award for Nakshatra diamond jewellery. The Best Event award was jointly shared by NIIT (for its work on World Computer Literacy Day, December 2) and Hungama (for BPCL Speed Run). The Wackiest Promotion award was clinched by Kolkata-based Power FM for 'Beat the Bomb' promotion. However, the Best Direct Mail Effort award was unable to find a deserving recipient.

The winning entries qualify for the Promotional Marketing Awards of Asia (2004) and Worldwide Globes. The award-winning promotions at Promo Power 2003 were selected by a three-member jury, comprising Sreekant Khandekar, director, agencyfaqs!, George Skaria, editor, corporate news and features, Financial Express, and Arun Hegde, managing director, Joyco India.

McDowell's Signature All-India Promo Awards received around 350-plus entries. A valid entry was one that was "a strategic or tactical activity for a brand, using below the line resources, designed to influence consumer behaviour in a manner that builds sales and reinforces brand image". The participation fee in each category was Rs 2,000.

The Promo Power 2003 event was kicked off earlier in the day with a workshop conducted by Russell Weiner, director, marketing, Pepsi Cola, North America. In his presentation titled Breaking Through the Clutter, Weiner talked about how marketers could get consumers to pay attention to their respective brands through events and promotions.

According to Weiner, there are three prerequisites for an event or a promotion to be successful - integrity, brand building and the intention to be 'grand in scale'. By integrity he implied the best way to communicate through the integration of TV, radio, print and the web. "Above all, timing is of critical importance in promos," Weiner emphasised.

Weiner's one-and-a-half-hour presentation was followed by the second workshop, Promo PhD, on strategic promotional marketing. The speaker, Bill Carmody, chief marketing officer, Seismicom, a top brand promotions agency in the US, outlined how to stop thinking tactically and start using promotions as a core strategic platform. Starting with the necessity to have a clear objective, to identifying and negotiating with partners to increasing the impact and effectiveness of the promotional marketing programmes, the workshop provided an insight into thinking differently about promotions.

During Showcase, the last workshop of the day, some of the outstanding international promotions were screened, and Betsy Spethmann, senior editor, Promo Magazine, took the audience through a comprehensive study of the Best Promotional Campaigns of the year and explained what set them apart. These promotions covered a wide gamut of industries.

Revelry and celebration wrapped up the first day of the seminar, but participants will have more to chew on with four workshops lined up for Day 2 (September 11) of the event, which kicks of with the first presentation scheduled at 10.00 am. © 2003 agencyfaqs!