The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) announced winners of the 2020 SMARTIES™ India Awards through their first virtual edition. Concluding the SMARTIES awards for the year, the annual virtual gala saw a full line-up of 65 award recipients in mobile strategy as well as industry-focused categories, celebrating outstanding achievements and effectiveness across the vast mobile marketing ecosystem.
In the industry awards segment, Spotify India was awarded ‘Publisher of the Year’. Isobar India was recognised as ‘Agency of the Year’ while Aditya Birla Capital clinched the esteemed ‘Marketer of the Year’ as well as ‘Best in Show’ with ‘What if you could #InteractWithTheFuture?’. Brand of the year went to Netflix India and Enabling technology company of the year was bagged by Affle second time in a row.
The 9th Smarties edition this year, was a fun-filled celebration as some of the leading brands from across different industries took over the virtual stage as awards were given out to honour the most creative and innovative campaigns across the mobile marketing ecosystem. The virtual evening also had a flavour of entertainment added by a well-known comedian Anirban Dasgupta who held the audience with his quirky content.
“The MMA Forum & SMARTIES have, over time, created an industry ecosystem that brings the greatest marketing minds on to one platform to identify and celebrate the plethora of emerging talent and technologies in the industry. It is exciting to see that marketers have matured to truly leverage mobile’s interactive capabilities to deliver real business results for brands. This year we had an overwhelming response in the winning from home category highlight the growing significance of mobile in extraordinary times and the multiplicity of its application making it an omnipresent platform.” said Moneka Khurana, Country Head, MMA India.
“Being a premier digital media marketing event & an award platform, there couldn’t have been a better time than this to talk about digital & its overall impact. The entrants this year have done some fabulous work; huge callout to the spirit of all teams who are navigating through these difficult times. Being a juror this year, we were deliberated at several points while giving away awards. I am hoping this becomes an inspirational platform for others to take mobile marketing as a platform more seriously.” said Priya Nair, MMA India Chairperson and Executive Director, Beauty & Personal care, Hindustan Unilever Limited.
Merrill Pereyra, Managing Director, Pizza Hut, Indian Subcontinent who is also this year’s Jury Chair said, “Serving as Jury chairperson was a phenomenal learning experience. The overall judging process & collaboration with my fellow jury members was truly rewarding. It definitely wasn’t easy to shortlist the winners as each entry displays its calibre in a unique & innovative way which exhibits the evolved concepts brought forth by
MMA. Seeing the various nuances of many of these categories & how evolved mobile marketing has become is quite captivating. I congratulate all the brands that showcased their work at the SMARTIES India 2020”.
The winners were hand-picked by a marketer only jury from a shortlist culled out by industry experts based on four main criteria – creativity, execution, strategy and most importantly, business impact. The Jury comprised:
- Merrill Pereyra – Jury chair/ Managing Director, Pizza Hut, Indian Subcontinent
- Elizabeth Venkataraman, Joint President-Consumer, Commercial & Wealth Marketing, Kotak Mahindra Bank
- Loveleen Sahrawat, Head of Brand, Digital & Social Marketing, Media, Consumer Research & Insight, Aditya Birla Capital Ltd
- Meghna Apparao, Chief Business Officer, Licious
- Arvind RP, Director of Marketing and Communications, McDonald’s India
- Anurita Chopra, Area Marketing Lead, Oral Health, Media, Digital, Insights & Analytics, Indian Sub- Continent, GSK Consumer Healthcare, GSK
- Meera Iyer, CMO, Medlife
- Priyanka Khaneja Gandhi, Associate Director – Integrated Marketing Communication & E-commerce Marketing, Colgate-Palmolive India
- Paritosh Gupta, Associate Director – Marketing, Perfetti Van Melle India
- Kavita Chaturvedi, Chief Operating Officer, Snacks & Noodles, ITC Limited
- Sukhleen Aneja, CMO & Marketing Director, RB Hygiene Home, South Asia, Reckitt Benckiser Group
- Priya Nair, Executive Director, Beauty & Personal care, Hindustan Unilever Limited
- Sagar Boke, Head – Customer & Shopper Marketing – Foods & Beverages, TATA Consumer Products
- Anil Chilla, Chief Digital & Data Officer, L’Oreal India
- Tarun Jha, Head of Marketing, SKODA AUTO India
- Roshni Das, Director, Marketing, Intel India
- Gayatri Yadav, CMO: India & SEA, Sequoia India
- Atit Mehta, Head of Marketing, Byjus
- Karan Shroff, CMO, Unacademy
- Sai Narayan, CMO, Policybazaar Group
- Sandeep Ranade, Executive Director and Co-Lead West (Quantitative), Insights, Kantar
- Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director, APAC, MMA
- Moneka Khurana, Country Head, MMA India.
Submissions for SMARTIES™ India Award 2020 came in the hundreds from across industries, out of which 95 shortlisted entries which set the bar for marketing strategy, innovation, creativity, technology and winning from home a special category this year.
