Chennai: MMA India, the world’s leading not-for-profit marketing trade body with a heightened focus on Modern Marketing has announced the tenth edition of SMARTIES India Awards 2021, scheduled to be held virtually on September 24, 2021. The SMARTIES are the world’s only global mobile marketing awards program honoring innovation, creativity, and success, and MMA is calling for entries to SMARTIES 2021, encouraging agencies, brands, and marketers who have secured outstanding achievements across the mobile marketing ecosystem during the pandemic year.
“Customers today have become impatient, which makes it imperative for brands to have a 360-degree strategy to become a disruptive force and stay relevant. We are excited to present SMARTIES this year, as we will see how adaptive the ecosystem is given the challenges posed by the pandemic, changing consumer expectations, and need for quick, creative go-to-market response,” said Moneka Khurana, Country Head, MMA India. “We are looking forward to receiving this year’s entries and celebrating the excellence of mobile marketing at the annual SMARTIES Awards.”
On top of existing categories spanning four themes that include marketing objective, media, technology, and creative awards, MMA has introduced a new category on ‘Contextual/Native Advertising’. Here, brands will be assessed in terms of advertising on a website that allows them to fit into – and not disrupt – the audience experience. The ads follow the natural form and function of the user experience in which it is placed or is relevant to the page’s content. This also includes in-game, in-video, behavioral advertising, or native advertising.
In collaboration with WARC the global authority on advertising and media effectiveness, MMA has announced 2020 SMARTIES Business Impact Index (BII). BII is the first and only global modern marketing index that identifies, ranks, and awards top agencies, advertisers, brands, and solution providers driving significant business impact created through mobile-first campaigns. As per the index, the top 5 brands in India in 2020 were Google, Aditya Birla Capital, Kia, Pepsi, and Center Fresh.
For 2020 BII, data from the SMARTIES Awards programs announced between September 2020 and February 2021 was qualified. Only SMARTIES Awards finalists and winners that have met the approved judging criteria are eligible for inclusion in the Index.
Eligibility and deadline
To be eligible for the awards, campaigns need to be active in the marketplace between January 2020 through June 2021. The on-time deadline for all entries is 16 July 2021.
More details about pricing information and entry submission for the 2021 SMARTIES India can be found in the official submission kit here.
