- Gulab Kothari of Patrika Group bestowed with Lifetime Achievement Award
- Winners included Kawal Shoor and Navin Talreja, Founders of ad agency The Womb
- Dr V Nagarani of Hope Charitable Trust won the Social Impact GameChanger title
- Gourav Rakshit, COO of Viacom18 Digital Ventures honoured with Spotlight Award
Chennai: Winners of the third edition of GameChangers Awards were honoured in a virtual ceremony hosted on 9th April 2021. The awards recognise pathbreaking achievements by professionals and organisations in the categories of Brands, Media and Agency Partners. Organisers invited nominations from the industry which were then evaluated by a high profile marketer jury.
The jury panel comprised Ranju Kumar Mohan, Founder and CEO, IkiGrow & Prismatic Hotels; Serial Entrepreneur and FMCG Veteran; Lloyd Mathias, Angel Investor and Business Strategist, Former CMO, HP APac; Kamlesh Kumar Sharma, Chief Public Affairs and Communications Officer, Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages; Apurva Chamaria, SVP and Head of Staff to CEO and MD, Tech Mahindra; and V Umanath, Editor-In-Chief, MediaNews4u.com.
Zoho Corp’s Founder and CEO Sridhar Vembu was adjudged GameChanger 2020 in the category of Brands.
Mohan said, “Sridhar Vembu continued with the pioneering work of the cloud business model based in a rural location and has further expanded offices in rural areas even in the pandemic. The turnover of the company grew in 2020 with increased profitability. He has created a school and university education system thereby creating his own ecosystem of engineering and employment in rural areas.”
In the category of Media, Amazon Prime’s India Country Head Gaurav Gandhi honoured as GameChanger of 2020.
“During 2020, Amazon Prime has come out of the shadow of Amazon. They moved very quickly in unlocking new revenue streams, by getting movie premieres on the platform. Secondly, they upped the production values and grew exponentially,” said jury member Mathias.
The category of Agency Partners saw Kawal Shoor and Navin Talreja, Co-founders of The Womb being awarded by the jury.
Gourav Rakshit, COO of Viacom18 Digital was bestowed with GameChanger 2020 – Spotlight Award for driving the popularity of Voot Select and Voot Kids among masses within short span.
“Gaurav emerged as our editorial team’s natural choice for his meticulous efforts towards expanding the business and revenue scope of OTT brand Voot”, said V Umanath, Editor-in-Chief – MediaNews4U.
Lifetime Achievement and Social Impact
Among Editorial Choice Awards, Gulab Kothari, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Patrika Group was bestowed with the Lifetime Achievement Award for his continuing contribution to fearless journalism.
Dr V Nagarani of Hope Charitable Trust won the Social Impact GameChanger title, for giving hope and a home to mentally retarded and ill destitutes, besides providing them vocational training to become independent.
Regional GameChangers
In addition to the national awards, GameChangers Regional Awards saw achievers in OTT, Regional Online Media and Television being awarded.
Arha Media and Broadcasting’s CEO Ajit Thakur and Promoter Jupally Ram Rao, the driving forces behind the success of Telugu video streaming platform aha launched in 2020, won the GameChangers 2020 – Regional OTT title.
Raghavendra Hunsur, Business Head, Zee Kannada and Zee Pichchar, was awarded GameChanger – Regional Television for scripting ZEE’s success in the Karnataka market.
L Adimoolam, Director – Business and Technical, Dinamalar, was awarded GameChanger – Regional Online Media for incubating the brand’s online future ahead of time and leveraging the power of digital in 2020.
To view all the nominees, visit: www.gamechangers.medianews4u.com
