Srinivasan K Swamy with I&B Minister Manish Tewari

By A Correspondent

ITC CEO YC Deveshwar, Madison World CEO Sam Balsara and Ogilvy & Mather CEO Piyush Pandey were amongst the award-winners at the first ever International Advertising Association (IAA) Leadership Awards held in Mumbai on Saturday. Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari was chief guest of the evening.

The International Advertising Association is the world’s only globally-focused integrated advertising trade association with membership representing Advertisers. Agencies and the Media. Well-known research firm The Nielsen Company and consulting firm Ernst & Young were associated with the event that was organised and sponsored by the Colors general entertainment channel.

Popular television artist Mini Mathur emceed the evening as the fraternity was welcomed by IAA’s India chapter president Srinivasan K Swamy and Colors CEO Raj Nayak. In his address, the I&B minister asked the industry to mull over pressing issues like ad duration in channels, effective viewership measurement, adding that the government will not institute any regulations without consulting the industry.

Also amongst the winners was Bollywood actor Salman Khan who made his first ever appearance at an awards function with IAA Leadership Awards. The actor known to have bagged maximum endorsements and is on a high with brands queuing to sign him, bagged the award for the Brand Endorser of the Year – Male. Katrina Kaif was awarded Brand Endorser of the Year – Female. Mr Pradeep Guha, former IAA president who has been CEO, Zee Entertainment and President, Bennett Coleman and Company Ltd was admitted to the IAA’s Hall of Fame with the lifetime achievement award.

Marketers from across 12 categories were among the awardwinners as also were Editor of the Year (Jaideep Bose) and News Anchor of the Year (Rajdeep Sardesai). Shobhana Bhartia, chairperson of  HT Media, was awarded the Mediaperson of the Year award. The table above has the list of winners.