By A Correspondent

The India chapter of the International Advertising Association inducted veteran mediaperson Kaushik Roy into the IAA Hall of Fame. Roy was recognised at the sevent edition of the annual IAA Leadership Awards held in Mumbai on Friday.

Other awards presented were Media Agency Leader of the Year to Prasanth Kumar, GroupM; IAA TV Anchor of the Year to Rahul Kanwal of the India Today Group, IAA Media Person of the Year to Sanjay Gupta, Star India and IAA Media Game Changer of the Year to Virendra Gupta  and Umang Bedi of  Dailyhunt.

Also recognised in the evening were a variety of industry leaders. See List below

Said Punit Goenka, President, IAA India, MD & CEO, ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Ltd: “The IAA India Chapter has been working relentlessly to enhance the stature of our marquee properties to enrich them with engaging and thought provoking conversations, and celebrate the commendable work being done by leaders across sectors. The 7^th  edition of the IAA Leadership Awards was one such exceptional evening that celebrated and applauded true leaders who have positively contributed to the economy, changed the landscape of the M&E industry and created global brands. The support received from the guests present at the event reinforces our commitment to keep working towards creating initiatives that benefit the M&E industry.”

Added Dr Bhaskar Das, Group President, Republic TV, Co-Chairperson of IAA Leadership Awards: “ IAA Leadership Awards is a humble attempt to honour industry doyens in the fields of Marketing, Advertising and Media, who have made enormous professional contributions and delivered business success to their companies. Because only we know the challenges, the hardships, the dilemma of ethics, the sacrifices and the tough decisions that go into making a leader – to stand tall, to stand true.”

A panel discussion was moderated by CVL Srinivas, Country Manager-WPP India, on “Platform is critical. Content be dammed” with panellists from across the media ecosystem: Punit Misra, CEO- Domestic Broadcast Business, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd., Sameer Nair, CEO-Applause Entertainment, Nandini Dias, CEO-Lodestar UM, and  Pooja Jauhari, CEO –The Glitch. The panelists discussed how content, platform and the consumer are interlinked and how content and platform is a function of time and how data driven insights are helpful in generating timely content.

Srinivasan Swamy, Chairman and World President IAA, who was also present on the occasion, said: “We can now trace the progress of Chapters geographically”. The second being to promote education across.

In his acceptance speech, Kaushik Roy who is President Brand Strategy & Marketing Communication at Reliance Industries Limited, said: “It is a great honour that doesn’t come easy, especially from IAA that has been a global body for 80 years. One must keep the fire in the belly alive: To Grow – Stay Hungry”.

Winner List – 7th Edition of the IAA Leadership Awards 2019