Judges Category: South Asia

Abhijit Das is an accomplished business leader with years of experience in orchestrating growth in the Travel Retail, Lifestyle Malls & boutique marketing Agencies. Highly regarded for an early adopter approach. Abhijit is mentor with early stage start-ups as well. He is a tech enthusiast and take proud of many marquee customer facing solution he led the implementation.

Currently Head of Marketing & Strategic Initiatives for India’s largest Travel Retailer – Delhi Duty Free He fondly believes in mantra: there is nothing called old age, new age marketing or ATL or BTL or digital: its “only marketing”.

Akash currently manages brand marketing, data-driven marketing & communication, new to bank acquisition, customer experience, and business analytics across DBS Bank India consumer banking businesses and brands.

Previously, Akash was Head of Brand Communication, Corporate Brand and Digital at Nestlé India. In his 7 years stint at Nestlé, he also led Digital & eCommerce for APAC Region and setup the Digital & eCommerce function ground-up for Nestlé India. Akash has also worked at Infosys for over 9 years playing various roles in business consulting, product management, and technology management functions.

Recognized as one of the Top 50 Marketers in 2021 by the BusinessWorld Magazine, Akash is a frequent speaker at various industry conferences and universities across the world and a commentator on trends & innovations in marketing & technology.

He is an engineer from Kurukshetra University and a management graduate from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB).

After doing his MBA in Marketing, Akhil started his career with social media more than 13 years back. And, after learning the so-called nuances of social media, he thought why not learn all traits of digital marketing. Hence, the mind of this curious marketing student took him to his next stint where he learnt – client servicing, account management & media planning / buying, digital strategy and thereby helped some of the biggest brands to achieve their marketing objectives. After that, he thought why not apply all these skills as well as knowledge to help a brand, hence he’s doing what he initially envisioned.

Quote: Quality of work, originality, relevance with the target audience and how much impact the idea execution created. These are the four things that I’d look forward to in each case study. Entrants should try and quantify the outcomes as much as possible and clearly define how much the execution helped in accomplishing the objectives.

One should definitely participate in AOY awards as it’s one of the most renowned / credible awards in the advertising industry and to win this, it’s definitely a big achievement.

Anvesha heads digital & ecommerce for the Home Care division at Unilever. She started her career with Google, where she worked closely with clients across different verticals. She’s been instrumental in shaping the digital marketing strategies of brands like Asian Paints & L’Oreal. She has been an Economic Times Young Leader & was also placed in Top 30 Digital Marketing Leaders by Brand Equity, Top Digital Marketing Leaders by Exchange4Media in 2023.

She is extremely excited and optimistic about the adoption of digital technology in India and is looking forward to how digital is all set to change of shape of marketing.

Imran Qadri heads Marketing & PR for the iconic Harley-Davidson brand in Asia Emerging Markets & India region. He is based out of Bangkok, Thailand. He has been associated with Harley-Davidson since April 2019. Apart from India, he oversees Marketing for Southeast Asia (Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore), South Korea, Taiwan & Hong Kong as well. He has 15 years of Marketing work experience with brands like Hero Honda, Hero MotoCorp, Nissan & H-D. He has donned several hats in his past roles ranging from Marketing Communications, Brand Management, Product Marketing, Category Management, Media Planning & Regional Marketing. He has led teams and agencies deliver with award winning campaigns, launches & content. Recently he was adjudged among Top 40 Nationwide Experts declared by Business Mint for 2022. He was also part of Top 50 Marketing and Communication Leaders in India in 2021 as adjudged by White Page International and among Top 100 in Asia for 2022. He was one of the Social Samosa Top 40 Marketers for the batch of 2019-20 and among Top 25 Content Disruptors in India in 2020 declared by Vidsaga.com. He has been a jury member with many credible advertising & communication forums. An MBA in Marketing from FORE School of Management, Delhi, Imran has a B.E. Mechanical degree from MSRIT, Bangalore, apart from executive leadership & digital marketing certifications from Vanderbilt University & IIM Lucknow, respectively. He is a certified Sports car instructor and has a flair for writing.

Seasoned consumer and B2B marketing professional with 21+ years of experience in building brands, driving business growth, digital transformation and leading marketing teams across consumer insights, analytics, marketing intelligence, brand & marketing communications, digital marketing, retail marketing, CRM & influencer engagement, and media management.

In depth experience across IOT, telecom, technology, automobile and FMCG categories and brands. Iconic brands I have built and grown in the country include Valvoline, Philips, Nokia, Microsoft, Maruti Suzuki, ITC and Infoedge house of brands, to name a few.

I genuinely believe we as marketers are witnessing the most fascinating phase of our careers with the ever-dynamic consumer and brands landscape. Gen Z is about to join the workforce soon and millennials are approaching 40, rules of the game need to be unlearnt and devised again. In the last decade, marketing has witnessed tectonic shifts with proliferation of technology. Brands today get co-created and co-managed with consumers and live and breathe real time. At the same time, getting back to basics and keeping things simple is more important than ever before.

This is what perhaps keeps me going and makes me a better professional with each passing day. My biggest drive & motivation comes from the fact that I am able to influence consumers, customers and shoppers in their decision-making process through my efforts. I aspire to excel and innovate with relevant and delightful marketing solutions, keeping pace with the ever-dynamic consumer.

The above of course is the relatively easier part of my life, being a mum to a pre-teen boy has been by far the most challenging and complex assignment, that only gets more interesting by the day! It ensures I am always at the top of my game – physically, emotionally, intellectually as well as technologically.

Open and conscious about responsibly expressing myself socially on variety of topics. Deeply driven by diversity, gender neutrality and equal opportunities for all, as values. I am a proponent of #walkthetalk and believe every little action has the power to bring in big change.

Quote: We seek winning entries that embody creativity, innovation, and ones that create meaningful business impact more than anything else. Entrants must showcase their strengths, deliver evidence of success, and seize the opportunity for recognition and growth. My personal tip to all the entrants would be to highlight unique strengths, set higher benchmarks, and reflect on achievements to create a compelling narrative.

Janmesh is a qualified & recognized marketer in Sri Lanka with experience in Service and FMCG industries. He is the only marketer in Sri Lanka to lead a brand to win the most coveted “Brand of the Year Award at SLIM Brand Excellence” for 3 consecutive years.

Janmesh is presently the General Manager Marketing at Ceylon Biscuits Limited. His creativity & passion for marketing has enabled him to challenge himself constantly by initiating innovative campaigns and activities that are industry firsts and he effectively use marketing as a tool to create growth opportunities and provide solutions for business challenges.

Quote: Experiment every day, be ambitious, be creative and be authentic whilst being responsible towards the society and the environment, with the aim of leaving a positive impact on our planet.

A seasoned professional, a recipient of Top Most Digital Marketing leader in 2022 hosted by World leadership congress .Kanika enjoys the title of India’s 2nd female Master Scuba Diver and now wears the badge of a Cancer Survivor. Kanika is un-stoppable even when the going gets tough- you will find her launching innovative products, building new business avenues and challenging status QUO to improvise on business ROI’s. Nothing stops her from “CREATING “for the business even with her personal setback she continued to lead the teams to deliver business KPI’S unhinged.

She is a Digital Content & Monetization strategist with wide experience in building strategic partnerships and forging alliances across Media, Entertainment & Telecommunication industry. Her 20 years of career span includes driving and delivering key business mandates for her current employer, Telecom operator Vi and some of the topmost Media & Entertainment brands in India such as Fox Star Studios, Walt Disney, Sony Entertainment Television, Zee TV, Balaji Motion Pictures, and WPP Communications.

She brings on board 12 years of frontline leadership experience in building revenue generating entertainment product(s),spearheading multiple revenue generation/marketing/monetization portfolios, managing P&L’s and driving complex projects in the Traditional & Digital/New Media space .

In her current avatar, she works as Vice President -Digital Content Services for Vi and leads all initiatives for Telco ++ proposition in the entertainment segment. She has been instrumental behind many industry first launches in both audio and OTT landscape and has opened partnerships .Kanika’ s energy is infectious & she holds gravitas in many professional forums and platforms for her “Knowledge of what ticks a consumer “and her advocacy on “Passion projects as Second careers “. She works closely with executive leadership to develop long term content services strategy and leads a cross functional team with oversight on Partnerships & Alliances, Revenue Growth, Analytics ,Content App Development and GTM Strategy.

She believes it is imperative to learn & unlearn beyond comfort zones and therefore decided to “take a break” from work to learn a new skill set which was unheard of in 2013 and became a role model for many who are reluctant to take the plunge to pursue unchartered paths. She learnt deep sea diving and completed her PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) diving course from Thailand with seven specialties in deep sea diving instruction and continues to pursue that as a second profession.

Kanika Acquired entrepreneurial experience by launching two self- funded startups thereafter, scaling and exiting successfully (Bong Bong & Why? Stay! Calm Entertainment) a Food business and a Branded content agency.

In the span of her career, she has been facilitated with India’s Second Female Master Scuba Diver Trainer(2013), Top 100 Woman Icon of India in 2021 in recognition of outstanding professional achievement By India Prime Awards ,Recipient of Excellence Award in recognition for outstanding professional achievement & contribution in Nation building by Indian Achievers Forum (2020), 50 Most Influential Professional In India at World Marketing Forum(2018), Most Talented Content Marketing Professional in the Content Marketing submit(2016), Indira Super Achievers award for outstanding performance in youth segment(2010), Star Youth Achiever Award for excellence in Marketing & Contribution to media in the youth segment at the global youth forum(2009) and Promax Award for Creative Campaign for fiction show on Sony TV(2007).

Quote: Ever tried .Ever failed. No matter .Try again .Fail better

Kaushik Prasad V leads Digital and eCommerce for APAC markets with Ford. In his current role he leads Ford’s digital transformation, champions eCommerce across ASEAN, Australia, Middle East, New Zealand and South Africa. Kaushik is a marketing & sales leader with 22+ years of rich experience in marketing strategy, new product launch and digital transformation. He combines a strategy + execution headset. Beyond work Kaushik is a bibliophile and is a guest columnist for a business magazine.

Minali is a highly experienced healthcare marketer and a strong advocate of Artificial Intelligence application in marketing. Her interest is in improving customer experience utilizing marketing automation and innovative AI platforms at an enterprise level.

With a career spanning nearly 3 decades, she has worked across stakeholders in diverse healthcare areas and geographies. Brand/therapy-based marketing and corporate identity building/rebranding are her interests. She has practical experience in creative and multi-channel campaigns across US, South-East Asia and Europe.