NEW DELHI: Mumbai-based e-marketing solutions company Virtual Marketing India bagged two gold, one silver and one bronze in the recently conducted Promotion Marketing Awards of Asia (PMAA) 2003, for which the final judging was held in Singapore recently. In all, India picked up six awards – three gold, one silver and two bronze from 16 categories in the PMAA.
Virtual Marketing picked up two gold for its `Bond with Speed’ campaign for Bharat Petroleum Corporation in the `Best campaign using movie and music discipline’ category and `Axeffect.com’ web site for Hindustan Lever in the `Best use of new media’ category.
The other awards included joint silver for `BPCL Speed Run’ in the `Best campaign using sport discipline’ along with Tequila Singapore; and bronze for `William Grant’s Corporate Cricket Tournament’ in the `Best event marketing’ category.
Besides Virtual Marketing, other Indian entrants who ended up winning awards included: gold for MTV India for Colgate Fresh Gel. “Colgate Fresh Energy Gel & MTV VJ Hunt” in the `Best effective long-term promotion marketing campaign’ category; and bronze for HLL for “Bano Toonstar with Scooby Doo Max” in the `Best campaign generating awareness and trial’ category.
Virtual Marketing creative director Carlton D’Silva says: “There is consistency in our work, in terms of delivering marketing solutions. The fact that we won three awards last year (in the same competition) and four this year, proves our consistency. We are marketing solutions provider and each of our solutions has a marketing angle to it.”
Besides four awards, the company also managed finalist certificate for its work on Speed awareness viral marketing campaign in the `Best use of innovative communication strategy’; ESPN `googlee’ boy screen-mate’; Coca-Cola ‘Jeeto India Jeeto’ viral marketing campaign; and ‘Mujhse Dosti Karoge’ viral marketing application in the `New media’ category.
The company has managed to come up with innovative and memorable work in the recent years and officials attribute this success to keeping pace with technology for delivering apt solutions.
“We are moving along with technology. It’s (technology) moving at a fast pace but we manage to deliver innovative solutions whether it’s the Internet or offline. Whenever we are convinced with an idea – whether its event or interactive application – we go full-fledged and work on marketing solution,” says D’Silva.
The company, formed in 1999, is a 60-member team with offices in five cities. Virtual Marketing had won two ‘Gold Abbies’ for its work on the movie Mujshe Dosti Karoge and the `Axe effect’ earlier this year.
According to the PMAA, this year’s 35 PMAA winners will take on the best from Europe, the United Kingdom, the USA, Canada, Australia and South America, in the Marketing Agencies Association Worldwide “Globes” Programme.
The winners of the MAA Worldwide Globes will be announced at the MAA Worldwide Globes Awards ceremony in Miami on 27 October 2003.