Promax India, the eminent community within the country’s entertainment market, successfully hosted its 21st annual ‘Promax India Awards 2023,’ celebrating outstanding achievements in the fields of entertainment marketing and design. The two-day event, the ‘Promax India Conference & Awards 2023,’ took place on August 25th and 26th at Mumbai’s Radisson Mumbai Goregaon. The event brought together industry leaders, experts, and creative minds to discuss the latest trends and showcase exceptional work.

Aparna Purohit, Head of India Originals at Amazon Prime Video, served as the Awards Chair, alongside Vidyanath Vaddi, Head/On-Air Promotions, SPNI English Channels, English and Bangla Channels, Sony BBC Earth, Pix & Sony Aath; Shravanty Roy, Sr. Vice President Marketing, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited; and Rupesh Kashyap, Partner & Chief Content Officer, Hotcult Branded Content.

On the first day of the event, industry experts shared their perspectives on the most recent industry trends, fostering stimulating conversations and the exchange of ideas among attendees. It began with an informative session on ‘The Great Streaming Pivot’ by Lee Hunt, a New York-based strategist and industry thought leader for media companies worldwide. He shared details and statistics about the changes that the world will see in the digital and entertainment landscapes during his session. Following that, an esteemed dignitary luncheon was hosted, which was followed by another discussion on the topic ‘Harsh Realities of the Future Workforce’ by David Shing (known as “Shingy”), an Australian futurist, speaker, creative director, strategic digital consultant, and author. He engaged with the panel through a slew of activities to educate big brands about the unique opportunities afforded by emerging digital, social, and mobile technologies.

The creative boot camp, titled ‘The Anatomy of a Clip-Based Promo,’ was also held at Atlas SkillTech University. This boot camp, led by Vikki Stephenson, a senior creative consultant with 20 years of experience creating award-winning campaigns for well-known brands, was open to all professionals looking to raise their creative bar and create world-class promotions. The highly anticipated event saw prominent brands from across the country compete for the coveted awards.

Lee Hunt led a session on ‘New Best Practices 2023,’ which examined the competition between linear and streaming media, their new strategies, and how consumers continue to sample new entertainment services. Following that, Tamagna Ghosh, MD, APAC at Trailer Park Group, presented ‘World Gold,’ which featured some of this year’s outstanding Promax Gold winners in design and promotion. Sudipto Saha of PwC presented another session on the use of analytics and AI to gain deep viewer insights. ‘The Connected Human,’ a session led by Shingy, a creative director, strategist, and futurist, delves deeply into the incredible process of connecting the brand with the rest of the world.
Engaging in a fireside chat with Shagun Seda, Head of Brand & Creative Marketing – Viacom18, award-winning director Prasoon Pandey shared his thoughts on how he gets the ideas for his projects and commented, “When we get an idea, we keep dropping it because something is not surprising enough, I am looking always for ideas that keep surprising me first because if they do not surprise me they will not really surprise the audience and once you find it then you keep polishing it, keep looking at it from various sides and to keep polishing it. Once I feel this overall structure has been polished then I open and then I like layering my commercials because even if they want to be there just 10 times people should find something new, they should discover something new every”.

Talking about the interesting sessions Amarpreet Singh Saini, Chief Channel Officer, Bhojpuri Cluster, ZEEL said “Promax Workshop 2023 was invigorating for any creative spirit in the field of media. Where on the one hand it gave an excellent landscaping of the evolving media world with directions to the future, it also blended in creative breakthrough sessions with amazing speakers like Shingy. It mixed knowledge with fun so well. Will look forward to more from their plate as it helps us get such fresh perspectives.”

Some of the winners of the prestigious awards are Best Brand Image Campaign(In-house), won by Disney+ Hotstar for their Thoda Ruk Shah Rukh campaign; Best Social Media Campaign For a Channel or Brand by Meta for Meta- Creator Day campaign; Best Movies Promo by Shemaroo Entertainment for Bahubali 1 & 2 Stop Motion; Best Childrens Promo by Zee Entertainment for Dance India Dance Li’L Masters, Best Originated Promo(Out-of-House) by Sony Entertainment Television for Kaun Banega Crorepati S14; Best Drama Campaign by Sony Liv for Rocket Boys – The Mad Scientists; Best Holiday/Festival Promo by Viacom 18(Nick-India) for Nickelodeon Dusshera Ident; Best Entertainment Promo by Sony Sports Network for WWE- Lootera Film Ft. John Abraham & Drew McInTyre; Best Reality Promo by Disney Star – Star Vijay for Big Boss 6 Promo amongst others.