The RMAI Flame Awards Asia and Leadership Awards 2016 Conclude on March 11

by  Shantanu Jain Business Events | March 15, 2016 | News in Brief

RMAI Rural Marketing Association of India RMAI Flame Awards

Rural Marketing Association of India (RMAI) recently announced the winners of the 7th edition of Flame Awards Asia and Flame Leadership Awards 2016, during a gala evening on March 11, 2016 at Vivanta by Taj Dwarka in New Delhi. The ceremony was hosted by Gitikka Ganju Dhar.

The entries this year at Flame Awards Asia ‘16, were invited from India and other Asian countries. These were graded across four criteria: Concept, Activity, Amplification and Results. Campaigns & Initiatives that launched or debuted between January 01 and December 31, 2015 were eligible to enter the competition.

Over 300 Business leaders, corporate, GOI & leading rural marketing agency representatives attended the presentation ceremony. Vritti Solutions bagged maximum six golds, followed by four by PHD Media and three by JWT. While Impact Communications registered the most wins with 14 awards including 2 golds.

Other Gold winners of the evening included Accenture Services, Apollo Tele Health Services, Ayurvet Ltd, Coromandel International Ltd, Grey RC&M, ICAR, MART, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmer Welfare, Netcore Solutions, OMD India and Smriti Television Media & Films Ltd. Also Rural Development Academy of Bangladesh, Market Access Providers Ltd., Bangladesh and Lemon Pvt Ltd from Nepal won metals in overseas categories.

Commenting on the awards, S Siva Kumar, CEO ITC (ABD) and Jury Chair, Flame Awards Asia said “It was good to see the way technology was leveraged innovatively by several companies to reach out the rural consumers, as well as the depth of engagement with them to build brands across different categories.”

RMAI also felicitated Business leaders, industry professionals for their extraordinary contribution in Rural Marketing & development sector. S Siva Kumar and RMAI office bearers presented Flame Leadership Awards 2016 to Arvind Sonmale, MD & CEO at SAFL; R S Sodhi, Managing Director of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (AMUL); Ram Mudholkar, President, DuPont South Asia and Regional Business Director, DuPont Crop Protection; Dalveer Singh, Head Experiential Marketing, APAC at GroupM; K S Bhatia, Founder, CEO, Pumpkart.com; C S Sadasivan, Chief Executive Marketing, J K Lakshmi Cement Ltd; Osama Manzar, Founder & Director, Digital Empowerment Foundation; Bhushan Chandorkar, DGM Market Activations, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd; Sharad Agarwal, Chief Executive Officer, Hindustan Latex Family Planning Promotion Trust; Muntasir Bhuiyan, COO, Market Access Providers Limited, Bangladesh and Venkat Ram Vasantavada, President-Agribusiness, Deepak Fertilizers and Petrochemical Corporation Ltd.

In his welcome address, Sanjay Kaul, President RMAI spoke about the renewed direction that RMAI has taken in terms of being more relevant to the changing needs of the industry. He also highlighted that all major new knowledge initiatives undertaken by RMAI in last two years stemmed from this need of “Rethinking Rural”.

Elaborating on Flame Awards Asia he said, “Flame Awards has now expanded its reach to immediate subcontinent thus enabling cross sharing of best practices among rural marketers operating in similar markets.”

A Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) paper developed in collaboration with key stakeholders and KPMG was also released during the event.

Rahul Saigal, Group COO, Geometry Global & Encompass Network and SAP Task Force leader said, “RMAI is planning a voluntary accreditation process for members. This is directed towards ensuring further improve the quality of work we deliver as an industry.”

Singer, Vipin Anneja and Kingdom of Dreams illusionist, Tejas Sawant entertained the audiences with their back to back performances. The entire event was managed by Event Crafter with JCB as presenting sponsors and powered by Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. The award ceremony was followed by cocktails & dinner.