WOW Awards Asia 2018: Meet the 2nd Set of Stalwarts Set to Judge the Experiential Marketing Group

by  EVENTFAQS Bureau Business Events | February 21, 2018 | Feature

WOW Awards Asia

Asia’s biggest recognition platform for excellence in the experiential domain, ‘WOW Awards Asia 2018’ is now open for entries in 100 categories across 5 groups. The five groups of categories of the awards this year are Experiential Marketing, Experiential Celebrations, Event Show Asia, Experiential Venues Awards and LIVE Quotient Awards.

Also Read: WOW Awards Asia 2018 To Honor the Best in Experiential Across 5 Groups and 100 Categories

The WOW Awards and Convention Asia 2018 will mark the 10th edition of the awards and is set to take place from June 28-30, 2018 at New Delhi Aerocity.  While you enter your best work in the event & experiential domain with the intent to take the coveted metal home, it’s time you meet the second set of experiential stalwarts who are set to judge the Experiential Marketing Group of categories at the WOW Awards Asia 2018.

Also Read: WOW Awards Asia 2018: Meet the First 10 Jury Members of the Experiential Marketing Group

                                                                 1. Karan Shroff
                                                              Events Head, Xiaomi

Karan Shroff has over a decade of experience on large scale events, has worked across the globe and executed events in over 20 countries, ranging from events in China, to Russia, to CES at Las Vegas and even MWC at Barcelona, being a part of large scale global projects such as these across the globe have made him one of the most experienced event experts in the fraternity, also responsible for conceptualizing #NoMiWithoutYou which led to the creation of the WORLD'S LARGEST GRAIN MOSAIC and fed over 500k people in India,the campaign also went on to be one of the TOP 10 ad campaigns of Q3, 2017 for YouTube India.

                                                                    2. Murali M.S,
                                   Director Marketing & Chief Fun Officer, Capgemini India

An emcee by passion and profession, Murali is a 2 time Guinness World Record holder and currently the Marketing Director and Chief Fun Officer at Capgemini India. With over 16 years of Industry experience spanning employee engagement, events, marketing, branding and internal communication, Murali’s current roles involves spreading fun through creative strategies to the lives of 100000 employees and their families, and hence making Capgemini a fun place to work at. 

                                                            3. Nitish Chopra
                                      Head Brand and Communication, JK Cement

Nitish Chopra, 33, is a marketing professional with rich experience in brand management, new product development, research & consumer insights and communication strategy development (internal and external). Over his career spanning a decade, he has worked across diverse areas of strategic planning and has hands on execution experience of various projects as well as competency in all aspects of brand management. He is responsible for having developed brands from their inception to a position of market leadership today.

                                                            4. Sriram Gopalaswamy
                              Head - Commercial & Datacenter Group Marketing, Lenovo India

An accomplished marketing professional with over eleven years of experience in the High Tech Industry, he is currently responsible for leading Lenovo’s marketing to businesses – focused on strong presence and category leadership in the large corporate, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), Sriram is a graduate from National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE, Mumbai), and is an alumnus of INSEAD, France.

                                                           5. Balakrishnan B
                                 Head – Experiential Marketing & Brand Alliances, The Lodha Group

Having kicked off his career with 4 years in the banking industry, Balakrishnan has since had over a decade of growth as a brand activation and experiential marketing leader at some of India's largest media houses. His key roles include West Head Alternate Revenue at Radio City, Regional Head Branded Content at NDTV, and South and West head IP’s at BCCL, prior to his current role at Lodha Group. Several customer experience platforms and IPs co-created and curated  by him at Lodha Group and previous roles are ET Citi Grandmasters, HSBC Financial Inclusion Summit, NDTV Principal MF Financial Summit, FBB Got Style Get Famous, Vodafone Dekho Visarjan Asmaan se,  Palava Tarang, Belmondo Weekends and others.

                                                             6. Lydia Buthello
               Executive Vice President & Head - Brand Experience and Events, STAR India

Currently as Executive VP and Head - Brand Experience and Events, Lydia handles the entire network events for Star India and supports the Star International business, corporate events, Entertainment, MICE, Activations, Sports Entertainment, Venue Operations, Merchandise, Celebrity Management and Sponsorship Events. As part of the initiation team of the new Brand Experience division, Lydia oversees how Star's Properties get utilised to engage consumers and enhance Partner Experience for the brand. Lydia is also responsible for all Activations and Events related to Hotstar and has recently conceptualised the Digital Fest for 21 CEOs of Century Fox, which was a specially curated event that ended with an experience to the Kabbadi finals.

                                                             7. Rishi Sharma
            General Manager & Head of Digital, Grasim Industries Ltd. Aditya Birla Group

A Marketing 2.0 specialist, Digital Evangelist & Student of life with over 16 years of experience across Advertising Agencies, Multinational Company & large Indian Global Organization, Rishi has worked in key functions like Strategic Planning, Sports Marketing, Research and Brand Strategy with an exposure to global markets like Gulf, Singapore, USA, China, and Europe.

                                                              8.Prashant Sukhwani
                                          Senior Manager Marketing, Bunge India

Prashant Sukhwani looks after the brand strategy and ATL/BTL campaigns for all products under the Bunge India portfolio, including its premium sub brand Dalda Oils. He has also been instrumental in the conceptualization and execution of numerous rural marketing campaigns for Dalda which have registered a staggering impact for the brand.

                                                                      9. P Anand,
                                       Chief Services & Solutions, TATA Steel Limited

Anand Joined Tata Steel in 1993 as a Management Trainee and worked in the commercial functions of Tata Steel. His diverse experience includes Sales stints in Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad and as Head of Marketing of various B2C and B2B brands in Tata Steel. He has been Chief of Marketing of Branded Products, Retail  & Solutions in Tata Steel for 3 years, which includes all the Branded Sales of the Steel division with a turnover of ~ Rs. 12000 Crs. He was also responsible for incubating and rolling out the services & solutions businesses of Tata Steel which includes Steel n Style branded furniture, Pravesh wood finish Steel doors etc. Incidentally Pravesh has won the Tata Group "Shark Tank" competition a few months back and the Golden Peacock award for innovation.  Currently he is the Business Vertical Head for Services and Solutions Business and Internationalization of B2C brands in Tata Steel. 

                                                             10. Tarun Jha
                                       Head of Marketing and Product - ‎ŠKODA AUTO India

Currently, Head of Marketing and Product at ŠKODA AUTO India Tarun has been with the brand since 2008.  This included 3 years in Europe, as an International Marketing Consultant, responsible for Brand Stewardship and consulting with markets in Asia-Pacific, Middle-East, Africa and Northern Europe. He started his career in Advertising and made a shift as a client marketer. He has been in the automotive business for the last 13 years.