IDMA 2010 > Anil Ambani named Digital Entrepreneur; S Tharoor as Digital Evangeliser

Anil Ambani, group chairman and CEO, Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, which owns brands like Zapak.com and BigAdda.com, has been recognised as ‘Digital Entrepreneur’ and ‘Digital Person’ of the Year (2009) at Indian Digital Media Awards (IDMA) 2010 held in Mumbai on March 11, 2010.

Shashi Tharoor, minister of state for external affairs, Govt of India, and a prolific user of Twitter.com with more than 6.8 lakh followers on the micro blogging site, has received the honour for evangelising and popularising the digital medium.

IDMA 2010, an initiative of exchange4media group, attracted more than 400 entries to compete for the 23 digital awards across six main categories and 19 sub categories. The jury consisted of top professionals in advertising, media and marketing, including the digital and mobile media, and was chaired by digital media veteran Mahendra Swarup, chief mentor, Smile Interactive Technologies Group.

Websites which won award in various categories included MouthShut.com (Portal), IBNLive.com (News), ApolloDKV.co.in (Corporate), Dental Hygiene (Public Utility), OnlineRealGames.com and IndianFantasyLeague.com (Gaming), Axeplay.Zapak.com (Microsite), HumanTouchOfChemistry.com (Website Debut) and WatBlog.com (Blog).

“It is a great honour, a recognition of the faith internet users have reposed in us,” Faisal Farooqui, CEO, MouthShut.com, has said. “We concentrated on pampering our users, communicating with them, establishing a trust and building a community on the internet. They loved us and started talking about MouthShut.com and the proverbial word-of-mouth effect happened. We are growing leaps and bounds without having to really spend top dollars that a similar venture would have justified.”

G2 Direct & Digital was recognised as ‘Best Digital Agency’, while Tata Tea was recognised as ‘Best Digital Advertiser of the year (2009)’. Webchutney won the award for Virgin Mobile’s IndianHatkeLeague.com under ‘Best Integrated Digital Campaign of the Year’.

The award for ‘Best Use of Online Banner Advertising’ and ‘Best Use of Online Banner Advertising in Rich Media’ went to Taproot India for Nirma Bartan and Pinstorm for CNN.com, respectively.

Experience Commerce won the award for The Great Driving Challenge under the ‘Best Use of Social Media’ category, while BC Web Wise grabbed the ‘Best Use of Viral Marketing’ award for Virgin Mobile.

The award for ‘Best Use of Mobile Advertising’ went to Maxus for Nokia Music Store. G2 Direct & Digital also won the ‘Best Use of Email Marketing’ award, while BigFlix.com won the ‘Best Mobile App’ award for its movie rental mobile app.

Webdunia.com won the award for ‘Best Use of Language in Online Advertising’. Ignitee Digital Solutions won the award under the ‘Best Use of Gaming as a Tool for Advertising’ category for Madhya Pradesh Tourism. [Source: exchange4media]

Pankaj Jain, president and COO, Webdunia.com, has said, “It was a challenge to get big brand advertisers like Microsoft, TBZ, SBI, IDBI, BharatMatrimony and many more in Indian Language advertising. Webdunia took the initiative and converted their English Language creatives to Hindi and other Indian languages. Our process of integrating creative ideas and innovations into the local flavour has been a winning formula for us and our clients.”

The team comprising Praneeth Reddy of Media Contacts and Zapak’s Eklavya Bhattacharya has won the Mumbai Round of the ‘Digital Quiz (DQ), Will You Click’ contest. The contest, also an initiative of the exchange4media group, was held in Mumbai on March 11, 2010 and covered all aspects of the digital world -- internet, mobile, gaming, animation and technology. [Source: exchange4media]