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Genesis BCW Wins Eight Awards

Genesis BCW won eight awards at the prestigious PR Awards Asia 2019 held in Hong Kong on June 11

Genesis BCW won eight awards at the prestigious PR Awards Asia 2019 held in Hong Kong on June 11. Of these, seven awards were in the campaign categories, including the South Asia PR Campaign of the Year for its campaign for GSKCH Horlicks. In addition, Chief Executive Officer and Founder Prema Sagar was named the PR Agency Head of the Year. With these wins, Genesis BCW, a leading public relations and public affairs consultancy that delivers integrated communications services to some of the best global and Indian companies, demonstrated its commitment to pushing boundaries and moving people.

Genesis BCW’s award-winning campaigns include:

• Gold for Horlicks Emotional Nutrition for GSK Consumer Healthcare in the South Asia PR Campaign of the Year category

• Gold for Red FM on Fleek for Red FM in the Arts, Entertainment & Media category

• Silver for Befikar Book Kar for MakeMyTrip in the Brand Development (Service) category

• Silver for #DareToDisconnect for Sennheiser Electronics India in the Best Use of Digital category

• Silver for Future-Proof Yourself for Education New Zealand in the Public Sector category

• Bronze for PaiseKiKadar (The Value of Money) for Jana Small Finance Bank in the Best Use of Content category

• Bronze for Marie Gold My Startup for Britannia Industries Limited in the Cause-Related – Diversity & Inclusion category

Speaking on the South Asia PR Campaign of the Year win, Vikram Bahl, Area Marketing Lead, Nutrition & Digestive Health, GSKCH Indian Subcontinent, said, “Horlicks as a brand has aimed at providing necessary nutrition to students to achieve more. Through this campaign, we wanted to highlight that emotional nutrition is as important as physical nutrition for students to overcome the fear of exams. For us, Fearless Kota (Emotional Nutrition) was a medium to showcase that a mother’s love is the best dose of emotional nutrition to help a child overcome stress and face exams fearlessly. We are delighted that the campaign was recognized at one of the most prestigious platforms in Asia. This recognition for our efforts is a testament to the great work done by the team.”

Rajat Uppal, National Marketing Head, RED FM, said, “We at RED FM are truly honoured to win Gold twice in a row at the prestigious PR Week Asia Awards. With OTT and digital platforms growing their presence in the entertainment space, the challenge has always been to keep a conventional medium like radio relevant to Millennials. RED FM does that by constantly working on its content and campaigns keeping in mind their ever-changing preferences. Through an experiential campaign ‘RED FM on Fleek’, we used the 3Cs – Concerts, Causes and Conversations – to build an engaging campaign. ‘RED FM on Fleek’ was driven by on-air programming, predominantly backed by an effective PR and digital leg. We are extremely happy to be receiving this award.”

Ali Harris Shere, VP – Marketing, Britannia Industries, said “We are delighted to have won the PR Asia Awards. Marie Gold My Start Up campaign aimed to fulfil Indian women’s aspirations of embarking on an entrepreneurial journey and finding financial independence. Through the years, we are beginning to see a shift in their mindsets – from being a homemaker to a maker of many things. We received an overwhelming response to the campaign with over 1.4 million homemakers from across India writing in with their business ideas. We are committed to continue and strengthen our journey with India's aspiring homemakers. We thank the esteemed jury for recognizing and rewarding the Marie Gold My Start Up Initiative.”

Ajay Kanwal, MD & CEO, Jana Small Finance Bank, said, “We’re extremely proud to receive this honour. Paise Ki Kadar (valuing hard-earned money) lies at the core of Jana Bank’s mission to ensure Financial Inclusion for all customers and communities. We’re very happy to see our business and marketing work being acknowledged on such a prestigious stage.”

On accepting the PR Agency Head of the Year Award, Prema Sagar, Chief Executive Officer and Founder, Genesis BCW, said, “I would like to thank the jury and the PR Asia team for this honor, which truly belongs to the entire team at Genesis BCW. This year has been special to us as we took on a new identity with BCW, and to receive this award has made this journey even more special. The campaign awards that we have won tonight show the dedication, hard work and relentless pursuit of excellence that our teams have shown in delivering breakthrough campaigns across sectors. I have enjoyed every step of this journey with our partners and clients in creating higher levels of standards and professionalism in the industry.”

Managing Director, Genesis BCW, Deepshikha Dharmaraj, said, ‘It is so gratifying to see the efforts of our teams getting recognised. Our wins are the true reflection of our integrated approach of pushing boundaries with creativity, passion and hard work. Our biggest support has been the trust and partnership that we share with our clients. The insight-driven ideas we have co-created with our clients have helped them move people—to act, to inspire, to change. I would like to congratulate our clients as well as every team member of Genesis BCW for winning these prestigious awards.”

The PR Asia Awards are unique in their efforts to shine a spotlight on communicators and agencies and their work in the Asia-Pacific region as they define cutting-edge thinking and drive the public relations and communications industry forward.

About Genesis BCW:

Genesis BCW (Genesis Burson Cohn & Wolfe) has mirrored the journey of India’s public relations and public affairs landscape. For over 26 years we have been pushing the of communications, setting benchmarks with our imagination, creativity and agility to deliver impact for our clients, and help them in moving people: to act, to inspire, to change.

We are a leading public relations and public affairs firm that builds big, insight-driven ideas with our creative, media and technology capabilities for some of the best global and Indian companies. Our network across South Asia includes wholly-owned offices in six of India’s key metros, an exclusive outreach partnership in 24 cities and a strong affiliate footprint in over 200 cities across India and neighboring countries including Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar.

The Subtle Art to Know Your Brand

A company should invest in employees’ education to teach basic knowledge and understanding about the brand

I was first introduced to Bath and Body Works (BBW) scented candles, during a visit to Dubai last year. I became a fan instantly. So I visited a high-end mall there which had their store. I picked four candles and then decided to also pick four body moisturisers as they seemed really good. We all know that their products are priced at premium rates. I am one of those buyers who on a normal day will not go brand shopping, but if its value for money – I will ‘invest’ in it. For me, this was one of those shopping moments.

Big Win for MSL India

MSL India bags South Asia PR Consultancy of the Year award at PR Awards Asia 2019

Weber Shandwick Asia-Pacific was crowned APAC PR Consultancy of the Year and an Era Ogilvy campaign for Lee Chang Yung Chemical won the Campaign of the Year title at 2019 PR Awards Asia.Sling & Stone, Weber Shandwick, APCO Worldwide, MSL, Ogilvy and History Will Be Kind heard their names called for Consultancy of the Year awards. You’ll find a full listing of all of the 2019 PR Awards Asia winners, including the grand prix awards mentioned above, the Consultancy of the Year awards, the regional campaigns of the year, all of the awards in specific campaign categories and the people/team awards.

Crisis Management for PR

Good crisis management and pre-emption can be – No sweeping statements & things under the carpet, says Asif Upadhye

An inevitable by-product of being in the public spotlight is that your brand is likely to also face some onslaught by competition or consumers. Often, the good publicity is something your consultancy partner teams have strived to achieve, while the bad publicity results from a small slip or a circumstance out of your control – an ignorant statement, a product glitch, or a competitor’s tactical play. It could be anything, big or small, but it has a domino effect that can potentially cause an organisation to take heat to an extent that it hurts shareholder value. That said, even if the initial trigger is not within your control, the way you handle the crisis is in your control.

Ruder Finn Hires Monica Marshall

She has joined Ruder Finn as global lead of the agency’s new purpose and policy offering, called RF Relate

Monica Marshall, who spent the last six years leading Ketchum’s purpose practice, has joined Ruder Finn as global lead of the agency’s new purpose and policy offering, called RF Relate. In her new role, Marshall will be responsible for developing and leading the new offering, which focuses on social impact, sustainability, advocacy and public affairs. RF Relate (formally RF Relate| People. Policy. Purpose.) will offer the range of expertise of Ruder Finn staffers — many of whom already are working with clients on purpose-related initiatives — under one practice. The focus is helping companies, governments and NGOs refine their purpose, advocate for change and use communications to connect sustainability and societal impact initiatives to people both inside and outside the organization.

Effective Listening = Effective Communication

The biggest benefit of effective listening is – it is a wonderful opportunity to receive great ideas, says Smitha Venkataraman

Listening is an art and a science. It may sound clichéd, but it is a timeless truth. The fundamental difference between hearing and listening is – hearing is an involuntary process of perceiving sound. Listening is a voluntary, intentional and conscious process of understanding the meaning of what one hears. But sometimes, we only listen partially, and then hear some. These refer to our deep-rooted likes, dislikes, preferences, prejudices, and general conditioning of how we look at the world, at large. Personal bias can alter the perception and comprehension of what is being said by the other person, into something totally different from its original intent.

Sonia Dhawan Joins Sheroes

Dhawan, a former Paytm executive will join Sheroes as the Director of Corporate Communications

Sonia Dhawan, a former Paytm executive and prime accused in an extortion case involving company founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, has joined Sheroes. She will be director of corporate communications at the social network for women in which Sharma is also a stakeholder. The case against Dhawan, who has denied any attempts at blackmail, is still ongoing in court. Separately, regulatory filings show that on June 6 the Paytm board allotted equity shares to six employees, including Dhawan, who had applied to exercise options vested under the employee stock ownership plan (Esop). "This is likely a precursor to a full and final settlement," said a source aware of the matter.

Cannes Lions from 2018 to 2019

This year could be the best for India as there has been a whole lot of entries in digital

If 2017 was about the Indian contingent winning the highest ever number of metals- 40 - at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, then 2018 was about winning two Grand Prix for the very first time in the history of India’s participation in the festival. In 2018, prominent categories where India didn’t make a mark are Creative Data, Titanium, Film Lions, Digital Craft, Entertainment, Radio and Audio, etc. In some other categories, such as PR, Media, Sustainable Goals Development, etc., Indian entries were shortlisted, but went no further than that. Out of the 929 entries from India, only 21 converted into metals, giving India a conversion rate of 2.15%.