Dialogue

Brand Speak

As part of its sixth anniversary celebrations, Pitch felicitated 28 brands in the Pitch India’s Top Marketers Awards 2009. The awards ceremony saw Brand Custodians and Marketing Chiefs that spearheaded their brands into prominence despite the challenges of a tough year. The audience also comprised luminaries from the Indian media and advertising industry.

It is perhaps no longer a surprise when the Indian Premier League (IPL) features as a top brand in any recognition. The same was true for the Pitch ITM Awards as well. The second in line was Google India and to collect the award, Shailesh Rao, MD, Google India and the company’s marketing head Nikhil Rungta, came on the stage. Vodafone India was the third highest rated brand and its marketing chief Kumar Ramanathan was there to accept the award.

Amul India took the fourth position.

Nokia India and Hero Honda shared the fifth place. Hero Honda’s Sr Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Anil Dua accept the award. Nokia’s Head of Media and Campaign Viral Oza was at the event to accept the award.

The seventh position was taken by Café Coffee Day.

The eighth position belonged to none other than Idea Cellular and the company’s Chief Marketing Officer Pradeep Shrivastava did the honours there.

Honda Siel Cars India’s Director Marketing T Natsume accepted the award on behalf of the company that was rated the ninth highest amongst the top brands.

Samsung India was in the tenth position and the award was accepted by the GM - Marketing, Samsung India Dinesh Chandra. Kingfisher Airlines was the 11th brand.

The 12th top marketer was Tata Tea and its Executive Director Sangeeta Talwar was present at the awards ceremony to accept the award.

The 13 position was a tie between Nandan Nilekani’s Unique Identification Authority of India and Nestle India. Kannan Balan from Nestle India accepted the award on behalf of the company.

Asian Paints followed at the 15th position and the company’s Marketing Head Amit Syngle was at the event to accept the award. This was followed by the NDTV Group. Five brands shared the 17th position – McDonald’s India, The Times Group, HDFC Bank, Congress party and Dominos Pizza. Respectively, McDonald’s Marketing Director Sanjeev Katyal; Times Group Marketing Director Rahul Kansal, HDFC’s EVP and Head – Marketing Rohit Mull and Domino’s Pizza India’s Sr VP Marketing Dev Amritesh accepted the awards at the ceremony.

On the 22nd position was Hindustan Unilever. Reliance Mobile and Reckitt Benckiser – Dettol shared the 23rd position. The 25th position was taken by Taj Hotels Group Bharti Airtel, ITC Foods and Dabur India.