M&C Saatchi’s Rakshin Patel elected jury chair, DMAi Awards 2014

The third edition of Direct Marketing Association of India’s DMAi Awards for response marketing has announced Rakshin Patel, partner - M&C Saatchi, as the jury chairperson. Ajay Chandwani, director, Percept, and strategic brand consultant, continues as chairperson for the awards, which are billed as the ‘local Echo Awards programme’.

Gold winners at DMAi Awards 2014 will enter the second round of the International Echo Awards 2014, informed a DMAi statement. The international competition seeks to honour the world's best response marketing campaigns. DMAi Awards will be hosted on 23 April, for Indian agencies to benefit from the arrangement. The last date for sending in entries to the DMAi Awards is 14 April.

Vatsal Asher, director and CEO, DMAi, said, “With eight medals at the 2013 International ECHO - the highest by any country outside of the US and the very special arrangement with the International ECHO; the already credible local ECHO awards program this year is going to be irresistible for marketers and agencies in India. Indian work has come to age and can compete with the world’s best. I look forward to agencies and marketers stepping up to this invitation.”

Patel said, “The Echo awards the best of the best work in direct and digital. Work that demonstrates creative solutions to marketing problems, changes behavior and generates measurable and extraordinary results. I urge the creative and marketing fraternities, who have been doing some amazing work in the direct and digital space, to reward their hard work and smart thinking and send in their entries this year.”

Chandwani added, “A lot of direct marketing is today digital and pervades all media. While one to one communication is the hallmark of direct marketing, Echo captures this evolution of direct marketing to smart, effective result-oriented marketing. Many global creative greats value the Echo more than any other award because of its association with marketing results.”

The DMAi statement added that following a multi-agency pitch, OgilvyOne has been entrusted with the creative duties for promoting the awards, while Urja Interactive is the digital agency.