Saffola tops the list of Product Of The Year 2019 winners

Consumer goods brand Saffola swept the Product Of The Year 2019 Awards with product variants under the Saffola Fittify range bagging as many as five out of the 21 awards handed out in this edition of the awards. Among brands that picked up two awards each included, Nestle, Hindware, Liebherr and Coco Soul. The entire list of winners is given below.

Product of the Year is an internationally recognised certification that celebrates and rewards the best innovations in consumer products and services. The shortlisted products are put through an independent consumer survey conducted by Nielsen. Products with the highest votes in each category become Product of the Year winners in their category.

The awards ceremony also had a presentation by Tarun Rai, chairman and group CEO, South Asia, Wunderman Thompson, who spoke about the present and future of the agency business.

Rai said that with the dizzying pace of change, the belief was that advertising agencies were finding themselves on the backfoot and had lost their mojo. Adding that, in some cases, agencies are spending more time with procurement departments than marketing teams, Rai added, "Everyone wanted to steal our lunch from digital companies, media agencies and content creators to even stand-up comics."

Taking examples from Wunderman Thompson's set of clients, Rai described how brands had exhibited growth through consistency in communication, reflected culture, created culture, played the role of entertainers, tugged at hearts with a powerful storyline or essayed a strong brand purpose.

Debating the point that agencies were accused of being "traditional" or "30-second specialists", Rai showcased digital work done by his agency that blended technology with creativity. His submission to the audience of marketers was that even as the world will see a dizzying pace of change, "what will not change is creativity. Agencies will continue to impact people and their behaviour with creativity".