MUMBAI: ESPN Star Sports (ESS) is one of the major innovators when it comes to integrating sponsors for marketing and promotional activities.

Last year it had tied up with Nokia for its live coverage of the English Premier League (EPL) season. This involved on-air and off-air innovations.

One of the innovations was Nokia Man of the Match. Each week the Nokia Man of the Match SMS contest was run. It should come as no surprise that the ESS Nokia Tie up won two trophies at the inaugural edition of the The Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (Casbaa) Pay TV ad awards. These were for campaign of the year and best integrated marketing campaign using Pay TV

180 entries competed for awards in nine categories. ESS was also recognised for its use of EPL sponsor Tiger Beer in the sponsorship category.

The awards were organised in association with Media Magazine. The best use of product placement went to AXN's show Who Dares Wins. MTV China won an award in the best youth campaign category for Ninja, The Enduring Master. In the kid's category Nickelodeon and Ikea triumphed with their Takes Over Your Room initiative.

Casbaa chairman Marcel Fenez added, "Pay-TV advertising spend only contributes to 17.5 per cent of the $14.79 billion on TV advertising in Asia Pacific (excluding Japan). There is clearly enormous opportunity for growth. We intend to turn this into an annual event to foster the development of this market.

"We are very pleased to receive such an overwhelming response from the advertising industry. The awards have set new benchmarks for the industry. There is clearly more invention, more creativity and a greater awareness of the needs of clients, agencies and consumers than ever before."

The winners were selected by a seven-member judging panel. They included FCB Asia Pacific regional creative director Rob Sherlock and Starcom MediaVest Group Northeast Asia CEO Blaise D'Sylva.

Sherlock added, "We saw some highly innovative and creative work and the winners won for a reason. They seamlessly connected the programming content and the brand with big bold ideas. Ideas that are both relevant and unexpected. It has been great to work in the uncharted territory of an inaugural award where the boundaries and expectations have not been absolutely defined."