MAM
MMA India announces new categories, calls for entries to 2020 SMARTIES awards
MUMBAI: The Mobile Marketing Association has announced new categories for the ninth edition of SMARTIES India Awards 2020, scheduled for September in Mumbai, India. The SMARTIES are the world’s only global mobile marketing awards programme honouring innovation, creativity and success, and MMA is calling for entries to SMARTIES 2020, encouraging agencies, brands, and marketers who have secured outstanding achievements across the mobile marketing ecosystem.
“Technology has become a greater, more integral part of mobile marketing in the past year and continues to be a disruptive force across India. We are pleased to introduce new categories for this year’s SMARTIES Awards. These categories will help expand our reach to new, modern marketing initiatives being undertaken across the country,” said MMA India country head Moneka Khurana. “We are looking forward to receiving this year’s entries and celebrating the excellence of mobile marketing at the annual SMARTIES Awards.”
New categories
On top of existing categories spanning four themes that include marketing objective, media, technology and creative awards, there are four new categories added to this year’s edition. They are:
Data/Insights (Technology): The use of consumer data plays an integral role in the development and execution of a campaign to target, engage or develop a meaningful relationship with a specific audience or community. Entrants need to detail the role that data had within the campaign strategy in achieving the brand and business goals.
Banners and Rich Media (Technology): Driving business goals while being respectful of user experience. This category is relevant to campaigns using mobile platforms and/or devices that encourage customer interaction and engagement and drive strong business ROI. The campaigns also actively seek to be respectful of user experience from the ad choices made.
Best Use of UGC (Creative Awards): User-generated content (UGC) consists of any form of content that’s created by users and consumers about a brand or product. UGC in turn enables authenticity and makes the user the brand ambassador. This is suitable for entrants who have creatively enabled UGC and crowdsourcing to build consumer collaborative ads, yielding great results and metrics.
Best Data-driven Creatives (Creative Awards): Intelligent use of data insights for scaled personalisation of creatives to drive campaign and business objectives. Data insights could be based on audiences, context or from offline input (e.g. pollution API).
Eligibility and deadline
To be eligible for the awards, campaigns need to be active in the marketplace between January 2019 to July 2020. The on-time deadline for all entries is 15 July, while the extended deadline is 24 July. With an extended deadline, there are changes to entry fees as well.
More details about pricing information and entry submission for the 2020 SMARTIES India can be found in the official submission kit here
New programme
Aside from new categories, MMA has also introduced SMARTIES Thailand as a new country programme. There are now six country programmes for the 2020 Asia Pacific SMARTIES. These include SMARTIES India, SMARTIES APAC, SMARTIES Vietnam, SMARTIES China, SMARTIES Indonesia and SMARTIES Thailand.
Brands
Jubilant FoodWorks faces Rs 47.5 crore GST demand, plans appeal
Tax authorities flag alleged misclassification of restaurant services
MUMBAI:Â Jubilant FoodWorks Limited has landed in a tax tussle after receiving a GST demand of Rs 47.5 crore from the office of the additional commissioner of CGST and central excise in Thane, Maharashtra.
The order, issued under the provisions of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, relates to an alleged incorrect classification of certain services under the category of restaurant services. According to the tax authorities, this classification resulted in a short payment of goods and services tax for the period between the financial years 2019-20 and 2021-22.
The demand includes Rs 47.5 crore in GST along with an equal amount as penalty, in addition to applicable interest. The order was received by the company on March 13, 2026.
In a regulatory filing to the BSE Limited and the National Stock Exchange of India Limited, the company said it disagrees with the order and believes its arguments were not adequately considered.
The company is preparing to challenge the decision and plans to file an appeal. It added that once the redressal process is complete, the demand is likely to be dropped.
Despite the sizeable figure attached to the notice, the company said it does not expect any material impact on its financials, operations or other activities.
The disclosure was signed by Suman Hegde, EVP and chief financial officer, who confirmed that the company received the order at 19:06 IST on March 13 and has already initiated steps to contest it.
The development places the quick service restaurant major in the middle of a tax debate that could hinge on how certain restaurant-linked services are classified under GST rules. For now, the company appears ready to take the matter from the tax office to the appeals desk.
