MAM
GoaFest’14 Day 2: 190 awards given away across 9 categories
GOA: The Day 2 of the ninth edition of GoaFest got bigger and grander, as 190 awards were given away across 9 categories. Alok Nanda & Company and JWT were the only agencies that took home a Grand Pix for design and direct categories respectively.
Take a look at the details of who made it to the top positions in each of the 9 categories…
The Print Craft category received 189 entries of which 27 made it to winners’ list. There were nine jury members for assessing this category. For this category Taproot picked eight Abbys, JWT took away four Abbys and Umbrella design added three Abbys to its kitty.
There were 290 entries for the Outdoor and Ambient, out of which 29 entries stood as clear winners. 10 jury members were on board for this category. JWT got seven Abbys, Taproot added three and FCB Ulka received three Abbys for this category.
For the Design category, agencies sent 188 entries and 25 Abbys were given out. Eight industry veterans judged this category. Alok Nanda & Company and Umbrella Designs won five Abbys each. Taproot got three abbys.
In the Direct category there were 55 entries and 13 winners. While Taproot received three Abbys, JWT, DDB Mudra Group and M&C Saatchi picked two Abbys each. The category was judged by nine jury members.
Branded content received 54 entries. There were 21 winners in this category and had 10 jury members judging it. Madison World received three Abbys, while MTV India, Colors, Viacom 18 Media and PHD India got two Abbys each.
The Promo and Activation category got 102 entries and there were 18 winners. Judged by jury members, JWT and Candid Marketing received three Abbys each. Milestone Brandcom got two Abbys.
PR and Broadcaster which were the newbies in GoaFest got overwhelming response. The Advertising Club and chairman of the Awards Governing Council president Pratap Bose mentioned that the 10 jury member team for the PR category were excited and saw some good pieces of work. In the PR category 24 awards were given away out of the 42 entries received. Adfactors advertising bagged five Abbys.
In Broadcaster category 99 entries were received and 33 winners were declared. Star won 11 awards in this category.
Click here for the detailed result sheet
MAM
How beverage brands are rethinking marketing strategies for weather-led demand
SLMG Beverages Private Limited joint managing director Paritosh Ladhani.
MUMBAI: As Sun climbs up the hemisphere, summer has clearly arrived in India. On 7th March 2026 Delhi registered a maximum temperature of 35.7 degrees Celsius which is the highest reading logged for the first week of March in the last 50 years. Climate Change has been prolonging summers by causing earlier spring warming, delayed autumn cooling, and more frequent, intense heatwaves that persist for much longer periods.
In an endeavor to stay ahead of the curve, Beverage Brands are shifting from fixed seasonal marketing tactics to weather responsive strategies backed by data-driven insights, flexible campaigns, and diversified portfolios to capitalize on unruly temperature spike. In 2025, India’s beverage market experienced a massive, heat-triggered surge with carbonated drinks and ice cream volumes spiking 20–25 per cent in the March quarter itself on the back of hottest February in 125 years.
Clearly campaign timelines are being advanced to reap the seasonal shift in line with the jumping mercury. In the Indian context where Cricket is nothing short of religion, big ticket tournaments like T20 World Cup, Indian Premier League, ICC Champions Trophy provide plethora of opportunities to calibrate marketing campaign designs and associated business strategies to associate refreshment with community viewing both outdoor and indoors. A new trend that has taken the world by storm is that of booking the theatres for bonhomie viewing. It has also opened avenues for joint marketing initiatives by the Multiplex and Beverage Brands.
Price disrupting small potions and value packs tend to drive significantly higher volumes owing to volumetric flexibility and affordability to the consumers. Ramping up of cold supply chains for transit and at point of sales (POS) are strategic business imperatives that again define success of beverage brands.
In the era of AI and Big Data it is easy to track and calibrate messaging based on daily or weekly weather changes. Geo-targeted digital advertisement campaigns are also being run during heatwaves to make the business and marketing imperative very contextual. These pre-emptive strategies fueled by real time data and technology immensely help beverage brands to adjust supplies to the areas that are likely to generate more demand.
Novelty brings premium to the FMCG Sector and Beverage Brands are no exception. Newer SKUs build up excitement in consumers besides imparting the scope of frequent revitalization of brand marketing campaigns. Ensuring continuum of supply chain across material suppliers, logistics providers, distributors/wholesalers, and retailers become a strategic business strategy imperative for beverage brands during peak season.
Carbonated drinks among other beverages including packaged mineral water sell like hotcakes in summers, a period where holiday season gives big impetus to sales volumes. Tying up with air carriers railways, amusement parks, malls, convention centers for inclusion in the onboard beverage deck also holds a big window of opportunity for brands.
Limited period diversification into special summer categories entailing juices and functional beverages to capture the broader hydration market is also a business cum marketing imperative that beverage brands eye on. This also brings to fore the responsible side of the brand placing the compass on wellness of consumers.
Seasons are cyclic, hence summers are inevitable. Further, due to anthropogenic climate change, summers surely have been staging prolonged appearance that keep bringing beverage brands on to their drawing boards frequently for strategizing business and marketing campaigns that are agile, refreshment-focused, visually dominant in retail, affordable, and optimally promoted through seasonal campaigns in above and below the line media.
