MAM
Impact Communications madehat-trick at RMAI Flame Awards
MUMBAI: At the fifth Edition of The Rural Marketing Association of India Flame Awards 2013,the association acknowledged the finest campaigns in Rural marketing, branding, innovation and CSR Campaigns in rural India in the past year.
The RMAI Flame Awards recognizes the work of corporates & agencies successful in rural marketing every year. This year, the event was attended by 300 participants from Corporate, Media, Consultancy and Agencies. 209 entries were received and 63 won awards across 25 categories. India’s most reputed and eminent personalitiesconstituted the awards jury. These included S Sivakumar – Chief Executive (ABD) ITC Ltd, GeetuVerma, Executive Director, Unilever, Harish Bijoor, Brand – Strategy Specialist & CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc. and George Angelo, Executive Director (Sales), Dabur India Ltd,Sidharth Singh Executive VP GSK &N Subramanian EVP TAFE. With over 200entries to compete with, Impact Communications won 13 awards across categories including 5 Gold, 3 Silver and 5 Bronze awards.
This year RMAI celebrated10 years of this platform andacknowledged the best works of the past decade, under special categories of “Long Term campaign of the decade”, “Social Development campaign of the decade” and “Brand association with a traditional congregation platform, of the decade”,Impact Communications found its place in all three categories. Bagging Gold and Bronze with “PehelaEkGhanta” a campaign for pregnant women and neo natal care in the categories of “Long Term campaign of the decade” and “Social Development campaign of the decade” respectively for PATH India. Impact also grabbed Silver for “Brand association with a traditional congregation platform, of the decade” with “LuiDahhan-Sonepur Mela” a proprietary event for Reckitt Benkiser.
Impact Communications won Gold & Silver in the following categories across domains of consumer/ B2B/ CHANNEL MARKETING/ OOH:
• On-ground promotion of the year for Brand Awareness: “Ceat – Monsoon Smart Campaign”. Was activating the Target group by triggering the urgency during monsoons & addressing the procrastinating nature of the customers. The intelligent messages delivery & intercepting them at different relevant touch points & connecting them to convergence point through technology made it comprehensive awareness campaign tailored to deliver for the brand.
• Small Budget campaign of year “Chick Thickness Queen” won gold on its cost competitive approach to drive the core proposition of thick hair promise with thickness meter a tool made of art paper measuring thickness of hair. Creating a moment of truth & recognition for Target group in the school.
• Channel Marketing / Retailer Incentive of the year: “Meri Guarantee, Mazbuti Guarantee”-JK Lakshmi Cements. A brand endeavor of presenting the dealerships with personalized customized branding of outlets and message of recognising them as local ambassadors was an out of box integration of main line communication targeting the dealers for motivational purpose.
• OOH Campaign of the year: “Horlicks -Maha Kumbh”. In sync with brand positioning “BadhayeDoodh Ki Shakti” a spiritual message “ Kumbh Snaan Bhakti Ka, Ek cup Horlicks Shakti Ka” was integrated and casted on clutter breaking above the eye stand out mediums, eateries and ride brandings was recognized as intelligent messaging in the largest congregative platform like Kumbh Mela.
• Direct Marketing campaign of the year: “Ceat-Bike Tagging”. Reducing thepath to purchase through innovative use of technology, Target group were identified by tagging bikes at parking lots. These tags linked the customers back to the dealers reducingdependence on intermediaries.
Commenting on the win, Sanjay Kaul CEO Impact communications said,“We are really pleased that our work has been recognized across categories.RMAI awards definitely energize our teams to plan & implement differentiated & path breaking marketing initiatives for our clients. ”.
Brands
Zscaler, Airtel launch India AI Cyber Research Centre
New hub to boost cyber resilience and trusted AI use
NEW DELHI: As India’s digital engine roars ahead, so do the risks riding shotgun. In response, Zscaler, Inc. and Bharti Airtel have joined hands to launch the AI and Cyber Threat Research Center – India, a national initiative aimed at strengthening the country’s cyber defences and accelerating responsible AI adoption.
The centre is designed as a multi stakeholder platform that brings together industry, government and academia. Its mission is clear: protect critical sectors such as telecom, banking and energy, shield everyday digital users, and future proof India’s fast expanding online ecosystem.
India has long been a major innovation hub for Zscaler, with a substantial portion of its cyber research talent based here. With this new centre, that footprint evolves into a national collaboration engine. The idea is simple but ambitious, build in India, for India, and help power the country’s journey towards a secure and digitally self reliant future.
The timing is telling. India is building digital systems at population scale, not just enterprise scale. That scale has widened the attack surface dramatically. At the same time, cyber criminals and nation state actors are deploying AI to scan, probe and exploit vulnerabilities in minutes.
Zscaler’s research arm, ThreatLabz India, reports millions of infiltration attempts every month. These include espionage campaigns linked to regional geopolitical tensions, 1.2 million intrusion attempts from 20,000 sources targeting 58 Indian digital entities, and a rise in zero day exploit attempts across multiple industries.
In such an environment, perimeter based security models are struggling to keep pace. The new centre aims to push a shift towards secure by design systems and Zero Trust architecture.
Its strategy rests on four pillars: protect through real time intelligence, remediate by working directly with government agencies, facilitate adoption of AI driven security and Zero Trust frameworks, and build a stronger cybersecurity talent pipeline through specialised certifications.
As founding members, Zscaler and Airtel will combine global threat intelligence with local network visibility. Zscaler will deploy a dedicated India focused research team and draw insights from its Zero Trust Exchange platform, which processes over 500 billion daily transactions worldwide. Airtel, meanwhile, will contribute deep visibility into IoT and mobile traffic, helping detect suspicious activity faster and coordinate response across the ecosystem.
Bharti Airtel executive vice chairman Gopal Vittal, said the partnership extends Airtel’s commitment to safeguarding customers and the nation’s digital fabric. He added that the collaboration would address challenges unique to the Indian market and encourage secure and confident digital engagement.
Zscaler chief executive, chairman and founder Jay Chaudhry, said India’s digital ambition cannot be secured with legacy firewalls and VPNs. He noted that a modern Zero Trust architecture is essential for a hyper connected world and that the new centre would harness the scale of Zscaler’s global security cloud while empowering a new generation of Indian cyber defenders.
Additional members from critical public and private sectors are expected to join the initiative in the coming months, expanding its scope and deepening collaboration.
In a world where threats travel at machine speed, India’s answer is to think faster, collaborate wider and build smarter.
