MAM
Marquees 2017: Ad club appoints HUL’s Sanjiv Mehta as jury chair
MUMBAI: Hindustan Unilever Limited CEO and MD Sanjiv Mehta will be chairing the jury for the Marquees awards in its debut year. The Advertising Club had announced the differentiated ‘Marquees 2017’ at Goafest in April.
The Awards intend to recognise brands across categories for their excellence in marketing, building sustainable and path breaking brands. Chairing the jury for the awards in its debut year will be industry thought leader Sanjiv Mehta, CEO and managing director of Hindustan Unilever Limited.
Speaking about the Marquees awards, The Advertising Club president Raj Nayak said “Brands have an inspiring role to play in society and ‘Marquees 2017’ is a great initiative constituted towards recognizing marketers and their groundbreaking campaigns that have been a catalyst of social change. Sanjiv Mehta with his experience of leading a brand at the forefront of innovation and inclusivity is sure to bring great perspective and insight into the jury deliberation process for the debut edition of this unique award.”
Mehta said “This is a great initiative from Advertising Club which looks at awarding the excellence of marketers. With increasing competition, the holistic marketing of a brand is what plays a decisive role in making the brand a category game changer. Marquees is a step towards recognizing this excellence in marketing that requires a great blend of insight, instinct and resilience. I am glad to be chairing the Jury for the first ever Marquees and am looking forward to judging some cutting-edge initiatives.”
Speaking about the awards and Sanjiv Mehta chairing the awards jury, Marquees’ chairman Partho Dasgupta said, “To cater to evolved consumers who seek effective communication, brands today are challenged to create clutter breaking campaigns that set new benchmarks in marketing. Recognizing and felicitating such marketers and their ingenuity is the Marquees. The awards is one of those rare platforms that will honor not only the brand but the brand custodians for their ideas and innovation.”
Marquees is set to be a grand affair bringing together thought leaders and industry veterans from Advertising, Marketing and Media Fraternity. The awards endeavours to evaluate and recognize success of the brands by judging them basis not only just how they advertised across platforms, but also taking into account the important factors like the pricing, distribution and purpose the brand served for the consumers at the end of the day. The awards will adjudge brands and individuals across three classifications
‘Category Awards’ honouring inspiring work under the product categories of FMCG: Foods, FMCG: Beverages, FMCG: Personal Care, FMCG: Household Care, Auto: 2 wheelers, Auto: 4 wheelers, Household Durables, Mobile Devices, Mobile Services, Banking, Insurance, E-commerce
“Special Awards”, recognizing brands which have been brought alive through great story telling and exceptional and differentiated initiatives that have redefined the category. Some of the awards in the category are “Revival of a stagnant category”, “Re-inventing for the better”, “Carving out a niche”, “Riding on an emerging wave”, “The Phoneix”, “Conquering an impregnable fortress” and “Traversing unchartered waters”.
Marquees will also give away a coveted “Green Award” which aims to honour brands that have strived and conquered, by keeping a close focus on environment sustainability.
The debut edition of The Marquees which is expected to be attended by the who’s who of advertising, marketing, creative & media is slated to premiere in August, 2017.
Brands
Ekart expands IKEA partnership with EV deliveries in Chennai
3PL to handle 600 plus products with 48 hour delivery via EV fleet.
MUMBAI: Flatpacks are going electric and your sofa might now arrive with a smaller carbon footprint. Ekart has expanded its partnership with IKEA to power last-mile deliveries in Chennai, doubling down on speed, scale and sustainability in one of India’s key urban markets. Under the collaboration, Ekart will manage end-to-end large-format deliveries for IKEA across the city using a 100 per cent dedicated electric vehicle fleet. The move makes Chennai the second major market after NCR-Delhi where Ekart handles IKEA’s last-mile logistics, signalling a broader rollout of EV-led supply chains.
The mandate is no small load. Ekart will oversee deliveries for over 600 products from IKEA’s catalogue, ranging from furniture to home décor—categories that demand specialised handling and precision logistics.
Backed by its technology-driven fulfilment network, Ekart is targeting deliveries within a 48-hour window, offering real-time tracking and end-to-end visibility from warehouse to doorstep. The focus is clear: faster turnarounds without compromising on control or customer experience.
The EV-first model also aligns with both companies’ sustainability goals, as urban logistics increasingly shifts towards zero-emission solutions. For IKEA, which continues to expand its omnichannel presence in India, reliable and eco-conscious last-mile delivery is becoming central to scale.
For Ekart, the partnership reinforces its positioning as an enterprise-grade logistics player in large-format commerce. The company already supports over 1,800 retail, D2C and enterprise brands, spanning last-mile delivery, part-truckload services and warehousing.
As India’s logistics ecosystem evolves, this collaboration highlights a growing trend: delivery is no longer just about distance, it’s about efficiency, experience and increasingly, emissions.
