BuzzInContent Awards judging in full swing, shortlists to be announced this week

With the first round of judging by 20 content practitioners as Grand Jury members wrapping up today, BuzzInContent Awards 2020 is all set to announce its shortlists this week. The awards received more than 270 entries from over 65 companies (entrants) in an unprecedented tough economic environment.

The inaugural BuzzInContent Awards 2020, presented by Viacom18’s Tipping Point and supported by The Advertising Club, will be held online on Wednesday, December 9, 2020.

The fully automated and transparent judging process without any manual intervention will give the first finalists of the inaugural BuzzInContent Awards, which will be sent to the Executive Jury for the final round of judging.

Executive Jury:

1. Dilen Gandhi, Senior Director and Category Head, Foods, PepsiCo India

2. Asha Sekhar, Vice-President and Chief Digital Officer, India and South West Asia, Coca-Cola

3. Bhavana Mittal, Vice-President, Media and Digital, RPSG Group

4. Imran Qadri, Head - Marketing & Corporate Communications, Harley-Davidson India

5. Rajesh Kumar, B2B Marketing Leader, Startup Mentor, Board Advisor

6. Sumeet Singh, Chief Marketing Officer, Info Edge

7. Kartikeya Bhandari, Chief Marketing Officer, Livspace

8. Sapna Arora, Chief Marketing Officer, OLX

9. Karan Kumar, Chief Marketing Officer, DLF

10. Karan Shroff, Chief Marketing Officer, Unacademy

Grand Jury:

1. Madhav Nene, Senior General Manager, Marketing Services, Mahindra & Mahindra

2. Zameer Kochar, Vice-President, Marketing and Member Engagement, InterMiles

3. Khushboo Benani, Head of Content, Brand Advocacy, Influencer Marketing, Diageo India

4. Gayatri Makhijani, Lead, Media, Digital Marketing and Social Media, Intel India

5. Archana Tiwari Nayudu, Director, Content and Communications, upGrad

6. Rajasekar KS, GM, Marketing, Matrimony.com

7. Smita Murarka, Vice-President, Marketing, Duroflex Mattresses, India

8. Abhik Sanyal, Head, Consumer Marketing, DSP Investment Managers

9. Girish Bindal, Former Head of Content, Elara Technologies

10. Shamik Ghosh, VP, Marketing, Head of Content, Corporate Communications, Paisabazaar.com

11. Sunil Kumaran, Country Head, Thwink BIG

12. Dheeraj Kummar, National Creative Director, Brand and Consumer Experience, Motivator (GroupM)

13. Karthik Nagarajan, Chief Content Officer, Wavemaker

14. Kumar Deb Sinha, Country Head, Dentsu StoryLab

15. Sandeep Balan, Partner, Branded Content, Spring Marketing Capital

16. Darshan Bhatt, Director-  Global Digital Marketing, Wadhwani Foundation

17. Nishith Srivastava, Head, CMO Practice, Tech Mahindra

18. Madhura Ranade, Head Branded Content and Partnerships, Isobar India

19. Eshwari Pandit, Creative Director, Interactive Avenues

20. Divya Dixit, Senior Vice-President, Marketing, Analytics and Direct Revenue, ALTBalaji

The four-hour awards gala will see over 20 top leaders from the industry discussing and laying out the future outlook of content marketing, along with providing solutions for ongoing challenges.

The BuzzInContent Conversations have been divided into five sharp sessions (15 minutes each) that will have high-powered panels pondering upon the issues and challenges faced by the industry while highlighting the opportunities ahead.

The agenda for the BuzzInContent Conversations panels include:

- The art of creating troll-proof content

In these sensitive times, it's essential to maintain brand safety by creating content that doesn't attract a backlash. One doesn't really know what can cause pain to people. This mostly happens when one tries to be quirky or takes a stand on social causes. In such a situation, should the brand stand with its content or withdraw fearing flak? This session will have experts sharing their viewpoint on the topic.

- Is brands' gain = publishers’/creators' pain?

Whenever brands and publishers collaborate to work with each other, there is too much back and forth. At times, the brands either go overboard with brand integration in content, or they are very finicky about certain things. In the same way, publishers are not able to deliver what the brands want. This session will discuss the pain points of branded content partnerships and figure out the balance that is required for perfect long-term content partnerships.

- How will the 2020 crisis play a role in shaping content marketing strategy for the next year?

A common yet an important topic, in this session, leading content marketing practitioners will discuss how content marketing trends will evolve given the rocky times and the role it will play in the overall marketing playbook of the brands in 2021.

- ContentTECH: The art of balancing technology with a human touch in content marketing

Technology is need of the hour to enhance experience and delivery but can it actually do away the need for human touch? To what extent can we expand the capabilities and scope of technology in content marketing?

- Utilising influencer marketing beyond just being media channels

What will it take for influencers to evolve from a medium of distribution to a right content partner? This session will discuss the role that influencers should play in the content marketing strategy of brands and how creative can one get with it.

- What content marketers should keep in mind while exploring in-film branding

Brand integration in films is very expensive. Therefore, in order to get the most out of each rupee spent, many a time, brands go overboard with in-film integrations, thus hampering the audience’s content consumption experience. On the other hand, some brands are so cautious with the integration that they go unnoticed. In this session, Rudrarup Datta, Marketing Head, Viacom18 Studios, will showcase the art of weaving a brand into a piece of content. He will share insights and examples from Viacom18’s content studio Tipping Point’s case studies where brands got maximum ROI through content integration.

The thought leadership taking the centre stage to help the stream shape up further will be announced in the coming days.

Akansha Srivastava

Commenting on the topics for the sessions, Akansha Srivastava, Co-Founder and Editor, BuzzInContent.com, said, "Ever since its inception, BuzzInContent has been the foremost knowledge forum for the industry. The sessions have been designed in a way that they cover all the pain points content creators are facing. They are aimed towards providing a direction to the sector. Every session will have meaningful takeaways for all of us."

Niraj Sharma

Niraj Sharma, Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief, BuzzInContent.com, added, "The sessions, which will have the industry captains, will be kept very crisp. Each session will not be more than 15 minutes. We will soon announce the impressive list of speakers for the Content Conversations."