Rajat Jha of EssenceMediacom picked up the much-coveted Rising Star of the Year title at BestMediaInfo Rising Star Awards 2023 held at The Westin, Gurugram on Tuesday.
Jha received the shining High Chair trophy for the Thums Up campaign - 'Jab Bhi Khao Biryani, Make It TOOFANI with THUMS UP' from the industry stalwarts in the presence of an electrifying audience.
The contenders for the Rising Star of the Year were the Rising Stars behind outstanding works for iPhone, WhatsApp, Prime Video, Thar and Thums Up.
However, Jha had an edge of 0.36 points for the idea of creating a whole new fusion of food and beverage with his innovative thinking.
Jha was the winner of the High Chair trophy in the FMCG & Retail category.
The other big winners at the third edition of the Rising Star Awards were Omkar Gaikwad and Priyanka Arora of Interactive Avenues and Mindshare, respectively, who picked up two High Chair trophies each.
Aligned with the essence of the awards, Aaj Tak came on board as the Presenting Sponsor. Zee News, Manorama Online and Red FM joined as Associate Sponsors for the Rising Star Awards 2023.
Hosted by Red FM’s drama queen RJ Swati, the awards gala saw the who’s who of the industry coming together and cheering for the leaders of tomorrow.
With every award announcement, a houseful audience cheered, accompanied by the sounds of trumpet, creating an Emvies-like atmosphere in Delhi.
Speaking about the awards, Niraj Sharma, Editor-in-Chief, BestMediaInfo.com, said, “Rising Star Awards began its journey with an aim to become an industry event and it has successfully established itself as the most sought-after industry event in Delhi-NCR. The industry leaders judged and honoured 42 rising stars with 45 awards. We just provided a platform. We said so many times during the gala that all 42 professionals were winners for us as the Finalists missed the trophies by some fraction of points. That’s the nature of the competition. I’m sure they will aim for the High Chair next year.”
Talking about the robust and transparent judging process, Akansha Srivastava, Editor, BestMediaInfo.com, said, “13 media heads and CMOs contributed with their time and went through over 250 entries. Each entry was sent to multiple judges. To be precise, at least five judges. The jury then submitted their scores against four criteria. Then the rule of averaging was applied to decide the winner across each category. From entries to the list of winners, everything was fully automated.”
Here’s a complete list of the winners:
Entrant name |
Work title |
Agency |
Award |
Business Categories |
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Category - Automobile |
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Vaishnavi Vivek Kamath |
Demand Forecaster - A tool for predicting market responsiveness for the launch of Mahindra XUV 400 EV |
Lodestar UM |
Finalist |
Omkar Gaikwad |
Mahindra Thar presents #ExploreTheImpossible |
Interactive Avenues |
High Chair |
Category - Banking & Finance |
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Ayushi Jain |
Happy New Home With PNB Housing Finance |
DDB Mudra Group |
Finalist |
Nitish Kumar |
Stashfin PPC |
Arm Worldwide |
High Chair |
Category - Consumer Durables |
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Aditya Pandit |
Intercepting the Consumer Buying Journey with Intel Evo |
Carat |
Finalist |
Vibha Amaresh J |
One Plus 11- Out of the box unboxing experience |
Initiative India |
Finalist |
Shubhra Sharma |
VIVO X90 Series Launch - XploreTheUnexplored |
EssenceMediacom |
Finalist |
Naina Arora |
Media Strategy Excellence: iPhone 15 Launch in Consumer Durables |
Carat |
High Chair |
Category - E-Commerce |
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Madhurima Chatterjee |
Using TV like a performance platform to build efficiency at scale, for the 1st time ever |
Starcom |
Finalist |
Rony Joseph |
Amazon: ‘Aaj Kya Khareeda’ (Chaser Ads) |
Initiative India |
Finalist |
Darshan Chowksey |
Intel Ecommerce, maximizing sales and venturing into the unknown |
Carat |
High Chair |
Category - Fashion & Lifestyle |
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Devaprasad Rajshekhar |
Budweiser - It's Yours to Take - FIFA Campaign |
Starcom |
Finalist |
Jaskiran Kaur |
adidas Always On Performing Campaigns |
EssenceMediacom |
High Chair |
Category - FMCG & Retail |
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Shweta Sharma |
Creambell - (Milkshake) |
DDB Mudra Group |
|
Jyotsna Srivastava |
Maggi Hot & Sweet Sauces – Swipe to Snack Right! |
Zenith India |
Finalist |
Ankita Shirsolkar |
Identifying & Activating High Value Audience for Johnson’s Baby to Drive Brand Consideration |
Lodestar UM |
Finalist |
Rajat Jha |
Jab Bhi Khao Biryani, Make it TOOFANI with THUMS UP |
EssenceMediacom |
High Chair |
Category - Health |
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Nishant Pati |
Ahaglow Launch Campaign |
Zenith India |
High Chair |
Category - Media & Entertainment |
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Lakshitha Binnu Kumar |
Amazon Prime Video's 'Farzi' launch |
Initiative India |
Finalist |
Kanishka Khandelwal |
WhatsApp Changes Public Perception, privately! |
Starcom |
Finalist |
Adithya Vaprath |
The Rings of Power: Setting Records and Building Worlds for Amazon Prime Video |
Initiative India |
Finalist |
Avni Kanakia |
#PrivacyUnplugged for WhatsApp |
Starcom |
Finalist |
Piyush Dubey |
WhatsApp Endeavors to Reshape how Individuals Perceive Privacy |
Starcom |
High Chair |
Category - Travel & Hospitality |
|||
Niharika dixit |
Fly with Jazeera |
DDB Mudra Group |
Finalist |
Rumjhum Jaiswal |
Goibibo pe hazaar baar bole, best deals mein hai swag aur flat 1000 off ka tag! |
EssenceMediacom |
Finalist |
Isha Sachdeva |
From Awareness to Bookings: Vistara's Digital Triumph in Launching Pune to Singapore Route |
Zenith India |
High Chair |
Category - Real Estate |
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Ankit Nalotia |
Perfect Match |
Mo Mantra |
High Chair |
Category - Telecom & IT |
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Entrant name |
Work title |
Agency |
|
Raj Bhayani |
Intel EVO 13th Gen Campaign – Driving consideration. |
Carat |
Finalist |
Shubhangi Mehta |
Embracing the Unseen: A Journey Through 'Uncovering the Dark Side of the Moon' Campaign |
Soroco |
Finalist |
Ajay C |
Launching the IT Heroes 3.0 - Intel vPro Laptop |
Carat |
High Chair |
Category - Gaming |
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Tejveer Singh Bhamb |
The “most-convincing” game EVER! |
Carat |
High Chair |
Special Categories |
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Category - Best Strategy - Television |
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Anusree Nair |
Jiocinema IPL TV Campaign - DIGITAL INDIA KA DIGIT... |
GroupM |
High Chair |
Category - Best Strategy - Digital (Search) |
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Yash D Bhanushali |
Skoda SOV campaign across Google Search & Lead Gen... |
PHD |
Finalist |
Atishay Agrawal |
Home Centre D2C | Redirecting to an Omni-Channel P... |
Mindshare |
High Chair |
Category - Best Strategy - Digital (Programmatic) |
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Omkar Gaikwad |
Mahindra Thar presents #ExploreTheImpossible |
Interactive Avenues |
High Chair |
Category - Best Strategy - Digital (Social) |
|||
Priyanka Arora |
Transforming Premium Laundry's Growth Strategy |
Mindshare |
High Chair |
Category - Best Strategy - Digital (Integrated) |
|||
Malvika Bakshi |
Rupeek Integrated Activity |
Motivator |
High Chair |
Category - Best Strategy - Digital (Performance) |
|||
Priyanka Arora |
Transforming Premium Laundry's Growth Strategy |
Mindshare |
High Chair |
Category - Best Strategy - Branded Content |
|||
Anukriti Som |
INSPIRING HOMEMAKERS TO DO MORE, TO BE MORE - Britannia MarieGold My Startup TV show IP |
Mindshare |
Finalist |
Jayashree Sriram |
MTV Hustle-Yamaha Call of the Blue Anthem |
Motivator |
High Chair |
Category - Best Strategy - Mobile |
|||
Aayushi Patil |
Škoda Slavia x Swiggy - 5 Star GNCAP Rating Campaign |
PHD Media |
High Chair |
Category - Best Strategy - Best Use of AI |
|||
MEGHANA HS |
AI driven strategy elevates share of voice for Him... |
Motivator |
High Chair |
Category - Best Strategy - Managing media in limited budget |
|||
Vivek Toprani |
Electrolux India Digital Launch |
PHD India |
High Chair |
Category - Best Strategy - Use of data |
|||
Meghna Khandelwal |
THE WORLD’S BIGGEST FOOTBALL PARTY IS BACK !! |
GroupM |
High Chair |
Rising Star of the Year |
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Rajat Jha |
Jab Bhi Khao Biryani, Make it TOOFANI with THUMS UP |
EssenceMediacom |
High Chair |