Srinivasan Swamy gets 'Distinguished Service Award' from Ad Club Madras

His father, the legendary RK Swamy, was honoured with the first Distinguished Service Award in 1994. Swamy is the sixth recipient of this prestigious award in the last 22 years

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | March 8, 2016

Advertising Club Madras, in its Diamond Jubilee year, presented the Distinguished Service Award to Srinivasan K Swamy, Chairman & Managing Director, RK Swamy BBDO. His father, the legendary RK Swamy, was honoured with the first Distinguished Service Award in 1994. Swamy is the sixth recipient of this prestigious award in the last 22 years.

The award was given to Swamy for his exceptional leadership and service to the Indian advertising industry.The award was presented by N Murali, Co-Chairman, The Hindu. The event held on March 3, 2016.

RV Rajan, Past President of Advertising Club and Founder President of Rural Marketing Agencies Association of India, Ramesh Narayan, Past President of AAAI, N Lakshmi Narayanan, Vice-Chairman, Cognizant, and DK Srinivasan, Honorary Secretary of Hindu Mission Hospital, felicitated Swamy on the occasion.

Advertising Club Madras President KR Skandaraaj welcomed the gathering and P Siva Prasad, Vice-president of the Club, proposed a vote of thanks.

Murali warmly congratulated 'Sundar', as Swamy is popularly known, on his outstanding achievement. Drawing a parallel between his father RK Swamy and him, Murali said that both worked for the industry in different economic environments. “By sheer dint of his abilities and fighting spirit, he (RK Swamy) breached that bastion when he took on the leadership role at AAAI. He was the first person from this part of the country to do so. The only second person to have done that is Sundar Swamy,” said Murali.

Ramesh Narayan mentioned that Goafest was the brainchild of Sundar Swamy. He also movingly spoke of the “human side” of Swamy. He said, “Sundar may have been unwelcome to Mumbai in the late 90s, but today he is the most popular there!”

In his acceptance speech, Swamy said that to him, this award was “the most coveted one” among the many awards he had received till now. As his contribution, he picked five aspects among many others to speak on.

The first was leading and building a relationship between IBF and AAAI as an “institution to institution” relationship and on an “equal” footing. He warmly recalled his role as Chairman of the joint industry body of IBF-AAAI for seven years and the camaraderie that was present between the executives from both sides.

The second contribution he listed was that of starting Goafest, and from day-one, how this was embraced by the constituents as a holistic festival comprising seminars, awards and fun place to be.

The third contribution that Swamy listed as meaningful was that of inviting media agencies to be part of AAAI under a Media forum which eventually led to their becoming members of AAAI. The fourth aspect highlighted by him was help set up the Confederation of Asian Advertising Agency Associations (CAAAA).

The fifth and last significant contribution of his, Swamy said, was transforming IAA from a low profile organisation in India to that of being recognised as the most active industry body not just in India, but globally as well.

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