Local talent setting excellence at international level

Malaysia – Awards organisers seem to nod their head in agreement that home-grown Malaysia talent in the marketing and creative industries is punching above its weight in the global arena and they are set to be recognised again.

Set for Dec 5 is the Direct Marketing Association of Malaysia (DMAM) Awards will recognise not just the best direct marketers but direct marketing students.

Tasked to organise this year’s DMAM Awards is G2 Direct Interactive (G2DI) and the team will be led by business head Sam Chan.

Chan, like many other organisers, says Malaysia is now seen as one of the better players, especially in global direct marketing.

“We have witnessed some world-class entries from DMAM Awards from the past years which clinched metals in regional and global award shows like DM Asia, DMA ECHO and at the Cannes.

“Hence every year, we will expect the competition to be tougher, with better submissions and new players,” Chan said.

With the theme ‘The bottom line in Direct Marketing’, the organisers are expecting a record number of quality entries this year.

“The bar is raised every year with increasingly innovated ideas and the deployment of more direct marketing and digital work by brands so we expect to see more entries, and more importantly of higher quality and better return on investments (ROI),” Chan adds.

DMAM President for 2007-2008 Sreedhar Subramaniam observes how conventional advertising delivery systems are being pushed to unlearn and relearn methods towards a sophisticated targeting and fulfilment.

“While digital media is an exciting new frontier, good old direct mail is still proving just as effective and capable of deploying good strategy,” he said.

The panel of eight judges for the DMAM Awards 2008 is being headed by Graham Kelly who is the executive creative director of TBWA/Tequila.

Vetting through the entries based on campaign strategy, creativity, results and ROI, Chan said the judges which comprise both agency and client representations, will look for the strength of concept, execution, impact and innovation.

“The judges were selected for their versatility and industry exposure. Collectively, their experience spans on direct marketing, brand building, loyalty programmes as well as digital direct marketing,” Chan adds.

The other judges are David Sin (Grey Direct Interactive), Fazlee Sabbaruddin (Rapp Collins), Lee Siew Tin (OgilvyOne Worldwide), Valerie Chen (Arc Worldwide), Sean Koh (Diageo), Paul McLean (Fuji Xerox Asia Pacific Pte Ltd) and Genista Tan Chieu from DiGi.

The Student Awards for Design, Advertising, Communications and Marketing students, is now open for submissions in five campaign categories – flat mail, dimensional mail, internet/interactive media, alternative media and web/digital media.