New disciplines. New categories.
And the return of the Kyoorius Media Awards.

After comprehensive dialogue with our jurors, and leading think-tanks of the Indian marketing industry, Kyoorius has also re-calibrated the Kyoorius Digital Awards to increase relevance, keep pace, and truly celebrate the digital sphere like never before.

And there are revamped and new categories at the Kyoorius Advertising Awards that aim to recognise the agility in execution, collaboration, and increasing scope of work demanded and created by agencies, individuals, and freelancers.

The ‘Kyoorius Shadow Juror Program’ to spot and develop the industry’s creative leaders of the future has returned as well. Meet the Shadow Jurors.

What’s new at #KCA22?

Ethically and with the highest standards, the Kyoorius Creative Awards recognise, honour and award the most outstanding creative work in the Indian marketing communications sphere.

Presented by ZEE, the 2022 Kyoorius Creative Awards aim to create a truly neutral and transparent platform to reward the best in Indian advertising, media and digital creativity.

#KCA22

Zee Equality Award
presented by
Indian Creative Women

Created in collaboration with Indian Creative Women, the Purple Elephant recognises and rewards work that has addressed and impacted gender inequality in India through innovative thinking. The work may include powerful representation of gender, and should set out to create a positive impactful change.

In its quest for gender equality, and in collaboration with Indian Creative Women, Kyoorius has also added a new guideline to the judging process from this year on. This guideline aims to filter out any work that objectifies women, shows overt sexualization, has unrealistic beauty standards and shows women in harmful gender stereotypes. Jury members can decide if the work is sexist beyond the above-mentioned considerations too.

Yes, there are NO fees to enter the Zee Equality Award.

Meet The Jury

Deepika Warrier
CMO, Diageo India

Deepika Warrier leads the Marketing function at Diageo India. As Chief Marketing Office, Deepika oversees marketing and innovation for Diageo India’s wide range of award-winning alcohol and beverage portfolio. An experienced marketer known for her consumer centric and transformational approach, she has over the years played a pivotal role in building brands and driving double digit growth. Deepika has an outstanding track record of over 25 years in the industry.

Josy Paul
Chairman & CCO, BBDO India

Josy started BBDO India from the backseat of his car in 2008. In 2016, he was named ‘Creative Agency Head of The Year’ by the Indian Advertising Association (IAA). He was inducted into Advertising Club Calcutta's Hall of Fame in 2020. He is ranked among the most influential people in Indian advertising - according to The Economic Times. Josy and his team won the inaugural Glass Lion Grand Prix at Cannes in 2015 for Whisper ‘Touch The Pickle’. They also won the Cannes Lion Gold in 2015, 2016 and 2017 for Ariel ‘Share The Load’.

Palki Sharma
Executive Editor, WION (World Is One News)

Palki Sharma is an award-winning journalist and the Executive Editor of WION, India’s only international news channel. She hosts a prime time news and views show called Gravitas, that tracks and comments on all the big developments around the world. With a tagline that says ‘making sense of the news’, Gravitas has brought logical, research-based conversations minus rhetoric rhetoric back to television.

Ranjani Krishnaswamy
General Manager Marketing, Titan Company Ltd

A passionate Brand Builder with 16 years of experience in Marketing Leadership Roles. She considers herself fortunate to have journeyed a rich, diverse spectrum of Markets (Developed & Emerging economies), Roles (national, regional and global), Brands (Mature as well as Nascent); managed product as well as service, led brand innovation & renovation projects; in large complex as well as small nimble teams.

Sheran Mendiratta Mehra
Chief Brand Officer, Head of Product Design & Content, Tata Digital

A marketer by profession for over 20 years and a distance runner for over 10, Sheran’s passion has been to create experiences and translate insights into ideas. Sheran has successfully lead marketing strategy and thought leadership for some of the leading brands in India. She has a unique cross industry and cross category experience, including devising and implementing the marketing & brand strategy (launch – transition- development), media relations and CSR & social entrepreneurship at various organisations.

Key Information

Dates & Cost Per Entry

Entries opened 7 March 2022.

The Phase 1 Deadline was 14 April 2022.
Each entry was priced at INR 8,500 + GST.

The Phase 2 Deadline was 21 April 2022.
Each entry was priced at INR 11,500 + GST.

The Phase 3 and final Deadline was 25 April 2022.
Each entry was priced at INR 14,500 + GST.

The Kyoorius Creative Awards Night is on 17 June 2022.

Who judges #KCA22?

As always, Kyoorius curated a world-class jury comprising international and Indian creative and marketing leaders.
Meet the jurors.

Meet The #KCA22 Jury

Aalap is currently the CCO of Taproot Dentsu and isobar. While working at India's best mainline and digital agencies, Aalap has developed a profile that is truly integrated. He has won over 170 International & National awards that include Cannes Lions, D&AD, Spikes and One Show.

Ajay is a writer with more than twenty years of experience in the advertising business, nearly 14 of those in Ogilvy. He has worked on brands across all categories over the years. Some prominent ones are Royal Stag, Voltas air conditioners, Imperial Blue whisky, and more.

Anil is responsible to drive a consolidated snacking strategy with holistic management of all marketing levers, that includes Insights, Analytics, Equity, Innovation and Activation, in line with Mondelez International’s "Local first, but not Local only" approach to business.

Anusheela has over 16 years of passionately creating ads and ideas, her creative mind can sassily move from million-dollar brands to the ones started at garage shops. And when she sets her heart to an idea she will make sure it sees the light of the day.

Arnab has been with The Coca-Cola Company for more than 20 years with experiences in building brands with an integrated business mindset. He has built teams and led marketers across multiple geographies and cultures in Global and Regional roles.

One of a kind skin in game creative consulting firm with an investment arm. Previously he was the Chief Creative Officer and Chairman of India’s leading advertising agency, Lowe Lintas. Arun has creatively impacted multiple brands in this country.

Arvind RP is a senior business leader with over 20 years of cross-category experience, with proven success in driving sales, E-commerce, strategic planning, brand building, category management & innovations, CRM & digital marketing.

Atiya is a creative who loves to create. She has over 20 years of experience in the advertising industry. She is the first Pakistani woman to be selected for Cannes Lions See it Be it program, D&AD’s Rare creative program and also the Pitch magazines’ 100 Superwomen list 2019.

Bobby Pawar is allergic to math, but his numbers aren’t half bad. He is a 2-time copywriter of the year. He’s among the most awarded creatives from India. He was Campaign Asia’s Creative Person of the Year (2011) for India and South Asia. And is consistently ranked among the most influential and creative people in India.

Charu Menon has produced hundreds of high-end TVCs and short-form commercial content across Australia and SEA for global brands including Nike, Pepsi, IBM, SKII, and Tinder to name a few. Her work has been recognised at D&AD, Cannes Lions, Adstars, AWARD Award, Spikes Asia and the CCAs.

Chocka stumbled into advertising when Chennai was still Madras. He had some adventurous stints everywhere he went. The day he realised he was becoming unemployable, he OPN'ed his best innings yet. Today, fans across the world love to whistle every time an IPL team in yellove enters the ground. And OPN is to be blamed for it partially.

Creative highs for Delna have come in all shapes and sizes, from Gold Lions to Blue Elephants and Graphite Pencils. There’s also been recognition at the #Femvertising Awards, Spikes and Effies along the way. She’s made the list of Women Who’ve Changed the Face of Media and the 50 most Influential Women (2 years in a row!)

She was handpicked to be part of the team to branch out with Mullen Lintas, MLLG’s second agency, which was re-launched in 2015. Spearheading the Creative lead as the Executive Creative Director for the Mumbai Branch for Mullen Lintas, showcasing a diverse portfolio of brands.

Harshada started her career at FCB India before moving to Ogilvy. In 2018, she was one of the 20 women across the world, chosen for the Cannes Lions See It Be It program. With an experience of over 14 years, Harshada's work has won recognition, internationally and nationally.

Hemant has been named the Creative Person of the Year, South Asia (2021 & 2016), and an emerging leader of Asia. He was also the 13th most awarded ECD in the world. He has bagged close to two hundred metals in the last two years alone.

With over 20 years of experience, John has been around most major global brands directing their films, campaign, and creatives. Today his focus are towards the unconventional way of bringing Art and Tech together for better production pipeline.

Kainaz believes great ideas can drive business and impact social change. She has led her team to win over 40 Global Metals - Cannes Golds, One Show Gold, One Show Asia, D&AD White Pencil, Spikes, the coveted Cannes Glass Lion and Asia’s first Cannes Grand Prix for Creative Effectiveness.

Passionate about redefining how brands move consumers, he has built teams responsible for acclaimed firsts as diverse as Foot Locker’s Sneakerpedia, Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty, British Airways’ Johnny Foreigner campaign and Samsung’s #BeFearless.

In a career spanning nearly 3 decades, Malvika has successfully partnered with clients in building famous brands across agencies like Ogilvy, Grey, Dentsu and her independent venture Tomorrow Creative Lab. Malvika stands bang in the middle of a left brain and right brain thinker.

Maya Krishnan is the Creative Director and Head of Video Promo at Disney+ Hotstar.

As the SVP of global brand, Mayur drives the agenda of matching creative excellence with business performance. Having worked on many of the world's biggest brands like Coca-Cola, Domino's, TrueCaller, MasterCard, Reckitt, National Geographic and more.

With an overall industry experience of 16 years, spanning the Middle East & North Africa, Asia-Pacific and India, Nayaab has been responsible for memorable campaigns across brands like Mastercard, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, HSBC, Kraft, Volkswagen, Mercedes Benz, and more.

Nisha is an award-winning writer-director, illustrator and animator who most recently made it to the Top 30 shortlist for the Cannes Lion See It Be It programme in 2020. She works across mixed-media formats to create a quirky narrative style.

For over 15 years now, Pallavi Chakravarti has worked on a list of clients that include global players such as Facebook, Uber, P&G, Unilever, General Mills, Pepsi, American Tourister and Airtel as well as local giants like Times of India, Marico, ITC, Star Sports and Eureka Forbes Limited.

He has an experience of 32 years and has led large multinational agencies including Grey Worldwide and Cheil Worldwide - nationally, regionally, and even globally. His work includes Incredible India (Tourism), Next is What for Samsung Mobiles, plus over 200 other brands.

Rahul Mathew is hopelessly in love with our business of creativity. He still can’t believe that we get paid to think the outrageous and create the unexpected. Ever since he took over the creative reins, the creative product of the DDB Mudra Group has never looked better.

After spending almost two decades at Ogilvy and creating some of India’s most memorable campaigns, Rajiv joined Nirvana films as a director. Rajiv believes in the power of simplicity, especially in the complex cultural landscape that is India.

Robby is an engineering college dropout with a degree in marketing. He started his career with Bayer India as a marketing man. Thereafter the urge of looking at things differently and opportunities of thinking out of the box led him into embarking on a career in copywriting.

Roshan Abbas is an entrepreneur, author, film & theatre director, TV and radio host, podcaster, producer, but most of all, a storyteller. A stalwart in the Indian media industry, he has always been ahead of the curve – pioneering innovation across platforms and mediums.

Santosh Padhi started his advertising career 25 years back. He started his career with DDB Mudra, then a 10-year stint at Leo Burnett. He founded Taproot in 2009 and after 12 wonderful years of creative success, he decided to detach from the agency and join Wieden+Kennedy India group.

Like pretty much anyone who sees an ad, Satbir once saw one and thought ‘hey, I can write that’. A law student then, he wrote a copy test or two and a quarter-century later, he still marvels at how many times more lawyers are rumoured to make. He is the Founder & CCO of Thinkstr.

Senthil’s advertising roller coaster ride began 20 years ago when he switched lanes from Rocket Science to Common Sense. One of the most awarded Indian creatives, his campaigns are recognised globally. At Wunderman Thompson, he has been a spearhead of the creative turnaround.

For the last year and a half, she has been a part of the country marketing leadership team that is responsible for defining Netflix India’s marketing strategy and approach. Entrusted with sparking, amplifying and shaping conversations for brand Netflix and its much-loved films, series and talent.

For someone who hasn't had a formal training - and is a college drop-out to boot - Shashanka aka Bob hasn't done too badly for himself. The director of Good Morning Films has worked on over 100 commercials in India. Bob is the winner of numerous awards including 2 Gold Lions at Cannes and a Grand Prix at Spikes Asia.

Sukesh Nayak joined Ogilvy in 2000 and has grown to become one of the most respected, most sought-after creative partners at Ogilvy. Over the years, he has won over 400 national and international awards, including accolades at Effies, AMEs, Kyoorius, Adfest, Spikes, D&AD, One Show, London International Awards and Cannes.

He’s a multi-award-winning creative director—Cannes, One Show, Clio, Spikes, Grand Effie—and a builder of brands. His alter ego is The English Nut—a social media avatar who is ‘nuts about English because English is nuts’. He’s a columnist and commentator on communication and branding; a wannabe photographer; and an actor too.

Tara has worked at agencies such as McCann, Dentsu and Leo Burnett, served on a few juries and won a couple of awards. She's even dominated creative competitions, and represented her country at Young Lions - Cannes Lions, Young Lotus - ADFEST, Young Spikes - Spikes Asia and Dentsu Tokyo's YIW 2018.

She happens to be one of the very few, most awarded female CCO in the region with over 25 years of experience. Today she’s known for creating her own version of a network agency - one that focuses on supporting talented women across the globe, whilst producing work for brands to lead by example.

Advertising

In 2015, he co-founded Schbang and went on to work with several domestic and international brands like the Godrej Group, Pidilite, Castrol, Asian Paints, Baskin Robbins, L’Oreal and Philips, to name a few with a team of over 800 talented, young minds across Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore.

Charles Victor stumbled into Advertising about 25 years ago while looking for a part-time job to fuel his lifestyle and to give him time to decide what he wanted to do with his life. Through his career he has worn all possible hats in the business and refuses to stop juggling a few of them even now.

Kunj is an experienced global advertising and communications leader with a proven track record as a writer, creative director and brand custodian at O&M, DDB & McCann. Her work has earned awards and accolades in creativity and effectiveness, including Cannes, Effies and Adfest.

16 years of advertising has given her more life stories than she could have ever imagined. Her journey in this mad ad world has been quite uncommon – she tested the waters in a BTL agency, a radio station, and finally arrived at a place she calls home – Digital.

Digital

PG Aditya was the NCD of Dentsu Webchutney. His teams helped score the highest tally for India at Cannes Lions & Spikes Asia, The One Show, winning the Kyoorius Black Elephant two years in a row, and he won title of "Creative Person of the year" by Campaign in 2019.

Shikha is an ex-advertising writer who moved to the brand side in 2015. She's a huge advocate of brands nurturing creativity from the inside, and of creative talent taking a seat at the table of business decisions. She's currently Head of Creative at Slice.

At 19, Sidharth started Webchutney, as its co-founder and CEO. Ranked as India’s #1 digital agency for eight years by the Economic Times & Brand Equity, Webchutney works with some of the leading brands and companies in India.

Surjo Dutt is the CCO at FCB India. He joined FCB in 2016 as National Creative Director. In his previous role, he was heading creative for specialist digital agency Sapient Nitro. Dutt combines over two decades of advertising experience across both mainline and digital.

He was the founding member of ensemble, the creative content outfit of Mediabrands where he grew it from a 4-man team into one of Malaysia’s top agencies, picking up 2 of Malaysia’s largest accounts along the way and becoming the first agency to win Malaysian Effies Agency of the Year 3 years in a row.

Aditi Mishra is the Chief Executive Officer of Lodestar UM. She started as a Management Trainee and has worn many a hat over the years, driving large client relationships in a business role to leading Strategy and Product as the Chief Strategy Officer of Lodestar UM for the last 10 years.

With over 2 decades of experience in the media and marketing industry, Anita has had the privilege to work across established categories. At Carat in India, she leads the responsibility for client management, driving strategic thinking on client’s business that drive business results.

Divya Karani is South Asia CEO, dentsu media and Board Director at dentsu Advertising & Media Services and dentsu Communication India. Led dentsu media to become the #1 agency, RECMA February 2021, scaling up business on a market-beating trajectory, year-on-year in these past 10 years.

With 25 years of rich experience, Kartik is a proven thought leader and expert in communication planning, behavioural economics, media research, analytics, and technology. A leader with a reputation for establishing and sustaining long-term client relationships, he firmly believes in the power of collaboration.

Media

In a world that is changing faster than any of us can quite get used to, business needs people who can not only see the next change coming, but can also explain it to the rest of us. Sue is one of these rare people. Sue has been ahead of the curve for three decades, and remains at the forefront of the industry’s evolution.

Over the past two decades, Swati has played a key role in growing global Media & Tech businesses like Netflix, National Geographic & Fox in India. Today, she is an advisor to a host of consumer tech brands from large scale unicorns to early stage start ups in their journey to build sustainable businesses and meaningful brands.

The Kyoorius Shadow Juror Program

Aabhaas is an award-winning visual artist and Creative Director who has lead work for brands such as Facebook, MTV, Vice Asia, Puma, Red Bull and more. He has won several international accolades with work that has had global impact.

Aazar is an Associate Creative Director trying not to get distracted by social media while working on the same. Chasing gazelles of inspiration with leopard-like efficiency & elephant-like perseverance.

As our contribution to helping talented young professionals, and finding the next creative leaders, Kyoorius launched the ‘Kyoorius Shadow Juror Program.’ Under this program, each juror nominates one young professional as a 'Shadow Juror’. The ‘Shadow Jurors’ will be able to watch the entire jury deliberations, but will not be able to comment or interrupt the proceedings.

Abhimanyu has been a copywriter for over 7 years and a musician for over 10. During his stints at DDB Mudra, FCB Ulka, and Dentsu Impact, he's worked on multiple noteworthy campaigns for brands picking up some awards along the way.

Having joined Schbang in its infancy years, he has seen it grow from a quiet newborn to a noisy 7-year-old that sits on lists such as India's Top 25 Startups (LinkedIn 2021) and India's Growth Champions (Economic Times 2020).

Aishwarya Sundaram is currently handling the Burger and Meals portfolio. She has led multiple campaigns in the past 3 and half years and contributed towards strengthening the brand and business performance.

She is a bridge. Not literally, no! A bridge between business and creativity. Consumers and insights. Problem and solution. And she has a top view of the currents in and outside advertising.

Akash is responsible for the social platform strategy as well as regional audience development. Film school taught him how to tell a story but his time at Buzzfeed taught him how to tell a story that truly connects.

A creative professional navigating the advertising world with only one north star - say something different. He has produced memorable work like The 8-Bit Journo for VICE Media and #AgentIncognito for Sony Pictures India.

He started his career in Ogilvy as a Copywriter. Having spent 10 years in this industry, advertising continues to inspire, provoke, amaze and shock him. Thinking of ideas and then seeing them come alive is one of the irreplaceable joys of life.

"Adpur", as he famously goes by, credits his name to a century-old village with one profession - advertising. Correction. That's a work of fiction by a 1st-generation ad-man, for his next-gen to spread as folklore.

Divya now leads creative strategy at The Coca Cola Company for the Nutrition Category INSWA. Over her 15 year career, she has helped build brands across various stages of their growth and has won many effectiveness awards for her campaigns.

Jamuna is a Creative Director, Illustrator and a True Crime Documentary enthusiast. (Yes, being a Creative Director is a real job!) She has spent the last 16 years crafting advertising that engages and entertains for top brands.

An Associate Creative Director at DDB Mudra, Mahima has helped build some of the agency’s biggest global businesses with work that’s won at Kyoorius and Spikes Asia. She has made it to Impact Magazine’s Top 30 under 30 list, twice in a row.

Almost a decade-old in advertising, she has worked extensively on legacy brands like Colgate-Palmolive and P&G, and helped launch some new ones like Taneira and AndTV.

Sagar is a Sr. Creative Director at Ogilvy Mumbai. In his career span of 12 years, he has won many international and national awards. He was named one of the India's most awarded creative at the 2020 Campaign Brief Asia Creative Rankings.

Shantanu Anand is passionate about storytelling, poetry, and the performance arts. He works at Kommune, an organisation that exists to discover great art and artists, build unique intellectual properties, and help brands tell their stories better.

Vinay has made light work of cracking award winning ideas intentionally and puns unintentionally. His count of awards is a bit more than the word limit for this bio. Thank God for word limits because he’ll be the first person to agree it’s weird talking about yourself in the third person.

An explorer by nature, she has traveled through the mysterious winding paths of design, psychology and advertising; starting her creative journey at Saatchi and Saatchi, growing in Gravitas, and now honing her skills at Leo Burnett.

After dabbling in Chartered Accountancy, Krishnan joined advertising by pure happenstance. From learning to walk the office dog to writing client's 20th wedding anniversary letter to spouse, he's done it all in his little stint in the mad ad-world.

With over 18 years of experience in advertising, Nikhil still believes life comes before advertising, always. He brought home India's first D&AD Yellow Pencil and has been awarded across international and Indian advertising platforms.

Rajani is a Passion Maker whose day job is about being an Art Director. She is a Young Spikes winner, a young mom and the youngest Associate Creative Director in FCB India.

Sandipan is the youngest ACD in isobar, who has led digital creative work for brands like Trigger Happy, MTV, Bosch, Visa and more. His insight-driven ideas have helped him win several accolades and awards in the last 4 years.

Smit is an award winning art director with 14 years of experience, split almost equally between India and the Middle East. He has worked at agencies across the spectrum and on brands across categories.

Coming from Prayagraj, a city synonymous with politics, poets, and Bollywood plot points, Vinay went on to study advertising and management from a business school in Delhi before choosing copywriting as the only way to make money while pursuing his passion for writing.

Having more than 100 awards to his credit which also includes D&AD, One Show, Cannes Lion, LIA, Spikes, Kyoorius, Ashok believes that advertising is one of the few active careers where one always stands as good as his last idea. So 'Keep Thinking'.

With 8 years of experience in media planning and integrated strategy, she has worked on key E-Commerce, FMCG, BFSI and retail brands. She currently front the media strategy vertical at CARAT and as an integrated media strategist.

He has been working for 20 years in the advertising market as a creative and content professional. His career includes passages in agencies such as Jotacom The Cross Performance Agency, Proximity BBDO, Grey Group, G2, Rapp Brazil, Sunset and Salem.

Krithika loves all things design and believes that it is a universal skill across multiple fields. She loves advertising design - both traditional media and social and has recently started expanding her skill set to include Motion Graphics and UX/UI.

Nikita found her calling in art and design very early on in life and has been gaining experience in varied creative fields since then. 3 years back, entered the world of digital advertising and plans to stick around exploring this land of endless possibilities.

Over 12 years of experience in advertising, across Kolkata and Mumbai. 10 years with the Ogilvy Group. Have successfully worked on brands such as Vodafone, Tata Steel, ITC, Wild Stone, ACC Cements, and more.

Satabhisa is a writer with 7 years of experience in journalism, advertising and digital marketing. She joined OYO back in 2019 and has scripted its brand narrative while it transformed from a hospitality brand to a tech company.

Vaibhav settled for a job where he gets paid to write. And he has been doing it for 14 years now. The first 10 in India and the rest in the Middle East. He has been lucky to win countless awards across all award shows.

With "Don't think too much, just have faith in your filtered down, fully thought out ideas" as his mantra, Zahir's self-belief, confidence and (some would say) delusion has allowed him to create some of the best awards and pitch-winning campaigns for brands like KFC, Astro, and more.

Harshil is a Copy Supervisor at BBDO India. He has worked with brands like Idea 4G, WhatsApp, Visa, Glenmark etc. Cognitive dissonance is his constant companion. Be it any time of the day, he is always up for tea, breakfast, and content.

Lalson comes with extensive experience in dabbling with tech, motion and art – from strategy to creative direction. He is an artist who believes in problem solving in the most aesthetic manner with his oeuvre having brands like Samsung, MG Motors, etc.

Nisheeth looks at a business and its communication with more than just one lens. He believes brands and their advertising have the power to take a stand and shape a more inclusive future through their consumers.

Saagarika has been an ‘ad girl’ for almost 7 years now. Swiggy has her writing for a bit of everything, while showing her the numbers against it all. Her body of work spans across long copy, fun films, strong social media activations, and more.

Shalmali is a rare one-agency person, going from trainee to Associate Creative Director at DDB Mudra, since she first joined the place 8 years ago. She strongly believes in the power of advertising and looks forward to creating an impact by her contribution.

After getting a bachelor’s degree in economics Varun decided to go into advertising because one can’t be too creative with economics. He believes, fitting in with the other misfits of society, was the best decision he took.

A storyteller and a theatre artist turned advertiser who loves to create while walking between the realms of emotion and humour. Over the last 7 years, he has lead and been a part of campaigns and launches of some of the most iconic local and international brands.

2022 KYOORIUS CREATIVE AWARDS