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 further collaboration with Indian Creative Women, Kyoorius has also added a new guideline for the judging process. 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.
The first-ever Purple Elephants were awarded at the #KCA21 Awards Night.
Meet The Jury
Asha Kharga
Chief Customer & Brand Officer,
Mahindra Group
Asha Kharga is the Chief Customer & Brand Officer for the Mumbai-based Mahindra Group. She is the Chairperson of the Group & Diversity Council and serves on the Boards of several companies, including the publicly traded Mahindra Lifespaces Developers. She is also amongst the top 25 leaders of the 2,60,000 + employees of the Group and is a part of the Group Executive Board. Asha heads the Group’s Corporate Brand and Communications portfolio. As a part of her larger mandate, she oversees Cultural Outreach Initiatives, the Strategic Digital Intelligence Cell, and Crisis Management. She is also responsible for building two COEs – one on Customer Experience and the other is the Customer Data Platform – the largest repository of the entire Group’s customer data that offers customer analytics to drive business impact for Group Companies.
Hepzibah Pathak
Vice Chairperson & Chief Client Officer,
Ogilvy India
Hephzibah Pathak is currently Vice Chairperson & Chief Client Officer, at Ogilvy India, and a member of the Ogilvy India Board. She has lived in advertising for nearly three decades. 25 of these years have been with Ogilvy. Prior to her current role, she was Global Brand Director, National Advertising Head and ran Ogilvy Mumbai, Ogilvy India’s flagship office, for nearly 5 years. As Chief Client Officer, she works across key global and local brands in India - Vodafone Idea, Mondelez, Unilever, YUM Foods, TCCC, and KCL to name a few. She is deeply involved in driving Ogilvy India’s growth agenda. In line with the corporate vision, she is at the forefront of partnering with clients through deep engagement and is transforming the agency offering to provide modern marketing and communication solutions. Her most complex assignment was leading the Hutch to Vodafone migration across 23 telecom circles in India.
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 the 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’. He also won the Cannes Lion Gold in 2015, 2016 and 2017 for Ariel ‘Share The Load’ - ranked as the world’s most effective campaign by WARC two years in a row - 2017 and 2018. Josy was also awarded the inaugural creative effectiveness Gold Lion at Cannes in 2011 for his campaign ‘Women Against Lazy Stubble’ for Gillette. Josy and his partner Ajai Jhala pioneered the idea of brand movements in 2008 with their philosophy ‘Create acts, not ads’. .Before setting up BBDO India, Josy set up the challenger agency for Ogilvy in June 2000 and called it ‘David’. David is now a worldwide network.
Sonali Malaviya
Chief Strategy & Transformation Officer,
EssenceMediacom - South Asia
Sonali Malaviya is the Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer at EssenceMediacom, South Asia. In early 2023, Essence and MediaCom joined forces to launch an innovative and new global agency designed to help clients grow in a rapidly evolving media landscape. EssenceMediacom will infuse the digital strategy, data-driven creative, analytics, and technology capabilities of Essence with MediaCom’s world- class-scaled multichannel, audience planning and strategic media expertise. Sonali plays a powerful role in driving the integration of the digital and data-driven DNA of Essence with Mediacom’s multichannel, audience planning and strategic media expertise, facilitating client growth globally through an agile response to an ever-evolving media Landscape. Sonali has a deep conviction for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the workplace, having personally led agency and group-wide initiatives to embed the same. In 2021, Sonali was elevated to MD of Essence India.
Sumeli Chatterjee
Head - Integrated Marketing & Experiences,
The Coca-Cola Company India & Southwest Asia
Creating strong consumer centricity and building profitable brand portfolio is what she is good at, and does best. She packs in a wealth of experience in leading large and diverse teams to manage complex projects across sectors like FMCG, Media and Entertainment. From Coca-Cola to MTV to 'The Times of India', she has managed projects across the complete business spectrum that include brand management, business strategy, portfolio management, content marketing, IP creation, consumer insights and sales planning; many of these initiatives have won recognition across Cannes Lions, D&AD, CLIO etc. She has also co-authored several MTV's youth insights publications and has been a speaker across various public forums / conferences in India and abroad.