WINNERS of the Merdeka Award, which recognises individuals for their excellence in various fields, were announced last week. All three, Datuk Dr Kenneth Yeang, Prof Datuk Dr Goh Khean Lee and Prof Dr Mak Joon Wah, are recognised globally in their field of work.

Dr Yeang received RM500,000, a certificate and a trophy while Prof Dr Goh and Prof Dr Mak each received RM250,000, a trophy and certificate.

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THE vibrant atmosphere at the Effie Awards ceremony almost turned to a standstill when it was announced prior to the presentation that there was no gold winner this year. But that did not hinder the spirit of the participants and the excitement among marketers and advertisers who were glued to their seats eager to know who the winners for the bronze and silver awards were.

This reaction was no surprise as much sweat and tears had been put in by the participants for their creative work for the Malaysia Effectiveness Awards or more commonly known as the Effies. (Incidentally, this was the first time there was no gold winner since the introduction of the Malaysia Effies in 2008.)

The awards presentation ceremony was held in Petaling Jaya on Wednesday.

There were 18 awards handed out – 13 bronze trophies and five silver ones. Grey Group (as primary agency) won two silver and one bronze. The silver awards were won for clients GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare and Alliance bank, while the bronze was for Disposable Soft Goods.

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PETALING JAYA: The majority of the 19 advertising agencies facing possible termination of their membership in the Association of Accredited Advertising Agents Malaysia (4As) failed to submit an appeal by the deadline last Friday.

The association had received appeal letters from only “six or seven” agencies, said Karthi Palanisamy, convenor of the 4As' Boomerang Membership Accreditation Programme (BMAP).

The 19 agencies were given a letter of termination last month for not achieving enough points under the BMAP.

Depending on their staff size, 4As member agencies were required to achieve between 200 and 750 points for the year ended March 2011. The points could be earned by attending training programmes and meetings, as well as participating in special projects and local award shows.

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While most of the world's top marketing executives acknowledge a critical shift in the way they engage with their customers, many question their organisations' ability to manage the change, a study by IBM has found.

The IBM Global CMO Study is the technology giant's first study of CMOs, and the 15th in the ongoing series of C-suite studies developed by the IBM Institute for Business Value. The study conducted face-to-face interviews with over 1,700 CMOs between February and June 2011.

Respondents spanned 19 industries and 64 countries and ...

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I've read, written, and spoken about the lack of good online advertising creative at length. Usually, my argument is focused on the intrinsic downfall of working with small rectangles and squares and the lack of innovation industry-wide to break free of those shackles. I suppose I might have started to sound a bit like a curmudgeon because recently a colleague threw me a curve ball and declared, "OK, I get that you aren't enamored with what goes on. But you've been doing this for a while. Haven't you seen anything ...

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Indian investigators have filed a case against Malaysian tycoon T. Ananda Krishnan, his trusted executive Ralph Marshall together with a former Indian telecom minister and his brother on charges of criminal conspiracy over a controversial deal involving telecommunication giant Maxis and India’s Aircel.

A Maxis spokesman told The Malaysian Insider the company is aware of the case when contacted this afternoon.

“We’re aware of that and we’ll get back to you,” the corporate communications ...

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JWT’s Asia Pacific Executive Creative Directors (ECD) will be meeting in Colombo for the agency’s quarterly creative review, Passion Patrol. Held from October 10 to 12, Passion Patrol is the meeting that reviews the best work produced in the network’s offices across 18 countries in the region.

The arrivals include Sheung Yan Lo - ECD Northeast Asia and Chairman China, Tay Guan Hin - Regional ECD Southeast Asia, Jun Fukawa - CCO Singapore, Edwin Leong - Deputy Chairman and ECD Malaysia, Farahnaz Shaikh - ECD Pakistan and ...

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The death of Steve Jobs is not just a monumental loss to the technology industry, but as Barack Obama said as he paid tribute to the Apple co-founder, “the world has lost a visionary” - particularly the world of marketing.

Jobs was a master of marketing, a man who understood that for a product to make an impact, a strong brand needs to ...

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AFTER 16 years, publisher Harmandar Singh is discontinuing the print version of Adoi, the first and longest-running local advertising trade magazine. September's issue was the final one.

However, Adoi's loyal readers should not panic, for the online portal for Adoi (adoimagazine.com) will continue to operate.

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MALAYSIA Airports Holdings Bhd's (MAHB) first-ever TV commercial will hit the airwave to deliver the message of airports as lifestyle destinations to a wider segment of Malaysians.

It says in a statement that the 30-second television commercial titled “There's Always More” captures the wide array of choices of offerings that travellers can indulge in at various airports around the country.

The commercial, produced by Dentsu Malaysia, will break on Monday over on TV3, ntv7 and 8TV in conjunction with Malaysia Airports' Indulge Till You Fly (ITUF) campaign, which will run till January.

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