227 communication, marketing enthusiasts conferred COMMWARD 2021

A total of 227 communication and marketing enthusiasts have been awarded "COMMWARD 2021", an accolade for the advertising sector people in Bangladesh.

The 10th edition of "COMMWARD: Excellence in Creative Communication" was given in 26 categories under four ranks -- Bronze, Silver, Gold and Grand Prix. It had three Grand Prix winners, 26 Gold winners, 69 Silver winners and 129 Bronze winners.

COMMWARD, a flagship initiative of Bangladesh Brand Forum, was presented through a virtual gala event on Saturday in association with The Daily Star and in collaboration with Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

More than 1,000 communication and marketing enthusiasts took part in the programme.

The campaigns launched for the award was launched on May 01, 2019, and continued till May 31, 2021, for nomination. More than 1100 nominations were submitted for the award.

Among these, 573 nominations got shortlisted and 226 nominations were selected as the ultimate winners after rigorous judging by 158 jurors who were split into 10 shortlisting jury panels and 10 grand jury panels.

The winning campaigns were further scrutinized by four jury presidents to ensure the proper ranks.

Addressing the event, Nazia Andaleeb Preema, director of Bangladesh Brand Forum and founder of Bangladesh Creative Forum, said: "Never before had we experienced the need to make clear effective communication than we did during the last one year. And every phase we passed since then required effective communication for us to survive and come out of this pandemic."

Ferdous Hasan Neville, managing director of Asiatic MCL; Sarah Ali, managing director of FCB Bitopi; Syed Gousul Alam Shaon, managing partner and country head of Grey Group Bangladesh; and Morshed Alam, managing director of Group M Bangladesh, were jury presidents of this year's COMMWARD stellar.

The 10th COMMWARD was followed by the 10th Communication Summit under the theme "Metamorphosis of Creativity".

More than 500 professionals joined the programme held supported by Alesha Holdings Ltd.

The summit consisted of three keynote sessions, six panel discussions, three insight sessions and one case study presentation with speakers joining in from different regions of the world to share strategies and experiences that helped them thrive in the constantly changing communications frontier.

Alongside, there were renowned local industry experts who discussed a myriad of topics.

The keynote speakers for this year's summit were: Dagmara Szulce, managing director of IAA Global; Marie Claire Maalouf, executive creative director of Impact BBDO, United Arab Emirates; Kinga Incze, founder of Whitereport and Mediaspace.global.