The Blue, Brass and Purple Elephant winners were revealed at the
KCA23 Awards Night on 2 June 2023 at the Jio World Convention Centre, BKC, Mumbai.

Re-live the #KCA23 Awards Night through this YouTube playlist. P.S. Subscribe and hit the bell icon. (That’s the in thing to say, right?)

#KCA23

Master Of Creativity Winner: AR Rahman

The Master of Creativity goes to a man who has changed the way Indian music is perceived around the world. His songs, tunes and jingles have been etched in to our collective consciousness. A music composer, record producer, singer, songwriter, musician, multi-instrumentalist, philanthropist. A winner of six National Film Awards, two Academy Awards, two Grammy Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award. In 2010, the Indian government conferred him with the Padma Bhushan, the nation's third-highest civilian award. And now, he has another award to add to his mantle – one that encapsulates and celebrates his contribution to the world of brands and marketing.

This year’s winner of the Master of Creativity, the one and only, AR Rahman!

Consolidated disciplines.
A blend of the traditional and the digital.
And a way forward into the future.

After comprehensive dialogue with our jurors, and leading think-tanks of the Indian marketing industry, Kyoorius has re-calibrated all the disciplines at the Kyoorius Creative Awards to increase relevance, keep pace, and truly celebrate all formats of advertising and marketing communciations like never before.

And there are revamped and new disciplines and categories 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 will return as well.

What’s new at #KCA23?

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 2023 Kyoorius Creative Awards aim to create a truly neutral and transparent platform to reward the best in Indian advertising, media and digital creativity.

#KCA23

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 Zee Equality Award Jury.

Key Information

Dates & Cost Per Entry

Entries opened 14 February 2023.

The Phase 1 Deadline was 12 March 2023.
Each entry was priced at INR 10,000 + GST.

The Phase 2 Deadline was 14 April 2023.
Each entry was priced at INR 13,000 + GST.

The Phase 3 and final Deadline was 30 April 2023.
Each entry was priced at INR 16,000 + GST.

The Kyoorius Creative Awards Night was held on 2 June 2023.

Who judges #KCA23?

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

Meet The #KCA23 Jury

Jury 1

Ajay is a writer with more than twenty-five years of experience in the advertising business, nearly 14 of those in Ogilvy. He has worked on brands across all categories over the years. Amongst the many public service campaigns he has worked on, the most well-known one is the Pulse Polio Immunisation campaign with Amitabh Bachchan.

Anuraag has 20+ years of experience at Ogilvy creating groundbreaking work for Bisleri, Tata Motors, Cadbury's, Vodafone, Pidilite, and others. He has won over 80 national and international awards and is forever learning, optimistic, and always having fun. His recent Bisleri Camels campaign also won the Grand Effie in 2020, apart from various other awards.

Binaifer Dulani is a founding member of Talented. In the past, she was part of the leadership team at Dentsu Webchutney, as a Creative Director, where she led India's most awarded piece in Cannes Lions History: the Unfiltered History Tour, winning multiple Grand Prix', and the Titanium Lion. Binaifer was named Creative Director of the Year 2022, by the Cannes Lions Creativity Report.

Godwin fell in love with advertising after unintentionally watching a Cannes Lions reel, while in college. So immediately after, he joined Interpol in 2006 as a junior copywriter, followed by stints at Rediffusion Y&R and McCann, before moving to DDB in 2014. Over the last 17 years, he’s created work for Hotstar IPL, RuPay, Volkswagen, HBO, McDonald’s, Johnson’s Baby, Lipton and MTV, among others.

Joji Jacob is the Creative Partner and co-founder of BLKJ Havas Singapore. He was previously Group ECD of DDB Singapore. Under his leadership, DDB became the most awarded Singaporean agency, and he has been named Singapore’s Most Influential Creative Director and South East Asia’s Creative Person of the Year. Joji was also Cannes Jury President for Print and Publishing in 2016.

Manish Bhatt, a renowned creative with 29 years of advertising experience. Ranked No.2 in 2006 & No.3 in 2005 in the “Hottest Creative People from India” list. Created award-winning public service communications & worked at top agencies. Featured amongst India’s Top 50 Influential People in Advertising 2019 List by Brand Equity). Top Voices of Advertising published by Adgully.

Priya Shivakumar joined J Walter Thompson in 2011 as Creative Head of the Chennai Office and rose swiftly to National Creative Director at WT India. This happened on the back of notable work that has delivered brand growth, gained national popularity and earned her accolades from the industry. Priya won her first Silver Lion in 2007 followed by several awards at all the prestigious National and International shows, ranking her among Asia’s hottest creatives.

Jury 2

Anusheela is an art director, designer, and illustrator and someday wishes to be an educator. Her creative mind can sassily move from million-dollar brands to the ones started at garage shops. Anusheela won India’s first Fusion Pencil at the One Show. Her work has also been awarded by the Cannes Lion, D&AD, One Show, Clio, the Spikes Asia and Kyoorius.

Archie started off her career as a banker with American Express Delhi. She’s currently telling the best brand stories with one of the best agencies in the world, Impact BBDO Dubai and as a perk, likes taking a few international awards back home. She has a strong portfolio of having worked across industries – automobile, FMCG, Airlines, BFSI.

Azazul Haque, with over 20 years experience leads the creative output for the Indian region. Haque started his career with Lintas Group back in 2001 and has worked with Bates, Publicis, Lowe, Mudra, McCann, Contract and Ogilvy. His best work includes campaigns like ‘Khushiyon ki home delivery’ and ‘Yeh hai rishto ka time’ for Dominos and MP Tourism.

She kicked off her career in advertising with Ogilvy Delhi approximately 22 years ago. She moved to Mullen Lintas in 2015 as Executive Creative Director and as a founding member of Team Mullen Lintas influenced the creative direction for some of India’s most celebrated brands. She is responsible for the agency’s marquee work on brands such as Motilal Oswal, Tata Tea, MTV Beats, Bajaj Avenger, PharmEasy, Tata Cliq, and more.

Hemant has won several awards including Creative Person of the Year (2021 & 2016) & emerging leader of Asia. He has won Grand Prix and Golds across various prestigious award shows like Cannes Lions, One Show, D&AD, LIA, New York Festival, SpikesAsia, AdFest, Tangrams and Effies and his work for Ariel #ShareTheLoad was ranked as the world's #1 campaign in the WARC 100 list.

Kunal Dubey is a seasoned marketing professional and the Chief Marketing Officer at Cleartrip, a leading online travel company. With a wealth of experience in the industry, he is responsible for creating and implementing effective marketing strategies that drive growth and increase brand awareness. He is dedicated to delivering exceptional customer experiences through innovative campaigns and initiatives.

Santosh Padhi, also known as 'Paddy', is a highly awarded creative director in India. He co-founded Taproot in 2009 and led the agency to global creative success, winning over 500 local and international awards. In 2022, he moved on to set up W+K's 9th global office in Mumbai. Paddy has served on numerous international award juries and is a passionate advocate for the connection between fitness and creativity.

Jury 3

Amit's style of filmmaking has always revolved around topics that question society at large and challenge its norms. For instance, his National award-winning feature film, Badhaai Ho (directed and produced under his banner Chrome Pictures), addresses the issues that a middle-aged couple, with two grown sons, face when they get pregnant at the age of 51.

Arun Iyer is the founder of Spring Marketing Capital, a creative consulting firm with an investment arm. He was previously the CCO and Chairman of Lowe Lintas, working with multiple brands from startups to multinationals. He finds inspiration from Spring's founders who approach each day like their first and fear it could be their last.

Kopal Naithani is a leading advertising director and founder of Superfly Films. She is known for her storytelling and powerful film direction, working with leading brands like Flipkart and Tanishq. Her work has won her 3 ABBYs (2022) for “Marriage Conversations’ and 5 DIGIES (2019) for ‘Choose Your Age’ and ‘Gen E’.

Raj has 17 years of experience working on brands across categories. Raj is the Chief Creative Officer of the Leo Group across South Asia looking after 7 offices across 4 countries. His dynamism is reflected in the energy of the The Leo Group in India which is a home to 1000+ creators and innovators, and some of the biggest brands, including, Amazon, Bajaj, Thums Up, Limca, Maaza, HDFC Bank, amongst others.

Shashanka Chaturvedi a.k.a Bob was India’s first director to win 2 Gold Lions for film at Cannes. His versatile and inimitable style of filmmaking ensured a prolific run at various award shows - Spikes Asia, a Grand Prix at Adfest, Abbys, Kyoorius, a finalist at D&AD and even a One Show for Cinematography. His films have helped build brands like Bournvita, Clinic Plus, Thums Up amongst many others.

Tanvi is a trained classical pianist who discovered her passion for film through music. Her studies in Literature fuelled her desire to tell a story and tell it well. From creating award winning films for Paperboat which have been showcased at the Cannes Lions New Directors Showcase to working for brands like H&M, Volvo, Bobbi Brown, Maruti, Google, Magnum, Ford and many others, she is relentless in the pursuing the perfection of her craft.

Vinil started working in the ad industry assisting Prasoon Pandey. After two years, he started his own production company named Nomad Films. He then joined Footcandles films, under which he worked on advertisements for Reliance, Vodafone and Airtel. He went on to make over 250 ad campaigns, including one popular one for Cadbury. In 2014, Vinil opened his own production company Breathless Films, which produces advertisements.

Jury 4

Aalap, CCO of Dentsu Creative India, has won 170+ international & national awards for his for his notable works like Code Name: Uri, The 8-bit Journo for Vice, and The World's Most Reported trailer for Thappad. He was ranked 41st in the global creative listing of 2022 by ‘The Drum’ & was part of the jury at Spikes Asia 2022.

Anu Joseph, a poet and writer, switched from cricket journalism to copywriting for brands like Lee, Arrow and Britannia at Grey. He later became the founder members and creative director of Creativeland and worked with brands such as Audi and Godrej Expert, winning awards and serving on juries.

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. He is also the Board member of Modern Marketing Association (MMA) India council.

Born in Brazil yet also Lebanese, no matter where she goes she’s always "the foreigner" in the room. Natasha started her career at Leo Burnett Beirut in 2005, 15 years later, she returned as Executive Creative Director at Leo Burnett MEA, based in Dubai. During those 15 years, she’s lived and worked on four different continents passing through the UN WFP in Italy, DM9DDB and Ogilvy in Brazil and The&Partnership in New York.

With a career spanning nearly two decades, he has worked in some of the world’s biggest and most diverse markets. Currently, Mukund Olety is the Chief Creative Officer of the VMLY&R Network in India. He took the agency from zero Cannes Lions to a Grand Prix and multiple Lions, all in one year. Under his leadership, VMLY&R India was placed No.3 on the Cannes Lions APAC Ranking, for the first time ever.

PG Aditya is the co-founder and CCO of Talented.He was the CCO of Dentsu Webchutney until February 2022. His work includes the Unfiltered History Tour for VICE World News - an undercover tour of the British Museum's disputed artefacts, now India’s most awarded campaign in Cannes Lions - ever. His work has brought home three Grand Prix, a Titanium Lion and for the first time: the Agency of the Year title.

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. It’s why he believes that his primary role as Chief Creative Officer is to spread this love. Ever since he took over the creative reins, the creative product of the DDB Mudra Group has never looked better. Shiny stuff and honours are regularly added to the once-dusty mantlepiece.

A career spanning over 2 decades starting from ad film production to mainstream advertising and brand building with a diverse portfolio of multinational and global brands like Unilever, Nestle, Cadbury &, Glaxo Smith Kline, Diageo, Aditya Birla, Standard Chartered, Philips, ITC, Godrej, Shoppers Stop, AMFI, Reliance and Johnson & Johnson. Tista has been ranked among the 20 most creative people in Asia, and won numerous metals across the world.

Ritu comes with an experience of about 21 years across a wide range of brands and categories. Some of her work includes: #ReleaseThePressure for Mirinda, #StandByToughMoms for All Out, The Legacy Project for 100 Pipers Whiskey, #SaveTheEvidence DNA Fights Rape for Gordan Thomas Honeywell - Governmental Affairs, #PalatDe, #TaanePalatDe, #HarHaathToofan and Stump Cam for Thums UP.

Pallavi has spent the last 8.5 years leading the Marketing function at redBus. In her career spanning 22 years across India(mostly) & Asia/Pacific, she has worked with category defining brands like Nike, ING and redBus in leadership & entrepreneurial roles across marketing, digital & brand strategy entrusted with driving brand building, demand generation & E-Business activities.

Jury 5

Aditya is the NCD at Schbang, where he has shaped the award-winning work for brands like Fevicol and Raw Pressery. He has overseen work in categories like personal care, F&B, BFSI, entertainment, and helped shape the company's creative culture. He is a winner at the Impact Top 30 Under 30 and Social Samosa 30 Under 30.

With over 23 years of experience in digital advertising and has won multiple awards including Clio, AdFest, Campaign Asia, Kyoorius, and Abby's. He has worked on top brands. He believes that new-age creative directors can play a bigger role in business transformation by encouraging their teams to create narratives that combine art and technology, with experiences at the centre.

Gurbaksh (Gbax) has been infusing technology with creativity to build cutting-edge brand experiences from inception. In his arsenal, he holds multiple Grand Prix and Titanium Lion, Best of Disciplines at OneShow, Innovation & Grand Prix at Spikes Asia, D&AD, Adfest and others. His work made history by bringing home the first-ever Cannes Lions AOY for 'The Unfiltered History Tour'.

Kartikeya Tiwari is an accomplished business leader and the NCD at Kinnect. With extensive experience in the industry, he is responsible for driving creative excellence and delivering effective solutions for clients. He is dedicated to nurturing a culture of innovation and collaboration within the organisation, and is committed to delivering exceptional results for clients through a customer-centric approach.

In a career spanning more than 2 decades, Naila has straddled both worlds traditional and digital. Her USP is building creative teams from the ground up. From brand-first campaigns to tech-based creative ideas to social experiments. The creative kitty at Mirum is rich and diverse. She believes creativity is a nexus between insight and aspiration and the multiple awards bear testimony to the belief.

Shikha is a writer, who now spends most of her time writing emails. Consequently, she outsourced the writing of this bio to ChatGPT. It shared this: "Shikha is known for her impartiality and dedication to fairness in the judging process. She approaches each submission with an open mind and a critical eye, taking the time to evaluate each one on its merits thoroughly." True enough.

Theresa packed her bags for China which laid the runway for a successful creative career in the largest region in the world.In 2017, she returned home to join Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore as a Global CD, adding to their building blocks for integrated solutions for P&G. Since 2019, she works with a global crew of Meta adventurers, dreamers, entrepreneurs, marketers, data hackers, inventors, and creators who are hungry to build communities and empower brands to connect in meaningful ways.

Jury 6

Harshad Rajadhyaksha has been a part of India's advertising creative industry for 24 years, working with agencies such as Trikaya Grey, Mudra (DDB), Saatchi & Saatchi, Leo Burnett, and JWT. He currently serves as the CCO of Ogilvy India, where he has led work that has won international recognition, including a Grand Prix Lion for Creative Effectiveness and India's first Glass Lion.

Harshada Menon started her career at FCB India before moving to Ogilvy. In 2018, she was one of the 20 women worldwide who were chosen for the Cannes Lions See It Be It program. Harshada is a mother of a seven-year-old girl and believes that the industry needs more mothers in leadership positions to make ideas more relevant and to give younger women role models to look up to.

Kawal co-founded The Womb after working as head of strategy for Ogilvy India. The agency has become the No.1 Independent Agency in Asia (Asian Effies – 2022). They won the world’s most effective campaign of the year award from WARC in 2019 for Saregama Carvaan. Kawal has led campaigns for Fogg, Britannia, Tata Sky, Truecaller, etc. and has spoken at Cannes and other marquee award platforms.

Passionate about creating brand experiences that connect across his clients' ecosystem, Neil is changing the way that his team thinks about this by approaching briefs with a very clear narrative, and with a greater emphasis on creating work that is insightful, intelligent, and impactful. He is pushing his clients to connect the dots, think globally, and create experiences that improve awareness, engagement, and sales.

A versatile leader, thrives on helping marketers solve brand challenges with real impact. Over two decades of experience have helped her build a diverse set of skills encompassing marketing, consumer insights, communication and content strategy and integrated media. Currently, as the MD of Publicis Worldwide, India, she is building a team of really amazing talent to partner with marketers to build brands that are truly meaningful in culture.

Pallavi ventured into the brave new world of the indies in March 2023. In the business for nearly two decades now, across Saatchi, Grey, JWT, Taproot Dentsu and DDB Mudra, her client roster over these years includes Meta, Facebook, Airtel, Instagram, McDonald’s, Pepsi, Uber, J&J, Unilever, P&G and local giants like Times of India, Marico, ITC and Star Sports. She featured among the 200 most-awarded ECDs in 2021 in The Drum World Creative Rankings.

Viren Noronha leads social and culture marketing charter at Swiggy & previously at Tinder - his most recent campaign being surreal ‘Why is This A Swiggy Ad?’ which was touted as a ‘masterclass in creativity’. His agency-side experience includes multiple Cannes Lions, Kyoorius Black Elephant & Spikes Asia Grand Prix winning stint with Dentsu Webchutney for Flipkart. Recently he also made it to BusinessMint’s 30 Under 30 list largely due to his work as lead of Tinder India’s social and content.

Sumanto is an international-award-winning creative director with three decades of experience in advertising in India and beyond. He has won awards at Cannes, the Clios, One Show, London Festival, Effies, Kyoorius and elsewhere. He runs The English Nut, an award-winning ‘grammar guru’ property on social media. He writes articles on advertising and other subjects.

2023 KYOORIUS CREATIVE AWARDS