The Vidarbha Management Association (VMA) on Sunday organised a unique advertising competition, ‘Ad-War-Tize: Where Creativity Meets Impact’, at the Chitnavis Centre, Civil Lines. The event brought together creative minds to showcase their advertising prowess, with a focus on real-world impact. Three teams participated in the competition, demonstrating their skills in creating advertisements, logos, creatives, taglines, and jingles. They also enacted their ideas to effectively convey their concepts. The event was guided by mentor Dr Abhijeet Agashe, Associate Professor at the School of Management, Ramdeobaba University and evaluated by esteemed jury members Anurag Kulkarni, CEO of SA Digital Films, and Adnan Ali, Co-Founder of Attrait Solutions.

 

Dr Shabbir Zakerya served as the event in-charge. In their presentation, the representatives of Niyantram Camp highlighted the need for detoxification among students and professionals from the overwhelming influence of social media. Presentation of Rest Tubes, a concept for convertible backpacks designed to provide on-the-go sleep solutions, and ‘Moksh - Aakhri Ichcha’ a comprehensive funeral service advertisement offering end-to-end support, from flowers to transportation, for a seamless farewell ceremony, were also held.

 

The jury members engaged the teams in an insightful discussion, posing questions to refine their advertisements and offering valuable feedback. Anurag Kulkarni emphasised the importance of not overloading ads with information. He advised focusing on attention to detail, targeting the right audience, and highlighting product benefits rather than reiterating known problems. Adnan Ali encouraged out-of-the-box thinking, clarity in messaging, and optimal use of space and time in print and electronic media advertisements. Dr Abhijeet Agashe stressed product differentiation and the significance of advocacy in advertising, reminding participants that “if you try to sell to everybody, nobody will buy.” The winners were Team Niyantram Camp (Members: Niket Agrawal, Anuj S Bajaj, Aniket Temre, Mrunmayee Yete, and Piyush Agarwal). The first runner-up was Team Moksh - Aakhri Ichcha (Members: Rohit Dujari, Pankaj Radke, Abhishek Sawant, and Shobhit Chandak) while second runner-up was Team Rest Tubes (Members: Husain Laxmidhar, Khyati Khemka, Nilesh Verma and Vijaykumar Barmaiya).