227 win Commward

A total of 227 communication and marketing enthusiasts have been presented Commward advertising accolades in Bangladesh.

The 10th edition of the "Commward: Excellence in Creative Communication" was given in 26 categories under four ranks -- bronze, silver, gold and grand prix. There were three grand prix winners, 26 gold winners, 69 silver winners and 129 bronze winners.

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Commward, a flagship initiative of Bangladesh Brand Forum, was presented through a virtual programme on Saturday in association with The Daily Star and the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

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

The campaigns nominated for the award were launched on May 1, 2019, and continued till May 31, 2021. More than 1,100 nominations were submitted, of which 573 nominations were shortlisted.

Eventually 227 were selected as the winners after judging by 158 jurors who were split into 10 shortlisting jury panels and 10 grand jury panels.

The winning campaigns were further scrutinised by four jury presidents to ensure proper ranking.

"Never before had we experienced a need to make clear effective communication than we did during the last one year," Nazia Andaleeb Preema, director of Bangladesh Brand Forum and founder of Bangladesh Creative Forum, said while addressing the event.

"Every phase we have passed since then required effective communication for us to survive and come out of this pandemic," she added.

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.

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

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

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.

There were also 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, UAE; and Kinga Incze, founder of Whitereport and Mediaspace.