Tag: IAAA

 

There was no suspense on the announcement as Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) had sent us a communique on the recipient for this year’s AAAI Lifetime Achievement Award. The award is the highest honour given to an individual in India for his/her outstanding contribution to the advertising industry. The award was instituted in 1988 by AAAI, and there have been 23 recipients for the award so far.

 

Srinivasan K Swamy, popularly known as Sundar Swamy, was recognised by the AAAI with the award. Friday, July 29 was a beautiful evening not only because someone was being recognised for his hard work and contribution to the industry but for the immense respect he has earned from each and every person present at the Imperial hall in St Regis Hotel, Mumbai.

 

The Sundar Swamy we know: Pradeep Guha, Managing Director, 9X Media: Firstly, he is a friend. Like Ramesh said, even I have come to know him recently but my relationship with him grew very fast because we have done a lot of things together, particularly in the IAA. Having seen him work at very close quarters, I have no doubt that he is a worthy achiever of not only this award but many more awards to come.   Dr Bhaskar Das, President, Zee Unimedia: I still believe it is too early for Mr Swamy to get lifetime achievement because he is still so active. But I think let us not go literally by the terminology. Definitely he deserves it because he has contributed and has been still contributing to the marketing and advertising fraternity apart from the heritage of his father. He has been running his agency plus doing a human service to the industry. Very affable and endearing personality, I think he deserves it. He is a fantastic person. An integrating personality in an otherwise divided industry.   Monica Tata, Media and Entertainment Consultant, Secretary, IAA (India): There are not enough words in the dictionary to describe Mr Sundar Swamy. I have interacted with him ever since I got involved with IAA. It is because of him I have been able to understand a lot about my capabilities to do a lot of things. He has this knack of bringing out the best and sometimes the worst in you. I cannot thank him enough for giving me the opportunity to be a part of his team. He is an incredible human being and leader, he knows how to get things done and he does it in his inimitable style. So, I have huge high regards and respect for him. I am also known to be the one who messes up his name every time I make a public announcement about him. He is a fabulous human being and I think it is a fantastic sort of achievement but it is so deserving, so my full heartfelt congratulations to him and his achievement today.

“I am a great believer of fate. What is destined for one will happen. But that didn’t stop me in taking on many challenges. I am confident by nature, sometimes foolishly if I may add, but my life has been all about ‘leap of faith’. Every task I have taken on, I try to do full justice. My personal benchmark is to do better than all my predecessors and I have unfailingly delivered on this, to the best of my knowledge,” said Swamy, an AAAI Executive Committee member since 1998 in his acceptance speech.

 

The evening started with AAAI Secretary General Sudesh Kapoor inviting the man of the evening Sundar Swamy, former President  and now the ex-officio member  of AAAI M.G. Parameswaran, the new President  of AAAI and CEO, South Asia, Publicis Communications India Pvt Ltd Nakul Chopra, AshishBhasin, Chairman and CEO, South Asia, Dentsu Aegis Network and also the newly elected Vice President of AAAI and Sridhar Ramasubramanian, Chief Operating Officer, GroupM and also an executive committee member of the AAAI  to the stage to start the evening for which everyone had gathered for. The loudest cheers though were reserved when Srinivasan Swamy’s wife Sudha Swamy.

 

While introduced the norms of the AAAI Lifetime Achievement Award, Parameswaran said: “It was literally a unanimous decision that award this year should go to Srinivasan K Swamy or Sundar as we know him as,” he said. While introducing the successful and illustrious achievements of Swamy, Parameswaran joked how Swamy would insist on being called ‘Anna’ since he was six months elder to him.

 

Ramesh Narayan, founder of Canco Advertising Pvt. Ltd, a dear friend of Swamy and a former AAAI Lifetime Award winner, described how a half-hour meeting between the two transitioned in Swamy creating a permanent place in Narayan’s heart. “All I will say is leading professionals in our industry have to learn from Sundar Swamy on how to be able to run an agency as well as give back so much time and energy to our industry. Anyone who says he has not got the time to give back to our industry has to learn from him,” said Narayan.  At the conclusion of his speech, Narayan shared an anecdote that during an IAA event an academic pointed at Swamy and asked him do you know who he is? An amused Narayan wanted to know the answer. “This man smiles and says Kabaali Da! (the famous dialogue from Rajnikanth’s latest movie). And that I think says everything,” smiled Narayan.

 

Narayan in his speech applauded Sudha Swamy, because according to him she deserves all the appreciation as “it cannot be easy being his (Swamy’s) wife”. Later, speaking to us about her husband, she said, “It is pretty amazing that sitting at Chennai, he is able to do so much more in Mumbai, since he has to keep traveling back and forth. He sits in Chennai and family is in Chennai, it is a lot of travelling which means he has to do a lot of planning in terms of time, meetings etc. He has this ability to laugh and he has never ever used foul language in his life, which is something that I have not seen in too many people. He is there for all the activities or to take up all the responsibilities but somewhere I would have liked him to be more around the family and the children but you cannot have the cake as well as eat it.” In his acceptance speech, Swamy described his wife as a ‘very bright lady’ and thanked her for selflessly giving up things to look after their family.

 

Carrying forward the Rajnikanth joke, Bhasin, before reading the citation, said, “Rajnikanth checks with Sundar when he is having an IIA function before releasing his films.” Chopra presented the citation to Swamy. “I have never worked with him in a job but I worked with him extensively at the association. And I think there is not another person right now in the industry who has been as active at the industry level as him, whether it is the AAAI, IIA etc. How he finds the time, energy and the push to do all that is incredible and I cannot think of anybody who deserves this award more than him,” said Chopra.

 

In his acceptance speech Swamy said his father R K Swamy, a legend in the advertising industry was the ‘coolest boss’ he had. He spoke about spearheading the Goafest, which is seen by the industry experts as an impossible job made possible by Swamy. Even though he was happy receiving the award, his concluding remarks were, “Let me warn you, this lifetime achievement award does not mean retirement for me. I am not going anywhere yet because I have a long journey ahead.”