MSA opens door for MMA entries

MSA    AWARDS    MMA

Malaysia - The Media Specialists Association (MSA)'s Malaysian Media Awards (MMA) returns for its seventh year, with some changes.

"We are delighted to announce another year of recognition of brilliant media campaigns with the upcoming MMA 2011. While last year we had numerous outstanding winners in each category, I believe that we need to strive to compete on not only a local but also on a regional and international level as well," said Ranga Somanathan (pictured, right), CEO of Starcom MediaVest and president of MSA during the launch of the awards today.

He added, with 2010 marking a 16% jump with 7.5 billion ringgit in ad spend, the awards will show "how that money has been put to good use."

In addition, to address concerns rasied last year surrounding due credit to all agencies involved, the credit list has been expanded to include all creative agency partners in each campaign.

"Without them, the work is so much more difficult," said Andy Miller (pictured, left), CEO of Vizuem Malaysia and chairman of the MMA organising committee, adding that clients will be asked to check and verfiy that the information is correct.

An invitation will also be extended to members of the 2As and 4As to join the panel of jurors to determine this year's winners.

Commenting on the changes, Miller said: "Last year we made a number of changes that were seen as successful, for example we made the entries online and increased the size of the jury. This year as always, we are looking to improve and fine tune the awards."

Miller stressed that as always, the awards seeks not to highlight the creative aspect but to pay tribute to the strategy, solution, execution behind campaigns along with the results created.

The submission period for this year has been extended to six weeks with updated definitions across all 12 main categories. The entry fee per submission is RM200 (MSA member) and RM300 (non-member) with the closing date being 20 May, 2011.

There will be a one week window to allow for late submissions, however applicants will have to pay double the fee.

"We are anticipating strong entries across all categories, especially in the areas of digital," said Ranga.

Last year saw the inclusion of digital executions, including Best Use of Digital Search.

The MMA ceremony is slated to be held on 1 July, 2011 at One World Hotel. For more information, visit www.mymsa.org/mma2011

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Have you joined the campaign for free content?

Subscribe to Marketing and marketing-interactive for FREE:
Marketing-interactive.com/subscribe.

Breaking news and intelligent analysis. Always free.