Zee Group to pay 75% cost of each entry for Kyoorius ad awards

In a bid to reward talent in the advertising space, Zee Group will provide 75 per cent of the cost of each entry at the Kyoorius Creative Awards, according to a senior executive.

A prestigious award in the domestic advertising circuit, the cost for each entry for Kyoorius Creative Awards is around Rs 15,000.

"We want to disrupt the advertising awards ecosystem by changing the very paradigm of how creative awards are done today, be it right here or elsewhere.

"With this, we are not looking at a direct return on investment but a 'return on relationship' as we are the largest broadcaster with the maximum linguistic reach and content," Zee Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Punit Goenka told PTI.

He said Zee Group would provide 75 per cent of the cost of each entry at the Awards.

Goenka, also President of the International Advertising Association, said this association is also "our way of returning to the creative fraternity as without them our content drive will not be possible".

Generally, the entry cost for creative awards are high. For instance, the cost is varies from USD 600 to USD 900 per entry for the Cannes Awards -- the Oscars equivalent in the global advertising space.

Kyoorius Founder and Director Rajesh Kejriwal hoped that with the support of Zee, the 2020 edition of the awards will see more participation as the 75 per cent financial support can really help regional and boutique agencies to enter the fray.

In the last edition, there were around 3,000 entries from over 300 agencies, which he expects to jump by at least 10 per cent more, and also the number of participants from the smaller agencies to increase massively.

There are more than 1,000 agencies in the country a vast majority of them are regional or boutique ones.

A significant reason for the group to support the advertising fraternity is the fact that as an entertainment company straddling broadcast, films, music, digital and live entertainment, Zee has been a direct beneficiary of the immense creative talent of the advertising industry, Goenka said.