‘Transforming’ the key to staying relevant

PETALING JAYA: The theme for the upcoming Putra Brand Awards 2023 and its offshoot, the Aria Brand Awards 2023, is “Transform”.

As the theme suggests, Putra Brand Awards 2023 organising chairman Datuk Johnny Mun told StarBiz that brands and businesses need to move out of their comfort zones to further distinguish themselves from the competition and more importantly, continue to stay relevant and endear themselves to consumers.

He said the Putra Brand Awards is into its 14th edition, while the Putra Aria Awards is in its second year.

Both the gala award nights would be held at The Imperial Ballroom, One World Hotel, Petaling Jaya.

The Putra Aria Awards will be held on Jan 18, 2024, while the Putra Awards will be on Jan 19 next year.

Malaysia External Trade Development Corp (Matrade) is the permanent chair of both awards.

Ipsos Malaysia remains the official research partner responsible for the research survey findings for the awards.

Measured by a robust consumer research methodology, consumers’ responses are captured directly by Ipsos, which is one of the global leaders in market research.

The responses are thereafter compiled for endorsement by the Board of Governors, consisting of the chief executive officer of Matrade, honorary life president of the Association of Accredited Advertising Agents Malaysia (4As) and heads of various media groups, as well as advertiser associations.

“Both of these are ‘money cannot buy’ awards and are chosen by the people, hence the People’s Choice awards,” Mun stressed.

He added that the award show is expected to see over 160 winners for each of the awards across 24 categories, with 360 favourite Malaysian brands surveyed.

Mun, who is also 4As senior adviser, is urging consumers to start voting for their favourite brands as the awards survey would begin today across 35 media platforms digitally.

“So be sure not to miss out on voting for your favourite brands,” he said.

The highlight for the Putra Brand Awards show would be the four special awards similar to last year. They are the Putra Most Enterprising Brand of the Year, Putra Malaysian Marketer of the Year, Putra Brand Personality Award and Putra Brand of the Year.

There would also be the Putra Hall of Fame award, an accolade introduced in 2019 for brands that have won their respective categories over 10 successive years.

The Putra Most Enterprising Brand of the Year award reflects outstanding achievements in developing a brand that has made strong inroads into the international market via product or service innovation; is committed to comprehensive marketing and communications programmes and demonstrates a strong corporate social responsibility (CSR) commitment.

The Putra Brand Personality Award celebrates an outstanding individual with creativity, perseverance and persuasion that have made significant contributions to nation building.

The Putra Malaysian Marketer of the Year accolade recognises a company, team or individual exhibiting overall excellence in marketing, innovation and creativity in brand building while challenging conventional strategies in the product sector.

Lastly, the Putra Brand of the Year award is presented to the brand that best exemplifies continuous product innovation, commitment to brand building via communication and exhibits a strong sense of CSR.

The awards, first launched in 2010, are organised by the 4As in collaboration with Star Media Group.

The event is supported by the Malaysian Advertisers Association, Media Specialists Association and Malaysian Digital Association and is endorsed as Brand Champion Partner by Matrade.

The Star is the official news partner of the Putra Brand Awards.