Kerala tourism campaign wins Prague honour

Kerala Tourism has joined the elite league of world’s most admired brands when it won a rare honour at the prestigious Prague International Advertising Festival (PIAF) 2012, the state’s tourism board said here on Sunday. The tourism department’s print campaign, Your Moment is Waiting, won the bronze in the category of the state as an advertiser. In other categories, the world’s leading companies like German carmaker Volkswagen, consumer goods giant Uniliver and American confectionary conglomerate Kraft Foods won the honors. Kerala Tourism has won a dozen awards, including three gold medals at the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) annual awards won by the film campaign Your Moment is Waiting’ launched in London in 2010. “This is an unprecedented honour. It is a recognition of the hard work put in by the Kerala Tourism in managing the  brand Kerala and devising timely marketing strategies,” Tourism Minister AP Anil Kumar said. PIAF is an exclusive event in the global advertising calendar where winners are chosen by a jury of experienced advertising professionals, representatives of advertisers, marketing specialists and creative professionals. The other big names, which shared the podium with Kerala Tourism were, McDonald’s, Sony Pictures, Heineken and Lego. The awards were announced at the end of this year’s event on Friday. ‘Your Moment is Waiting’ print campaign was shot by renowned photographer Prabuddha Dasgupta and conceptualized and created by Stark Communications. It has already won two regional awards at the Cochin Advertising Club Pepper Awards 2012 for photography and art direction. “The award at Prague is another big endorsement at the global level of our efforts to further promote brand Kerala in the world tourism circuit. This recognition reiterates that our efforts are on the right track,” said Kerala Tourism Director Rani George. A spokesperson for Stark said extensive research conducted among international travellers to Kerala has revealed one common thread - most of them saying “something” happens to them as they travel through the state.