Raj Nayak, chief executive officer, NDTV Media, has been elected the new president for the Indian chapter of the International Advertising Association (IAA) for 2008-09.
The decision comes following an annual general meeting held in Mumbai last week.
Nayak has been associated with the IAA for almost seven years. He has participated actively beginning last year, when he was elected its vice-president.
One can become a member of the IAA only by invitation, which means the number of members is limited to a very select group. Nayak wants to increase the number of members in India from the current 140 to 500.
He has plans to bring the IAA’s youth chapter to India. Membership to the Young Professional IAA Club will be open to relevant aspirants, students and young professionals below the age of 35, unlike the parent body, where membership is by invitation only, he says.
Nayak also talks about other initiatives that are on the managing committee’s agenda: a study tour to Japan and a two day regional summit along the lines of Ad Asia with stellar content, training workshops and a series of social networking events exclusively for IAA members and their guests. Subcommittees will be put in place to drive these and other initiatives.
“Most of the chapters of the various countries, and even the parent body, have their own website, where a lot of data is available. We wish to create a similar information database for the Indian chapter,” says Nayak.
The IAA will also look at working in tandem with other industry bodies, such as the Advertising Agencies Association of India, Advertising Club of Bombay, Advertising Standards Council of India, Indian Society of Advertisers, Indian Newspaper Society, and Indian Broadcasting Foundation, to identify the unique and distinct role it can play in the advertising and marketing fraternity.
“There is no conflict of interest with any of these bodies. We shall avoid stepping on each other’s toes and duplicating work,” Nayak says.
The Light A Billion Lives campaign, a joint initiative by IAA and The Energy and Resources Institute, is an instance of what the IAA wishes to take forward each year in the form of a Green Award. The institution hopes to touch upon a socially relevant issue each year.