The jury headed by Sunil Alagh, Founder and Chairman, SKA Advisors and Former Managing Director & CEO, Britannia Industries Ltd met today to select the final shortlist of brands in 10 different categories. The objective is to shortlist Top 5 brands in 10 categories. The process aims to identify the best examples of innovation, consumer connect, communication impact, execution and results by brands.

Months before the jury met, a rigorous selection process was carried out together with Knowledge partners Traverse Research n Consulting to sift the best brands according to well defined criteria. But the final 50 were decided only after debate and discussion among the chosen jury members comprising Brand Consultants, Marketing experts and Social Commentators.

The final list of PITCH Top 50 brands for the year 2015 will be unveiled on August 13 when the winning brands will be awarded. Every year, Pitch, the Marketing magazine from the exchange4media group releases its own benchmark of excellence and honours the brands that make it to the top.

The jury also included Amitesh Rao, Director- Brand & Media, MTS India; Apurva Chamaria, Head – Global Brand & Digital Marketing, HCL Technologies Ltd; Dr. Atish Chattopadhyay, Dean, MICA; Avik Chattopadhyay, Co Founder, Brand Strategy Firm Expereal; Jyotsna Makkar, CMO, Microsoft India; Lloyd Mathias, Marketing Head, Printing & Personal Systems, Hewlett-Packard India; Nandini Dias, CEO, Lodestar UM; Sharif Rangnekar, Director & CEO, Integral PR; Sunder Hemrajani, Chairman, Greenway Appliances Private Ltd. & Former Managing Director, Times Innovative Media Ltd; and Vikram Sakhuja, CEO, Madison Media Group.

Sunil Alagh, who presided over the jury meet, said, “The jury is quite varied in terms of their experience. Therefore I have really enjoyed it because I learned a lot today. I have learned about companies and what they have achieved which I was unaware of. That is the amazing part.”

Alagh also appreciated the amount of research done before shortlisting the brands for various categories and added that it actually made the task of the jury easier.

Avik Chattopadhyay remarked that the judging process was very vigorous and well thought out and added that as jury members they were not just looking at the loudest and the biggest of the brands but those that had made an impact.

“We are looking at the ones which are relevant, which have potential, which have actually made a difference to consumers. We are not just looking at brands which are premium and luxury; we are also looking at brands which have changed the lives of millions of people. We are also not looking at just corporations and commercial brands but we are also looking at people, government’s initiatives and public initiatives which actually ended up making an impact,” Avik Chattopadhyay added.

Atish Chattopadhyay appreciated the background work that was done and asserted that the categories were very interesting and contemporary in every sense.

“The deliberations were very insightful. Most importantly we have looked at digital as a category, social contribution as a category and also looked at disruptors as a category. I think these are interesting categories which are very relevant today,” he added.

A total of 100 brands were shortlisted among various categories such as Social Contributors, Impactful Debuts, Resurgents, Digital Strategists among others and the top 50 will be announced at the awards .

Last year’s Pitch Top 50 Brands list created quite a buzz starting from the jury meet itself which was chaired by Social Commentator and MD, CEO of Futurebrands India, Santosh Desai. Flipkart was declared brand of the year, some other chosen brands being Facebook, Ola Cabs, Google, Comedy Nights with Kapil, Satyamev Jayate, Tata Starbucks and others.

The list will be unveiled on August 13.