UM, a division of Mediabrands, IPG’s media management unit, has announced that Prashant Kumar, CEO of UM Malaysia, has been appointed to be a member of the Cannes Lions 2009 jury. Kumar will be a member of the Media Lions’ Jury. He is the first ever Malaysian CEO to be appointed to this panel and the first from the media industry.
With nearly a decade of experience in the advertising and communications industry spanning the Asia Pacific region, Kumar has had diverse experience in developing, creating, teaching and managing cutting edge media solutions. Prior to being appointed the CEO of UM Malaysia, Kumar had headed Communications Planning for Asia-Pacific for the agency. In this capacity, he had worked across the Asia Pacific markets, helping score a series of new business wins, including Coca-Cola in Japan and Hong Kong, Nokia in China, Sony Pictures across the region and J&J in South East Asia.
In July 2008, Kumar was appointed the role of CEO of IPG Mediabrands in Malaysia with Universal McCann and Initiative brands in his folio. UM Malaysia is one of the most dynamic media agencies in Malaysia, handling a slew of prestigious global and local clients such as Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, MasterCard, Cathay-Pacific, Telekom Malaysia, Proton, Media Prima and Dutch Lady, among others.
Cannes Lions is the largest gathering of worldwide advertising professionals and advertisers as well as the most prestigious annual advertising awards. More than 10,000 registered delegates from 94 countries and around 12,000 total visitors from the advertising and allied industries attend this event to celebrate the best of creativity across all media mix, discuss industry issues and network with one another. Over 28,000 ads from all over the world are showcased and judged at the Festival. Winning companies receive the highly coveted Lion trophy, honouring the most creative TV/cinema, print, outdoor, interactive, radio, design, sales promotion, integrated advertising, as well as the best media and direct marketing solutions.