The Pakistan Advertisers Society (PAS) Awards 2016, held on April 30 at The Karachi Expo Centre marked a night of firsts in more ways than one.
Instituted in 2011 to recognise excellence in advertising, over the course of six years the PAS Awards have continued to break new ground and have extended their scope beyond the marketing and advertising industry. Consequently, the event attracted an audience of almost a thousand people this year. This was not limited to well-known personalities from the marketing and advertising industry, and included celebrities such as Amna Ilyas, Atiqa Odho, Gia Ali, Munna Mushtaq, Sheheryar Munawar, Sohai Ali Abro, Yousuf Bashir Qureshi and Zhalay Sarhadi as well as international corporate executives and government representatives.
Aly Mustansir, Chairman, PAS, started off the event with a tribute to the late Aslam Azhar, the former Chairman and Managing Director of PTV and a recipient of the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz.
The Lifetime Achievement Award, which was introduced last year, was presented to Tariq Ikram for his contribution to developing the marketing communications industry locally, as well as promoting it internationally. In his absence, Ali Tariq, his son, received the award on his behalf from Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Pervaiz Rasheed.
After acknowledging contributions from the past, the focus shifted to recognising the marketing initiatives of 2014-15. The night belonged to Adcom Leo Burnett. It was the first time that any agency bagged a cumulative total of nine awards at the PAS Awards, breaking the agency’s own record of six in 2013. The Selfies ban jaye grandfies campaign for Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime was declared the winner in four categories (Campaign of the Year, Best Nationally-Originated Campaign, Telecommunication Hardware & Consumer Electronics, and Telecommunication Service Providers).