Category: MAM

MUMBAI: Solutions|Digitas has roped in Nandu Narasimhan as national creative director.
 
Prior to this, Narasimhan was executive creative director with Saatchi & Saatchi for its Delhi and Bangalore office. 
 
Said Narasimhan, “I have been looking at moving into the new media zone for over a year now and now with Solutions|Digitas, I have an opportunity to experiment in this zone.” 
 
Narasimhan began his advertising career with Tara Sinha Associates in 1989 as a copywriter. A year later, he moved to Everest Integrated Communications, Delhi, where he had handled brands such as Viva, Maltova and LML Vespa.

MUMBAI: Percept Talent Management (PTM) has named Shailee Sanghvi as the new chief operating officer (COO). She will replace Vinita Bangard who decided to step down from the post citing personal problems.

Prior to the elevation, Sanghvi was PTM associate vice president and has been with the Percept Group since January 2003. As AVP, she handled the sales and marketing portfolio of corporates, along with the celebrity management and relationship management portfolios.
 
Said Shailee Sanghvi said, “I look forward to taking PTM to the next level in the coming years and establishing it not just as India‘s best but a global name in the field of talent management.”

Added Percept Limited joint managing director Shailendra Singh, “Shailee has abundant experience and exposure in the field of Talent marketing, and we are confident that PTM will grow even further under her able leadership.”
 
Talking about the future plans that PTM needs to meet and materialize, Singh said, “We have just launched three business verticals in PTM. The first business vertical will concentrate on creating intellectual properties (IP‘s) for talents. The second vertical is client servicing which involves creating a customized talent pool based on the client base. In other words, we become the AOR for clients and offer them exclusive and customized talent based on their specific requirements and identified brand synergies.” 
 
“The third vertical is the traditional model of acquisitioning talents across all genres, and providing them with all aspects of exposure possible for a talent as well as managing their administrative paperwork, professional contracts, presence in the digital domain, merchandising, publishing, media tie-ups, below-the-line events, public relations and grooming, relationship management and endorsements,” he elaborated.
 

MUMBAI: WWP-owned GroupM has selected Rob Norman, currently GroupM Interaction chief executive officer, to take over Marc Goldstein‘s role as CEO for the North America region.

This change will come into effect from 31 March onwards. 
 
Norman will retain his current role as the CEO of GroupM Interaction while adding the North American CEO title and will report to GroupM‘s global COO, Rupert Day. Meanwhile, Goldstein will continue as a senior advisor to the management group at GroupM.
 
As part of his new mandate, Norman will share management responsibilities for the North American branch of GroupM, a global media investment management operation.

MUMBAI: Close on the heels of Vinita Bangard putting in her papers at Percept Talent Management (PTM) as COO, company CEO Manish Porwal has decided to move on too.

Porwal joined PTM in January 2008, prior to which he was with Starcom Worldwide as MD, South and West India.
 
While Porwal will be serving his current role till 6 January, sources say that he may continue to be associated with the company in a non-executive role.
 
PTM is a division of Percept Limited, an entertainment, media and communications company. It specializes in providing a 360-degree solution for talents from the entertainment arena such as films, music, sports, fashion, direction, writing, modeling and acting. 
 
Earlier, Porwal has worked with the BBC, Vijay TV, Everest and FCB Ulka (now DraftFCB Ulka).

MUMBAI: Allied Media, the media planning, evaluation and buying arm of Percept, has bagged the media duties of SBI Mutual Fund (SBI MF).

The size of the account is pegged at Rs 300 million. 
 
Other media agencies pitching for the account included Lintas, GroupM, Motivators and Lodestar.

Post two rounds, Allied Media was appointed as the AOR for SBI MF across print, TV and radio.
 
Said Allied Media vice president PM Balakrishna, “SBI Mutual Fund is a brand leader, and clearly the largest mutual fund house in the country. Our objective is to add value by creating and delivering a wholesome 360-degree media solution to reach their wide base of customers. Our past experience, innovative media marketing proprietary tools and the support of the Percept Media‘s inherent capabilities and strengths will enable us to provide a holistic media strategy for the brand, which will be effective and efficient.”

MUMBAI: Retail broking house Anagram Capital Ltd has appointed Six Inches Communications as its creative agency that will help the company to launch its new online trading platform.

The size of the account is pegged to be in the region of Rs 30 million.
 
Says Anagram Capital CEO Mayank Shah, “Six Inches‘ experience and understanding of the equity markets, combined with the creative thought process and passion they bring on table, is impressive.” 
 
Anagram Capital Ltd offers a wide range of services for the equity investor which includes corporations, financial institutions, high net-worth individuals and retail investors. After a multi-agency pitch Anagram has appointed Six inches for the launch of a new online trading platform.
 

MUMBAI: Vizeum India has appointed Josraj Arakkal as general manager for the West region.

Prior to this, Arakkal was associate director – media services at Triton Communications. 
 
Says Vizeum MD Indian sub-continent S Yesudas, “I‘m happy to have Josraj leading our operation in the Western region. With Harit and Sreekanth leading our operations in North and South respectively, our first phase leadership team is fully in place. Arakkal will make a difference to Vizeum as well as our clients/brands. Vizeum is a well collaborated operation with no boundaries. Hence, all our clients/brands will get the expertise of our entire senior management.” 
 
Arakkal has approximately 23 years of experience in the media industry and has worked across India and the Middle East. In his advertising career, Arakkal has worked with agencies such as Rediffusion, Mudra Communications, Karishma Advertising, Enterprise Nexus Communications, Dynamic Advertising (Jeddah) and Mindshare (Baharain). 
 
well in Delhi,” said VP of India Value Fund, Prateek Roongta.

MUMBAI: Percept Talent Management (PTM) chief operating officer Vinita Bangard has put in her papers. Currently serving her notice period, Bangard will be with the company till February-end.
 
At PTM, Bangard was responsible for personality and brand sync, enhancing the brand recall and communications.

Bangard has been associated with the Percept Group for around 15 years. She has been part of the core team right from the initiation of PTM in 2007.
 
Prior to her appointment as PTM COO, Bangard was Percept D’Mark vice president, celebrity management services.
 
To her credit, Bangard has handled careers of eminent personalities across different fields including sports, Indian cinema and television.

MUMBAI: Following a multi-agency pitch, Vizeum India has been appointed as the media agency for iPlayup cricket, the trading name of Revo Content Services, a mobile entertainment business.

The size of the account is expected to be in the region of Rs 200 million. 
 
Said iPlayUp marketing head Kalyan Kumar said, “We found Vizeum to be proactive in their approach. They offer fresh thinking and their senior management is very involved in our business. Considering this, we knew we couldn‘t have chosen a better partner to work with.”
 
Vizeum plans to make specific and tangible contributions to grow the iPlayUP business in India.

Said Vizeum MD Indian sub continent S Yesudas says, “This business will be handled out of our Delhi office under the leadership of GM – North Harit Pant.”
 
Playup, operating in the UK, Australia and Japan, recently launched its operations in India with plans of making it a global hub for the company.
 

MUMBAI: Following a multi-agency pitch, Bangalore-based advertising agency Happy has bagged the creative duties for Diesel for the India market.

The global fashion label will enter the Indian market through a joint venture with Reliance Brands and will be known as Diesel Fashion India Reliance.
 
The agency has already started work on the brand and is working on the launch plans for Diesel‘s foray in the Indian market.

Says Happy co-founders & directors Kartik Iyer and Praveen Das, “It‘s been a dream to work on Diesel from the day we knew of the brand. Its even more encouraging to know that our ideas matched the tone and energy of the brand, as it stands today.” 
 
Says Reliance Brands CEO Darshan Mehta, “In Happy, we found creative partners who best understand and resonate the Diesel DNA. What we love the most about them is their freshness of approach.” 
 
In India, Diesel will be launched over spring/summer 2010. The campaign promises to be entertaining through its “untypical” messaging.