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Category: AD Agencies

  • Talent retention is key, says Mindshare’s Prasanth Kumar

    Talent retention is key, says Mindshare’s Prasanth Kumar

    MUMBAI: Mindshare, a global media and marketing services company that is a part of GroupM, has completed 20 years this November globally and 15 years in India. The company was created by the merger of the media operations of JWT and Ogilvy & Mather, then the two big full-service advertising agencies within the WPP group.

    Mindshare has global billings in excess of $34.5 billion. The network consists of more than 7,000 employees, in 116 offices across 86 countries spread throughout North America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. Each office is dedicated to forging a competitive marketing advantage for businesses and their brands based on speed and teamwork. Mindshare is a part of GroupM, which oversees the media investment management sector for WPP, the world’s leading communications services group.

    Mindshare helps clients to make collaborative decisions across their paid, owned and earned marketing in real-time with various tools and services such as FAST, Content+, Mindscan, Kyve and Loop rooms offered by the network.

    While FAST is the programmatic and performance marketing engine leveraging audience insights, category dynamics and environmental triggers to deliver a customised solution in real-time, Content+ was launched to focus on producing insight-driven, purposeful content for a specific audience, at a specific time to meet a specific brand need. Kyve is a platform for brands and advertisers to track online video viewership. It also helps to use the data and intelligence gathered to scan, seed, and strategise end-to-end digital video and content strategies for brands. The tool also leverages its platform for precise brand targeting on online video, to eliminate audience spillage, and further measure the success of video campaigns. LOOP Room brings diverse talent together in one place to interpret data, gain insights and optimise campaigns in real time.

    Prasanth Kumar, also known as PK, took over as the CEO of Mindshare India and South Asia in February 2015. Prior to this he was the managing partner, Central Trading Group, South Asia, GroupM.

    Thanking his predecessors for making the organisation what it is today and laying a strong foundation, Kumar says, “We are glad to be celebrating 20 years and it is a big milestone for any agency. In the last 20 years, the Indian media industry has evolved along with our agency. It is a great achievement for any agency to be celebrating 20 years in this ever-evolving media world.”

    Kumar also added that talent retention is a big challenge in today’s time when the younger generation does not want to join the media world. To combat the issue, Mindshare organises workshops and seminars for its employees while also encouraging and appreciating their hard work.

    He also mentioned that the client agency relationship has changed dynamically over the last few years and it is a challenge to retain clients. An agency needs to be attentive and agile to cater to the client’s changing need and Mindshare has been successful in doing that over the last 20 years, resulting in clients being with Mindshare for the long term.

    Terms such as analytics, big data and AI (artificial intelligence) became more prominent this year but Kumar believes that the Indian media landscape is yet to adapt and understand these tools. He has a positive outlook for 2018 and believes it will be a good year for the industry as a whole after a year’s slowdown due to demonetisation and GST.

  • GroupM’s Wavemaker launches India biz

    GroupM’s Wavemaker launches India biz

    MUMBAI: Wavemaker, GroupM’s new billion-dollar revenue, media, content and technology agency created from the merger of MEC and Maxus has opened its business in India.

    Wavemaker India will open with a team of 700+ professionals, lead by the recently announced new managing director Kartik Sharma and will serve a portfolio of clients including FMCG giant ITC and L’Oréal.

    Wavemaker India will be headquartered in Mumbai with offices in Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai, Thrissur and Cochin.

    Wavemaker India managing director of South Asia Kartik Sharma says, “I am excited as Wavemaker officially starts operations in India. All our people, processes and technology are united through our focus on understanding, accelerating and optimising purchase journeys; making them more satisfying for consumers and more effective for our clients.”

  • WAT’s Your Big Idea 2.0 gets bigger

    WAT’s Your Big Idea 2.0 gets bigger

    MUMBAI: After the success of its inaugural edition last year, digital and social media agency WATConsult has launched WAT’s Your Big Idea (WYBI) 2.0. It is the second season of WYBI, a digital ideation competition for colleges across India that provides a unique platform and opportunities to the next generation in the field of digital advertising and marketing.

    This year, besides the cash prize, endorsed certificate, and an assured job offer, the winning team will also get an opportunity to visit Cannes Lions in 2018.

    During WYBI,students get an opportunity to work on live projects, understand the nuances of creating digital campaigns for notable brands, and showcase their creative skills to the best brand marketers in the country.

    The agency has partnered institutes such as MICA, SIMC, IIM Bangalore, IIM Indore, SP Jain, Jamnalal Bajaj, NMIMS, and Jai Hind along with brands like Swarovski, Madame Tussauds, HE face wash, Savlon (ITC Group), Jack and Jones, and Naturolax (Piramal Healthcare).

    WATConsult founder and CEO Rajiv Dingra said, “Considering the overwhelming responses from students last year, we decided to offer them an international platform to meet, be inspired, and interact with the advertising stalwarts of the world. The winning team will have the opportunity to win an all-expenses trip to Cannes Lions 2018.”

    Dentsu Aegis Network chairman and CEO South Asia Ashish Bhasin added, “Last year was a benchmark setter. The students came up with some exciting and innovative ideas and I am looking forward to the entries this year. WATConsult’s initiative has helped us find some really good talent and we will continue supporting their efforts.”

  • Smart city initiatives in APAC to improve quality of life: DAN & MIT

    Smart city initiatives in APAC to improve quality of life: DAN & MIT

    MUMBAI: Dentsu Aegis Network has launched a new white paper examining the progress of Asia Pacific’s smart cities, including local deep-dives into eight key markets in the region. In its third year, this series on Asia Pacific’s digital disruption aims to deliver thought leadership to arm Dentsu Aegis Network and its agency brands’ clients and partners with the insight they need to succeed in the digital economy.

    In collaboration with MIT Technology Review, the report argues that increasingly, smart city initiatives in Asia Pacific are being developed and driven to improve quality of life for the region’s citizens and consumers, to manage cities’ growth sustainably, and to maintain their global competitiveness.

    The paper titled “Connectivity and QoL : How digital consumer habits and ubiquitous technology are driving smart city development in Asia Pacific” – consolidates extensive in-market research and nearly two-dozen in-depth interviews with key industry players from India, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and Australia.

    Dentsu Aegis Network Asia Pacific CEO Nick Waters said, “Asia Pacific has enjoyed robust economic expansion in recent years, with cities at the heart of this growth. With development comes challenges, but cities in the region are transforming these challenges into opportunities with the help of technology and innovation. Smart cities in Asia Pacific are quickly becoming pilot markets for the digital economy.

    “The white paper helps us understand what drives the development of smart cities in Asia Pacific, how businesses can leverage them to develop digital economy solutions and how we can contribute to make these cities more viable, livable and sustainable,” Nick added.

     The report found two key factors that distinguish Asia Pacific’s smart city efforts from other regions around the globe. Governments and businesses are more willing to invest in experimental models that exploit new technologies, business models, and urban planning design. For example, the development of new ‘greenfield’ smart cities from scratch such as South Korea’s Songdo International Business District, Japan’s Fujisawa Sustainable Smart Town, Hong Kong’s Smart City @ Kowloon East, and others.

    Asia Pacific also has a unique approach in its efforts to engage private sector players in developing smart cities. More collaboration has emerged between the government and the region’s leading technology firms – China’s Alibaba, India’s Reliance Communications, Japan’s Panasonic, and others – to deliver smart city projects.

    MIT Technology Review CEO and Publisher Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau explains, “While no two Asia Pacific markets have the exact same mix of smart city strategies or assets, we have found that nearly all such projects attempt to use smart cities to serve two goals simultaneously: address immediate infrastructure or service delivery challenges while ‘future-proofing’ their economies against threats looming on the horizon.”

    The paper also outlines six common themes of Asia Pacific’s successful smart city initiatives, including: leveraging cloud technology; creating ‘open’ and accessible ecosystems, and through this harnessing the power of startup ecosystems; consumer-driven application development; mixing ‘greenfield’ and ‘brownfield’ smart city experiments; IoT and sensor-based platforms; and cashless economies.

    Dentsu Aegis Network chairman and CEO South Asia Ashish Bhasin said, “India is currently moving towards massive urbanisation. Consequently, its need for building smart cities is immediate when compared to many other countries. Home to one of the most populated and diverse demographics in the world, India witnesses the migration of 20-30 people every minute from rural regions to urban cities. Yes, India is a complex country and therefore, its infrastructural challenges are huge but so are the opportunities. We have a large consumer base, we are well-connected and mobile-enabled. And these elements will act as huge enablers to create our smart cities and introduce economic transformation.”

  • The hard choice between specialised and full service ad agencies

    The hard choice between specialised and full service ad agencies

    Winter is coming! Old families are preparing their troops and preparing strategies in a quest to secure their territory before it is invaded by new forces.

    HBO’s Game of Thrones is the perfect metaphor here to explain how agencies are buckling up for an advertising future where clients are looking at different support levels from agency groups. In such a time, agencies are defending themselves against a march of specialised marketing services providers.

    In the good old days, business between clients and agencies was simple and straightforward. Clients hired agencies to create 20-30 second ad spots for television, they created creative stills for magazines and outdoor and sent standard emails to addresses stored in their massive database to everyone. But that seems long ago now as clients’ needs and requirements from an agency have changed over time. What we have seen in the industry, a latest ‘trend’ if you may call it, is clients opting to hire multiple specialised agencies to cater their specific needs.

    Clients are smarter today and know what they need from an agency and it is up to the latter to be agile and meet the demands placed on it from time to time. Dentsu Webchutney EVP and branch head of Delhi Anil Kumar points out the hard reality that pockets of specialisation have now been created and most agencies do not have similar strengths across services they offer. As clients are anyway outsourcing, and paying for the services, it makes sound business logic for them to hand-pick the best for their business needs.

    As far as the client-agency relationship goes, all involved believe that trust is the strongest of the ties that binds. 98 per cent of both clients and agencies believe that a trust-based alliance leads to better work. WATConsult Founder and CEO Rajiv Dingra believes that a client-agency relationship is that of ‘partner’ and not that a ‘vendor-buyer’ and when an agency invests in a fruitful partnership with a client then it’s not about retention but about growth and exciting work.

    It is definitely hard for an agency to lose out on valuable business and clients when they hire specialist outfits and distribute the work among all of them rather than having a full service provider doing the full monty.

    But what can or should agencies do in order to retain clients they’ve worked with for so long?

    Maybe agencies need to identify and focus on their core strengths, and grow from there, maybe they need to be consistent and relevant. According to Publicis India chief strategy officer and managing partner Sudeep Gohil, great work, fostering good relationships and always being honest are key to retain clients.

    “It’s hard to do the right thing sometimes, but just getting the job done to placate a client, is much worse. Honesty and respect build mutually beneficial and fruitful relationships,” he adds.

    Lowe Lintas CEO Raj Gupta believes agencies must continue to keep brands relevant and growing in the changing demographics and technology era.

    At such times, ad outfits tend to change their strategy, invest more into technology and get people with expertise on board in order to fulfil all requirements by clients. But some agencies also opt to guide the client to someone with expertise in the service required rather than take a punt at the solution themselves at the client’s risk. In some cases, larger agencies that have multiple networks can divert the client within the network to their own specialised sister agencies — a perfect win-win situation for all. Dentsu Aegis Network is one such example.

    While Lowe Lintas has a mature set of clients which stay put, once they have bought into the brand idea, WATConsult prefers working with a smaller client who has clarity than a confused large client. Its strategy is to pitch work to brands for the long term and focus on their long term health and avoid taking short cuts to winning business. On the other hand, FCB Ulka constantly hires fresh talent while training existing employees to keep up with changing time and client needs.

    Ideally, any agency would not like the changing preferences of clients lead to a situation where they choose to switch between agencies and assign various duties to different agencies. The latter need to ensure that they value the relationship demands and that they continue to do soyear after year. It is only when stagnation and fatigue sets in that a relationship starts turning sour.

    While affirming that clients are only trying to do what they think is best for their business, Webchutney’s Anil Kumar notes that clients do not owe agencies their allegiance. However, a change of agency is often a harder decision for a client than the for agency as their entire business can be at risk. Therefore the latter also need to be cautious about the clients they pick, taking care of each one’s financially viability.

    “It may seem to be a good short term solution to boost year-end targets but it will surely kill you in the long run as your resources are diverted to service a low-yield or no-yield customer at the cost of a high-yield one endangering your entire business.”he adds.

    Sudeep Gohil is of the opinion that once a relationship is broken and minds have been made up, it is difficult to revert. In such cases, creative/strategic workshops tend to be very successful where all parties attend and work to find a solution in a compressed time period.

    FCB Ulka CEO Nitin Karkare stresses that if the current partner (agency) can fulfil the need in a changing dynamic, brands will be comfortable with an existing partner and not look at changing or moving away.

    Ownership of problems, trust, collaboration and an open minded approach serve as major contributors for a successful client-agency relationship. If both parties always believe in and understand each other’s motives, a good level of trust can be nurtured. Also a common understanding of the successful goals that are being set out to be achieved is critical.

    Agencies need to identify and focus on their core strengths, and grow from there. Just because a couple of media or digital or event managers can be roped in, does not make an outfit an expert all-rounder.

    Sure every business unit needs to grow, but that can happen only if they create true specialisations in addition to the verticals they already are good at. Agencies need to grow slow, but grow sustainably!

  • Guest column: Ads that didn’t work!

    Guest column: Ads that didn’t work!

    The advertising sector is expected to be a sophisticated and creative one. Creative heads spend hours ensuring the advertising is ‘done right’. Yet, year after year, we come across ads that fail to make any mark and instead end up being called as dunce.

    These ads lack engaging storytelling, creativity and in most cases are poorly executed with actors overdoing the act.

    The small and local brands deliver such howlers as they only have a small amount to spare on advertising and limited creative counsel. But at times we come across deep-pocketed household name that create bad advertisements.

    If it all becomes too much to bear, please cheer yourself up with our listicle on best animated ads in India and ads that rapped with consumers.

    Inspiration exists at both ends of the creative scale.The higher end has fewer options to engage with. So, here are five gems according to Publicis India head of creative Nitin Pradhan who was talking to Indiantelevision.com’s Santosh Jangid.

     

    Bangur Cement – Godzilla.

    You’ve got to give it to this one for the sheer confidence and nerve with which it attacked the air waves.

    The plot is to die for and the CG scary. Godzilla rises from the shallows of the Arabian Sea and brings down our very own Bandra Worli sea link only to bang its head and lose its tail (you read that right) to a skyscraper. A white-bearded foreigner and a few flying birds usher in a rainbow.

    I’m sure they thought of it on the way to the shoot.

    JK Super Cement

    It has graced Indian Advertising’s Hall of Fame for long now. A skimpily clad girl rises from the sea and threateningly walks towards us before breaking into a smile. A deep voice in the background interprets the metaphor, “Vishwaas hai. Isme kuchh khaas hai.” Subtle!

    Pan Bahar

    Pierce Brosnan walks into a casting coup and trips. An idea which will be remembered for eons, for reasons unintended.

    When in doubt cast a white man. When in more doubt cast a famous white man. And it will work. It did. And so did many Bhojpuri films.

    Micromax  – Nuts, Guts, Glory.

    The white man fascination continues and gets scaled up. There are many white men. And women. Quite sure the idea was to appeal to the ‘youth’.

    The brand attempts to climb several rungs of the ‘aspirational’ ladder. Taking potshots at an icnoic fruit-logo brand definitely needs guts.

    Not sure why they had to replace this piece so soon, then. Maybe, the boring small towners preferred reality.

    MDH Spices – Flight of Taste

    It’s a flight full of Indians. With a pinch of white skin added to taste. Words like ‘Khushbu’, ‘Swaad’, ‘Taste’ and the three magical letters are thrown in generously in a modest attempt to self-garland the brand multiple times along with its veteran creator. Life saving spices are dropped on to flavour starved regions of the world along with parachutes. Imagination takes a jump without one.

    public://Nitin Pradhan.jpg

    The observations made in this piece by Nitin Pradhan, in the pix, are with no malice at heart or high-handedness in the head against any individual or organisation. There’s always a good reason behind every piece of not-so-good work. And, how can one judge good from bad when one has been a partner in crime, some time or the other. Good sense prevails only when we look back and analyse. May be, this is that moment, according to Pradhan. However, Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to his personal views expressed here.

     

     

  • Intelligent Content vital for branding: iProspect CEO about new solution

    Intelligent Content vital for branding: iProspect CEO about new solution

    MUMBAI: iProspect, Dentsu Aegis Network’s global digital performance agency, has launched Intelligent Content – an offering that links production and performance – in India.

    A holistic messaging strategy spanning across all digital channels to ensure relevance, visibility and performance, Intelligent Content is already available across iProspect’s other key markets globally. For the record, Intelligent Content is an end-to-end solution that uses intelligent data and insights to design strategies around content creation, amplification and measurement.

    Meanwhile, as part of the launch, iProspect India has partnered with Aegon Life Insurance to pilot this solution.

    iProspect India CEO Rubeena Singh says, “In the performance space, content has been an untapped area. Brands are increasingly more aware of the pivotal role content plays in brand communication and engaging with the target audience. With Intelligent Content, we will not only drive business outcomes for clients but also expand our holistic performance offering. Shipra Tandon from iProspect Mumbai, who comes with an impressive work profile, will lead this service offering for us.”

    Aegon Life Insurance CDO Martijn De Jong says, “We focus extensively on digital within our overall media spends and are open to exploring and experimenting. Digital is at an inflection point in India today and content forms the crux of it, proving to be a game-changer. Content will play the lead role to achieve our business objectives.”

  • DAN launches data-driven celebrity endorsement and sports marketing agency ‘CLab’

    DAN launches data-driven celebrity endorsement and sports marketing agency ‘CLab’

    MUMBAI: With the launch of CLab, the media and advertising conglomerate Dentsu Aegis Network, which operates 25 businesses in India, has expanded its footprint into celebrity endorsement and sports marketing.

    CLab will deliver solutions that range from brand endorsements, brand integrations, property and content creation to digital associations and sports marketing offerings including in-stadia branding, image rights, associations, activations, live events and appearances.

    CLab aims to introduce actionable insights with informed decision-making into the process of celebrity endorsement. Therefore, to address the existing gaps and evolving nuances of the industry, the unit has developed, The Star Matrix, a unique celebrity insights tool. The tool enables both, qualitative and quantitative learning, of the celebrity’s social sphere, giving a deeper understanding of their multifarious influence vis-à-vis their social interactions.

    Dentsu Aegis Network – South Asia chairman and CEO Ashish Bhasin said, “We hope to bring a data-based, scientific approach in the area of establishing brand image with the help of celebrity endorsers under CLab.”

    CLab ‘mentor’ Posterscope MD Haresh Nayak said, “Our vison with CLab is to bring accountability and informed decision-making in a discipline which functions on perception, probability and gut feeling of advertisers.

    CLab aims to break the myth of notional acceptability that has its roots in experimentation rather than information. A team of experts is now in place at CLab to deliver it.”

    CLab VP Deepak Kumar said, “If we look at celebrity and sports marketing separately, the two might differ in their operational mechanism but the driving force is common. People, popularity, occasions and influence share the common angle, governing the dynamics of the business. We took timely cognizance of the lacunae and (formed CLab).”

  • Idealake’s Prabhakar Jampa joins Asymmetrique

    MUMBAI: Asymmetrique, a digital-era marketing and brand solutions company, recently appointed Prabhakar Jampa as their chief experience partner.

    Prabhakar is professional with over two decades of experience in digital strategy, creative and brand advertising with strategic thinking. He has held creative leadership positions in major MNC agencies such as RediffusionYR, iContract, Contract Advertising (a JWT, WPP worldwide company), Result McCann, Wunderman and MAA Bozell. His previous role was with Idealake, where he was the executive director – strategy & creative.

    Jampa says, “What drew me towards Asymmetrique is its unique approach towards creating digital brand ecosystems at the intersection of Data, Content, and Technology. Together, I look forward to co-creating the next generation of iconic brands that will define the digital-era of marketing in India, and hopefully the world.”

    Asymmetrique CEO & MD Nitin Gupta says, “Prabhakar is amongst the rare breed of creative thinkers in India who believes that digital ecosystems is the future of the agency business.”

  • Maxus retains IPL media mandate

    MUMBAI: Maxus has successfully retained the media responsibilities of the Indian Premier League for its 10th edition. Maxus has been the media agency for IPL ever since the league started in 2008. The account will be handled out of Maxus Mumbai office.

    Commenting on the retention, Maxus South Asia managing director Kartik Sharma said, “We are extremely proud and humbled to be chosen as the media agency once again byBCCI. I am grateful to BCCIfor valuing our efforts. We look forward to continue delivering even better results through our media campaigns on IPL.”

    The multi-agency pitch saw participation from other leading media agencies, following which Maxus retained the bImage result for karthik sharma maxususiness.