ITV

Category: Media Agencies

  • Madison OOH re-structures top management team

    Madison OOH re-structures top management team

    MUMBAI: Madison Communications’ outdoor arm Madison OOH has re-structured its senior management team, which will come into effect from 1 November, 2015.

     

    As a part of this re-structuring, MOMS COO Dipankar Sanyal had been promoted to Platinum Outdoor CEO. Sanyal has over 20 years of experience with outdoor and has been with the agency for the last 11 years. Before joining Madison, he worked with Vantage, Out-Sel, Portland, Zenith Media and RK Swamy.

     

    Replacing Sanyal as MOMS COO will be MOMS west & south vice president Jayesh Yagnik. With over 15 years experience, Yagnik has been with MOMS for 12 years now. He joined the agency as an assistant manager and gradually rose to the top.

     

    Stepping into Yagnik’s shoes as MOMS west & south vice president will be current MOMS west general manager Neeraj Ved. He has been with the agency for almost 10 years and joined as a management trainee.

     

    MOMS north & east vice president Krishnendu Ghosh has been upped as Madison OOH national buying head. Ghosh has total outdoor experience of 15 years, out of which 13 have been with Madison.

     

    Madison IES general manager Saumen Roy has been promoted as VP of the agency. Roy has been with the agency for the last five years and has been driving it ever since. Before joining Madison, he worked with JWT, Ogilvy, 360 degrees and Linterland.

     

    Madison OOH CEO Soumitra Bhattacharyya said, “At Madison, we are a meritocracy and strongly believe in recognising and rewarding our home grown talent. The strong leadership team we have now put in place will help Madison OOH delight its existing clients by establishing new bench marks in service and quality standards and achieve aggressive growth as a by product.”

     

    The Madison OOH team will be further empowered with Madison Media & OOH group CEO Vikram Sakhuja, who took charge from 19 October.

  • WPP inks global partnership with Acquia

    WPP inks global partnership with Acquia

    MUMBAI: WPP has inked a global partnership with digital experience company Acquia to offer clients a full-service digital marketing and technology solution.

     

    The new partnership brings together WPP’s existing Acquia partners – which include Globant, Hogarth, Mirum, Possible, Rockfish, VML and Wunderman – under the umbrella of the WPP-Acquia Alliance.

     

    The WPP-Acquia Alliance is the world’s largest Acquia Certified partner and has two Acquia MVPs. Its members will draw on Acquia software, training and certification, collaborate on new business pitches, and share project resources.

     

    Under the agreement, WPP agencies will provide creative, UX and development resources to Acquia clients, while Acquia will provide its open cloud platform to the WPP-Acquia Alliance to deliver projects. The WPP-Acquia Alliance is part of WPP’s Technology Partnership Program, an initiative led by chief digital officer and chief strategy officer Scott Spirit to coordinate and promote the Group’s relationships with key providers of marketing technology services.

     

    Acquia provides an open cloud platform for building, delivering and optimising digital experiences. Organisations rely on the Acquia Platform to unify content, community and commerce. The company harnesses the open source content management system Drupal, which was created by Acquia founder and CTO Dries Buytaert. Drupal is used by many of the world’s largest organisations. The Acquia Platform provides a multi-site management solution, continuous support, and an environment for developing and maintaining Drupal sites.

     

    WPP chief digital officer Scott Spirit said, “The growth of the ‘API economy’ is changing marketing, and clients require the ability to integrate existing technologies, data sources and media into a central platform. WPP is committed to working closely with technology leaders, and the creation of the WPP-Acquia Alliance gives us an open source digital experience practice at a time when the market is growing rapidly.”

     

    “We began working with WPP agencies five years ago, and today our combined teams are working together on five continents, and unlocking the creative freedom to launch amazing digital experiences for their clients. The combined WPP-Acquia team, and the disruptive business they’re building, will deliver transformative outcomes to those organizations that are thinking ahead to a mobile-first, browserless world,” added Acquia CEO Tom Erickson.

  • Mindshare launches emerging markets growth hub – FAST

    Mindshare launches emerging markets growth hub – FAST

    MUMBAI: Mindshare APAC has launched FAST Hub (Future Adaptive Specialist Team) in Singapore, supported by EDB, to enable brands to benefit from the growth opportunities appearing in emerging markets.

     

    FAST brings together the best of WPP as well as industry leading companies and products including GroupM, Kantar, WPP Data Alliance, CrayonData and Jivox, to build sector specific solutions to enable marketers to use real time insights to drive real time marketing and media actions, including hyper-targeted content creation and distribution.

     

    The launch is a response to the increase in data availability and the parallel rise in data and technology led marketing opportunities such as programmatic and performance advertising that leverage this data.

     

    Targeting the consumer packaged goods (CPG), banking, consumer healthcare, telecoms and automotive sectors, FAST will allow clients to adopt and implement adaptive marketing strategies covering programmatic, performance marketing, customised data alliances, digital analytics, data management platforms (DMP) and real-time marketing.

     

    The Singapore FAST hub is anticipated to grow to a 63 members outfit over the course of the next three years, and the six teams will lead the product development for this suite of services for all growth and emerging markets for Mindshare’s clients, wherever they are in the world.

     

    Mindshare Asia Pacific COO Gowthaman Ragothaman said, “The industry is still grappling with a deluge of data. We want to help simplify this for our clients and provide them a bespoke solution that solves their business problems. The role big data plays for a CPG company is totally different to the influence it has on the banking sector or auto industry. Our ability to provide customisation is one of the key differentiators for FAST.”

     

    Mindshare AMEA, Russia & Emerging Markets chairman & CEO Ashutosh Srivastava added, “The talent to drive these services is scarce, but Singapore provides FAST with a thriving ecosystem for learning and development. Together with EDB’s support, this will immensely benefit Mindshare and our clients, help brand marketers find more effective and profitable opportunities for growth, and also develop young Singaporean talent for the data-driven marketing world. For the young talent, this is a great opportunity to work together with some of the brightest minds in the business, and do the best work of their career.”

     

    Commenting on this partnership, Singapore Economic Development Board assistant managing director Kelvin Wong said, “When you look at how mobile, social and e-commerce are changing the behaviour of Asia’s consumers, it is clear that brand owners are turning to their agencies with a very different set of needs. Mindshare, by centralising a suite of data, technology and domain-centric capabilities, is well poised to serve global clients who require specialised expertise in the growth and emerging markets. We welcome the establishment of Mindshare’s FAST hub, and look forward to building Singapore’s digital marketing ecosystem from strength to strength.”

  • Dentsu acquires French cross-activation agency ZoneFranche

    Dentsu acquires French cross-activation agency ZoneFranche

    MUMBAI: Dentsu Aegis Network has acquired the Paris based cross-activation agency ZoneFranche SAS, which has strengths in experiential marketing.

     

    Founded in 2004, ZoneFranche has steadily captured an increasing share of the growing activation market, and is currently one of the leading agencies with a focus on consumer brand experience and experienced value.

     

    The company also offers a wide range of communications services including digital, mobile, advertising and promotion solutions that leverage social media, customer relationship management (CRM), and other marketing activities to enhance the purchasing experience. These innovative, high-quality services have earned it high praise from prominent companies in France as well as in other countries.

     

    Post-acquisition, ZoneFranche will become part of experiential marketing agency psLIVE, one of the Dentsu Group’s specialist brands. During the next 12 months, psLIVE will be realigned as MKTG, the Group’s lifestyle marketing brand headquartered in New York and one of its nine global network brands.

     

    As was reported earlier by Indiantelevision.com, in India Dentsu recently acquired Brian Tellis’ Fountainhead Entertainment, which will be merged with psLIVE.

  • Havas media bagged the integrated media mandate for BlueStone.com

    Havas media bagged the integrated media mandate for BlueStone.com

    MUMBAI: Havas media group has won the integrated media mandate of BlueStone.com, one of the leading online store for jewellery and accessories. The business of BlueStone.com is estimated at over INR 35 crore.

     

     “We are aggressively scaling up BlueStone. Havas media has the attitude, agility and skill to partner with us in this growth. We are glad to have them on board and see them as long term partners,” asserted BlueStone.com CEO Gaurav Kushwaha.

     

    BlueStone.com CMO Pushkar Jain said, “The Digital at Core philosophy of Havas Media is in line with our thinking. Their integrated media strengths further gave us the confidence that they know how to in navigate this territory.”

     

    “We were impressed with Havas Media’s passion and commitment towards BlueStone.com. We look forward to this association,” continued BlueStone.com VP marketing Ahshul Khandelwal.

     

    Speaking on the win, Havas media group-India and South Asia CEO Anita Nayyar asserted, “We are delighted at this win. Havas media has been growing at three times the market only because of our aggressive new business acquisitions. BlueStone adds another feather to our cap. We look forward to working with the very enterprising BlueStone team.”

     

    Havas media group-India managing director Mohit Joshi voiced, “Havas Media’s unique proposition focused on meaningful brands has given us an edge in acquiring new businesses. This win strengthens our new age client (dotcom) portfolio and further boosts our Bangalore operations.”

     

    BlueStone has received funding form Accel Partners, Kalaari Capital and Saama Capital, IvyCap Ventures, Dragoneer and Ratan Tata.

  • Dentsu Aegis appointed as digital agency for Hachette book

    Dentsu Aegis appointed as digital agency for Hachette book

    MUMBAI: Hachette book publishing India has appointed a digital agency, Isobar, from the Dentsu Aegis Network. 

     

    “As a part of our larger commitment to exploring newer ways of reaching our readers we’ve brought Isobar on-board to help us with our social media presence. Isobar’s pitch captured the heart of why books endure and how people connect with books. Their clear understanding of what we need and the enthusiasm of the team assures us that our brand and our books are in good hands,” asserted Hachette India managing director Thomas Abraham.

     

    Isobar India managing director Shamsuddin Jasani added, “We are very happy to be associated with Hachette India, as we are always looking at experiences across different sectors and different types of clients. This win adds a very important category of books and publications to our ever expanding repertoire.”

     

    “We recently instituted a focused business development unit to go after interesting brands. This win is just the beginning of many more to come. Happy to be working with Hachette India, it’s an interesting category and the team is excited to create innovative and creative work for them,” added Isobar India Vice President Gopa Kumar

  • Dentsu Aegis Network forms ninth global network brand MKTG

    Dentsu Aegis Network forms ninth global network brand MKTG

    MUMBAI: Dentsu Aegis Network has formed its ninth global network brand, MKTG, the lifestyle marketing agency it acquired in August 2014 headquartered in New York. 

     

    The agency’s transition towards operating as one global brand, MKTG will grow from 450 full time employees and 7,000 brand ambassadors in the United States, to nearly 1,000 full time employees in 14 countries, providing a truly global lifestyle marketing solution for clients. 

     

    The realigned agency will provide clients with an integrated through-the-line service offering including sports and entertainment consulting, experiential marketing, sponsorship identification, negotiation and activation, hospitality, strategy, research and insights, custom measurement, digital and creative capabilities, content development, design and retail marketing.

     

    “The tremendous growth and importance of lifestyle marketing made it clear that strategically it was time to unify our like-minded businesses as one single brand. As a network, we are constantly evolving to meet the demands of our clients, to be responsive to the needs and desires of consumers and to remain pioneering in the evolution of our industry,” said Dentsu Aegis Network CEO and Dentsu Inc. executive officer Jerry Buhlmann.

     

    In addition, out-of-home agency posterscope’s experiential arm, psLIVE’s offices across Europe and Asia Pacific, South Africa’s crimson room, Australia/New Zealand’s Apollo Nation and US-based sports and entertainment consultancy team Epic will be realigned as part of MKTG over the next 12 months.

     

    Dentsu Aegis Network chairman & CEO South Asia Ashish Bhasin said, “In India, the lifestyle marketing solutions market is growing at twice the rate of the ATL market. With Fountainhead, a leading player in India and MKTG, a leading global player, we now will have the best offering of global standards, through Fountainhead MKTG, which will make us the best lifestyle marketing solutions agency in India. This is another big step forward in helping us achieve our mission of being the second largest agency group by end 2017 in India, overturning for the first time the existing ranking which has historically been in place for over 80 years in India.”

     

    “We are truly excited about this next chapter and the opportunity to work across the network to deliver unrivalled lifestyle marketing solutions for brands. The realignment will also greatly benefit our current long-standing client base and our employees who now have the ability to plug into resources and opportunities around the globe,” said MKTG global brand president and MKTG USA CEO Charlie Horsey.

  • Dentsu snaps up Brian Tellis’ Fountainhead; to merge it with psLIVE

    Dentsu snaps up Brian Tellis’ Fountainhead; to merge it with psLIVE

    MUMBAI: Dentsu Aegis Network has acquired Indian event and experiential agency Fountainhead Entertainment founded by Brian Tellis.

     

    It is envisaged that in 2016, Dentsu’s existing experiential offering of psLIVE, with 86 people in India, will be merged with Fountainhead, making the combined agency India’s largest experiential and activation agency business.

     

    As per industry sources, the acquisition is pegged in the region of Rs 350 – 400 crore.

     

    Fountainhead’s expertise and presence within the fastest growing sector of India’s advertising industry adds scale to Dentsu Aegis Network’s growing presence within the country.

     

    Founded by chairman Tellis, managing director Neale Murray and director Otis D’Souza, Fountainhead was later joined by co-directors Pradeep Guha, VG Jairam and Owen Roncon.

     

    Post-acquisition, Fountainhead will continue to be led by Tellis. The current management team will also continue as is. Tellis will report into Dentsu Aegis Network South Asia chairman and CEO Ashish Bhasin.

     

    This acquisition will be one of the largest in India within this sector.

     

    Established in 1994 and now with more than 205 experiential specialists, Fountainhead is headquartered in Mumbai and has offices in Delhi and Bangalore.

     

    Fountainhead supports its client base of more than 100 on all types of events, digital initiatives, product launches, brand activation and meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions. The five brands within the business are: Fountainhead Events, Oranjuice Entertainment, Fountainhead Activations, Fountainhead Corporate Journeys and Fountainhead Digital. Together, they deliver in excess of 350 events annually.

     

    Dentsu Aegis Network Asia Pacific CEO Nick Waters said, “Fountainhead’s reputation in the event and activation market, and their extensive experience in both music and sports marketing, complements and strengthens our experiential offering in one of the region’s most exciting markets. This move represents a further step in our continued investment programme in the Indian market. We welcome Brian and the wider team to the network.”

     

    Bhasin said, “As the fastest growing network in India, we are continuing to expand our portfolio of diverse specialisations available to our growing client base. Fountainhead’s creative quality and reputation in the market make it the perfect addition to Dentsu Aegis Network India. Our unique ‘One P & L’ philosophy will help us bring their expertise to all Dentsu Aegis Network clients. This is another big step forward in helping us achieve our mission of being the second largest agency group by end 2017 in India, overturning for the first time the existing ranking which has historically been in place for over 80 years in India.”

     

    Tellis added, “Our vision is to deliver world class experiences to our stake holders. To set benchmarks in delivery through cutting-edge creativity, innovation, value pricing and practices and processes.  We are thrilled to join Dentsu Aegis Network. The sheer dynamism of the group will open up opportunities for us. Our values are well aligned and the potentially combined entity of Fountainhead and psLIVE will become the most comprehensive experiential offering in India. We are very excited about this opportunity and the growth potential it offers. Fountainhead, a full service experiential agency, will now start to align with an enviable spectrum of brands through the Dentsu Aegis Network.”

     

    Fountainhead will retain its identity and branding, working alongside the other specialist Dentsu Aegis Network brands locally: Carat, iProspect, Isobar, Posterscope, Vizeum, Amnet, Dentsu media, Dentsu branded agencies (Dentsu Creative Impact, Dentsu Marcom, Dentsu Communications, Taproot Dentsu, Dentsu Webchutney), WATConsult and Milestone Brandcom. 

  • Dentsu buys Brazilian mobile solutions company Pontomobi

    Dentsu buys Brazilian mobile solutions company Pontomobi

    MUMBAI: In a bid to strengthen its presence in Brazil’s fast growing mobile advertising market, Dentsu Aegis Network has acquired the Brazilian mobile marketing agency Pontomobi Tecnologia Informatica, Ltda.

     

    The acquisition is, however, subject to approval by Brazil’s regulatory authority.

     

    Founded in 2007, Pontomobi provides a range of services including consulting and development related to mobile strategies for companies, products and services, website construction, the development of applications and games, the provision of a variety of solutions that utilise the proprietary mobile marketing platform developed in-house, and push notification promotions and vouchers that are sent via a short messaging service (SMS).

     

    Post-acquisition, Pontomobi will become part of full-service digital agency Isobar, one of the Group’s eight global network brands, and will be rebranded Pontomobi – Linked by Isobar. The agency will work in collaboration with other Group companies to further expand its presence in Brazil and deliver even more innovative solutions.

     

    According to US research firm eMarketer (March 2015 forecasts), mobile ad spending in Brazil is expected to grow from $250 million in 2014 to $3.34 billion in 2019.

  • O&M bags maximum statuettes at IndIAA Awards

    O&M bags maximum statuettes at IndIAA Awards

    MUMBAI: Ogilvy & Mather bagged the maximum number of six awards at the IndIAA Awards, which are organised by theIndia Chapter of the International Advertising Association (IAA).

     

    O&M was awarded for its creative work on brands such as Titan, Kinley, SBI Life, Hero Indian Super League, BMW and Vodafone.

     

    On the other hand, amongst media agencies, Maxus won four awards for Dabur Vatika, Vodafone, Titan and Hero Motocorp.

     

    IndIAA Awards, which held on 13 October at ST Regis Hotel, saw 16 winners from various creative and media agencies. It also included various agency partners from digital, activation, PR and events.

     

    IndIAA awards chairman Pradeep Guha said, “The IndIAA Award format ensured that ‘ads for awards only’ didn’t come through and this itself was the differentiator.”

     

    IAA India chapter president Srinivasan Swamy added, “With the IndIAA Awards, IAA has added another interesting concept to its existing cache of clutter-breaking events. We attempted IndIAA Awards as an experiment; we wanted to create a different way of awarding creativity. With the response to our call for entries and the turnout today, we know that this concept has been very well accepted.”

     

    On the jury for the awards were Unilever COO and Hindustan Unilever non-executive chairman Harish Manwani, Titanmanaging director Bhaskar Bhat, Standard Chartered Bank group head of brand and chief marketing officer Sanjeeb Chaudhuri, State Bank of India managing director and group executive (national banking) B Sriram and Kelloggs India managing director Sangeeta Pendurkar.

     

    “Great brands are built around insights, not analytics,” said Manwani, while addressing the audience in the ceremony.