Category: Media Agencies

Dentsu Aegis Network wins big at Asian Customer Engagement Forum Awards

MUMBAI: Dentsu Aegis Network exhibited enormous dominance at the Asia Customer Engagement Forum (ACEF) awards that were held on 25 April at Taj Lands End in Mumbai.

While Dentsu Aegis Network’s iProspect Communicate 2 was named the Most Admired Agency in digital marketing, Carat Media Services India/psLive was named the Most Admired Agency in events and promotions.

Posterscope India bagged the award for the Most Admired Agency in out-of-home media as well as the Most Admired customer-engaging agency in retail touch points & merchandising.

Additionally, Posterscope APAC regional director Haresh Nayak was honored with the Outdoor advertising professional of the year award.

Posterscope India bagged a total of 27 awards including eight golds, 12 silvers and five bronze metals along with the agency titles. It was their work for clients such as Mother Diary, Philips, Nissan, Disney, Mattel, beam Suntory, Datsun and Movies Now, which brought home the awards in the following categories – effectiveness, creativity and successful use technology in retail, outdoor and ambient spaces.

Carat was awarded a total of seven wins- five Gold and two Bronze. The Philips Aquatouch ‘New way to shave is here’ campaign was awarded Gold for Promotion using Events.

Philips LED lights ‘Change karo save karo’ campaign won Gold for successful use of technology. The overall activation was done in tandem with their sister concern PSLive, which is into all things activation.

Philips Trimmers bagged Gold for Best use of Celebrity Endorsement. The Philips Airfryer campaign added yet another Gold to the tally under Creativity on Television category. The fifth Gold came in the form of The Most Admired Agency for Events and Promotions.

Carat also won two Bronze metals for Philips Kerashine Range and Preethi Blue Flame Gas Stove launch campaigns.

iProspect Communicate 2 picked up a total of four metals across various categories. The Big Bazaar ‘Everything for Nothing’ campaign was awarded a Gold metal for ‘Promotion using Digital Marketing’.

The agency also picked up two awards in the Successful Use of Technology category, a silver and a bronze for their Cleartrip and Koovs campaigns, respectively. In the Online Media category, iProspect Communicate 2 picked up a bronze medal for its work for HDFC Bank.

Amongst the other Dentsu Aegis Network agencies, Isobar India won the Silver in the promotions category for Digital Marketing for its work on Microsoft Lumia. Vizeum won a Gold for Viacom 18’s MTV Campus Diaries under the events category.

Dentsu Aegis Network chairman and CEO, South Asia Ashish Bhasin said, “I am thrilled to know that the Dentsu Aegis Network has been able to achieve such recognition at a pan-Asia level. Sustaining customer engagement in this competitive market is a key task for our clients and I am happy that all our Dentsu Aegis Network companies have worked together to achieve this.”

“It is a further testimony to our unique one P&L operating model, whereby we are able to provide our clients all the benefits of specializations without the hassles of dealing with silos. Heartiest congratulations to iProspectC2, Posterscope, Carat, psLive, Isobar, Vizeum and to Haresh Nayak for their respective wins. This further strengthens our position as the only network in India that can provide all marketing communications and media services, of world standards, under one umbrella,” added Bhasin.

April 27, 2015
eBay India inks ad sales deal with Zirca Digital Solution

MUMBAI: E-Commerce venture eBay India has partnered with Zirca Digital Solutions to connect Indian brands with its advertising platform. With a global consumer base of 155 million across 206 countries and 3.5 million active users, eBay India reaches over 5000 Indian cities.

eBay India head of marketing Shivani Suri Dhanda said, “We are extremely confident that the collaboration with Zirca will support us in monetizing our advertising and brand solutions platform better. They are specialists in the digital advertising business and have sound understanding of the ever-changing digital media landscape of India. Through Zirca, we look forward to providing innovative brand solutions and building a stronger advertiser footprint nationally.”

Zirca Digital Solutions director Neena Dasgupta added, “eBay India’s journey from being a dedicated client on our existing advertising platforms to being an associated partner reinforces our standing as a specialist in the Digital Media Sales business. We value this association with eBay India and look forward to contributing towards achieving better monetization goals.”

“eBay India is a new addition to the digital media platforms that we represent. Advertisers have responded with enthusiasm and are already working with us on campaigns to include custom content and branded solutions that aim to harness the potential of ebay.in as an advertising platform to tap into their vast and fast growing shopper base . We look forward to delivering creative solutions for brands on ebay.in,” said Zirca Digital Solutions director Vikas Khanchandani.

April 23, 2015
Publicis Groupe’s revenue up 32% at €2.1 million in Q1 2015

MUMBAI: Advertising major Publicis Groupe reported a 31.7 per cent jump in first-quarter sales as a result of the positive impact of exchange rates, and partly due to its latest digital acquisition of Sapient.

The agency’s first-quarter sales rose to €2.1 billion from €1.6 billion in the same period last year as the group benefited from the strong dollar and pound sterling compared with the euro.

Acquisitions contributed €274 million or 17.2 per cent of revenue.

Growth Forecast

The company’s organic growth stood at +0.9 per cent. Though global economic growth has seen contrasting trends since the start of the year, Publicis achieved growth notably as a result of its strong presence in digital, which has become its main activity. Digital activities progressed by +4.7 per cent and now account for 50.2 per cent of total revenue. Healthcare also performed well.

North America revenue grew by 45 per cent to €1.15 billion, followed by Europe with an increase of 21.3 per cent to €575 million. BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and MISSAT (Mexico, Indonesia, Singapore, South Africa, Turkey) markets rose by 13.2 per cent to €215 million euros. India, specifically, continued on the road to recovery with growth of +5.7 per cent.

The agency said that in December, revenue will grow at two per cent above the industry average each year from 2016, with digital operations rising to 60 per cent of sales in 2018. Publicis predicted that the operating margin will rise to between 17.3 and 19.3 per cent of sales in 2018, compared with 15.3 per cent in 2012.

Publicis Groupe chairman and CEO Maurice Levy said, “Our revenue is up to slightly over 30 per cent, partly due to the positive impact of exchange rates, and partly to the inclusion of Sapient since completing the acquisition. As we’ll continue to see, this is one of the important milestones of the Groupe’s transformation. We expected organic growth to be slightly down this quarter, but, on the contrary, it is up almost one per cent. This isn’t yet the growth rate we expect to see out of Publicis Groupe, but is nonetheless an encouraging return to growth.”

“The main event of this early part of the year has been the completion of the Sapient acquisition, an event that gives Publicis Groupe a new strategic dimension while excelling the Groupe’s transformation. The integration process is already underway and the prevailing spirit is excellent,” Levy added.

With the acquisition of Sapient, Publicis Groupe has become the only global group present all along the value chain – from consulting to marketing, from communications to commerce – brought to life through an outstanding expertise in the most high-performing technologies.

Levy is hopeful that the second quarter will be better than the first, albeit with modest growth. Organic growth is expected to be higher in the second half-year. The Groupe expects that its high exposure to digital activities will ensure its future growth and the continued improvement of its margins between now and 2018.

Publicis Groupe is the third largest global advertising holding company in the world after WPP and Omnicom.

April 21, 2015
Disney India joins hands with Liberty to launch ‘Avengers’ footwear

MUMBAI: Disney India has joined hands with Liberty to launch a special range of footwear featuring Marvel’s Avengers.

Liberty has introduced over 50 styles featuring the Marvel Avengers namely Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America and Thor. The range is launched to add to the on-going fervor around The Avengers: Age of Ultron scheduled to release on 24 April, 2015.

The range includes flip-flops, casual shoes and sandals and is available for boys above four years. The design depicts each character’s most recognised icons through its varied prints and is available in multiple shades of blue, red, green, and white. The shoes are fully adjustable with velcro fasteners and laces to provide a perfect custom fit, and cushioned insole making them comfortable and play-worthy.

The range is priced between Rs 399 – 1499, and is available across all exclusive Liberty showrooms and select multi brand stores. The products are also available online on Amazon.in and Libertyshoesonline.com.

April 21, 2015
Snaps brings branded ads to messaging apps; gets $6.5 million funding

MUMBAI: Snaps, a new platform for connecting advertisers with consumers across messaging applications and devices, has made available ‘Branded Messages,’ a solution for creating and distributing native advertising, in the form of custom branded emoji keyboards and sticker campaigns to consumers.

The company also closed a $6.5 million in a Series A investment round from a number of investors in the technology, media and entertainment industries. The investment will be used to build and launch a full suite of products and services to help brands better market themselves in messaging.

Snaps is the first end-to-end mobile messaging platform for marketers to organically insert their brand into the 50 billion messages consumers send daily. During the first three months of operation, over 20 brands, including Burger King, Logo for its RuPaul’s Drag Race series, Trolli, Time Inc.’s Food & Wine, Comedy Central, The Houston Rockets, Nickelodeon, Victoria’s Secret, Sony Pictures Entertainment, VH1, to name several, are working with Snaps to develop emoji keyboard and sticker campaigns using the Snaps platform, which already reaches 400 million active monthly users.

Also announced, jointly with Trolli, of Ferrara Candy Company, is the launch of a custom branded keyboard for its new Sour Brite Crawler Minis and Extreme Sour Bites. Trolli, in partnership with agency of record, Periscope, works to build a passionate millennial following by rolling out new and innovative products as part of their integrated marketing campaigns. The company’s latest campaign includes a TrolliMoji app in partnership with Snaps aiming to drive engagement among its core customers with fun, creative and sharable gummi-related emojis via a free, downloadable keyboard that can be used across messaging applications and connected devices.

Food & Wine editor in chief Dana Cowin said, “Food & Wine is looking forward to working with Snaps on a series of entertaining food emojis. Since our avid fans actively communicate with standard emojis all the time – some going as far as writing entire restaurant reviews in emojis – we wanted to create a whole new world of possibilities for the super foodie connecting the images with the objects of their obsession. A picture of a slice of cake is made infinitely better if it’s identifiable as a birthday cake from a world-famous bakeshop, or if the dish is recognizable as one from their favorite celebrity chef. For celebrations, our users will be able to share a gif of sabering Champagne. We will be able to constantly update the keyboard with new chefs and restaurant dishes and make sharing even more fun!”

“Our thesis has always been that the language of the future is a visually based language. People love to send and receive visual content, be it a branded emoji, sticker or gif, to their friends as a means of personal, authentic and immediate communication,” said Snaps founder Vivian Rosenthal.

Through partnerships with Kik, Kanvas and other messaging apps, Snaps provides a complete turnkey solution for brands, from content creation and distribution to real-time content management and publishing tools, and deep engagement analytics.

“The global messaging market is massive and growing – every brand should have a strategy for reaching consumers in this channel. From millennial and teen consumers through to enterprise employees, people are shifting from Facebook and email to smaller group interactions and real-time communication on messaging applications. Snaps’ is a socket that provides access to these audiences in creative, visual ways – with content people actually want to engage with and share,” said Snaps CEO Christian Brucculeri.

“There is a huge opportunity for Snaps to build for messaging apps what Buddy Media built for social. As consumers shift into smaller groups in messaging, there is an opening for brands to create new experiences that will make them a part of these conversations. Snaps is the first platform built to do this,” said Ragovin Ventures founder and managing partner and Snaps investor and advisor Jeff Ragovin.

Snaps investors include, Media Link chairman and CEO Michael Kassan, Ragovin, VEVO CRO Jonathon Carson, mParticle co-founder and CEO Mike Katz and Sourcepoint founder and CEO Ben Barokas.

Over the next six to twelve months, Snaps will continue building and launching products to help brands better market themselves in messaging. The company will also look to expand its team in New York City and across the US.

April 20, 2015
Cannes Lions programme adds new speakers & sessions

MUMBAI: More and more speakers have been confirmed for Cannes Lions this year, as the Festival’s programme continues to take shape. In the last week alone, nearly 50 new sessions have been added to the schedule of what’s on.

Renowned scientist and broadcaster Professor Brian Cox will explore the key scientific principles that help unlock the mysteries around us before ZenithOptimedia will show how advertising is also a world underpinned by laws akin to scientific principles.

Martha Stewart has been confirmed as a speaker this year, joining artist Emilie Baltz and wearable tech guru Billie Whitehouse as part of the Barbarian Group talk examining how creatives push themselves outside of their comfort zones to create new things in new mediums.

Next up, AOL is bringing its “Digital Prophet” to Cannes Lions this year, with David Shing ready to argue that the power of creative storytelling is now more important than ever.

Tencent’s SY Lau has already been named as Cannes Lions Media Person of the Year. He will also speak at a session covering exactly what’s happening right now in China’s digital landscape.

Musician Pharrell is joining iHeartMedia for a conversation about how he’s been able to create hyper-successful constellations across media, entertainment and fashion by blending, art, science and instinct to redefine culture and commerce.

Finally, SapientNitro has revealed that it will bring the founder of dating app Tinder to Cannes Lions. Sean Rad will take to the stage to tell the audience exactly how Tinder overturned the established order and radically changed the dating game.

April 20, 2015
Dentsu acquires Israel’s digital performance agency abaGada

MUMBAI: With the aim of strengthening its presence in Israel and neighbouring countries and enhancing the range of digital services provided, Dentsu Aegis Network Ltd. has acquired Israel’s digital performance marketing agency abaGada Internet.

Founded in 2010, abaGada does not just stop at search engine optimization (SEO) when it comes to search engine marketing practices; the company’s grasp of various internal and external factors such as the analysis of customer and user behavior and other strengths in the digital performance marketing domain leads to results.

Moreover, abaGada offers a variety of services including search engine marketing (SEM) to increase the number of visitors from the search engine to owned media such as a corporate website, and the creation and dissemination of owned media content coupled with social media. Although many of its clients are companies operating in Israel, abaGada also provides services targeting the customers of multinationals in 40 countries across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

There are a number of excellent venture companies in Israel, and the country’s reputation for its innovative strengths has resulted in its being referred to as the second Silicon Valley. With its advanced technological strengths and development capabilities, abaGada is expected to function as the Group’s digital technology hub in Israel and neighboring countries in the region.

The Dentsu Group has to date provided services to clients in Israel through its media communications agency Carat, one of the Group’s global network brands. Post-acquisition, abaGada will transition toward operating as iProspect, another of the Group’s global network brands which has strengths in the digital performance domain, and provide impetus for the development of a collaborative framework with Carat in the media and digital domains.

For the year ended December 2014 abaGada revenue stood at GBP 3,500,000.

April 20, 2015
Kyoorius to offer jury tours at Advertising & Digital Awards jury session

MUMBAI: Kyoorius, in association with D&AD has announced that the 2015 Kyoorius Advertising & Digital Awards jury sessions will be open to the public. Kyoorius will offer jury tours from 29 April to 1 May, where creative professionals too can interact and learn from the jury members, through a series of Kyoorius FYIdays, which will also be held over the three days.

The 2015 Kyoorius Advertising & Digital Awards jury sessions will take place from 29 April to 2 May at Indian School of Design & Innovation at Lower Parel in Mumbai. The award show will see all jury members gathering in Mumbai to review, discuss and recognise the best work entered over an intensive session. Last year, Kyoorius opened its doors to professionals, media and the community at large to observe jury members debate over entries as well as peruse some of the most cutting edge work in advertising and digital produced. This year, it is looking at making the sessions more interactive through the Kyoorius FYIdays.

Jury tours will be offered at 10 am, 2.30 pm and 5.30 pm on 29 April, 30 April and 1 May. Kyoorius FYIdays will be led by specialist speakers on a defined subject as a series of seminars, workshops or training sessions. With a limited attendance of 80 people – Kyoorius FYIday is all set to offer a platform to interact more directly with the speaker, industry leaders, and peers.

There will be five FYIday sessions, the schedule is as follows:

Day 1: 29 April

9 – 9.45 am: Isobar China chief creative officer Tim Doherty

6 – 6.45 pm: Grey London deputy executive creative director Vicki Maguire

Day 2: 30 April

6 – 6.45 pm: D&AD deputy president and Havas Work Club creative partner Andy Sandoz

Day 3: 1 May

9 – 9.45 am: SapientNitro APAC executive creative director Andy Greenaway

6 – 6.45 pm: Made By Many co-founder Tim Malbon

Kyoorius founder CEO Rajesh Kejriwal said, “Kyoorius and D&AD are committed to providing the Indian creative community a completely neutral and transparent platform. These tours allow anyone to observe exactly what happens at the Kyoorius Awards jury sessions and be a part of the action. At the same time, we strive to create opportunities to inform and stimulate local talent. This year we’ve introduced a series of FYIdays conducted by our Advertising & Digital Awards jury members – a chance to meet and interact with some of the most respected creative minds in the world. These sessions are completely free to attend and I encourage everyone to sign up.”

April 20, 2015
WPP’s Data Alliance expands with Africa launch; Tighe named MD

MUMBAI: WPP’s Data Alliance has launched in Africa. The launch is aligned to WPP’s strategic vision of helping clients better leverage data in fast growing markets.

Devon Tighe, previously vice president of strategy and operations for Data Alliance, heads the new office as managing director.

Based in Cape Town, the operation will bring expertise from WPP’s global network to Sub-Saharan Africa to harness unique data sets and mobile opportunities. The focus is to accelerate development and enhancement of data-driven solutions, plus activate a mobile-first data strategy.

Local WPP companies Ogilvy, Smollan, Acceleration, Barrows, Wunderman’s Aqua and TMARC came together as sponsoring members to help bring Data Alliance to the region. Together, these companies will work closely on projects to enhance the usage of data across WPP solutions, in turn increasing speed, cross-fertilization and decreasing costs.

This launch is part of a campaign in WPP for “data horizontality” – the ability to better leverage WPP’s people, data and technology across the globe. This model works particularly well in the United States and United Kingdom where Data Alliance is supported by Kantar, GroupM, WPP Digital, Wunderman, KBM Group, JWT, Cohn & Wolfe and Geometry Global. To date, Data Alliance has had success in helping WPP companies better access and leverage data in ways that are more organized, efficient, effective and drive value for clients.

“We are thrilled to help bring Data Alliance to Africa. How we use data more effectively across marketing communications is becoming an increasingly critical part of the conversation with our clients – both in South Africa and across the rest of the continent. We see Data Alliance as a powerful way to help us win competitive advantage for all our clients across a very broad range of data requirements,” said Ogilvy managing director digital portfolio Ben Evans.

“We look at Africa as a region in which we can do some very modern and progressive things with data, in particular with mobile data. The launch of the Cape Town office is in response to client demand to grow data-driven capabilities in Sub-Saharan Africa. We know that by bringing together a strategic group of companies in Africa, we can help WPP’s agencies better serve clients through data connections that drive smarter decision making,” added Tighe.

Tighe brings more than 10 years of experience in the colliding worlds of media and analytics to the role. Prior to joining Data Alliance, Tighe was a research director at The New York Times where she focused on business strategy and customer analytics. Before heading to the Times, she spent six years in research and product development at Dynamic Logic, now part of Millward Brown Digital, a company within WPP’s Kantar unit.

In Africa, WPP companies (including associates) generate revenues of approximately $650 million and employ over 28,000 people.

April 17, 2015
MEC launches regional e-commerce consultancy

MUMBAI: MEC has launched a specialist e-commerce consultancy called MEC Commerce. Led by MEC Global Solutions in London, the launch is part of an ongoing strategy to create a leading edge for the agency’s clients in the fast changing digital and data landscape.

The practice will be based out of MEC Global Solutions office and focus initially on the EMEA region where it will work closely with local markets to offer clients best in class consultancy and brilliant on the ground delivery. MEC Commerce is already delivering projects for clients across a number of markets including UK, Germany, Italy and Poland.

MEC Global Solutions digital and data partner Mudit Jaju will lead the consultancy. “E-commerce is the next frontier for brands, and the shift that has happened in the last few months is that marketers are realising that e-commerce is not just a distribution channel. There is so much more to e-commerce than giving consumers a place to enter their credit card details. Our vision is to propel e-commerce beyond the brand website and into the entire web to drive conversions across all digital touch points,” said Jaju.

MEC Global Solutions and EMEA chief digital officer Jeff Hyams added, “E-commerce is a natural extension of the work we’ve always done for clients in bringing together disparate elements. Our experience with performance and brand marketing uniquely positions us to deliver e-commerce solutions in a platform agnostic way.”

To mark the launch of MEC Commerce, MEC released a whitepaper titled “The e-commerce Opportunity for FMCG brands: Sales and Halos,” which analyses what the growth of e-commerce means for FMCG brands in particular. One FMCG brand MEC is working with is long-standing client Nestle in Poland. Nestle Poland e-commerce manager Dariusz Mitura said, “We find MEC’s approach to be thorough and rooted in consumer insight. Their strategic approach is one that we can see scaling with our business effectively.”

Hyams said, “In a constantly connected digital world, all brand communications need to be linked up and cohesive. The conversations we’ve had with clients, media owners and technology companies have been very encouraging and emphasise the importance of thinking of e-commerce as one of the many facets of communications.”

April 16, 2015