MUMBAI: DDB Mudra Group has appointed Shaleen Sharma as TracyLocke vice president, strategic planning & analytics.
Reporting into TracyLocke head- business & operations Sameer Mehta, Sharma will be the lead strategist across the agency’s clientele and service offerings that includes shopper marketing, trade marketing and retail solutions.
Having worked across various categories, he brings on board a significant understanding of consumer engagement, brand management and building strategic marketing platforms that combine digital, media and entertainment domains.
Sharma is currently working on the development of a qualitative tool that reveals human needs and motivations and places them in a contextual and cultural framework. The primary application of this tool is about driving a deeper connect between brands and their consumers. He has also developed a real time web analytics tool that is capable of integrating all the brand variables, like sales, click through rates, foot falls etc.
“There are pivot points in life, where you realize, quite clearly, what is the next set of challenges you want to solve and the kind of people you want to work with. Tracy Locke, and by extension the DDB Mudra Group, signifies that pivot for me. Everything they are engaged with, be it, their client portfolio, the kind of work they are doing and the ambition they have for their future, makes me realize that my next opportunity for value creation lies here. It will be a privilege to be a journeyman with this Brotherhood,” said Sharma.
Mehta added, “At TracyLocke, we believe in Bottom-Up grass roots approach to enable our clients with a business solution, which is powered by the shopper insights. Shaleen brings in relevant experience in shopper engagement strategies aligning it with brand management and building strategic marketing. His understanding and expertise on digital will only add to our vision of providing technology led shopper insights and shopper experiences encompassing path-to-purchase across the retailers and e-tailers.”
MUMBAI: MEC India has bagged the media duties for Global Consumer Products. The account will be led from MEC’s Bangalore branch.
MEC India MD T. Gangadhar said, “It is a privilege to be partnering Global Consumer Products on this exciting journey. We have a ringside view of Mr Mahendran’s grand vision and it is absolutely inspiring.”
Global Consumer Products EVP – sales and marketing Anuradha Narasimhan added, “As a start-up, we are looking for agency partners who will think proactively for our brands and will work with us to grow our business. We are delighted to be working with MEC who bring in media as well as activation expertise in the offline and online spaces.”
NEW DELHI: Nikon Singapore general manager for international planning division Kazuo Ninomiya has been named as managing director of Nikon India with immediate effect.
Nikon India is the 100 per cent subsidiary of Nikon Corporation Tokyo. Ninomiya takes over the roles and responsibilities from Hiroshi Takashina, who will now be managing Nikon’s China business operations.
Having contributed to Nikon India’s growth for almost seven years, Takashina said, “I joined Nikon India in 2008 and it has been an incredible journey for me. With Nikon I have had the opportunity to build and work with an excellent team that supported me overcome numerous business challenges and in recording massive growth for Nikon in India. With our constant efforts we achieved No.1 position amongst imaging players in India, and am truly thrilled to have been a part of Nikon’s success story in India.”
“With an impeccable growth trajectory for building core competencies of people, business transformation and operations, Kazuo Ninomiya brings extraordinary leadership skills on the table. I wish him the very best and I am absolutely confident that he will continue adding more feathers to the story,” he added.
Commenting on his appointment, Ninomiya said, “India as a country has always presented a lot of potential for the imaging industry which has contributed to Nikon’s exceptional growth as the leader. Our world-class technology assets combined with the incredible talent and passion of the Nikon team provide us with a unique opportunity to further shape the future of imaging in India. I am deeply honored to have this opportunity to lead Nikon’s India business operations and look forward to expanding on the strong footprint that we have built under Takashina’s leadership.”
Ninomiya is a seasoned corporate executive and an old hand at Nikon Corporation, having served almost three years of business operations in Asian markets. During his prior role in a consumer electronic organization Ninomiya got the opportunity to serve the Indian market for a year and is well versed with the diverse culture, beauty and aesthetic value that the country offers. He thoroughly enjoyed his brief stint in the country and considers it as one of the most enriching learning experience.
MUMBAI: Grey Group India has roped in Louella Rebello as senior executive creative director, Mumbai. In her new role, she will be responsible for the creative services of its Mumbai office and be an integral part of Grey Group’s creative leadership team.
In her previous position, Rebello headed the Mumbai office at TBWA India and served on accounts including Nissan, Datsun, Kuoni Travel, Standard Chartered, Cigna TTK Health Insurance and Singapore Airlines.
“Louella is a 15 year veteran. Her wealth of knowledge, experience and strong leadership skills will be invaluable to us as we look to consistently create ‘Famous & Effective’ campaigns for our clients. I am confident her appointment will accelerate our goal in elevating Grey Group’s creative services and standards to even greater heights,” said Grey Group India chairman & managing director Sunil Lulla.
Prior to TBWA India, Rebello was with DDB Mudra Group. She successfully launched the ‘Cross Polo’ campaign for Volkswagen India. Under her leadership, ‘The Hinglish Project’ won the Cannes Gold in 2012.
Rebello has served earlier at Ogilvy from 2003 to 2011, leaving as senior creative director. At Ogilvy, she worked on brands such as Vodafone, Tata Safari, Tata Sumo, Unilever Foods, Amaron India, Star TV and Bank of India, amongst others.
“It is certainly exciting and a privilege to be appointed as the person responsible for Grey group’s Mumbai Office. They are a talented team and I am excited to dive in with the talented team at Grey group to deliver on its North Star of ’Famous & Effective’, ” said Rebello.
MUMBAI: Mogae Media has got on-board research and media veteran Prashant Sanwal to head its analytics unit – Incelligence. He will be based at the company’s Gurgaon headquarters.
Mogae executive director Tanya Goyal said, “He brings a lot of experience in real media analytics.”
The Incelligence group at Mogae will soon be releasing India’s first ever compendium of consumer infographics on the mobile market.
Sanwal has diverse professional experience and his career has evolved from heading functions like marketing and research to business units with P&L responsibility.
An alumnus of FMS, Delhi, Sanwal has worked at companies like Lowe Lintas as head of strategic planning, Pathfinders India as head, Sony Entertainment Television as VP programming and marketing, Sony Max as business head, Zee Alphas as business head and TV Today Network as head of strategic planning, marketing and research.
Currently Mogae has a team of 15 trained analysts who mine and interpret real-time usage data, especially at Airtel. 40 new recruits from IIT Kharagpur, IIT Kanpur, IIT Roorkee, BITS Pilani, Delhi School of Economics, IIM Shillong, IIM Kozhikode, IIM Indore, IIM Rohtak, XLRI and other leading B-schools joined Mogae earlier this month, and will be based at its Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore offices. Many of them have been assigned to Incelligence.
MUMBAI: Online marketplace Snapdeal has appointed Anand Chandrasekaran as chief product officer.
Chandrasekaran most recently served as chief product officer at Bharti Airtel, where he was responsible for product conceptualization, design and delivery as well as driving strategic technology partnerships and product strategy.
Snapdeal co-founder Rohit Bansal said, “We are very excited to have Anand on-board. He comes with 15 years of rich experience in building world class products for at scale digital businesses. Snapdeal is in a phase of hyper growth and I believe under Anand’s leadership we will set new benchmarks for intuitive and highly engaging products not just within India but globally as well.”
Previously Chandrasekaran was with Yahoo, where he held roles of senior director of search products and member of search leadership as well as senior director for mobile.
Chandrasekaran added, “I am truly excited to be a part of the young and dynamic team at Snapdeal. The company’s vision to solve a real and existing challenge in the country – that of access for consumers and of reach for small and medium businesses is very inspiring. I look forward to working towards building a highly scalable, sustainable, innovative and future ready technology platform that will be seen as an example for others to emulate in the years to come.”
Prior to Yahoo, he worked with Openwave. Earlier, he co-founded Aeroprise Inc, which became the most-deployed solution worldwide for mobile service management, raised $7 million in funding and was later acquired by BMC Software.
MUMBAI: McCann Worldgroup has appointed Joe DiMeglio as EVP, worldwide account director for its global General Motors business including Chevrolet, Vauxhall, Opel and Holden.
DiMeglio, joins from Organic, where he was EVP, chief client officer, and also has extensive automotive marketing experience from his previous positions at J. Walter Thompson Co. in Detroit.
In taking on operational and management oversight of McCann Worldgroup’s global General Motors business, DiMeglio will leverage Worldgroup’s full worldwide and multidiscipline capabilities to deliver multiplatform strategic and creative solutions. This will encompass working collaboratively across all Worldgroup business units currently serving GM brands, including Commonwealth//McCann (Worldgroup’s globally dedicated Chevrolet agency), MRM//McCann, Weber Shandwick, Momentum and Craft.
Commonwealth//McCann chairman and CEO Bill Kolb said, “We are pleased to welcome Joe. He has been associated with outstanding work. His deep understanding of the automotive category combined with his digital and multiplatform communications expertise will help strengthen our ability to grow and develop GM’s Chevrolet brand across the globe.”
As EVP and chief client officer for Organic, DiMeglio led the client service discipline, overseeing the management of Organic’s clients. Previously, he was general manager of Organic’s Detroit office. During his decade-long tenure with Organic he managed the overall relationship and project execution for many of the agency’s largest clients, including Chrysler, Hilton, Toyota and Volkswagen.
Prior to joining Organic, DiMeglio was SVP and group director at J. Walter Thompson, where he successfully managed cross-functional teams for the Ford Truck and SUV account.
MUMBAI: Famous for coming up with out of the box ideas, Ogilvy and Mather executive chairman and national creative director Piyush Pandey has managed to touch a raw nerve with the Bold Is Beautiful campaign orchestrated for Anouk.
Anouk is an apparel brand that specializes in Indian and traditional women clothes and is promoted by Myntra. Pandey and his maverick bunch were looking to convey the message that it’s not just the westerners who are progressive in their thinking and are breaking stereotypes and that traditional Indians are also very much doing it. To convey this message, O&M launched an ad featuring a lesbian couple in a live-in relationship. One of them has invited her parents to meet her partner and the ad emphasizes on their preparation to encounter The Visit.
Speaking to Indiantelevision.com about the ad Pandey says, “No idea is drawn without keeping the brand in my mind. Anouk is an Indian wear specialist and there are a number of other brands who specialize in the same so we had to come up with something that stands out and that’s how Bold is Beautiful came into existence.”
The ad went viral and has garnered more than one million views on YouTube. The ad began trending on social media too, and also kick-started a debate as to whether this ad featuring a lesbian couple was the first of its kind.
When queried if the debate made a difference to the creators, Pandey replies, “I don’t know if this is the first or not and I wasn’t really concerned about that either. For me, if there is an understanding of the brand and the creative, you create complements or add value to that. And that’s what really matters. Of course we wanted our work to stand out and leave a mark but we were not concerned whether it was the first ad to feature a lesbian couple.”
“The reaction we got so far is overwhelming and frankly speaking I did not expect it to be so positive. This only goes to prove that we have taken a step forward. I knew people will talk about it positively but such a wide reaction is highly satisfying. It’s almost like the viewers and the client telling us, Bold Is Beautiful,” Pandey adds.
Breaking stereotypes has been a key facet for Pandey and his India team. Not long back the ad men did something similar with Her Life, Her Choices campaign for Titan Raga, which got again got more than one million views on YouTube.
The film begins with a lady sitting in a cafeteria and a reading book. A man asks her if the seat is occupied and without looking at him she says that it’s empty. Eventually when she looks at him she finds the interruption was by her ex-lover. When she asks him how he has been, he makes a reference to her leaving him. As they talk and catch up, it is revealed that both of them are still single. On being asked why it is so, she tells the man that she never gets time from work. This being something he knew all too well, he makes a passing comment about how their relationship would have worked had she stopped working. She retaliates by saying that he could have also quit. Offended, he tells her that he could not have quit; seeing how he is a man and says, “How can a man not work.”
Amused, she looks down at her Raga and tells him that he is still the same man that she had left all those years ago. She then proceeds to offer the ashamed man coffee as she goes on talking.
The film ends with a shot of the watch and her voice over saying, “Khud se naya rishta.” (A new relationship with one’s self).
Taproot also made an ad that broke stereotypes in recent times in their commercial for Airtel, where the wife is shown as being the boss. Both husband and wife work in the same office where the woman is the boss. The ad shows her giving assignments to her husband and also assigning constraint deadlines. However, post office hours, she goes home and cooks for him while he is busy working. The ad brings a smile to every viewer and also sends a strong message across.
Sanitary napkin brand Sofy has also launched a non-conventional TVC where they ask why girls say they are down while they have their period and a send across a strong message that having their period is not something to hide. A few years back, daily broadsheet Hindustan Times launched a commercial featuring two homosexual men out for a date and a spectator stares at them with suspicion. At that very moment another man slaps him with a HT newspaper and the tagline says, “It’s time to open up.”
Later, Fastrack came up with a commercial featuring a lesbian encounter as a part of its quirky series of ‘Move On’ ads.
With Indian ads becoming progressive and open-minded, the message is loud is clear that the saree and kurta are apparels not thoughts and people should not be judged based on what they wear. The Indian ad fraternity is setting a strong example of a progressive nature and it is being lauded by the one and all.
This time it was Ogilvy’s Piyush Pandey and his ‘men in black,’ who took the country towards liberalism one step at a time… tomorrow it will be someone else from another organization who is bold enough to break typecasts and come up with something liberally different!
MUMBAI: Dentsu Aegis Network’s iProspect Communicate2 has won four awards across three categories at the India Digital Media Awards 2015.
The honours included two metals in the ‘Best PPC’ category, with the agency picking up Gold and Silver for Kotak Mahindra Bank and HDFC Life campaigns respectively. They also won a Bronze for the ‘Most Effective Use of Digital Analytics’ in social media for the Big Bazaar campaign. The agency also won a Bronze for ‘Best Use of Technology’ for Koovs.
The objective of the Indian Digital Media Awards 2015 is to recognise, celebrate and encourage the work being done in the ever-growing advertising and marketing communications activity in the digital media space specifically, internet, mobile, gaming, social media and the blogosphere.
iProspect Communicate 2 CEO Vivek Bhargava said, “It is a privilege to have our work in the digital space recognised by IDMA. As a team of extremely dedicated professionals who work endlessly, to offer our clients the best online solutions, it is wonderful to have our hard work recognised and I would like to thank IDMA for these honours.”
MUMBAI: Twitter CEO Dick Costolo has decided to step down from his post effective 1 July, 2015.
Twitter co-founder and chairman of the Board Jack Dorsey will serve as interim CEO while the Board conducts a search for the next CEO.
Costolo will continue to serve on Twitter’s Board of Directors, and Dorsey will continue to serve as CEO of Square, Inc., the payments and financial services company he co-founded in 2009.
Twitter’s Board has formed a Search Committee to lead the search for a permanent CEO. The Search Committee is chaired by the Board’s lead independent director Peter Currie, and includes Peter Fenton and Evan Williams.
The Committee will retain a leading executive search firm to assist in conducting a global search, which will consider both internal and external candidates for the CEO position.
Costolo said, “I am tremendously proud of the Twitter team and all that the team has accomplished together during my six years with the Company. We have great leaders who work well together and a clear strategy that informs our objectives and priorities. There is no one better than Jack Dorsey to lead Twitter during this transition. He has a profound understanding of the product and Twitter’s mission in the world as well as a great relationship with Twitter’s leadership team. I am deeply appreciative of the confidence the Board, the management team and the employees have placed in me over the years, and I look forward to supporting Twitter however I can going forward.”
Dorsey added, “The future belongs to Twitter thanks in large part to Dick Costolo’s dedication and vision. Dick has put a world-class team in place and created a great foundation from which Twitter can continue to change the world and grow. We have an exciting lineup of products and initiatives coming to market, and I look forward to continuing to execute our strategy while helping facilitate a smooth transition as the Board conducts its search.”
Dorsey continued, “I am grateful for the talented team at Square, which I will continue to lead. We have built a very strong company from top to bottom, and I am as committed as ever to its continued success.”
Currie said, “On behalf of the Board, I want to thank Dick for his years of tireless devotion to building Twitter into the strong and dynamic company it is today, putting us in a superb position for continued growth and innovation for many years to come. We look forward to his continued contributions during the transition period and as an ongoing member of the Board. The Board is fully committed to running a thorough process to identify the right CEO to lead Twitter into its next phase of growth. In the meantime, we are fortunate to have Jack – one of our founders – step back into a management role and help lead Twitter as we continue executing on our strategic priorities.”
Second Quarter 2015 Outlook
Twitter also reaffirmed its outlook for the second quarter of 2015. The company continues to expect revenue to be in the range of $470 million to $485 million and adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $97 million to $102 million. Stock-based compensation expense is expected to be in the range of $190 million to $200 million, excluding the impact of equity awards that may be granted in connection with potential future acquisitions.
