ITV

Category: Media and Advertising

  • Publicis Groupe acquires Relaxnews for €15 million

    Publicis Groupe acquires Relaxnews for €15 million

    MUMBAI: The Maurice Levy led Publicis Groupe has acquired the French press agency Relaxnews for a sum of €15 million (€9.58 euros a share).

     

    Earlier this year in February, the agency had entered into exclusive negotiations with shareholders of Relaxnews to buy the company.

     

    Publicise Groupe, which had created a special vehicle – Financi?re Relaxnews – for the purpose of the takeover of Relaxnews – bought 94 per cent of the share capital and voting rights of Relaxnews.

     

    Approximately 30 per cent of the Relaxnews was purchased at a price of 9.58 euro per share from the co-founders Jérôme and Pierre Doncieux. Around 30 per cent of the share capital of Financi?re Relaxnews will be held by the co-founders and the remaining 70 per cent will be owned by Publicis Groupe.

     

    The acquisition of a block of shares representing approximately 34 per cent of the company’s share capital at a price of 9.58 euro per share from other minority shareholders (including investment funds managed by Sigma Gestion and La Française Asset Management).

     

    According to the General Regulations of the French Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), in the coming days, Financi?re Relaxnews will file a project for a simplified takeover bid on the remaining shares of Relaxnews at a price of 9.58 euro per share. Given that the Relaxnews’ board of directors has made a commitment to tender treasury shares held by Relaxnews to the takeover bid, Financi?re Relaxnews will own more than 95 per cent at the end of the takeover bid.

     

    Consequently, Financi?re Relaxnews will implement a squeeze-out procedure after the closing date of the takeover bid. The terms and conditions of this simplified takeover bid and of the squeeze-out, including financial conditions and timetable, will be disclosed in a separate press release, and will be subject to the approval of the Autorité des marchés financiers.

     

    Publicis chairman Maurice Lévy said, “With the integration of Relaxnews, Publicis Groupe’s clients could not only have access to an extended offer of leisure content but also to consistent measurement tools. I am pleased that Jérôme and Pierre Doncieux with all their team will join us. I am strongly confident in the new growth opportunities the group will be able to assign to its clients.”

     

    ZenithOptimedia France CEO Sébastien Danet added, “I am proud that ZenithOptimedia will be integrating such editorially and technologically valuable assets. With Jérôme and Pierre, we are going to be the Relaxnews incubator to all Publicis Groupe’s marks and clients in France and abroad.”

     

    Jérôme and Pierre Doncieux said, “We are very happy! Happy for the opportunities ahead for our teams. Happy for our clients’ added value. Happy to see the confidence shown by our shareholders and our board members who helped us to finalize the combination project and we thank them for this. Happy to move forward with Habert Dassault Finances and our strategic partner AFP. Happy for all we will learn and create in Publicis Groupe.”

  • United Spirits appoints Abanti Sankaranarayanan as business head

    United Spirits appoints Abanti Sankaranarayanan as business head

    MUMBAI: Spirits company United Spirits Limited (USL), a subsidiary of Diageo, has roped in Abanti Sankaranarayanan as business head for luxury and corporate relations, India.

     

    With this move, Sankaranarayanan joins the executive committee of USL. With over 20 years in the consumer industry, she has been managing director of Diageo India since July 2012, leading Diageo’s business mandate for international spirits in India. Under her leadership, Diageo’s brand portfolio in India delivered strong double-digit growth and high market share gains coupled with robust equity results.

     

    USL MD & CEO Anand Kripalu said, “We are delighted to have a leader of Abanti’s talent and global caliber to lead our luxury portfolio and drive our corporate relations efforts in India. Her extensive leadership experience and expertise will add strong momentum to the growth of USL’s business in India.”

     

    A new luxury unit is being set up in USL for the premium brands of the portfolio with the objective of maintaining Diageo’s premium brand leadership. Creating a center of luxury excellence will provide focus behind the fastest growing segment of the Indian alcobev market. The luxury business will encompass Diageo’s iconic brands such as Johnnie Walker, Ciroc and the Single Malts.

     

    In addition, Sankaranarayanan will lead the new corporate relations function that has been set up to drive USL towards strong leadership and execution on public policy, regulatory, tax and trade affairs, alcohol policy, corporate reputation & brand, and sustainability & responsibility.  In this role, Sankaranarayanan will build key stakeholder relationships with regulators, government, industry bodies, NGO partners and relevant members of civil society.

     

    Sankaranarayanan said, “I am delighted to take up this new position at USL as we continue the journey to make USL the most trusted and respected consumer goods company in India.”

  • Turtle unveils digital ad campaign to save endangered species

    Turtle unveils digital ad campaign to save endangered species

    MUMBAI: As a part of their initiative to save the endangered turtles species, men’s lifestyle brand Turtle Limited, has launched a campaign called #SaveLittleShelly.

     

    The film opens up with an interesting animated character of little Shelly in a four part digital campaign. An initiative during the World Turtle Month, the #SaveLittleShelly is an extended campaign to the company’s campaign last year.

     

    #SaveLittleShelly is launched as a hashtag on social media as the story of Shelly, a baby turtle with a cute shell, making her journey from the nest to the sea, braving all dangers that come in the way. A unique animated social initiative, it is a two minute YouTube film broken down into four stages. At the end of each stage, viewers are asked to help Shelly complete the next leg of her journey by likes. Every new stage of the film was released only after a certain number of likes at the end of the previous stage. Gradually four stages of the film made it to YouTube. Finally, on World Turtle Day, people were able to see the entire film.

     

    Speaking on this campaign, JWT creative art director Arjun Mukherjee said, “The entire idea was to raise awareness of the plight of the turtles, who are facing extinction, in an interesting and engaging manner. So we wanted to give people, hands on opportunity to save a turtle. The month long initiative saw the creation of a cute virtual turtle that can move a step forward towards survival only when one donates. While the actual donations went towards the conservation of turtles and their environment, thousands of people logged in everyday to watch the journey of Shelly the Turtle and helped spread the word.”

     

    Celebrated on 23 May, 2015, World Turtle Day is dedicated to the salvation of these marvellous creatures that have inhabited this planet for the last 200 million years. To build buzz around #SaveLittleShelly campaign, the social media was flooded with interesting posts, ads and every Turtle shop in the country was speckled with posters that talked about the drive and the cause. Store merchandise were designed around Shelly and distributed to customers, who spread the word and drove the initiative both on social media platform and the personal front.

     

    Commenting on this initiative, Turtle director Shitanshu Jhunjhunwala said, “Turtles have been around for 200 million years, yet they are rapidly disappearing as a result of smuggling, the exotic food industry, habitat destruction, global warming and the cruel pet trade. Keeping in mind this sad state of turtle globally, we thought of launching a month long campaign instead of celebrating a single day to raise awareness to save turtles.”

     

    With a 360 degree engaging campaign from a small message to a big-hearted donation drive, this campaign shows a simple idea can spread through word of mouth and create maximum impact.

  • Happy Finish gives brands an augmented reality experience

    Happy Finish gives brands an augmented reality experience

    MUMBAI: In the advertising world, every agency is pushing the bar in order to give the best to clients by using highly efficient creative tools. However, it seems that these tools were not giving clients the necessary results. In the midst of all this, Happy Finish has now realized the potential of augmented reality in India.

    Augmented reality is something where a mobile device is used with a Samsung gear or Oculus to overlay real world objects with digital content and virtual reality. It enables viewing digital content through a wearable device that completely blocks the real world and immerses one in an alternate universe.

    The Beginning

    Founded in 2004 by Stuart Waplington, Rainer Usselmann and Chris Roome, Happy Finish was set up to represent the best digital artists in the world, allowing art directors, photographers and brands the freedom to develop creative ideas and unique visual styles, often pushing the boundaries of what is possible to set new standards in the industry.

    Global presence

    Having set a long journey, today Happy Finish has global presence with six offices. The company’s second office was launched in Mumbai in 2011 and since then it has expanded into cities like Shanghai, Portland, New York and another office in London.

    Why India?

    Speaking to Indiantelevision.com about the company’s India operations and the way forward, Happy Finish India CEO Ashish Limaye says, “We entered the Indian market to cater to domestic demand and advertisers and marketers had realized then that they need Augmented Reality/ Computer Generated (CG) images for their television and outdoor work.”

    While Happy Finish possibly provides the best of imagery across touch points, the brand saw the potential in India and aimed to target about 18-20 per cent of the print market where a lot of CG animation and imagery is used. They identified that communication is going to become more sophisticated and hence it was the right time for them to invest in Indian market.

    Clients in India and abroad

    The brand has worked with brands like Burberry, Nike, Mercedes and Skoda among others in global markets. Meanwhile, Happy Finish has been doing some phenomenal work for the Indian market by working with Mahindra, Renault, Suzuki Ciaz, Johnson & Johnson, HUL, Marico and Baskin Robbins among others.

    Limaye adds, “We either directly work with the brand or it gets channelized through the agency. There is a lot of brain storming that goes in all the nuances and are glad that clients are happy with our work.”

    What do they do?

    Happy Finish provides services ranging from retouch, 3D, animation, interactive and motion effects apart from giving the augmented reality experience and providing CG images. They have worked with clients across the fashion, automotive industry and production houses.

    Happy Finish Global CEO Simon Gosling says, “Our imagery work with global magazines like Vogue, GQ or any other magazine has been appreciated. Fashion is something that we always look forward to enhance. Internationally, Burberry is one of the major fashion brands and we have done some phenomenal work for Burberry.”

    The company has also worked with a few of the world’s best magazines and photographers.

    That apart, it has also worked with the international series 24 where Jack Bauer returned to screens for the latest season of the show for Sky. The work features 24 stills taken over a 24-hour period across the streets of London.

    Limaye asserts, “Our work with Renault Duster was so impressive that Renault is using our image in all global markets where it will launch Duster and we are very proud of it.”

    Stating an example in the Indian market, Gosling says, “We have worked with Maruti Suzuki India. The company is the latest high profile automotive brand to trust the expertise of our talented Mumbai artists. This collection of images showcases the retouch and CG skills all the way from our Mumbai studio.”

    Happily Finishing

    The biggest marketing activity that Happy Finish undertook was associating with Kyoorius for Melt 2015, which concluded last weekend.

    Though there has been no structured research on the AR/VR industry but it comes under the digital industry. Talking about the industry potential, Limaye says, “My own assessment is that in the advertising industry, primarily where television has about 46 per cent market share of the total ad pie, I think that we have a potential of having a share of at least four per cent of the market size in the next four years. This means four per cent of the television pie, which is a huge chunk in itself.”

    Click to experience some of Happy Finish’s work.

  • ZenithOptimedia’s Performics sets up Centre of Excellence for media technology in B’lore

    ZenithOptimedia’s Performics sets up Centre of Excellence for media technology in B’lore

    MUMBAI: ZenithOptimedia’s Performics has set up a full-fledged digital media technology Centre of Excellence, which is a first of its kind in India. 

     

    The centre will be based in Bangalore and will provide capabilities on real time segmentation and insights, services across marketing automation, attribution, data modelling, content and commerce. The centre will specifically cater to the Indian sub-continent.

     

    Performics India MD Tanmay Mohanty said, “This centre is set up to provide solutions for comprehensive and integrated marketing, that will enable marketers to measure, personalize, and optimize marketing campaigns and digital experiences across screens and platforms. As you would know, globally Publicis has partnered with Adobe for these ‘Always On Solutions’ that will power insights and data fuelled planning globally for Publicis. The preferred partnership between Performics India and Adobe is already gaining traction with customers such as Airtel and Tata AIG already migrating to Adobe Marketing Cloud. Many other organizations are showing similar interest.” 

     

    ZenithOptimedia group CEO Anupriya Acharya elaborated, “This is something that we have been working on for some time and in our assessment, the time is ripe to set up a centre like this. Online video is seeing explosive growth thanks to the explosion of mobile video consumption and the spread of internet-connected devices like desktop computers, tablets and television screens. All key social media platforms are developing their video products; and more online video is being sold by programmatic buying, providing advertisers with more control and better value. We find that currently a lot of clients, especially in the e-commerce and mobile segment have to work with media technology companies that are outside of India and have a hard time getting the time and attention they require. With this centre we want to be able to solve these problems like the understanding of these products and their potential. We have to help our clients make wise marketing decisions based on data and make the most of their marketing campaigns with the technology. Inside India we will be testing multiple technologies against client requirements. Both our teams and clients are excited about it.”

     

    Adobe South Asia director enterprise Kulmeet Bawa added, “Top brands around the world across industry verticals use Adobe Marketing Cloud to reach and engage customers, and our partnerships go a long way in making this possible. We congratulate ZenithOptimedia’s Performics on the establishment of their first centre of excellence for media technologies in India and are certain that customers in India will benefit immensely from this set up.”

  • DDH acquires Publicis’ shares in Dentsu Razorfish; to re-brand as Dentsu iX

    DDH acquires Publicis’ shares in Dentsu Razorfish; to re-brand as Dentsu iX

    MUMBAI: Dentsu Inc’s subsidiary Dentsu Digital Holdings (DDH) has acquired the 19.37 per cent shares held by Publicis Groupe in their joint venture company Dentsu Razorfish Inc., making Dentsu Razorfish a wholly owned subsidiary of DDH.

     

    As a result, Dentsu Razorfish will be rebranded Dentsu iX on 1 July.

     

    DentsuiX is a specialized one-stop agency that provides digital solutions for sophisticated and diverse needs. The new name reflects the company’s desire to create innovative experiences.

     

    Looking ahead, amid the progress of globalization in the digital marketing domain, the agency will seek to expand its operations through cooperation with the Dentsu Group’s international digital network.

     

    Dentsu Razorfish president and CEO Hidetoshi Tokumaru will head DentsuiX.

  • Nielsen names Johnson as head of reach solutions in SE Asia, N Asia & Pacific

    Nielsen names Johnson as head of reach solutions in SE Asia, N Asia & Pacific

    MUMBAI: Global performance management company Nielsen, has appointed Craig Johnson to head up its Reach portfolio in Southeast Asia, North Asia and Pacific, including television audience measurement (TAM), radio audience measurement (RAM), Consumer & Media View and advertising measurement (AIS) with immediate effect.

     

    Prior to joining Nielsen in 2006, Johnson spent a number of years working for one of Australia’s national broadcast media owners. During his time with Nielsen he has worked with a broad cross-section of clients around the world including television and radio broadcasters, media agencies, brands and industry bodies. Most recently he has been leading Nielsen’s Watch business in South Africa.

     

    Johnson will relocate to Sydney, Australia.

     

    In his new role, Johnson will focus on driving Nielsen’s leadership in the areas of TAM, RAM, Consumer & Media View and AIS. With a number of major media industry tenders currently under consideration in key markets such as Singapore, Johnson’s extensive TAM experience and expertise will be invaluable in ensuring Nielsen’s ongoing success.

     

    Johnson said, “I am truly excited to be taking on this new opportunity with Nielsen. Rapidly evolving media habits are bringing about significant shifts in how we measure media consumption, and I look forward to leveraging Nielsen’s world-class audience measurement solutions to help our clients in this part of the world to understand and harness these shifts.”

  • Eros names Prem Parameswaran as group CFO & president – North America

    Eros names Prem Parameswaran as group CFO & president – North America

    MUMBAI: Prem Parameswaran has been appointed as the group chief financial officer of Eros International, Plc and president – North America, a newly created position.

     

    Parameswaran will succeed Andrew Heffernan as group CFO, who will be taking a leave of absence from the company in June.

     

    Parameswaran joins Eros with over 23 years of experience in investment banking, advising clients in the global telecommunications, media and technology sector, including on mergers and acquisitions and public and private equity and debt financing.

     

    Eros executive chairman Kishore Lulla said, “Our company is at an important point in its growth trajectory with the increasing popularity of Indian entertainment content, evolution of technology and dynamic transformation of the Indian economy underway. With his impressive background in finance, mergers and acquisitions and operational strategy, Prem has the knowledge, relationships and global perspective that will be very valuable as we continue our growth around the world and optimize our capital structure. We look forward to his valuable contributions to our strategy and tapping into his relationships to extend our reach with the financial community and potential partners.”

     

    Parameswaran added, “Over the course of my career, I have seen first-hand a number of media and entertainment businesses on the verge of exponential growth, and I believe Eros is one of those kinds of companies. Eros’ incredibly valuable and growing content library, its dominant market share position in one of the fastest growing markets in the world, its burgeoning digital distribution platform ErosNow, and its very talented and experienced management team are the elements that I believe make this a compelling company. This is an ideal situation where I can bring my experience, relationships and financial background into a well-established company and help drive additional growth and create value for its shareholders. I am excited to get started and look forward to working with the team to achieve great things.”

     

    Parameswaran most recently served as the global head of media and telecommunications investment banking at Jefferies LLC. Prior to Jefferies, he was the Americas head of media & telecom at Deutsche Bank. He has also previously worked at Goldman Sachs and Salomon Brothers.

     

    Lulla added, “I want to thank Andrew for the important role he has played in the development of our company to date. His insight, experience and understanding of our business has helped us hugely.”

     

    Heffernan said, “During my time with Eros, the company has experienced significant growth in revenues and its film slate and the launch of its digital distribution platform. I look forward to the company continuing to capitalize on its potential to expand further in one of the fastest growing media markets in the world.”