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Category: Media and Advertising

  • MediaCom India bags Roche Diagnostics media AOR

    MediaCom India bags Roche Diagnostics media AOR

    MUMBAI: MediaCom India has won the media mandate for Roche Diagnostics India following a multi-agency pitch.

     

    The agency will handle all traditional and digital media for the company and its flagship brand Accu-Chek. Roche Diagnostics will be managed out of the west region. The pitch was led by MediaCom Mumbai GM Deepa Jatkar.

     

    MediaCom India MD Debraj Tripathy said, “We are delighted to partner with Roche Diagnostics in India and look forward to contributing to their growth. Our team is excited and is looking forward to working on building the brand.”

     

    Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is a leader in research-focused healthcare with combined strength in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics.

     

    The company’s India and neighbouring markets’ business unit head Sidhartha Roy said, “We are happy to work with MediaCom. We are keen on partnering with MediaCom as we think their strengths in analytics and planning will add value to our business and is in line with our brand requirement.”

  • Sunil Lulla will bring in a new dimension in our offering to clients: Nirvik Singh

    Sunil Lulla will bring in a new dimension in our offering to clients: Nirvik Singh

    When indiantelevision.com wrote about Sunil Lulla taking up a leadership position in Grey India, it did surprise many in the industry. Very few knew or recollected that Lulla’s roots have been in advertising: he was an account director at HTA (now JWT India) and had also taken the role of regional client servicing director on the Colgate Palmolive business with Y&R New York.

     

    The announcement of his joining saw the departure of president & CEO Jishnu Sen. Lulla is taking over at Grey India at a time when it is in the midst of a grow-grow phase. On the global front, Grey was ranked as the agency of the year by adage.com for its revenue growth, client retention and the fact that it won almost all of the client pitches it made in 2013.

     

    In India, Grey, the advertising network of the Grey Group, acquired a majority stake in rural and marketing communications services provider RC&M just as the year was drawing to a close.

     

    It has done well on the awards front too, both in traditional and digital advertising.  It can be noted that Grey India picked up a Gold Lion at the Cannes this year in the Press category for the work done for P&G’s Duracell Batteries.

     

    Indiantelevision.com’s Priyanka Nair got in touch with Grey Group Asia Pacific CEO Nirvik Singh to chat with him about the leadership change in India, and what he expects going forward.

     

    Excerpts: 

     

    With Sunil Lulla coming on board, what are the areas in which Grey India is looking at expanding?

     

    We have been investing in India continually and with RC&M coming under our fold, I believe we have the right expertise and capabilities currently across the full marketing spectrum. Sunil Lulla would play a critical role in integrating and strengthening our offering.

     

    In the 30 years of experience that Sunil Lulla has, he has been associated with the broadcast side of the business most. How do you think his expertise will help in the growth of Grey India?

     

    With his 30 years of working experience, Sunil brings with him a wealth of knowledge from the media side of the business, not just broadcast. From our conversations, he has shown that he knows the heavily fragmented media landscape in South Asia in depth. By having him leading our operations in India, he is able to add a new dimension in our offering to our clients.

     

    How has the year 2014 been so far for Grey India?

     

    2014 has been really good for Grey Group, not just in India but across Asia Pacific as well. We are seeing clients in the market increasing their marketing spend with us, both regional and local clients. All in all, I expect India to be a really strong performer at year end. Malvika Mehra (National Creative Director) and team have been performing consistently as well – they have brought home yet another Gold Lion from the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. This is their second year in a row they are doing so.

     

    What are the plans lined up for the digital side of your business?

     

    Sudhir Nair (Senior Vice President, Head of Grey Digital India) will be working closely with Sunil on this, but I must say our digital team has been stellar in their creative solutions and output (using Twitter to launch a car and YouTube for a test drive). Digital is definitely a big part of the picture and the continued investment in talent and capabilities is top of our priorities.

     

    What is at top of your wish list for Grey India?

     

    Win more Cannes Lions next year!

     

    Till when will Jishnu Sen be with Grey India? Could you elaborate on the experience of working with him? 

     

    It has been a truly great journey – I have seen him grow into the CEO’s role and he is a great chap to work with.

  • Ashish Bhasin wins 2014 Business Excellence Award for Media CEO of the Year – India

    Ashish Bhasin wins 2014 Business Excellence Award for Media CEO of the Year – India

    MUMBAI: Winners of the prestigious 2014 Business Excellence Awards were announced in London and Ashish Bhasin has received the ‘Media CEO of the year – India’ award.

     

    Voted for by a worldwide network of professionals, advisers, clients, peers and business insiders, the Acquisition International Business Excellence Awards celebrate the individuals and firms whose commitment to excellence sees them exceeding clients’ expectations on a daily basis while setting the bar for others in their industry.

     

    The awards, open to businesses from any sector or region, are handed out solely on merit. They are given to only the most deserving businesses, departments and individuals who have consistently demonstrated outstanding innovation, performance and commitment to their business or clients over the past 12 months and who have received independent nominations from their clients or industry peers.

     

    Speaking about the awards, AI Global Media awards coordinator Siobhan Hanley said, “Our Business Excellence Awards are quickly becoming one of our most popular, with businesses all over the globe eager to showcase the amazing work they’ve been doing to achieve stellar results for their clients while really setting the standards for what can be achieved in their sector.  We’re proud to be able to showcase some of the most innovative and committed organizations from across the business world and the winners can be rightly proud of the game-changing work they’ve been doing over the past 12 months.”

     

    Commenting on receiving the award, Dentsu Aegis Network- South Asia  chairman & CEO Ashish Bhasin said, “I am honored to receive the 2014 Business Excellence Award for Media CEO of the Year. I am lucky to have such a wonderful team at Dentsu Aegis Network.The award is for my team’s efforts, I am just receiving it in my name.  It’s been an amazing journey for Dentsu Aegis Network in India but the best is yet to come.”

  • Kantar acquires majority stake in Guardian Digital Agency

    Kantar acquires majority stake in Guardian Digital Agency

    MUMBAI: Holding companies seem to be speeding up the process of adding specialised digital agencies in their kitty.  

     

    WPP, the British holding company has announced that Kantar, its wholly-owned data investment management arm, has acquired the Guardian Digital Agency (GDA), a specialised data visualisation, site design and interactive development agency, previously part of Guardian News and Media Group. The company, which employs 13 professionals, will be rebranded under the name Graphic. Many of Kantar’s 12 companies have already worked with GDA to increase the impact and interactivity of their work.

     
    The investment is part of WPP’s strategy of developing its integrated services in fast-growing and important markets and sectors and strengthening its capabilities in digital media.

     

    WPP’s digital revenues (including associates) were well over US$6 billion in 2013, representing almost 35 per cent of the Group’s total revenues of US$17.3 billion. WPP expects 40-45 per cent of its revenue to be derived from digital in the next five years. 

    Kantar is the data investment management division of WPP and one of the world’s largest insight, information and consultancy groups. By connecting the diverse talents of its 12 specialist companies, the group aims to become the pre-eminent provider of compelling and inspirational insights for the global business community.

     

    In the UK, WPP companies (including associates) collectively generate revenues of nearly US$3billion and employ over 15,000 professionals. Worldwide, WPP’s data investment management companies (including associates) collectively generate revenues of about US$5 billion and employ over 34,000 professionals.

  • Chandramohan Mehra bids adieu to SBI Life

    Chandramohan Mehra bids adieu to SBI Life

    MUMBAI: SBI Life Insurance country head – emerging business Chandramohan Mehra has decided to quit after his eight years of association with the company.

     

    While Mehra was unavailable for comment, sources confirm that he is set to join the entertainment industry in the coming weeks.

     

    Mehra led the brand and communication initiatives, before being elevated to country head – emerging business last year. Amongst the multiple popular marketing campaigns he drove, were ‘First-of-its-kind customer education programme, ‘Future Guaranteed’, ‘Old Boy Cricket’ and ‘Jab Hum Honge Saath Saal Ke’. He played an instrumental role in variety of assignments including product launches, social media, events, lead generation, customer research, cross sell, analytics, multi-lingual website, PR and internal communication.

     

    In his recent role at SBI Life, Mehra spearheaded the creation of online business and cross sell vertical. The new business premium generated through online vertical grew rapidly to five fold, with SBI Life gaining a lead position in digital business, in recent months. 

     

    Mehra is an MBA from Insead, France and a BITS Pilani alumnus. His earlier assignments were with Kotak and FCB Ulka where he managed HDFC Bank and Tata Motors brand.

  • After setting up ROAR, Publicis Groupe acquires Crown Partners

    After setting up ROAR, Publicis Groupe acquires Crown Partners

    MUMBAI: It was last week when Publicis Groupe, the French holding company had announced the launch of ROAR, an agency of hand-picked talent drawn from across the digital resources within the group.

     

    To scale up its digital side of the business, the group has acquired Crown Partners, a full service firm that drives commerce and content solutions, based in the United States.

     

    According to WSJ, the group is aiming at generating at least half of its revenue by 2018 from digital. Publicis reported that its digital revenue rose 14 per cent on an organic basis in 2013, with digital representing 38 per cent of the company’s revenue.

     

    Crown Partners will be aligned with Razorfish, to further accelerate the agency’s strong leadership and growth in commerce, marketing and content technology platform-related services.

     

    Founded in 2001 by CEO Richard Hearn and president Mark Kennedy, Crown Partners currently has 150 employees based at its headquarters in Dayton, Ohio and across US offices in New York, Dallas and Denver.

     

    The firm offers technology solutions to Global 2000, Fortune 500 and emerging enterprises, ensuring clients—which include Lands’ End, ASICS, Keurig-Green Mountain, GlaxoSmithKline, St. Jude, United Technologies and David Yurman—achieve their digital goals.

     

    The acquisition supports Razorfish’s commitment to identifying opportunities for business transformation that have commerce at their core. Crown Partner’s healthy business, combined with Razorfish’s approach to creating superior integrated customer experiences on behalf of their clients, will amplify the agency’s ability to provide exceptional services to its clients.

     

    The Crown Partners’ team will join Razorfish Technology Platform Services. Hearn will assume the position of executive lead and president of Razorfish Technology Platform Services, and will report to Razorfish North America CEO Shannon Denton.

     

    “We believe this is a time of great opportunity for businesses that are willing to embrace transformation. The businesses with the best and most consistent customer experience will come out on top, and the only way to win is to effectively leverage technology and data,” mentioned Razorfish global CEO Pete Stein in a statement.

     

    “The integration of Crown Partners within Razorfish reinforces the agency’s technology capabilities in the commerce and retail space and offers increased capitalization on growth opportunities, while ensuring continued talent development and delivery of the highest quality client work,” added Razorfish chairman Rishad Tobaccowala.

     

    Hearn continued, “For the past 13 years Crown Partners has empowered companies to use digital technologies to expedite growth, drive new business and minimize costs. Joining forces with Razorfish will give our shared clients access to unmatched innovation, depth of expertise and balance in platform enabled professional services.”

     

    Razorfish and Crown Partners will also be able to expand an already long list of successful platform implementations with mutual key partners hybris, a SAP company, and Adobe.

     

    hybris president and co-founder Carsten Thoma said, “Crown Partners has been a dynamic force in realising omni-channel commerce solutions leveraging the hybris and SAP platforms. Together with Razorfish, we have a valued partner in the market with the innovation, experience and ambition to change the face of commerce.”

     

     “It’s exciting to think about the potential that will result from an innovative partner like Crown Partners joining forces with a powerful Adobe global partner like Razorfish. This acquisition will further extend Razorfish’s current success with providing customers the value and benefit of Adobe Marketing Cloud solutions by growing their web experience and experience-driven commerce practice,” concluded Adobe vice president, global alliances Jim Sink.

  • Roohafza gets innovative on billboards

    Roohafza gets innovative on billboards

    MUMBAI: Over the last two months, Roohafza has spread its communication across several multimedia platforms.

     

    Roohafza’s advertising campaign idea for 2014, centred on ‘Be Natural Be Cool’ has been stepped up on the outdoor medium and is targeted towards youngsters of SEC AA, A and B. The task behind the campaign was to bring alive the over 100 years old iconic brand and speak to the new age audience. Kinetic India is the agency that has executed the outdoor campaign.

     

    The campaign brief given to Kinetic was to ensure that the innovativeoutdoor display should serve the brand objective of addressing the natural lineage of the product head-on. Also the campaign is aimed to support and amplify outdoor to TV and print.

     

    Hamdard India brand manager Puneet Kapoor further elaborated, “People perceive Roohafza as a rose based syrup. What’s less known is that Roohafza is a unique blend of 15 herbal ingredients and fruit juices. The campaign aims to build on the natural goodness of the product and at the same time refresh our connect with the younger generation with the message of ‘Be Natural Be Cool’.”

     

    The two month outdoor campaign has rolled out in Mumbai, New Delhi, Aurangabad, Kanpur, Lucknow, Agra, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Panchkula, Mohali, Ambala, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Ajmer, Indore and Bhopal and ends in mid July.

     

    The main areas covered in this outdoor campaign are key junctions and main arterial routes of the tar. The inventories used in traditional media are billboards, unipole, bus shelters and metro panels with innovation. The innovation is done by keeping in mind a Roohafza bottle of which half indicates different ingredients of the drink and the other half show syrup inside the bottle.

     

    Other than this, the bottle is depicted to be tilted and is being poured in the glass with a cut out of a glass and a base of a lot of ice indicating its best had cold to feel refreshed.

     

    “Our challenge was to bring the wow factor in the outdoor innovation and highlight the unique ingredients of Roohafza. We came up with a solution where we used a larger than life 3D bottle of Roohafza on the outdoor media highlighting the unique mixture of ingredients that goes in making Roohafza,” said Kinetic India vice president and business head Raj Mohanty.

  • Binay Tiwari forays into entrepreneurship

    Binay Tiwari forays into entrepreneurship

    MUMBAI: Vserv.mobi director – global marketing & product Binay Tiwari has decided to wear the hat of an entrepreneur and has thus resigned from his current role. 

     

    Tiwari through a statement said, “Over the past three years I’ve had an amazing time working with Vserv and its partners across the world, to push forward the mobile internet ecosystem. Today, I stand at a juncture, where I’m keen to take a new path towards ‘starting up’ something new of my own. We are living in exciting times, where technology is changing the world at an unprecedented pace, and I hope to leverage the massive opportunities that this presents.”

     

    Tiwari had joined Vserv in August 2011 as its general manager. He was later promoted as the global marketing head in March 2012 and as the director of global marketing and product in April last year. Tiwari had previously worked in companies like InMobi, Vodafone, Tata Communications, GE Capital International Services and Mukunda Gems.

  • Carat is the new AoR of British Airways

    Carat is the new AoR of British Airways

    MUMBAI: As part of a global pitch, British Airways, has chosen Carat for its media agency alignment.

     

    British Airways marketing lead in India and S Asia Priti Khurana asserted that the brand is keen to start managing media in a dramatically different manner and Carat was found to be the most promising partner for the job.  “British Airways is the preferred carrier for a large part of the discerning traveler audience from India and we are keen to take the appeal much further. To this end, British Airways has already made sizeable investments on the technology and infrastructure front and now we’d want the message to be driven home, with maximum impact”. 

     

    A high voltage media campaign is also scheduled to go on-air soon and Carat is already working on the plans.

     

    Carat Media executive VP Vidhu Sagar added, “British Airways is a prestigious brand and has always been the preferred choice of the discerning traveler. However with the recent expansion of the franchise to include more mainstream audiences, our media approach is now going to be similarly aligned to connect the brand message with the chosen prospects most effectively. We shall endeavour to do this with the help of all pertinent media platforms – including Television, Print, Digital, OOH as well as Activation, as appropriate.”

     

    Carat India MD Kartik Iyer said “We are absolutely delighted that British Airways has chosen Carat to partner them in this growth phase of their business. British Airways had always led the market in creating iconic brand communication campaigns and we look forward to partnering them in their endeavor to engage with the vast traveling population of India.”