ITV

Category: Media and Advertising

  • J. Walter Thompson India promotes Senthil Kumar as CCO

    J. Walter Thompson India promotes Senthil Kumar as CCO

    MUMBAI: J. Walter Thompson has promoted Senthil Kumar as chief creative officer (CCO) for India.

     

    Kumar was most recently JWT India national creative director (NCD) for South and has been  the agency for the last 15 years. 

     

    JWT South Asia CEO Tarun Rai said, “It’s a new world of communication. Creativity is no longer only about the 30-second TVC but has to work across various platforms. For this new world of communication, I needed a new age creative chief – someone who thinks digital first. Senthil is extremely talented, is focused on work and always leads from the front. His passion for excellence and his boundless energy is infectious. He will partner me in raising the bar of our creative product, building our clients’ brands and attracting the best talent in the industry.”

     

    Kumar added, “I am thrilled to lead J. Walter Thompson India as its CCO. The opportunity to partner Tarun in steering India’s largest agency into the future, challenges and motivates me. Am proud of our current creative firepower across the country and our collective ambition will be to spearhead marketing success stories for our clients with world-beating ideas. The way forward is not just language-neutral and media-agnostic ideas, but to invent platform-specific creative solutions that solve business problems.”

     

    “The journey is never over in this business of ideas as we continue to push harder on the creative front and attract the best talent from within and outside the industry. Our creativity should leap from deep human insight and be driven by ‘Curiosity’ and ‘Collaboration’ while we build our ‘Capability’ to generate ideas that engage with millions of consumers,” he further said.

     

    J. Walter Thompson worldwide chief creative officer Matt Eastwood said, “Senthil is the definition of a modern ideator and leader who thrives on constantly exploring the power of new technologies and platforms to create truly pioneering work. His boundless energy and enthusiasm for his craft, clients and employees alike, will serve him well in guiding and building our creative brand in the region.”

  • Ogilvy & Mather ups Anthony Wong as worldwide effectiveness director

    Ogilvy & Mather ups Anthony Wong as worldwide effectiveness director

    MUMBAI: Ogilvy & Mather (O&M) has promoted Anthony Wong as worldwide effectiveness director effective 4 January, 2016.

     

    This will be a dual role for Wong, who is based in Hong Kong, and is also global client leader for TeamHW – WPP’s bespoke agency team that looks after Huawei’s marketing and communications around the world. 

     

    O&M global chairman and CEO Miles Young said, “Earlier this year we mourned the death of Tim Broadbent who had held this position since 2009. I feel in my heart that no one would be more pleased than Tim by Anthony’s elevation. Tim taught Anthony all he could about everything he knew, and he is the perfect example of the type of intelligent and thinking leader we need in our business.”

     

    Wong’s new position will see him championing Ogilvy’s effectiveness culture, and working with both clients and respective global account teams to develop more effective communications. In his previous position as president of global brand management for the network in Asia Pacific, he won more than 30 effectiveness awards, including three IPAs in London, the first and second ever IPA wins from China, in addition to the first ever IPA win from Malaysia.

     

    Wong said, “Effectiveness in communications needs to be as scientific of an investment as any other decision in the boardroom for brands today. I’m both honoured and thrilled to have this opportunity to work with clients and colleagues to create the new strategies our industry needs to evolve marketing effectiveness forward.”

  • WPP’s Kantar Health acquires consulting company in Czech Republic

    WPP’s Kantar Health acquires consulting company in Czech Republic

    MUMBAI: WPP’s Kantar Health has acquired CEEOR, a specialist research and consulting company in the Czech Republic. 

     

    Founded in 2006 and based in Prague, with offices in Slovakia and Hungary, CEEOR is a research and consulting organisation specialising in analytical services for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and healthcare industries in Europe and beyond. It has a market-leading reputation as a customer-oriented and technology-focused market intelligence provider. CEEOR’s core business is centered on commercial effectiveness activities, electronic data collection, and real-world research studies, including epidemiology and health outcomes. 

     

    Through this acquisition, Kantar Health will further strengthen its capabilities in the commercial effectiveness field, helping clients to better optimise decisions in marketing and sales, investments, timing and targeting. 

     

    CEEOR’s consolidated revenues for the year ended 31 December, 2014 were €1.6 million, with gross assets of €0.7 million as at the same date. 

     

    In Central and Eastern Europe the Group (including associates) generates revenues of almost $600 million and employs over 6,000 people. In the Czech Republic, the Group (including associates) generates revenues of almost $100 million and employs around 1,000 people. 

     

    Kantar generates revenues of almost $5 billion (including associates) and employs over 34,000 people. 

  • FreeCharge takes to role reversal in new ad campaign

    FreeCharge takes to role reversal in new ad campaign

    MUMBAI: Indian digital payments platform FreeCharge has launched its new brand campaign called ‘#ReverseTheCharge, which reinforces the brand’s connect with youth.

    The new campaign explores the youth-parent relationship with a twist by adding a flavour of role reversal. The pan India TVC campaign will cover 30+ channels on national television spanning major Hindi GECs and English channels. The campaign will leverage both offline and online platforms to reach out to the target audience.
     

    Created by Lowe Lintas, the campaign resonates with the youth of today who are more tech-savvy and know how to best use online platforms.

    Talking about the new TVC, FreeCharg marketing head Ashish Virmani said, “FreeCharge as a brand understands youth and their needs deeply. With FreeCharge, they just don’t recharge but in a way FreeCharge helps them solve their problems smartly. With this campaign, the youth has evolved to the point where they can charge their parents for being spendthrift. This campaign will be an integrated marketing plan leveraging TV, digital and radio primarily and aims to build the already strong appeal for the brand.”

    The #ReverseTheCharge campaign is targeted at the urban youth living in metros. The TVC is in Hindi and translated in other regional languages such as Tamil, Telugu and Kannada to strengthen brand awareness and penetrate deeper into the Indian market to attract new users on board.

    Talking about the campaign Lowe Lintas CCO Arun Iyer said, “For the launch phase of the campaign, we had established Freecharge as a brand that frees young people of various money-related charges placed on them by their parents. In this phase, we thought we’d flip the dynamics of this relationship. The young Freecharge user is a step ahead of the game and knows how to save so well, that in addition to freeing themselves of all charges of being spendthrift, they can now in fact, go ahead and place the same charge on their parents.”

  • Dentsu Webchutney hires Havas’ Gaurav Soi as EVP

    Dentsu Webchutney hires Havas’ Gaurav Soi as EVP

    MUMBAI: Dentsu Aegis’ digital agency Dentsu Webchutney, has appointed Gaurav Soi to head its new business operations, nationally as executive vice president (EVP).

     

    Soi will report to Dentsu Webchutney CEO Sidharth Rao. He joins the agency from Havas Worldwide, Mumbai where he was senior vice president. 

     

    As part of his new mandate, Soi will identify and channelise new opportunities for the agency across its offices in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru.

    On his appointment, Soi said, “The most commonly used word in conversations today is digital. It is no longer the future. It is here and now! Denstu Webchutney has a proven track record and is associated with very prestigious brands. Known for its quality product and forward thinking, I am extremely proud to be a part of this team. The company is aggressively focusing on growth; and yet, we will need to retain the quality of our product across client offerings. It is this balance that will make the road ahead a very exciting one.” 

    Rao added, “Dentsu Webchutney has now entered its next phase of growth and it’s absolutely essential for us that we use the right kind of experiences to steer this growth forward. Gaurav comes in with immense experience and exposure across clients and categories. And his appointment will only further catalyse the strength that already holds the Dentsu Webchutney fort so strong. I am extremely happy to welcome him on board.” 

    With more than 15 years of experience, Soi has worked with agencies including The Grey Group, Mumbai, Ambience Publicis, Metal Communications and Havas Worldwide. He has also been part of the events and activations industry through Line Communications.

  • WPP acquires 61% stake in STW for $512 million

    WPP acquires 61% stake in STW for $512 million

    MUMBAI: STW Group, Australasia’s marketing content and communications services group, comprising over 75 operating companies, is all set to merge with WPP’s Australian and New Zealand businesses.

     

    Martin Sorrell helmed WPP has acquired a 61 per cent controlling stake in STW for approximately $512 million, of which $387 million will be paid via new shares with STW assuming debt of $125 million.

     

    Post the merger, STW CEO Michael Conaghan will continue in his current post and Robert Mactier will also remain chairman of the company.

     

    Mactier said, “Bringing together the respective iconic brands and wonderfully talented people of STW and WPP Australia and New Zealand under a single common ownership and will unlock tremendous local and global capability, experience and efficiencies for our clients as well as establishing a fantastic platform for our people to prosper.”

     

    “The transaction is EPS accretive as a result of the issue of new STW shares at a premium to market and also delivers a material reduction in STW’s leverage and the opportunity to unlock a range of synergies thereby creating significant value for our shareholders. Importantly, binding governance protocols and shareholder protections have been agreed for the benefit of the continuing minority stakeholders. I consider this a genuine win-win transaction for all our stakeholders. Post completion, we look forward to working seamlessly with WPP as our major shareholder and strategic partner as we embark on the exciting journey that is in front of us,” he further added.

     

    Connaghan said, “To finally align our shareholdings in those existing partnerships (J Walter Thompson, Mindshare, Maxus and Added Value) and now to expand our relationships across the full STW and WPP Australia and New Zealand portfolio of companies is an amazing opportunity. WPP is the leading player on the global stage in our industry. We have the potential to create a group unparalleled in this part of the world, totally focussed on our home markets, but allowing our clients and people open access to the best thinking on a global level.”

     

    Sorrell added, “The merger of our Australian and New Zealand operations with STW, will give us a unique opportunity to offer our local and international clients a comprehensive set of services and to make sure we can offer the best talent through country management. It will also enable STW to focus on the Australian and New Zealand markets, which it knows best, with a structure that will strongly incentivise its people.”

  • Praveen Sathaye to lead operations at FoxyMoron Gurgaon

    Praveen Sathaye to lead operations at FoxyMoron Gurgaon

    MUMBAI: FoxyMoron has roped in Praveen Sathaye to spearhead its Gurgaon office to strengthen the existing client roster and driving the agency’s growth plans for the market.

     

    In his previous role, Sathaye was leading the in-house creative agency at Ericsson.

     

    FoxyMoron co-founder Pratik Gupta said, “We are thrilled to have Praveen on board. For us this signals, the beginning of a new growth story at FoxyMoron Gurgaon. While we have a lot of new businesses in the pipeline, we needed someone like Praveen, with a proven track record and wealth of diverse experience with leading brands and agencies, who brings a marketing perspective to a digital setup. This will not only help our growth agenda, but will also contribute immensely to FoxyMoron’s expansion in the North.”

     

    On his new role, Sathaye added, “I’m excited to work with some real creative geniuses who want to take the digital and creative space to greater heights. In my role at FoxyMoron, I see myself working towards synergising energies of digital and brands to build solutions for the future. The intent is also to ramp up the capacity here and address newer industries as well as clients.”

  • Crayon Data collaborates with GroupM, Mindshare for India foray

    Crayon Data collaborates with GroupM, Mindshare for India foray

    MUMBAI: Mindshare and GroupM have inked a global alliance with Crayon Data for the latter’s foray into the Indian market. The development comes hot on the heels of last week’s announcement of Ratan Tata investing in Crayon Data.

     

    The Singapore based big data start-up has built a proprietary big data platform called SimplerChoices that allows it to ingest, curate and algorithmically predict the tastes of millions of consumers.

     

    Together, GroupM, Mindshare and Crayon Data aim to map the taste of millions of Indian consumers, which will allow enterprises to target consumers more precisely. 

     

    “GroupM is changing the way marketers approach the business of media. Together with the WPP data alliance, bringing the Crayon Data proposition to India reflects our ambition to know more deeply than anyone else the tastes of Indian consumers and use that to help our clients target them better,” said GroupM India CEO CVL Srinivas.

     

    Mindshare South Asia CEO Prashanth Kumar added, “Through this alliance, Mindshare’s proprietary data and research are further enriched with Crayon Data’s analytics. This will help us bring in both agility and adaptive solutions for our clients. Understanding the tastes and mind-set of consumers is extremely important and will be a great advantage for us especially since there is a strong focus on digital. In our journey to understand our consumers even better, this will be a great advantage.”

     

    Crayon Data founder Suresh Shankar said, “As life goes digital, and choices proliferate in every aspect of our life, we will move to a world centred around personalisation, where companies understand tastes and preferences at an individual level, and use that to make choices simple and relevant for their consumers.”