ITV

Category: People

  • Leo Burnett Elevates Prajato Guha Thakurta, Sachin Kamble and Vikram Pandey to National Creative Directors

    Leo Burnett Elevates Prajato Guha Thakurta, Sachin Kamble and Vikram Pandey to National Creative Directors

    MUMBAI: Leo Burnett India has announced the promotion of Prajato Guha Thakurta (Projo), Sachin Kamble and Vikram Pandey (Spiky) to National Creative Directors. They will report to Rajdeepak Das, Managing Director – India and Chief Creative Officer, South Asia, and Dheeraj Sinha, Managing Director – India and Chief Strategy Officer, South Asia. Prior to their promotions, the trio has been Executive Creative Directors in Leo Burnett’s Mumbai office. 

    Speaking about the elevation, Rajdeepak Das said, “Sachin, Projo and Spiky have been the engines driving the creative culture at Leo Burnett. They have been leading the Fight Club (the creative brain trust of the agency) to produce and incubate new-age work done for some of our biggest brands – ‘The Nation’s Bike’ and ‘Invincible Indians’ for Bajaj V, ‘Salaam Loans’ for Tata Capital – among so much more for Google, HDFC Life and others. They have been responsible for winning multiple Cannes Lions, One Show and D&AD awards for our clients. Most importantly, they have been the true flag-bearers of the Humankind philosophy and the open-collaboration culture of the agency. It is this spirit that has helped name Leo Burnett India as the Agency of the Year 2018 among our 86-office network.”

    Projo, Sachin and Spiky’s new mandate is to help deliver Humankind work on their clients from the Mumbai operations and several others from the national roster. They will continue to spearhead national new business initiatives and nurture creative talent across geographies. Additionally, they will play a key role in the Fight Club – Leo Burnett India’s creative crucible that takes place every quarter.

    Speaking about the promotions, Dheeraj Sinha said, “The greatest thing about Leo Burnett is the ‘boundarylessness’ of our talent. Our best talent is available for our clients irrespective of their geography. Projo, Sachin and Spiky have done a spectacular job of the creative product which has won accolades at Cannes Lions, Spikes Asia and consistently gotten a 7+ on the Leo Burnett GPC scale. They have contributed hugely to the new business wins of the agency and have added value to clients across offices. These promotions are a formalisation of the roles that they are already playing. These elevations are timely as we enter 2019 on the back of great momentum of 2018, both, in terms of business growth and global recognition.”

    Speaking about his new role, Projo said, “I am equal parts excited and humbled by the opportunity to spearhead Leo Burnett India’s creative culture. As part of this new role, our priority will be to carry forward the creative legacy of this agency by creating new-age, integrated work for our clients, with a focus on innovation and technology.”

    “I am very excited about this new role and I’m looking forward to the challenges and opportunities that come with a mandate like this. Of course, work that works for our clients will continue to be a priority, and my aim is to do it using a mix of design, technology and storytelling,” said Sachin about his new mandate.

    Spikey added, “In my 12 years at Leo Burnett, I have seen the agency evolve through various stages. I am absolutely delighted at the opportunity to lead the next phase, from the front. As the business transforms rapidly and we evolve with it, I believe storytelling is going to be our tool for the future. We are uniquely positioned to leverage creative data and new media to craft brand stories that are relevant yet meaningful.”

  • Devendra Deshpande joins Friday Filmworks as head of digital content, IP

    Devendra Deshpande joins Friday Filmworks as head of digital content, IP

    MUMBAI: The head of Content Plus at Mindshare Devendra Deshpande has moved on and joined renowned multi-media production house, Friday Filmworks as head of digital content and IP.

    In his new role, Deshpande will create and monetise sustainable and scalable IPs for the ever growing digital/OTT space for domestic and international markets. He will also create new monetisation models around content, including franchising and l&M for Friday Filmworks.

    Neeraj Pandey and Shital Bhatia's collaborative venture Friday Filmworks has completed a glorious decade in Indian Cinema. Having being set up in the year 2008, Friday Filmworks has believed in both content and cinematic experience. The journey began with A Wednesday, a film which became a sleeper hit back then and has set trend of content driven films in showbiz. Over the years Friday Filmworks has garnered immense love and appreciation from audience and critics alike. Neeraj Pandey and Shital Bhatia's Friday Filmworks has been a trendsetter in Bollywood. Over the decade it has delivered films like A Wednesday (2008), Special 26 (2013), Total Siyapaa (2014), Rustom (2016), Toilet: Ek Prem Katha (2017). 

    Devendra  has been a part of GroupM for over eight years, and has served as the head of Mindshare Content Plus for the last three and a half years.

    Devendra has 16 plus years of experience in developing long term strategic partnerships through a deep understanding of advertising, social, integrated marketing, consumer insights, and media. 

    Over the course of his tenure at GroupM, he has worked closely with several top tier brands such as Unilever, Pepsi, GSK, Diageo, Kellogg's amongst others.

  • Pizza Hut elevates Unnat Varma as APAC MD

    Pizza Hut elevates Unnat Varma as APAC MD

    MUMBAI: Pizza Hut International, a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, has elevated the post of Unnat Varma from MD India Subcontinent to MD of Asia Pacific region. Varma will be based out of Singapore and report to Vipul Chawla, President, Pizza Hut International. He will be looking after over 5,500 stores across 22 countries.

    The company has also integrated its India sub-continent unit into the Asia Pacific business unit.

    Varma has an impressive work experience of 24 years. He had joined Yum! Brands as director marketing with KFC, in 2006. He then went on to work for Taco Bell as GM, and Pizza Hut as GM and MD for India Subcontinent Region. Prior to joining Yum! Brands. Unnat Varma had worked with Gillette for around 12 years.

  • Lowe Lintas appoints Sagar Kapoor, Prateek Bhardwaj as CCOs

    Lowe Lintas appoints Sagar Kapoor, Prateek Bhardwaj as CCOs

    MUMBAI: MullenLowe Lintas Group has announced its new creative leadership, naming Sagar Kapoor and Prateek Bhardwaj as its chief creative officers (CCOs). While Kapoor will look after a part of the Mumbai office of the agency along with all the offices in the south, Bhardwaj will oversee the agency’s north offices.

    Both of them will operate out of the Mumbai offices of Lowe Lintas, reporting to Amer Jaleel, chairman and CCO, MullenLowe Lintas Group.

    Sagar Kapoor has been elevated from his post of executive director of the agency. He has served Lowe Lintas for more than 15 years and has been responsible for several iconic campaigns including Lifebuoy’s #HelpAChildReach5, which has consistently been one of the most awarded global campaigns for over five years. Other brands under his portfolio include Axe, Pepsodent, Zee, Astral Pipes, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, and Godrej HIT.

    Prateek Bhardwaj has moved to Low Lintas from McCann Worldgroup where he was working as the national creative director. He has over two decades of experience in the business and has received a number of awards including Grand Prix at Cannes Lions and Jay Chiat Awards, and the coveted Black Pencil at D&AD. One of his most memorable campaigns has been the recent Nescafé ads featuring stammering comedian and RJ Rishi. He has worked for a number of brands like Dettol, PayTM, Sprite, Kinley, and Chlor-mint. Prior to McCann, Bhardwaj had also been a creative entrepreneur and founded Eleven Brandworks in 2008.

  • High Spirit Commercial Ventures elevates Lauv Jaiswal as CMO

    High Spirit Commercial Ventures elevates Lauv Jaiswal as CMO

    MUMBAI: High Spirit Commercial Ventures (Traworld), the backpackers and luggage bags’ company, has elevated Lauv Jaiswal as its chief marketing officer. Jaiswal is an engineer-turned-marketing professional and has been spearheading the company’s marketing initiatives for the last six years, which spread across multiple brands like Priority, Humty Dumty, Hashtag, and Traworld.

    He is further going to lead the new brand campaign “The World Is Your Ramp” launched with Bollywood actress Sonam Kapoor Ahuja, who has recently been roped in as brand ambassador for their leading luggage brand ‘Traworld’. The campaign would involve print advertising spread across India with an advertising budget of Rs 15 crore, which includes BTL activities at 3500 MBOs spread across India. 

    Commenting on the development, High Spirit Commercial Ventures (Traworld) founder and managing director Tushar Jain said, “I am very delighted to elevate Lauv Jaiswal as the chief marketing officer. We are very confident that he will work towards building strong and long-lasting brands for the company and will strengthen our luggage brand Traworld.”

    Commenting on the development, Jaiswal said, “I am very excited to build leading luggage brand ‘Traworld’. We have emerged as the fourth largest bags brand in the country in a short span of time. We are on the path of building strong and sizable bags brand in the country.”

  • Leo Burnett India appoints Ankit Singh as Senior Vice President, Strategy

    Leo Burnett India appoints Ankit Singh as Senior Vice President, Strategy

    December 20, 2018: Leo Burnett India has recently made a key addition to its strategy team. The agency has appointed Ankit Singh as its Senior Vice President, Strategy. He will be based out of Gurugram and will report to Dheeraj Sinha, MD – India & Chief Strategy Officer, South Asia, Leo Burnett. Ankit’s last stint was with BBH India as Strategy Director.

    Ankit’s appointment comes at a time when Leo Burnett India is in the midst of great momentum. Bringing in top talent to keep fueling this growth is one of its main priorities. Ankit will contribute to, and harness, Leo Burnett India’s already robust strategic planning discipline to effectively solve clients’ business problems.

    Speaking about bringing Ankit on board, Dheeraj Sinha said, “Leo Burnett India has always had a big focus on strategy. We are committed to bringing the best talent on board. Ankit is extremely diligent and one of the sharpest strategists that I have worked with. He has a direct pulse on the consumer and is totally brand-focused. We have great momentum in our Gurugram office and I am sure Ankit will add to the energy. I look forward to some great work.”

    Apart from BBH India, Ankit has also worked at Leo Burnett Orchard and Grey Worldwide, amongst other agencies. He is a widely celebrated strategic planner, having done his most effective and memorable work for brands such as Tinder, The Indian Army, Uber, JK Tyre, Philips, Blackberry Mobiles, Ferrero, Nestle, Saridon and Vaseline.

    Speaking about his new role, Ankit said, “These are exciting times at Leo Burnett India.The agency is exuding great energy and momentum on the back of the ‘Power of One’ philosophy. I am looking forward to being a part of it. I see this as an opportunity to create some great pieces of Humankind work that deliver brand growth while keeping ‘people’ at their centre.”

  • Mindshare announces senior management appointments

    Mindshare announces senior management appointments

    MUMBAI: Mindshare has announced two major leadership appointments to its leadership structure in Asia Pacific.  

    The first is the elevation of Prashant Modi to Asia Pacific COO. Modi, who was previously chief commercial officer for Mindshare in Asia Pacific, will take on the broader responsibility of managing the Singapore hub and working with Mindshare Asia Pacific CEO Amrita Randhawa on future-proofing the overall company structure and offering. 

    Modi has been with the agency and GroupM for over 16 years working across both GroupM and Mindshare in its India and regional office in Singapore. Modi is widely credited within the agency as a key reason for the company’s consistent delivery across the region. 

    Randhawa said, “There are few people who care about our people and our company as much as Prashant. He is the beating heart of Mindshare and one of our absolutely finest minds. I am delighted that this role is going to give him the canvas he deserves to make an even bigger impact on our organisation and on our people.”

    Speaking on his elevation, Modi said, “16 years with Mindshare and it still is a dream place to work with great colleagues and clients. Mindshare has always provided a very open atmosphere to fuel personal growth and I am looking forward to continuing to contribute to our achievements and growing our business further.” 

    The second appointment is that of Rohan Lightfoot as chief growth officer of Mindshare Asia Pacific. His role is focused on developing high growth opportunities for new and existing clients with an emphasis on new products, innovation and digitization. Lightfoot has over 20 years’ experience, across the region based out of Singapore and in China, US and UK. Most recently he was with Isobar working on clients such as Pernod Ricard, Adidas, Yum!, Unilever and Coca Cola.

    Speaking on Lightfoot’s appointment Randhawa said, “Rohan’s been on my must-hire list for years! He is uniquely placed having spent solid time in China, having a blend of creative, media and digital craft experience as well as working on some of the region’s biggest accounts. He understands the changes that the agency needs to deliver in order to continue to be a valued partner for our clients.”

    Speaking on the move to Mindshare Lightfoot said, “I am so excited to be taking on this new role. It’s a perfect fit for my experiences and passions in my career. The breadth and depth of capability at Mindshare is staggering. The challenge of keeping the world’s leading media agency always ahead was impossible to turn down. I’m already loving being part of the team that Amrita is building.”

  • Havas Gurgaon appoints Manas Lahiri as GM

    Havas Gurgaon appoints Manas Lahiri as GM

    MUMBAI: Havas Group India has announced the appointment of Manas Lahiri as general manager of Havas Gurgaon. Lahiri's mandate includes bringing in new business and managing overall operations of the Delhi branch, leveraging Havas Group’s integrated capabilities.

    With over 16 years of experience in advertising, Lahiri has worked with agencies like Contract Advertising, McCann, Ogilvy & Mather and Creativeland Asia. Working across sectors which include IT, telecom, FMCG and auto, he has managed renowned brands like General Motors, Google, Dabur Samsung, Motorola, Lenovo, Amazon, Shell, Acer, NIIT, and Reliance.

    Havas Group India group CEO Rana Barua said, “For Havas India Advertising operations in North, we needed a driven and capable leader who is not only aligned with our vision of exponential growth in terms of winning new clients, attracting versatile talent, and demonstrating our integrated strength but is equally comfortable leading a strong Havas team and our partnership with Reckitt Benckiser. In Manas, we have the perfect leader who will help me drive both mandates and make our operations stronger, more relevant both externally and internally.”

    “I am very excited to be part of the Havas India team. The concept of Better Together truly comes to life here with our various offerings from Havas and our partnering companies from Vivendi Group. We now need to strengthen our communication solutions to local and global clients.  My focus will be on driving on aggressive business growth, creating exciting work for our clients and building a team that lives up to Havas’s global standards of creativity," added Lahiri.

  • McCann India appoints Ashish Chakravarty as creative head

    McCann India appoints Ashish Chakravarty as creative head

    MUMBAI: McCann India has a top level change  Ashish Chakravarty has returned to McCann Worldgroup as executive director and head of creative, India. He will report to McCann Asia Pacific chairman, McCann Worldgroup India CEO and CCO Prasoon Joshi.

    In his earlier stint at McCann India as creative chief of McCann Delhi, he helped build agency’s Delhi office as one of the top leading operations in Delhi market.

    He was till recently chief creative officer of WPP’s Contract overseeing creative output of Contract Advertising, iContract, Designsutra, and Core Consulting. He had joined Contract as national creative director in May 2013 from McCann.

    Joshi said, “Ashish is a rare breed of creative talent who is backed by solid strategic thinking. He’s constantly rediscovering himself and genuinely interested in creating work with depth and effervescence at the same time. Moreover, he is a great team builder.”

    Chakravarty said, “There is a certain degree of familiarity, and fondness that I have for McCann, having spent over a decade there. I enjoyed a fabulous run in my last stint, and it always felt good to see it continue from strength to strength.”

    “On a personal note, I have a huge regard for Prasoon, both as a creative leader, and for the person that he is. Our bond runs deep, and we have a quirky chemistry of sorts; one that is maddening, and magical at the same time. And almost always results in some very good work. So, when the opportunity came to get back into the thick of it, and also in a more substantial way than before, I found it hard to resist,” he added.

  • Pet Tales with MediaCom senior business director Ketan R Karnik

    Pet Tales with MediaCom senior business director Ketan R Karnik

    Pets are a gateway to escape from everyday's stressful life. There is nothing more satisfying and relaxing than coming home to your 'buddy' and spending some quality time with our little furry friends. Executives that have a stressful and strenuous job love to spend some quality time with their pets as and when they can.

    From Instagram co-founder and CEO Kevin Systrom who has a golden retriever that has more than 11,700 followers on Instagram to Twitter CEO Dick Costolo who keeps bees in his backyard and posts videos of them to his Vine account, it seems that industry executives are not afraid to show off their adorable pet friends.

    In our constant endeavor to bring the most diverse content to our readers, brings to you some stories of our media execs' and their beloved pets.

    Pet Tales, our latest special, captures certain aspects of noted media professionals that are rarely touched upon.

    We highlight how some of India's most successful marketing and media executives unwind and relax with their pets after emptying their creative reservoirs at work.

    Here’s MediaCom senior business director Ketan R Karnik talking about Leo.

    Pet: Dog

    Breed: Great Dane

    Age: 8

    Name: Leo

    What’s your favourite pet movie?

    K9 and War Horse

    What does a typical day with your pet look like?

    My day starts with a morning walk with him, then I feed him and leave for office. When I return he is the first one who welcomes me. After cuddling him for a while only then he allows me to remove my shoes. From then onward till we go to bed he follows me like a shadow. Saturday and Sunday are our days. He is involved in all the activities we do on holiday as a family. Now he is 8+ years old and a senior citizen but still a cute kid for me.         

    What prompted you to have a pet and do you feel having a pet changes your perspective?

    I have always loved animals. Right from my childhood, I wanted to have multiple pets as they are the ones who love you without any expectation. I got Leo eight years ago when a colleague of mine who stays in Kolkata told me one day that he has a puppy and would like to bring him to Mumbai. So, he sent me a photo and I thought he was cute. I brought him to Mumbai through flight and my entire family was unaware about it and so it was a surprise for everyone.

    After a few days, my wife couldn’t handle him as running behind him and taking care was a tiring job. She even suggested dropping him somewhere else, to that I  asked her to have some patience. And after a few months, the patience paid off as he became a family member. In fact, my wife is the one who looks after him very passionately like a kid. And after that we never leashed him in the house, he roams everywhere in the house. He’s very friendly. He being a large breed, we initially thought he won’t be comfortable and will need more space than what houses in Mumbai provide, but he got used to it.

    Even today when I come back home after a tiring day, just seeing him jump makes me feel energetic and charged up. Frankly, you have to take a lot of care of a Great Dane than any local breed because of his sheer size.

    Do you think public places within India are pet-friendly? If not, what can be done to improve this?

    I think we need more pet gardens to open up where pet parents can take their pets for a stroll because in societies or streets you don’t have any place. Even your kids don’t have space to play forget about pets. Also there needs to be more awareness among people about pets. Some societies don’t allow pets at all or treat them in a very different way as they are scared of them.  

    Climatic conditions in India are also not very favourable for breeds like St. Bernard and others. People adopt them as a puppy as they look very cute but they don’t know what they will become once they grow up and so there’s a need to spread awareness of these things. Many dogs even die because of this. So yes, generating awareness is very important.

    What’s been your favourite campaign/ad that involving animals?

    The international Chevrolet Chevvy commercial ad is my favourite.

    Has adoption of strays really increased today because of media and increased awareness?

    I have seen people adopting these stray animals where they have no relation with the animal but seeing them injured or in pain it makes people feel something. In our society and nearby societies there are a few guys who actually take care of stray dogs. One of the guys I know has adopted some 6-7 stray dogs.

    But then again there are people who feed glucose biscuits to these stray dogs every morning which is actually harmful for these animals. So yes, there is a lack of awareness on what to feed these animals. People who feed dogs non-vegetarian foods, they cook it and then they feed them. Even at my home, my mom used to give Leo bones to chew but I reminded her that there is a difference between meat being cooked and serving it raw as the hardness of the bone matters. It can actually harm their windpipe or intestine and your dog can actually die.