ITV

Category: People

  • Raveena Tandon named brand ambassador for Sanjay Gandhi National Park

    Raveena Tandon named brand ambassador for Sanjay Gandhi National Park

    MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government has appointed Bollywood actor Raveena Tandon as the brand ambassador of Mumbai’s Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP).

    As the brand ambassador, Tandon will help the state forest department to create awareness about its various initiatives, like the 50 crore tree plantation drive, eco-tourism in SGNP, conservation of leopards in SGNP, among others.

    In a statement, Maharashtra forest minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said: “I would like to welcome Raveena as the brand ambassador of SGNP. She is an environment-conscious citizen and a respected member of the community. She can help spread awareness among citizens.”

    He said SGNP is a vast treasure of flora and fauna in Mumbai city and also provides water to a major part of the city.

    The actor met Mungantiwar at his residence to discuss the 13 crore tree-plantation drive and her contribution to help achieve a greener Maharashtra.

    Tandon described it as an honour to serve as the brand ambassador of SGNP. “I used to visit Sanjay Gandhi National Park as a kid and now to be chosen as its brand ambassador is a great honour,” she said.

    “Spreading awareness is very important in the conservation of the environment and I am pleased to collaborate with Sudhir Mungantiwar ji and the Maharashtra Forest Department in all their initiatives for a greener Mumbai,” Tandon added.

  • Kumar Deb Sinha joins The StoryLab as country head

    Kumar Deb Sinha joins The StoryLab as country head

    MUMBAI: The StoryLab, the specialist content agency from Dentsu Aegis Network, has roped in Kumar Deb Sinha as the new country head for its India operations.

    Based out of Mumbai, Sinha will report to Kartik Iyer, president Media Brands and Amplifi – Dentsu Aegis Network India and the executive sponsor for TSL in India.

    Prior to this, Sinha was the national director for content at Wavemaker India, a GroupM Company.

    Armed with more than 15 years of content creation experience, Sinha chiefly specialises in the conceptualisation, designing and production of content across screens. He has produced more than 2000 hours of original content for television and digital including scripted and unscripted formats.

    Commenting on Sinha’s appointment, Iyer says, “We are very happy to have Kumar Deb Sinha on board. The StoryLab aims to be a significant player in the burgeoning content ecosystem of India with a clear positioning. And we are confident that Kumar, with his experience and expertise, will help us take this ambition forward.”

    Sinha mentions that currently there is a huge demand for premium content in India from all key stakeholders – audience, platform and advertiser. Video consumption on personal devices is growing exponentially changing audience preference towards premium entertainment with limited commercial messaging. Both traditional broadcasters as well as OTT players are investing in quality content to differentiate and satiate their audience need. “Advertisers are partnering with premium & successful content formats to connect with this ad-averse audience. Frankly there can be no better time to be a content creator in India for premium and differentiated content and The StoryLab is here to exploit that potential as an innovative investor, distributor and producer,” he adds.

    It is pertinent to note here that TSL expanded its footprint into India in 2015 with a slew of product offerings around content partnership, curation, original content and content investment. With operations in 16 countries, TSL works with publishers & platforms to innovate their supply chain of storytelling and with brands to help them invest in the most engaging and effective content solutions.

  • Coca-Cola restructures its leadership positions

    Coca-Cola restructures its leadership positions

    MUMBAI: Coca-Cola India has announced changes to its leadership structure with Sundeep Bajoria, earlier VP- strategy and insights, being elevated to VP–South West Asia (SWA). Not just that,  Chandrasekar Radhakrishnan has been appointed to the position of as VP – strategy and insights, Coca-Cola India and South West Asia.

    Announcing the changes, Coca-Cola India and South West Asia president T Krishnakumar said, “We believe there are significant opportunities that lie ahead of us to grow our portfolio and meaningfully penetrate the market. These changes will address developing business needs and pave the way to develop a stronger portfolio for the future. It also reinforces our commitment towards investing in talent development.”

    Bajoria brings a track record of over 20 years within and outside the Coca-Cola system in strategy, finance, revenue growth management, capital projects, and people and capability development. He is a 14-year veteran of the Coca-Cola system having worked in multiple roles in different group businesses and bottling investment groups.

    Chandrasekar Radhakrishnan will take charge of the strategic initiatives for the company to accelerate the pace of innovation and assess opportunities to offer a much broader and deeper portfolio of beverages for the consumers.

    With a career spanning over two decades, Radhakrishnan comes with a combination of international and domestic experience. He joins Coca-Cola India from Nestle, where he was responsible for leading a worldwide initiative to optimize marketing efficiencies.

    As the head of consumer communication and eCommerce, he effectively embedded brand building capabilities in the organization, drove creative excellence in brand communication via strong internal and external partnerships, laid a strong foundation in building digital and eCommerce competencies and played a key role in establishing consumer engagement. 

    He has contributed significantly to the cause-based campaigns of the company thereby making a positive impact on the society. He has also worked with Britannia, Marico and Airtel and has played a variety of roles across sales, marketing and business functions.

  • Menaka Menon joins Leo Burnett Orchard as EVP & branch head for Bengaluru

    Menaka Menon joins Leo Burnett Orchard as EVP & branch head for Bengaluru

    Actor Akshay Kumar, who has become the first male Bollywood Actor (Male) to score 20 million followers on Instagram, received an Instagram memento for the milestone.

    The “Airlift” actor on Monday shared a photo of himself with the memento given to him by Instagram.

    “Here’s another gold from the good people at Instagram. Glad to share, the first Bollywood Actor (Male) to cross the 20 million followers milestone is yours truly. Thank you all once again for the love, sending lots of love and prayers your way.”

    Earlier this month, the actor was seen celebrating this milestone with streamers and a boomerang video. 

    On the work front, Akshay’s recently released movie “Gold” is riding high at the box office and have a couple of movies like “Kesari”, “Housefull 4” and “Good News” on board.MUMBAI: Leo Burnett Orchard, The Leo Group’s full service integrated agency, has strengthened its senior management. 

    The agency has hired Menaka Menon as EVP and branch head for Bengaluru. In her new role, she will report to Leo Burnett Orchard’s COO Prashanth Challapalli. Her last stint was with FCB Ulka Bengaluru where she was the vice president.

    Speaking about bringing Menaka on board, Prashanth Challapalli says, “Our ambition for Leo Burnett Orchard is to firmly drive integration via the Power of One philosophy. This has a direct bearing on the kind of people we want to bring on board – people with multiple skill sets and a hunger to drive this agenda. Menaka is the perfect fit for us. She has worn different hats in her career and brings to the table the kind of ambition, drive and skill sets we were looking for at a leadership level. On behalf of everyone at Leo Burnett Orchard, I am very happy to welcome her on board and wish her great success.”

    Menaka is an alumnus of MICA, and has almost 18 years of experience across advertising and media, with FCB Ulka, J Walter Thompson, UTV and BIG 92.7FM. Menaka began her advertising journey with account management, before moving on to strategic planning and moving to a Branch Head role.

    Speaking about her new role, Menaka says, “Leo Burnett Orchard is an agency poised for the future, where integration is a way of life. I am excited to be part of a team that lives and breathes this philosophy. There is a real opportunity here to expand horizons and to serve the client’s and brand’s best interests as one united team, and I look forward to being part of this vision.”

    Menaka replaces Sharmine Panthaky, VP and branch head Bengaluru, who has moved on from the agency.

  • Isuzu Motors signs Jonty Rhodes as Indian brand ambassador

    Isuzu Motors signs Jonty Rhodes as Indian brand ambassador

    MUMBAI: Isuzu motors, Japanese car manufacturer, has signed on former South African cricketer Jonty Rhodes as the brand ambassador to promote the brand and its latest product V-Cross in India. The brand will complete six years on 21 August 2018 in the Indian market.

    The company began its manufacturing operations in April 2016 in Sri City, spread over an area of 107 acres in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

    The brand has brought the lesser used term pick-up in trend with their lifestyle and adventure pick-up, Isuzu D-MAX V-Cross. Isuzu has establishing itself rapidly as an important player in the Indian pick-up and utility vehicle market. The association brings together a distinct combination of ISUZU’s thrust on ‘Never Stop’ philosophy and Jonty’s strategy & excellence of being ‘game-changer’ in the world of Cricket. Isuzu launched its latest commercial, featuring Jonty Rhodes, underscoring the message ‘Be the Game Changer’ at a press conference held in Mumbai on 16 August 2018.

    Isuzu Motors India VP- service, customer care, EA and PR J Shankar Srinivas said, “A lot of people are well travelled in this country. At the time of launch we didn’t have to convince the adventure enthusiast and the off-road communities much. With a predominant commercial pick-up segment already prevalent in this country, we needed a prime mover and found out that there is no lifestyle pick-up in this country that was really catching on.” In terms of marketing and promotions the brand is primarily focussing on TV advertising. The company’s total investment outlay is Rs 3000 crore.

    According to Srinivas, the Indian market is certainly a tough market when it comes to convincing a customer about the value of a product in terms of pricing because Indians are the best negotiators in the world.

    Considering the base that is very small the brand has grown by 100 per cent in 2017 compared to 2016 and this year would be another 60 per cent compared to 2017.

    According to the Society of Indian Automobiles Manufacturers (SIAM), the pick-up trucks is the fastest growing and the largest segment (by volume) in the commercial vehicle market in India. It has grown from 81,622 in 2011-12 to 255,599 in 2017-18.

    Isuzu Motors India deputy managing director Ken Takashima said, “Jonty perfectly represents the brand’s values and his association encapsulates what we intend to do in this country. Jonty Rhodes, an internationally known sportsman, brings with him unique qualities that differentiated him as a ‘game-changer’ in the international cricket. The V-Cross, lifestyle & adventure pick-up, has been a catalyst in bringing about a new lease of life to the people and adventure enthusiasts in India. The Indian pick-up market is growing significantly and we have been witnessing a strong inclination towards the V-Cross. We are happy to have carved a niche in the Indian utility vehicle market. We are thrilled and excited to associate with Jonty and I am sure this will make the brand & the V-Cross even more exciting and aspirational in the days to come.”

  • The Minimalist strengthens leadership team

    The Minimalist strengthens leadership team

    MUMBAI: The Minimalist, one of the fast-growing design and digital companies, has boosted it leadership team with the appointment of head of interaction design Rohan Saraf, lead, user interface Amit Rajapurka. The appointments also come at a time when the company is looking to expand its presence globally and become an organisation recognised for its domain-specific expertise and thought leadership. 

    Speaking on the appointments, The Minimalist co-founder Sahil Vaidya said, “We are excited and welcome both Rohan and Amit to The Minimalist. Over the past year, The Minimalist has successfully acquired a wide range of clients across the globe for all three business units. With an increasing level of digitalisation and product focus in the Indian business ecosystem, there is an immediate need for high quality and experienced product design services. Both Rohan and Amit bring very rich sector-specific experience and this will definitely amplify our ability to deliver intelligent products that provide seamless and unique experiences.”

    “Most importantly Rohan and Amit share our vision of delivering sterling quality digital products and experiences. In a bid to become the most sought-after player in this space and with the addition of Rohan and Amit, we are sure we are on the right path,” he added.

    Speaking on his new role, head of interaction design Saraf said, “I am excited on my new role and to be a part of a team that is diverse and dynamic. The company has a unique energy and the environment is conducive for design thinking to grow on a larger level. We are focused on strengthening our foothold for interaction design services and will continue to invest our energies here. I am excited on this new journey and look forward to solving problems strategically with simple design solutions.”

    Rajapurkar added, “The Minimalist is a young organisation overflowing with creativity and fresh ideas. The culture is encouraging and allows one to be vocal about their thoughts and ideas which makes it easy for teams to work with a central objective thus achieving stellar success. The UI/UX domain has been growing rapidly with brands learning the importance of product usability. I look forward to delving deeper into this market, contributing towards the growth of the organisation and working towards achieving our larger goals.”

    Saraf who will overlook the interaction design business unit will also lead user experience projects within the SBU. He is a certified usability analyst and a graduate in product design from MIT Institute of Design, Pune. He has worked extensively on user experience assignments for HDFC Bank, Future Group, Standard Bank (South Africa), and Sunlife Insurance, Philippines.

    Rajapurkar, on the other hand, brings over 18 years of experience to The Minimalist. Going forward, he will lead the operations and design for UI. In his previous roles, he was responsible for designing UI for leading companies like Axis Bank, Maruti, Hungama, IRCTC and Microsoft. Prior to joining The Minimalist, Rajapurkar was associated with Fractal Ink. 

  • MRUC appoints Vikram Sakhuja as chairman of IRS tech committee

    MRUC appoints Vikram Sakhuja as chairman of IRS tech committee

    MUMBAI: MRUC has appointed Madison Media Group CEO and OOH Vikram Sakhuja as chairman of the IRS Technical Committee (TechCom).

    Sakhuja will replace DDB Mudra Group executive director NP Sathyamurthy whose term comes to an end.

    Commenting on the development, MRUC chairman Ashish Bhasin says, “We are very excited at the prospect of Vikram leading the IRS TechCom as we take stronger strides in the direction of further improving the study and making it more robust. IRS surely is in excellent hands. On behalf of the board, I would like to thank Sathya for his excellent tenure.”

    On his  new role Sakhuja says, “IRS has been the definitive baseline study for readership and other media measurement for the advertising and marketing industry for decades. It is an honour to chair the technical committee of this body. It will be my endeavour to ensure that the data is valid, reliable and beyond reproach.”

    Sakhuja was executive vice president marketing at Star TV, prior to that he was marketing manager brands at Coca-Cola. Vikram Sakhuja is an engineer from IIT Delhi and an MBA from IIM Calcutta. He joined P&G in 1988 where over eight years, he held positions in marketing research and media.

    He was the managing director of MindShare South Asia, then was the CEO of GroupM South Asia for six years. 

  • Dinesh Swamy joins iProspect India as NCD

    Dinesh Swamy joins iProspect India as NCD

    MUMBAI: iProspect India, the digital agency of Dentsu Aegis Network recently announced  Dinesh Swamy as national creative director. In his new role he will be reporting to iProspect India CEO Rubeena Singh and will be based out of the Mumbai office of the company. 

    Swamy brings with him more than 17 years of experience working with the agencies such as SapientRazorfish, Digital Law and Kenneth, Tribal DDB Mudra, Proximity India and BBDO. 

    Swamy started his career as a senior multimedia developer at Red Apple Communication. Prior to his successfull stint at Liqvd Asia, he had worked as a senior creative director at SapientRazorfish for over two years. Dinesh was also the digital creative head at Proximity India for three years prior to that. 

    Swamy’s ever-growing portfolio spans strong strategic innovations and served clients like Idea Cellular, MTV, Reliance Mobile, Volkswagen, Renault, Hero MotoCorp, Visa, Tourism Australia, UltraTech Cement, Sanctum, Jeep, amongst others.

    Over the years he has supervised over 200 campaigns nationally and contributed innumerable accolades to the agencies. He has been invited to judge Adfest Asia Awards twice in the year 2012 and 2016, Abby Awards Goafest, Media Apac, Tambuli and  Grand Jury at New York Festivals.

  • Publicis Media Exchange appoints Sejal Shah as managing partner and head

    Publicis Media Exchange appoints Sejal Shah as managing partner and head

    MUMBAI: Publicis Media India today announced Sejal Shah as managing partner and head of Publicis Media Exchange (PMX – Mainline) which is the central investment practice of PM.

    Shah brings with her more than 21 years of experience and also worked with Publicis IPG and WPP across functions such as client management, planning, buying, research, operations and automation. Prior to this, Shah was as trading head, South Asia for Unilever at Mindshare Fulcrum. She was also part of the founding Publicis Trading team.

    Commenting on her appointment Publicis Media India CEO Anupriya Acharya said, “We are very happy to have Sejal join us in this critical role. With her rich experience, Sejal will ensure that the complex media environment is well navigated and negotiated for PM client. She will try to bring in not only fresh approaches to deal making as and where required, but also focus on overall value creation for brands including content, in-programme and other such initiatives.”

    On her new role, Publicis Media India managing partner and head of Publicis Media Sejal Shah said, “I am thrilled to be with Publicis Media at a time when their growth momentum is at an all-time high and they are well poised to further build on it. Publicis Media client roster not only has some of the savviest marketers but also is very diverse with a strong presence on digital and future facing-streams. It gives us an opportunity to focus beyond the traditional on ROI and effectiveness.”

    In her new role, Sejal will be responsible for driving media investments, alliances and partnerships, strategic thinking and direction for all PM clients across markets.

    Publicis Media is one of the top three media-buying groups of the country, handling billings of over $1.3 billion and a plum roster of clients such as Nestlé, Dabur, Parle Products, Kraft Heinz, Ola, Fiat, Oppo, Citibank and many more.

  • Karthik Nagrajan joins Wavemaker India as chief content officer

    Karthik Nagrajan joins Wavemaker India as chief content officer

    MUMBAI: Media agency network Wavemaker has appointed Karthik Nagarajan as chief content officer.

    In his new role Nagarajan will be working closely with Wavemaker chief executive officer South Asia Kartik Sharma to build and integrate content, creative and technology services.

    Sharma said, “Content is at the heart of our value proposition along with media and technology. These three pillars drive our rapid growth planning agenda. With Karthik coming on board, I am confident we will be able to elevate our content narrative through his vision and drive growth and innovation.”  

    On his new role Nagarajan said, “Content has given brands an opportunity to create occasions of conversation, that are relevant to the purchase journey. We are at an inflection point in the business of content in India, where brands have a unique opportunity to not just ride this wave but also shape this industry. And I firmly believe that Wavemaker is uniquely positioned to drive this change for our clients.”

    He has been with GroupM for the last seven years, prior to this he led NM Incite the JV between Nielsen and McKinsey in India. Karthik also led marketing for Shipcom Wireless – an RFID start-up based in Houston.