ITV

Category: People

  • iProspect names Philips as global chief product officer

    iProspect names Philips as global chief product officer

    MUMBAI: iProspect continues to bolster its global executive team with the appointment of Rohan Philips as the global chief product officer. In his new role, Philips will direct and oversee iProspect’s roadmap for central product development, adoption and commercialisation across its 52 markets.

    iProspect will report to the global president Ruth Stubbs, and will be based in Singapore.

    “A dynamic approach to the development and evolution of our global product set is a vital component in our ability to engage audience across all platforms and connect brands to consumers. As a business, we must become more sensitive to the challenges clients are facing. With Rohan’s hire, we have now finalised a recalibrated leadership team – designed to address delivering these capabilities for our organisation, Dentsu Aegis Network and the clients that we serve,” commented Stubbs.

    “iProspect has a heritage of driving business performance by innovating in a complex digital landscape,” said Philips .

    “The impact of data and automation has led to the convergence of media, media becoming more accountable and ultimately performance based. I am looking forward to leveraging iProspect’s strong foundation to expand its capabilities, whilst also contributing to the successful Dentsu Aegis network operating model to ultimately deliver business performance to our clients,” he added.

    Philips joined iProspect from GroupM, where he had served as the vice-president at [m]Platform and Xaxis, prior to which he played key roles on data and technology across Europe and Asia Pacific.

  • Brand Street hires DAN’s Dogra for rural marketing initiative

    Brand Street hires DAN’s Dogra for rural marketing initiative

    MUMBAI: Brand Street India, an integrated marketing agency, has launched ‘Rural Street,’ an identity for its rural marketing branch.

    Rajesh Dogra has been tasked with the agency’s planning and implementation of rural projects nationally. The agency continues its expansion into the space through cutting-edge initiatives and a multi-functional dedicated team. After a few successful rural campaigns such as TVS Motor Company, Tata Motors and TI Cycles, Brand Street India is all set to create new channels.

    With more than two decades of experience in planning and implementation at hand, Dogra has managed numerable projects in the hinterlands. Before joining he had the exposure of working with the rural teams of Dentsu Aegis Network, Percept Out of Home, Dr. Jain’s Video on Wheels and more. Brand Street India stands to have the ability to recognise rural opportunities and develop innovations to tap that space along with their other markets.

    Brand Street India national head Surendra Singh said, “Rural consumers are aspiring to purchase high quality products. Now is the perfect time for us to allocate required dedication and resources towards it.”

    Brand Street India business director Argha Sengupta said, “We are now building a dedicated rural team that will be headed by Rajesh Dogra. He is a very senior member in the rural domain and I am sure it will take the agency to greater heights in the rural markets.”

    Senior manager Dogra said, “The rural consumer is evolving, and they are increasingly changing their consumption patterns. I will be able to utilise my knowledge and experience to pioneer innovations that will take rural marketing to an altogether different horizon.”

  • GroupM cos appoint new leaders in India, south and north Asia

    GroupM cos appoint new leaders in India, south and north Asia

    MUMBAI: Tim Castree, Global CEO of MEC and CEO of “NewCo”, has announced that Kartik Sharma has been named as Managing Director of the new media, content and technology agency in India and South Asia when it launches in January 2018. Kartik has been Managing Director of Maxus South Asia since 2014 and in that time, has led the agency to outstanding new business growth and success.

    Tim Castree commented: “We’re creating a brand new billion-dollar revenue media, content and technology agency, dubbed ‘NewCo’ for now. With such ambition, comes a need for brilliant talent to lead and inspire, and so today’s news is very exciting for us. Under Kartik’s leadership, I am confident that we will have the right team in place to truly make NewCo a formidable future-facing agency in India and South Asia.” Kartik will report to GroupM South Asia CEO, CVL Srinivas and Tim Castree.

    Following GroupM’s recent commitment to adding offline media capabilities, an expanded geographic footprint and an influx of talent to the agency, Christian Juhl, global CEO of Essence, a global digital-first agency, today announced that T. Gangadhar, current Managing Director of MEC South Asia, will transition into the new role of Chairman of India and Managing Director of North Asia, Essence. Gangadhar will report into Kyoko Matsushita, CEO of Essence APAC. He will continue to be based in Mumbai.

    Anand Chakravarthy, who has served as Managing Partner at Maxus India since 2015, will be transitioning into the role of Managing Director of Essence India. Chakravarthy will report into both Gangadhar and Matsushita and will work closely with the regional leadership in his new role.

    Both Gangadhar and Chakravarthy will assume their new roles by January 2018. The Essence teams will be strongly supported by the GroupM network as they look to expand their presence in market. Christian Juhl commented: “India is such an important market for so many of our clients whose business challenges we work tirelessly to solve. Essence has built its credibility on being a data-centric agency that infuses technology and measurement across all media. We’re excited to expand our geographic footprint and apply our unique approach for our global clients looking for relevance in India. Gangadhar and Anand are experienced leaders who will help expand our presence.”

  • Six Inches bags creative responsibilities for five brands

    Six Inches bags creative responsibilities for five brands

    MUMBAI: Mumbai-based creative ad agency Six Inches Communication is excited to add new clients to their portfolio. These are — B. Lab, Caressaa Spa, Karcher India, QuikMart and Global Wellness Day. Except for QuikMart, all of the brands were part of a multi agency pitch.

    Six Inches Communication plans to build a strong community on social media for B.Lab- a company that exists to create the fine quality hair and skin care products designed for effectiveness and simplicity catering especially to professionals. Caressaa Spa is a spa that employs a fusion of modern and ancient rituals for physical and mental wellness. The role of Six Inches Communication is to create awareness on new age wellness and to create interesting content to attract and engage the relevant audience on social media and direct them to spa locations.

    Karcher India is a global provider of cleaning technology and one of the leading providers of efficient and energy saving cleaning systems. Six Inches objective is to establish and create awareness about them on social media and portray them as a premium brand in the arena of cleaning technology. For QuikMart – a Bangalore based upcoming retail chain with physical stores and online platform, Six Inches plans to solidly establish the brand before it’s launch and create buzz and hype on the launching day itself. A non-profit initiative, Global Wellness Day is a social project that is entirely volunteer run with a focus on health and wellness. The role of Six Inches Communication would be to continuously engage the community and to create and build a new audience and get more volunteers involved for the upcoming wellness day in June 2018.

    Six Inches CEO Pravin Shah said “We believe in “value partnerships.” Too many agencies get carried away ‘data’ and ‘programmatic media’. I believe while these are key tools and enable decision-making, they don’t make for great ideas or contagious content. Hence, our focus is to stick to the core of big ideas and strengthen the digital strengths on User Experience design and creative ideas for digital marketing – to be an interactive web platform, an app or a social media campaign.”

  • Anil S Nair inducted into Saatchi & Saatchi global leadership team

    Anil S Nair inducted into Saatchi & Saatchi global leadership team

    MUMBAI: L&K Saatchi & Saatchi India CEO and MD Anil S Nair has been inducted into the new global leadership team of Saatchi & Saatchi.

    The new team under the able leadership of Magnus Djaba, Global President, Saatchi & Saatchi is looking at building the future of the Saatchi brand and its business.

    United by the “Nothing is impossible” spirit, the new Global Leadership Team represents Saatchi & Saatchi’s major offices and clients. All within the Publicis Groupe’s crucial path of transformation under the PubCom Umbrella, and focus on being the most valued partner for clients.

    Praveen Kenneth, Co – Owner, Chairman and Managing Director L&K Saatchi & Saatchi said ” Am extremely pleased and proud of L&K Saatchi & Saatchi being among the top 10 countries in the Saatchi World and having our CEO and Managing Partner Anil Nair on the Global Leadership Team of Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide. When Magnus and I spoke, recently, we had no doubt that Anil Nair will be the worthy flag bearer going forward, of what has been a brilliant adventure over the last 15 years, and more importantly as he leads L&K | Saatchi & Saatchi into the future.

    He is also an integral part of PubCom India. He carries well the aggressive entrepreneurial zeal of Law & Kenneth and the magic of Saatchi’s Creative Mystique. This also marks the resounding success of the merged entity- L&K | Saatchi & Saatchi. Its spectacular contribution to the Global Creative lead board by winning at Cannes, two years in a row, besides its continued growth and importantly being the most loved agency partner of our clients”.

    Commenting on this appointment, Magnus Djaba – Global President Saatchi & Saatchi, said “The Indian market is crucial to our business and Anil represents the next generation of leadership for our network. I’m really looking forward to working more closely with him”

    Nair stated “For me this invitation is a huge validation and recognition of the team at L&K Saatchi & Saatchi India and their hard work. It’s an honour to be a part of the leadership team that shapes the future of an iconic network like Saatchi & Saatchi.

  • GolinOpinion appoints Asheesh Malhotra as ED

    MUMBAI: Asheesh Malhotra has parted ways with advertising to pursue a career shift. He leaves his role as president at Bates CHI & Partners to join GolinOpinion, the PR division of PointNine Lintas, as the executive director. This marks a significant shift for Malhotra, who’s spent his entire career in creative agencies, as he ventures into the landscape of PR. At GolinOpinion, he will lead the strategic planning function and oversee the agency’s social media centre-of-excellence, the Bridge.

    PointNine Lintas CEO Vikas Mehta said: “Convergence of marketing disciplines is here to stay. An omni-channel marketing plan today is incomplete without elements like advocacy and conversations. To stay relevant, PR firms need brand practitioners in addition to PR experts. Asheesh has built blue-chip brands while working with India’s two most respected agencies, Lowe Lintas and Ogilvy. We’re delighted to have him back in the Lintas family and look forward to his contribution in further strengthening PointNine Lintas’ PR service-stack.”

    Asheesh joins GolinOpinion from the Ogilvy group where he was the president, Bates CHI&Partners heading its Mumbai and Delhi offices. He was earlier a unit head looking after a large Unilever portfolio as well heading a global hub for Castrol and BP at Ogilvy. A new business junkie, he was also leading the growth agenda for Bates. Prior to that, he spent fruitful eight years in the Mumbai office of Lowe Lintas, leading the ICICI Prudential and J&J businesses.

    As the executive director, Malhotra will report to Ameer Ismail – GoinOpinion president & PointNine Lintas chief growth officer. Ismail said, “A senior professional, strategist and well-respected leader who has worn many hats in advertising is going to lead this audacious vision.”

    Malhotra said, “Credibility of brands, people and institutions is being challenged every day. In this thin-skinned world, PR holds a huge responsibility of being both, a shield and the statesman that shapes conversations, communities and culture.”

    Responsible for a national mandate, Malhotra has joined GolinOpinion with immediate effect and will be based out of Mumbai.

  • Awarded adman Prasoon Joshi is new CBFC chief, Pahlaj Nihalani exits

    NEW DELHI: Renowned lyricist and senior adman Prasoon Joshi has been appointed chairman of the Central Board of Film Certification with immediate effect.

    An official order said Joshi was being appointed chairperson of the CBFC in an honorary capacity from 11 August 2017 for a period of three years or until further orders, whichever is earlier in exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 3 of the Cinematograph Act 1952 read with rule 3 of the Cinematograph (Certification) Rules 1983.

    This marks the exit of filmmaker Pahlaj Nihalani who was embroiled in several controversies during his tenure.

    Joshi is the CEO of McCann World group India and Chairman (Asia Pacific), a subsidiary of global marketing firm McCann Erickson.

    Prasoon has received the Filmfare Best Lyricist Award three times, in 2007 and 2008 and again in 2014 for the Hindi movie Bhaag Milkha Bhaag. He has also received the National Film Award for Best Lyrics twice, for his work in Taare Zameen Par (2007), and Chittagong (2013).He was awarded Padma Shri by the Government in 2015 for his contributions towards the field of Arts, Literature and Advertising.

    Born on 16 September 1971, he started his career with Ogilvy & Mather in Delhi. He worked there for 10 years and eventually became the executive creative director of the Mumbai office. In early 2002, he joined McCann-Erickson as executive vice-president and national creative director. By 2006, he was regional creative director for South and South East Asia. In December 2006 he was promoted to executive chairman for McCann Worldgroup India and regional creative director for Asia Pacific

    Joshi created advertising campaigns for NDTV India (Sach dikhate hain hum), Saffola (Abhi to main Bhaag Milkha Bhaag.jawan hoon) LG, Marico, Perfetti (Alpenliebe, Chlormint), and the Cannes-winning Thanda matlab Coca-Cola campaign with Aamir Khan. His Happydent television commercial was listed by Bob Garfield of AdvertisingAge as one of his personal choices for the Cannes Gold in 2007, and it was chosen by a Gunn Report poll as one of the 20 best ads of the 21st century.

    He also wrote the lyrics for CNN IBN’s advertising jingle “India Rising’ and Coke’s Ummeed wali dhoop.

    In cinema, he made his debut as film lyricist with Rajkumar Santoshi’s Lajja, a critical and commercial success, and this soon led to Yash Chopra’s Hum Tum and a string of highly successful Bollywood films like Fanaa, Rang De Basanti, Taare Zameen Par, Black and Delhi 6. With Rang De Basanti (2006), he also became a dialogue writer.

    He won the Filmfare Best Lyricist Award for “Chand Sifarish” from the film Fanaa in 2007 and for “Maa” from Taare Zameen Par in 2008. He has won the prestigious National Award twice. The first for his work in Taare Zameen Par and the second one in 2013 for Chittagong.

    He had also written the script for the award-winning 2014 film Bhaag Milkha Bhaag.

    He started writing early in life and published his first book at age 17, Main Aur Woh, a ‘conversation with himself’, inspired by Frederich Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra. Two more books followed, establishing him as an author.

    His latest book, Sunshine Lanes, a collection of his songs, was launched at the Jaipur Literature Festival in January 2013.

  • Madison Media strengthens digital leadership team

    MUMBAI: Madison Media has announced the appointment of two senior level resources to its Digital leadership team. Shobhit Gaur joins the agency as head of North digital and Sandeep Prabhudesai as South Digital and Analytics lead.

    Shobhit Gaur comes with over 11 years of experience in digital media having worked across a range of companies such as Starcom, IPG and GroupM. Shobhit will be overseeing the North operations of the agency and has the mandate of enhancing its product offering.

    Gaur says, “Madison is witnessing great growth and has great proprietary knowledge, transformative tools and systems and an established and pedigreed roster of clients.”

    Prabhudesai comes with 11 years of experience in Analytics & digital marketing and has been an old hand of Madison. He was previously working with MEC on Flipkart business. Says Prabhudesai, “Madison is a strong brand with a roster of extraordinary work; work that’s been awarded in India.”

    Madison Media chief digital officer Vishal Chinchankar says: “I am confident that Shobhit & Sandeep will be able to deliver value to our clients through their diverse category experience. Their deep understanding of digital media and strategic skills will help us deliver the best solutions for our clients.”

    Madison Media was in the news last week for having acquired a majority stake in digital and performance marketing agency HIVEMINDS in Bangalore. The agency currently works with Marico, Asian Paints, Godrej Properties, Raymond, Levis, Tata Chemicals and many other clients in the digital space.

  • PointNine Lintas announces new leadership team

    MUMBAI: PointNine Lintas, the newest independent agency from the MullenLowe Lintas Group, announced the first set of names in its leadership team. It’s a lineup of senior domain-experts that will work with the CEO, Vikas Mehta. All teams of PointNine Lintas will be co-located in offices in Mumbai, New Delhi (NCR) and Bangalore respectively.

    Ameer Ismail has been named Chief Growth Officer, Sumanta Ganguly takes on the role of National Director – Digital Marketing and Transformation and Sriharsh Grandhe would be National Director – Consumer Engagement. Along with Vikas; Ameer, Sumanta and Sriharsh will work with clients to build bespoke agency solutions geared to maximize return-on-marketing-investments.

    Speaking of the lineup, Vikas Mehta said: “The biggest challenge in getting an omni-channel model right is the ability to bring multi-disciplinary expertise together upfront. This leadership team is made up of seasoned practitioners. It allows us to bring multiple disciplines to the table right at the start and offer clients, a customised agency team that’s built around their brand opportunities. This is in sharp contrast to the administrative structure most agencies follow for their verticals. We are lucky to have experts like Ameer, Sumanta and Sriharsh within the organisation, to be my co-founders at PointNine Lintas.”

    As Chief Growth Officer, Ameer’s mandate would be to work with clients towards creating growth strategies and build full-service agency teams. Commenting on his vision and role for PointNine Lintas, Ameer Ismail commented: “I believe a truly omni-channel agency is imperative for today’s market. We will be amongst very few agencies that kick start with such a deep and diverse capability line-up. To exploit the full potential of our offering, my role as Chief Growth Officer will be to create a dynamic strategy that will ensure PointNine Lintas works with some of the best brands and develops into one of the most significant agencies in the country.”

    The consumer engagement practice for PointNine Lintas; including activation, experiential and shopper marketing; would be led by Sriharsh Grandhe. His mandate will be to author go-to-market programs built around physical and digital consumer-journeys. Sriharsh would also be involved in developing the agency’s product –stack of mar-tech offerings.

    Commenting on the role and responsibility at PointNine Lintas, Sriharsh Grandhe said: “Over the last two years at LinEngage, a considerable effort has been made on creating effectiveness for our clients and we have successfully demonstrated reach-to-conversion ratios as healthy as 35 per cent. We have worked closely with a few of our longstanding clients to experiment and continually improve on engagement KPI’s. At PointNine Lintas, the goal would be to take these models to even more touch-points to create greater business impact.”

    The digital practice for PointNine Lintas would be led by Sumanta Ganguly. His mandate would be to place platforms, technology, devices and ecosystems at the heart of marketing programs in the early stages of brand development. Speaking of his role, Sumanta Ganguly says, “Digital is no longer the purview of communication alone, today it’s leading the discussion of business transformations. We are at the crossroads of design, data and platforms, and will continue to focus on digital transformation stories for a larger set of clients at PointNine Lintas.”

    Ameer, Sriharsh and Sumanta will retain their divisional responsibilities for GolinOpinion, LinEngage and LinTeractive respectively. Explaining the rationale behind this choice, Vikas adds, “One of the big reasons why full-service is preached more often than practiced, is because every skill-set comes with its own administrative layers. For example, when you need a PR expert, you also inherit the administrative layer of a PR agency. In a day-to-day working scenario, this becomes a major barrier to collaboration. We’ve made a conscious choice to cast our best minds as both, ‘practitioners’ and ‘managers’ making it easier to collaborate seamlessly.”

    The agency is planning more additions to the leadership team, which would be announced in the coming days.

  • Dentsu co Hyperspace elevates Arti Singh

    MUMBAI: Hyperspace, the retail arm of Posterscope Group India, a part of Dentsu Aegis Network, has elevated Arti Singh to a national role. In her new role as vice president, she will be responsible for Hyperspace’s end-to-end service sphere, providing comprehensive retail and shopper marketing solutions to clients.

    An experienced retail marketing specialist, with over 14 years of experience, Singh will focus on portfolio expansion for agency’s clients in a variety of sectors. Her appointment comes at a time of growth for Hyperspace, following a series of recent account wins; notably, SBI Life Insurance, Ceat Tyres and Henkel India.

    In her previous role, heading West and South regions, she has been at the forefront of diversifying the retail business. This involved initiation of retail consumer data driven planning approach, visible in agency’s upgraded retail planning tool ‘Hyperspace Connect’. She is also credited with nurturing key accounts such as L&T, Disney and Mattel Toys, amongst many others under her guidance, which have been held with the agency for over 5+ years.

    Singh will be the lead for the agency based out of the Mumbai headquarters, reporting directly to Posterscope India MD Haresh Nayak.

    Commenting on her new role, Singh said, “I am proud to be associated with Hyperspace, whose core values are codified in principles that our group stands for and is vividly reflective in our passion to excel and achieve greater heights. My association with Hyperspace dates back a long way and while the journey hitherto has been nothing less than remarkable, the road ahead will be more exciting, full of both challenges and rewards.”

    Speaking on the new role for Hyperspace, Nayak, said, “We are delighted to promote Singh’s role to a pan India level. She has been an asset to us and has been instrumental in regional growth in her erstwhile profile, simultaneously mentoring other regional teams as well. We will leverage her wealth of experience, further enhancing the services we offer our valued clients.”