ITV

Category: People

  • Kaizad Pardiwalla joins Orchard Advertising as COO

    Kaizad Pardiwalla joins Orchard Advertising as COO

    MUMBAI: The Leo Group has announced the appointment of Kaizad Pardiwalla to head Orchard Advertising as COO, based at its head office in Mumbai.

     

    The Leo Group CEO Saurabh Varma said, “We are delighted to welcome Kaizad to The Leo Group. Orchard, over the last year, has grown by 40 per cent y-o-y and has an incredible momentum. We required a leader with integrated experience to take Orchard Advertising to the next level. Kaizad, with his media-agnostic approach to brand building, is possibly the best candidate to add value to our clients’ businesses.”

     

    Pardiwalla added, “The way brands tell stories is changing from the 30 sec TVC to engaging the customer in conversations and making them a part of the brand story as advocates. Orchard, with its incredibly talented team has always done great work and is now poised to lead this evolution into true trans-media integration. I am extremely happy that I’m a part of this evolution and look forward to sharing my unique experience straddling digital and traditional advertising with my team at Orchard to help us create truly integrated experiences for our clients.”

     

    Kaizad comes with 18 years of experience in the business with the last three being at Grey where he ran the Mumbai operations. He started his career with Lowe Lintas in 1995 and moved to Ogilvy in 1997. After spending seven years at Ogilvy advertising, in 2004, he was appointed as business director, OgilvyOne Worldwide, the digital and direct marketing division of Ogilvy, where he headed the operations in the western region.  After three years, he took over as the national head of OgilvyOne India. During the course of his career, Kaizad has worked with clients such as American Express, Cadbury, CISCO, IBM, ICICI Lombard, ITC, The Economist and Vodafone amongst others.

  • Canon India’s EVP Alok Bharadwaj moves to Singapore

    Canon India’s EVP Alok Bharadwaj moves to Singapore

    NEW DELHI: Canon India’s EVP Alok Bharadwaj will be moving on an international assignment to Canon Singapore, which is the headquarters of its south east & south Asia business operations effective 1 January 2015.

     

    Canon India will have no direct successor to the position of EVP. The president and CEO of the company will continue to head India business operations.

     

    Bharadwaj will be heading the Corporate Strategy Group and will be responsible for strategic business planning and execution as well as corporate communications for Canon’s south east & south Asian regional operations.

     

    He will also be overseeing business development in emerging Asian markets in this region. In his new role, he will be reporting to Canon’s south east & south Asia Operations president and CEO Kensaku Konishi.

     

    Canon India president and CEO Kazutada Kobayashi said, “I wish to take this opportunity to express my deep appreciation for the significant contribution made by Bharadwaj for Canon India. His indomitable spirit has helped shape Canon’s image in India and improved our market leadership, while setting industry benchmarks at the same time. We are a global company and believe strongly in leadership development with international roles. We wish him the very best for his new assignment in Singapore.” 

     

    Bharadwaj commented, “It has been an incredible journey for me at Canon India which I joined in 2001. Canon has an extra ordinary magnetic culture. I have had the opportunity to build and work with an excellent team that supported me overcome numerous business challenges and in recording massive growth for Canon in India. I am truly thrilled to have been a part of this success story and am grateful to my staff, partners and customers. India experience has opened the doors for my international assignment which I am quite excited to take. I look forward to tackling newer challenges in other emerging Asian markets.  It is a promising new role and I am eager to start.”

  • Swati Bhattacharya to lead Dentsu Mama Lab

    Swati Bhattacharya to lead Dentsu Mama Lab

    MUMBAI:  Swati Bhattacharya, the former national creative director at JWT, who was associated with the company for 22 years, has joined Dentsu India as its principal partner – creative, to take the helm at its new project Mama Lab.

     

    Started originally in Tokyo by Dentsu in 2013, and now to be introduced in India, the idea of Mama Lab is to create an ever-expanding picture of mothers in India, by tracing their personal histories across cities and villages and in-between places to answer a quintessential question on Indian mothers – Who is she? It will be an ongoing visual and oral biography of Indian mothers.

     

    “Dentsu Mama Lab aims to be a thought leader on mothers, motherhood and mothering. Understanding the different facets of a mother is what will make brands connect meaningfully with them. I’m delighted to have Swati Bhattacharya lead this initiative in India. Her enormous experience of working on brands that have had deep meaningful connections with mothers will be the credible foundation of Dentsu Mama Lab. ‘Good Innovation’ is the essence of the Dentsu brand and Mama Lab is a vivid demonstration of it,” said Dentsu India executive chairman and APAC CEO Rohit Ohri.

     

    In recent years, Swati Bhattacharya, a mother of two, was particularly responsible for building an enduring relationship with Horlicks (GSK India) and its several avatars, especially highlighting the sensitivities of the mother, wife and homemaker for the brand. Her experience in building such ‘mother’ and ‘women-oriented’ brands and taking up leadership positions in the corporate world makes her perfectly poised to head Mama Lab.

     

    Excited to head the latest initiative at Dentsu India, Bhattacharya remarked, “Men have a habit of putting mothers on a pedestal, as if she is a person who needs to be worshipped more than be understood. There is a woman inside every mother, who is not all perfect, not all ‘Devi’, not all giving; and women know that but it’s time for marketers to know that too. It’s been years that I have spoken to only women as my consumers and tried to forge an intimacy that’s born out of truth. Mama Lab gives me an opportunity to speak to women in our own language, in our own way, we might not all be perfect but we are the best that we can be! I am so glad I won’t have to fake my interest in men anymore. I am looking forward to sell to women by pressing their security buttons and not their insecurity buttons”.

     

    Much like motherhood that promises rich rewards through its firsthand trials, Mama Lab will evolve through experience and experimentation in both method and output.

     

     “As with everything Indian, we know there is no such singular entity as The Indian Mother, and we wouldn’t want to embark on a quixotic adventure of that sort in the first place. What we will attempt to do is to create an ever-expanding picture of mothers in India, much like a perpetually-growing, always-complete-but-never-truly-complete jigsaw puzzle. As an outcome, our goal will be to gain insights into mothers and motherhood in India that will truly go beyond oft-repeated motherhood statements”, said Dentsu India  executive vice-president and national planning director Narayan Devanathan, who will be closely working with Bhattacharya on Mama Lab.

     

    Mama Lab will be positioned in the public domain as a platform for mothers and brands to engage with one another and benefit from.

  • Abhijit Avasthi bids adieu to Ogilvy

    Abhijit Avasthi bids adieu to Ogilvy

    MUMBAI: The national creative director of Ogilvy, Abhijit Avasthi, has decided to move on from the agency after almost 15 years.

     

    Known as one of the gems of Piyush Pandey, Avasthi has been instrumental in some of the memorable ad campaigns for brands like Coca Cola, Cadbury, Fevicol etc.

     

    “Advertising has taught and exposed me a lot of things. Taking these learnings, I want to move on to do something which I love over and above advertising,” says Avasthi and adds, “It would have been unfair on both me and Ogilvy if I cannot give my 100 per cent to what I love doing.”

    “Both Piyush and Rajiv (Rao) have been aware of my intentions for a while now and have been very supportive about it,” he says while adding that his exit was planned well so that things don’t fall out of place at the agency.

     

    With an engineering background, Avasthi started his advertising career in 1997 at Enterprise Nexus as a trainee writer. After working there for two years, he went on to join Ogilvy as creative supervisor. In 2002, he was then made creative director and in 2005 was elevated as group creative director.

     

     “I’m taking a break to figure out what should be my next move,” he informs.

     

    A memo regarding his exit was sent out on 28 October 2014 to the employees. “He is currently serving his notice period and will be associated with the agency till end of November,” says a source within the company.

     

    The memo reads:

     

    After a stunning performance as National Creative Director Ogilvy India, Kinu has opted for a creative twist in his professional story.  He has chosen to go independent and would also be pursuing some of his other interests.  Consequently, he will give up his responsibilities as N.C.D. as of 30 November 2014.  However, Ogilvy India is the first to associate with Kinu in his new endeavour and he will be our Creative Consultant on a few key projects.  Kinu will also partner Rajiv and me in developing and implementing a robust on-going creative training programme for Ogilvy India.

     

    Kinu’s contribution to our creative reputation, first as a senior creative team member and then as N.C.D. with Rajiv Rao, has resulted in the new age creative revolution at Ogilvy.  He has helped build great brands, client relationships and a super strong creative culture in our organisation.  His reputation extends beyond India and he is respected as one of India’s most talented creative professionals.

     

    Rajiv Rao will take full charge of the National Creative responsibilities and will discuss the creative responsibilities of current creative leaders over the next few weeks.
     

    Meanwhile, we salute Kinu for his immense contributions and wish him the very best in his next inning.

     

  • DDB Mudra West ropes in Manish Darji as ECD

    DDB Mudra West ropes in Manish Darji as ECD

    MUMBAI: In a bid to further fortify its creative mandate, DDB Mudra West has appointed Manish Darji as executive creative director.

     

    With over 15 years of experience, Darji joins DDB Mudra Group, from BBH India. He’s worked with agencies such as McCann Erickson, Ogilvy, Rediffusion Y&R and Bates 141 and has worked on world renowned brands such as Coca Cola, NDTV, Western Union, WWF, Incredible India, Fevicol, Cadbury, Tata Nano, Virgin Mobile, Skoda, CRY, TVS Wego, Marico, Vaseline and Vat 69.

     

    This is Darji’s second stint with DDB Mudra Group.  Darji said, “DDB Mudra is undergoing a transformation and it’s always great to be a part of change. The agency has a terrific roster of clients who I’m keen to work with. I’m also happy to be working with Rahul again and create some spectacular work.”

     

    DDB Mudra West creative head Rahul Mathew said, “I’ve worked with Manish Darji at various stages of his career, and he has been a different Manish each time. It is this doggedness of his to keep evolving that makes him one of the finest in the country. With his unique and inimitable style, he harnesses the power of design to create solutions for many brands. Little wonder that work has been applauded and celebrated at various forums. And we can’t wait for him to create a lot more magic with us.”

     

  • Kartik Smetacek joins L&K Saatchi & Saatchi as ECD

    Kartik Smetacek joins L&K Saatchi & Saatchi as ECD

    MUMBAI: While adding to its brand portfolio with a recent spate of business wins, L&K Saatchi & Saatchi have also been adding people to its growing teams across office. A recent addition has been the appointment of Kartik Smetacek as executive creative director.

     

    L&K Saatchi & Saatchi national creative director Charles Victor said, “Acquiring talent has and will be our focus across offices. Great work can only come from wonderful creative people and I believe Kartik is definitely one of them. He has extensive, diverse experience and I love the fact that he’s hungry to take on bigger responsibilities and challenges.” Charles added that bringing people like Kartik into the system was one of the many steps taken to raise the creative bar, the results of which will soon be seen.

     

    Fully immersed in work already, Smetacek said, “While my time at ideas@work was rewarding on many fronts, I missed the scale and opportunity that a big agency provides. So when Praveen and Charles offered me Renault, I jumped at the chance to work on a marquee international brand and in a category as buzzing as automobiles.”

     

    On challenges that await, he said, “I think the agency is at a point of inflection with a clear mandate to become one of the key Saatchi & Saatchi offices in the region. I’m excited to be part of this journey.”

     

    Through the many years of experience behind him, Smetacek has worked on diverse brands like Airtel, Colgate Palmolive, Taj Hotels, Cadbury, DNA, Lakme, Tata Motors, Nerolac, Bigrock and Rustomjee, to name a few.

  • Maxus promotes Lindsay Pattison, replaces Vikram Sakhuja

    Maxus promotes Lindsay Pattison, replaces Vikram Sakhuja

    MUMBAI: In a major development, GroupM has announced the appointment of Lindsay Pattison as global CEO of Maxus.

     

    The announcement was made by GroupM’s global president, Dominic Proctor, who Pattison will report to as she co-locates between London and New York.

    Pattison has been leading Maxus in the UK for five years.  She has also held the global chief strategy officer role for the last two years, overseeing product, planning, marketing, new business and effectiveness.  

    Pattison replaces Vikram Sakhuja, who will remain in the group.

    “Lindsay has a proven reputation as a leader and is held with enormous regard both internally and by her clients”, said Proctor. “She exemplifies the spirit and ambition of the Maxus culture and we are confident she will take the network into the next stage of growth.”

     

    On the move, Pattison said, “I am thrilled to step up into this role. I love the energy of Maxus and I relish opportunity that comes from our unique and fortunate position as the challenger brand within GroupM. At Maxus, we have a mantra to lean into change. In fact, it’s really to lead change for our clients, navigating the complexity and embracing the possibilities offered in a digitalised, mobile, always-on media landscape. It’s an incredibly exciting time to lead a media agency.”

     

    She will be replaced in the UK chief executive role by Nick Baughan, who moves from the position of managing director. Baughan will continue to report to Pattison.

     

    Baughan joined Maxus in March 2012, having worked at Mindshare for two years as the head of business development. Baughan said, “Over the last five years, Lindsay has led our team brilliantly in the creation of an agency that has become a major force in the industry.  I’m hugely proud to have been part of that success and even prouder to have the opportunity to lead our incredible team into the next chapter.”

     

  • Paritosh Srivastava promoted to COO Publicis Ambience

    Paritosh Srivastava promoted to COO Publicis Ambience

    MUMBAI: In continuation of recent senior management changes and recruitments Publicis announced the promotion of Paritosh Srivastava to chief operating officer (COO) for Publicis Ambience. He will continue to report to south Asia CEO Nakul Chopra and will join the management board for Publicis Worldwide in India.

     

    Chopra commented, “This is a well-deserved promotion. For over three years now Paritosh has led Publicis Ambience admirably. The improvement in talent and quality has been remarkable – the growth has been outstanding. With further empowerment in his new role – I have no doubt he will take Publicis Ambience to new heights.”

     

    Commenting on his promotion, Srivastava said, “It’s a privilege to lead an agency with the legacy of Publicis Ambience. My gratitude to the fantastic team who has each helped put us on a tremendous growth path. The agency’s success can only follow that of our clients, it will be my constant endeavor to continually strive to meet and exceed our clients’ expectations.”

     

    Bobby Pawar and Partha Sinha in a joint Statement said, “In Paritosh we have a champion of great work. He is ready to push boundaries and rally around great work both internally and externally. This, coupled with his energy and charm makes him a great leader. We are delighted that he is getting bigger responsibilities and being entrusted with furthering the Publicis agenda in India.”

  • Milind Pathak joins Madhouse India as COO

    Milind Pathak joins Madhouse India as COO

    MUMBAI: Madhouse, a mobile marketing and communications company, has appointed Milind Pathak as COO. He will be reporting in to Madhouse CEO Joshua Maa and GroupM Interaction south Asia managing partner Tushar Vyas and will be based in Gurgaon.

     

    Pathak comes on board with vast domain knowledge and experience in mobile VAS, marketing & advertising, content, mobile CRM and m-Commerce.

     

    Prior to joining Madhouse, Pathak was a part of the One97 Communications’ leadership team. He has over two decades of experience in sales, business development, marketing, strategy and P&L management.  Pathak moved to digital domain in 2005 as Buongiorno co-CEO and country manager and was responsible for setting up the company’s successful operations in India. He is an active speaker at various events by IAMAI, MEF, MMA, FICCI, Music Matters, ASSOCHAM etc and has shared his experience and perspective on mobile domain, technologies and allied areas in many national & international conferences, seminars and round tables.

     

    Maa said, “India continues to be a priority market for us and we look forward to working closely with Milind as he steers Madhouse India into its next phase of growth.”

     

    Vyas added, “We are excited to have a senior leader from the industry in the Madhouse team. Milind comes with a rich and in depth experience from the telecom industry with depth of experience in Mobile marketing, content and commerce across consumer and enterprise segment. We are confident he will help our clients to seamlessly integrate mobile advertising into their marketing strategies.” Mobile media and advertising remains an integral part of GroupM’s New Me vision that puts digital at heart of the organisation. Madhouse India is a joint venture by WPP and Madhouse China and is managed by GroupM.”

     

    Pathak said, “Over the last two years, I have watched Madhouse emerge as a thought leader in a dramatically changing media environment. I am excited to join and lead Madhouse. I believe we have tremendous headroom for growth in the mobile marketing and advertising domain in India. In the next 3 years the India will be a 400 million mobile internet user market and these users will spend disproportionate time on handheld devices. Our vision is to continue to invest in people, product & technology, creative domain and strategic partnerships offering cutting edge solutions to brands for all the stages of their marketing cycle- awareness, sales and engagement.

     

  • MEC Global Solutions powers up the agency’s digital offer

    MEC Global Solutions powers up the agency’s digital offer

    MUMBAI: MEC Global Solutions has made three new senior hires – Ben Rickard, Richard Davies and Mudit Jaju. Bolstering the team with three renowned digital experts, MEC demonstrates how it is setting out to embrace the ongoing seismic shift in data and digital in order to grow clients’ business.

     

    Ben Rickard joins as digital partner and will be responsible for driving the agency’s mobile offering for clients across EMEA with particular focus on how mobile devices sit at the core of an “always-on” world through the intelligent application of data. Rickard comes from JWT where he headed up their mobile division and was responsible for the launch of JWT NOW.

     

    Richard Davies too joins as digital partner and will be responsible for heading up digital on the global Vodafone account. With nearly 20 years of experience across search, customer insight and CRM, and most recently as Media Partner at VCCP, Davies brings with him a fresh view on how digital and data is evolving and shaping business.

     

    Mudit Jaju joins as digital partner.  A WPP MBA fellow, he graduated from Yale and worked at comScore. In his new role, Jaju will be working on digital product development and innovation initiatives across clients.

     

    Global Solutions and EMEA chief digital officer Jeff Hyams said, “Ben, Richard and Mudit are highly experienced digital experts from very different backgrounds. They join MEC with new perspectives and will create an exciting dynamic which we believe is critical in order to drive the digital agenda for our clients. We have a vision of how we need to evolve and part of this is through creating a thriving digital culture across the whole of our business.

     

    Encouraging new ways of thinking and doing and adding key specialist talent helps this process.”

     
    Taking the recent senior hires in the analytics and insight team into account, this strengthening within digital further cements MEC Global Solutions and MEC’s EMEA headquarter as a centre of international excellence for clients across the region.