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Category: People

  • Leo Burnett India elevates Sainath Saraban to NCD

    Leo Burnett India elevates Sainath Saraban to NCD

    MUMBAI: Leo Burnett Group India CCO Rajdeepak Das today announced the elevation of Sainath Saraban as the national creative director (NCD). As part of his new role, Sai (as he is fondly known), will oversee and take care of the Chennai market as well as key national clients. He will continue to be based in Delhi as he assumes this new responsibility.

     

    Leo Burnett Group CEO Surabh Varma said, “Sai is one of the best creative talents in The Leo Group today. His thorough and in-depth understanding of the target audience coupled with popular culture comes through clearly in the great work that he creates for our clients. I look forward to seeing him make magic in the Chennai market and on our key national clients.”

     

    Leo Burnett CCO Rajdeepak Das added, “Sai is definitely one of the most promising talents of Leo Burnett India and undoubtedly one of the good human beings I have come across. We want the greatness to spread to one more office. Cheers to Sai.”

     

    On his new role Sai said, “Over the last nine years, I have grown with the agency and the agency has grown with me. Now it’s time to take my role to the next level. I see challenges and opportunities alike and along with Saurabh and Raj, I look forward to what lies ahead. The ‘Change Everything’ philosophy is something we all believe in and it holds true for the kind of work we create and how we create it.” 

     

    Sai, who joined Leo Burnett in 2005, began his career with JWT Delhi, where he worked for five years on brands like Boost, Pizza Hut, Hero Cycles and CNBC. This was followed by a brief stint at McCann Erickson after which he joined JWT Bangalore where he worked on Kingfisher, Red Label Tea, McDowell’s and was a part of the team that won Levi’s and Nike. At Leo Burnett, Delhi, some of the memorable work that Sai has created are on brands such as Thumbs Up, Maaza, Minute Maid, Perfetti, Samsung to name a few.

  • Dentsu Aegis Network appoints Harsha Joshi as EVP- group trading

    Dentsu Aegis Network appoints Harsha Joshi as EVP- group trading

    MUMBAI: Dentsu Aegis Network has appointed Harsha Joshi as its executive VP- group trading. Joshi will report to Dentsu Aegis Network chairman and CEO south Asia Ashish Bhasin.

     

    Joshi is an industry veteran who brings with her over 23 years of experience in media buying & planning, branded content and media audit and advisory.

     

    She has been the head of media buying at Fulcrum (Mindshare), headed media buying at Madison Media for 12 years. She also served as CEO – media & international at Spatial Access Media Solutions and her last stint was at McKinsey, India as media advisory.

     

    Bhasin said, “The remarkable growth that the Dentsu Aegis Network has had has resulted in our scale growing rapidly. To ensure our clients get the best global practices in the extremely important area of Trading, we decided to invest in a very senior resource. After evaluating several candidates, we were delighted to have Harsha join us. She brings with her unparalled experience in the area of Trading and we will use her expertise across the Dentsu Aegis Network. Trading is our strength and Harsha will help us maintain that edge.”

     

    Sounding excited about her new assignment, Joshi added, “I am truly looking forward to this role. With three strong media agencies, Carat, Vizeum and Dentsu Media in our group, and with so many large local and global clients, I am sure that we will be able to add value to our clients like no other agency can. Their professional and transparent approach, backed by best-in-class people, global tools, learning and systems attracted me to join Dentsu Aegis Network, which is India’s fastest growing advertising & media network for the second year in a row.”

  • Avon India appoints Romulus Marian Sirbu as MD

    Avon India appoints Romulus Marian Sirbu as MD

    MUMBAI: Avon Beauty Products India has appointed Romulus Marian Sirbu as the managing director with effect from 7 July 2014.

     

    An industry veteran, Sirbu will be responsible for the strategic growth and sustainable increase of Avon’s market share in India. His extensive knowledge and global experience will help develop and implement business strategies to meet the company’s growth, market share and profitability objectives.

     

    He said,” I feel privileged to have this opportunity to join the board of Avon India. India is an important growth market and the company has been focusing immensely on further strengthening its business. I am elated to be a part of Avon once again. I’m looking forward to strategic positioning of the brand and enhance its presence across India.”

     

    This is a homecoming for Sirbu, who worked with Avon in central and eastern Europe for a period of 12 years, where he started as a representative and progressed to sales leadership and commercial roles. Eventually he became country manager for Moldova and Serbia and Montenegro. He then moved out for a brief period to gain differentiated perspective of the industry and was associated with Life Care, as its CEO, overseeing the business in Romania and Hungary.

     

  • JWT India announces leadership changes

    JWT India announces leadership changes

    MUMBAI: After an excellent show at Cannes Lion this year, JWT has announced leadership changes across the agency’s key offices in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Sri Lanka.

     

    JWT south head Rajesh Gangwani has been appointed as JWT Mumbai senior VP and managing partner effective immediately.

     

    JWT group companies Colombo president Himanshu Saxena will succeed Gangwani as JWT south senior VP and managing partner.

     

    Joy Chauhan will be taking over from Saxena as JWT group of companies Colombo president.

     

    Announcing their appointment, JWT south Asia CEO Colvyn Harris said, “Rajesh and Himanshu are both dynamic leaders with strong connections to the markets, the consumers and the clients. By leveraging their strengths and strategic insights, JWT is uniquely positioned to maximise growth in these critical markets.”

     

    “Having successfully established brands like Pepsi foods, Nestle and more recently Airtel, Joy’s move to Sri Lanka will help develop his career further. He has managed large teams and big brands and that experience will hold him good stead. JWT Colombo is one of the most admired agencies in Sri Lanka and that will continue under Joy’s leadership,” he added.

     

    It’s a homecoming for Gangwani, who joined JWT Mumbai as a management trainee in 1991 and worked on Hindustan Unilever, and other Mumbai clients. He was later transferred to Bengaluru in2002 and has been leading the office since January 2008 and later as head of south, since 2011.

     

    JWT India NCD Tista Sen will be Gangwani’s creative partner and together they complete the leadership team at JWT Mumbai.

     

    “I look forward to my second innings in Mumbai and to the opportunity of leading our flagship office. Having been part of some amazing journeys on brands like Nike, Levi’s, Madura, Lifestyle and others, it’s going to be exciting times ahead.  Mumbai has a great portfolio of brands, a fabulous client mix and a fantastic talent pool,” said Gangwani.   

     

    With 22 years of experience in advertising, branding, consumer research and sales, Saxena comes in with diverse experience of leading brands, offices and cross functional teams. As head of the JWT Group in Sri Lanka, Saxena was overseeing JWT and the recently set up Contract advertising.

     

    “In our 150th year JWT India has reached great heights of achievement.  It is both an honour as well as a huge responsibility to lead a region as dynamic as JWT south. I look forward to carrying on the good work and pushing the bar higher. Leading JWT Sri Lanka was truly an enriching experience and I am glad to move on to the next professional assignment after three years in Colombo,” said Saxena.

     

    JWT India NCD Senthil Kumar will continue to lead JWT south and Kolkata as Saxena’s creative partner.

     

    “It is an immensely exciting opportunity for me to be a part of a great legacy like JWT Sri Lanka. To be a part of a growing market like Sri Lanka, is the high that I really wanted at this point in my career. Armed with the rich experience of some of the best national and international brands like, Pepsi foods, Nestle, Hero and Airtel, I feel my learning will help me grow the brands and businesses at JWT Sri Lanka. JWT will continue to shine,” says Chauhan on his move to Sri Lanka.

  • IDC India ropes in Mahalingam Balaji as research director

    IDC India ropes in Mahalingam Balaji as research director

    MUMBAI: IDC India has announced the appointment of Mahalingam Balaji to the post of research director.

     

    Balaji joins IDC from Hewlett-Packard India, where he was director of strategy and planning for printing and personal systems group.

     

    He brings over 21 years of IT industry experience to IDC India, which has been gained while he was based in India and Singapore. He is an IT industry veteran with deep experience in printing, PC, servers, services, enterprise and commercial channels and various other domains. 

     

    In his previous roles, Balaji has held various leadership positions across sales, services, marketing and distribution functions, sales and marketing analytics (market modeling, next purchase likelihood, business and market intelligence and account revenue optimisation) as well as pricing analytics across enterprise, commercial and consumer markets. Academically, he is an engineer and an MBA in operations management. 

     

    “After spending two decades in various leadership roles in the vendor community, my decision to join IDC India was catalysed by its clear vision for building the best-in-class research and advisory firm in the country, the organisation’s customer centric approach and their innovative solutions for customers. I am looking to leverage my experience to enable the team to develop new and innovative solutions and serve our customer needs’ even better,” said Balaji.

     

    IDC India is strengthening its leadership team at an opportune time with it planning significant product expansions in city level quantitative research tracker programmes, cloud services and SMB and channels focused research. Since establishing its wholly owned subsidiary in 2011, the firm has made significant strides and has a large footprint in India with three offices and 32 analysts and consultants serve its clients through research and advisory services.

     

    Venu Reddy, the incumbent, has moved into a new role within IDC and is now managing the global IDC Center of Excellence based out of Bangalore in the role of a general manager. In his new role, he is leading teams which serve various strategic business units of IDC. He continues to also support the IDC India business episodically.

     

    IDC’s vice president and general manager– South Asia Jaideep Mehta said, “We are delighted by Balaji’s decision to join our team. He brings significant heft and gravitas to the research organization. Under his leadership, we plan to accelerate our product development cycles and bring new innovations to the market, faster. Balaji is a real talent and will add further depth and heft to the research and advisory team at IDC India.  I take this opportunity to wish him every success and welcome him to the team. I also take this opportunity to wish Venu Reddy well in his new role, and thank him for his invaluable contribution to the development of IDC in India and South Asia.”

  • Snapdeal.com looks at inorganic expansion

    Snapdeal.com looks at inorganic expansion

    MUMBAI: Snapdeal.com has appointed Abhishek Kumar as its corporate development head. Kumar comes with a vast experience in venture capital investments, strategic partnerships, business management and M&A in technology and media businesses.

     

    Kumar said, “I feel fortunate to be a part of the young, energetic and dynamic team at Snapdeal. The platform is a remarkable example of a successful home-grown e commerce brand in India. I am extremely thrilled and excited to be a part of this company and contribute to its development going forward.”

     

    At Snapdeal, he will be responsible for acquisitions, investments and deep partnerships that can lead to mergers for the e-commerce giant. He will look at all avenues of inorganic expansion as Snapdeal moves towards the next phase on the back of heady organic growth over the last three years.

     

    “This is a very exciting phase for the e-commerce industry and we are seeing tremendous opportunities of discontinuous growth in the market. We recognise that no company can do everything well by itself, and hence we would look forward to working closely with the burgeoning ecosystem of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists in India to build deep partnerships. Abhishek with his rich and diverse experience in venture capital and business management brings the necessary skills to take Snapdeal into newer orbits of success through strategic partnerships.” said Snapdeal co-founder Kunal Bahl.

     

    In his last assignment, Kumar was investments head at Palaash Ventures where he led the investment team in deploying early stage capital in consumer internet, SaaS, Ad-tech, hardware and e-commerce enablers. He was earlier with TV18 Broadcast, leading the new ventures function for the media group.

  • Ipsos India appoints Amit Adarkar as its managing director

    Ipsos India appoints Amit Adarkar as its managing director

    MUMBAI: Ipsos India has found a new country head and managing director in Amit Adarkar, who will take charge from first week of September. He replaces Mick Gordon who successfully held the role and will now take up a senior regional responsibility within Ipsos.

     

    Gordon has been CEO of Ipsos India since November 2011 and managing director of Synovate India since September 2008. He has been responsible for substantial growth of revenue and profits over the period and merger of two large businesses of Ipsos and Synovate in India.

     

    Commenting on Adarkar’s appointment, Gordon said, “I am confident that with the experience and expertise of Amit, Ipsos will continue to delight our clients and he will prove to be an immensely capable successor.”

     

    “I am delighted to be appointed as Ipsos India’s new managing director. Ipsos is at a decisive point in its history and I am looking forward to working with the Board, the Regional Directors and Ipsos India staff to ensure we take this opportunity to create a stronger and more effective organisation for the future,” added Adarkar.

     

    Adarkar who had joined Ipsos InnoQuest, India as its managing director in January 2013 has been a member of the India management team ever since.

     

    He has been in the research industry for over 22 years, and has worked for organisations such as IMRB, Synovate, and Org-Marg. He was earlier MD at Market Probe, and a VP at Nielsen-Bases. He also has rich experience with a number of key Ipsos InnoQuest clients.

     

    He is a chemical engineer from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (1987-91).  Post engineering, he completed Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management (PGDBM), from XLRI, Jamshedpur (1991-1993).

  • Integrated Marketing Communication is the future: John Zeigler

    Integrated Marketing Communication is the future: John Zeigler

    MUMBAI: The world is changing and it is the right time to understand the change and make a difference believes DDB Group Asia Pacific, India and Japan chairman and CEO John Zeigler.

     

    He along with Tribal Worldwide Asia president Jeff Cheong are in India to meet clients and converse about cross-pollination between Singapore, India and Sydney to help the region. The visit was planned to meet more talent from the region and get some collaborative work across the table informs Zeigler.

     

    It can be recalled that early this year DDB Mudra acquired 22Feet, a Bangalore based digital agency. The agency is aiming to get some great pieces of work out very soon. Cheong is of the opinion that, “India is a talent pool when it comes to technologists and the acquisition of 22Feet has helped us reach greater heights.”

     

    Zeigler who believes that ‘Integrated Marketing Communication is the future,’ also thinks adding human touch in advertising campaigns creates magic. “Creativity is our birth right, humanity is our inspiration and technology is our canvas,” says Zeigler proudly, while elaborating the mantra of the various innovative campaigns the group has done.  

     

    The ‘Sorry, I spent it on myself’ campaign done by adam&eveDDB for Harvey Nichols and Heineken Ignite, an experiential campaign launched at the Milan Design Week by Tribal DDB Amsterdam are just a few innovations done by the group to take the message beyond just advertising. “It needs to be about creating influence,” says Zeigler.

     

    In India, the ‘Push the pin’ campaign for Jaago Re before the 2014 general elections allowed users to voice relevant issues from their respective constituencies. Apart from that, the 52 week long campaign for Big Bazaar is a first of its kind marketing communication in the country wherein each week a new TVC is being launched focusing on various products offered.

     

    After its consistent good performance, the network in India is now taking the next step of collaboration and integration within the system.

     

    Given the new order of business and marketing challenges, increasing conversations and demands from a wide spectrum of collaborative and integrated solutions, the DDB Mudra Group, with its 10 agencies and operating units (DDB Mudra West, DDB Mudra South & East, DDB Mudra North, DDB MudraMax – OOH, DDB MudraMax – Experiential, DDB MudraMax – Media, TracyLocke, 22feet Tribal Worldwide, RAPP and DDB Remedy) have re-constituted its executive board.

     

    The new board will see the addition of five more members taking the total toll to eight. The members include: Madhukar Kamath, Sonal Dabral, Anurag Bansal, Sathyamurthy Namakkal, Aneil Deepak, Deepak Nair, Mandeep Malhotra and Rajiv Sabnis.

     

    “We are investing in people who will bring with them different kind of aspects and perspectives to the board,” says the group CEO and MD Madhukar Kamath on the backdrop of the various high management appointments.

     

    Apart from this, the group has also created a group creative council and a strategic planning council. The creative council will consist of Aneil Deepak, Brijesh Jacob, Rahul Mathew, Sambit Mohanty and Vipul Thakkar while the strategic planning council will have Aditya Kanthy, Amit Kekre, Pradeep Ramakrishnan and Ramraaj Raghunathan.

     

    The two councils will be headed by Dabral. “We have formulated the cross-section of talent and it will help us better our work,” he says while adding that soon the group will launch its own creative awards which are as of now tentatively named ‘Bernie’ on the group’s founder, the legendary Bill Bernbach.

     

    The executive council will meet once a month over video conferences and on quarterly basis in either of the offices or at an offsite.

     

    “It is the age of ‘influence’ and we believe in leading the change,” concludes Kamath.

  • MG Parameswaran elected AAAI president

    MG Parameswaran elected AAAI president

    MUMBAI: FCB Ulka Advertising advisor MG Parameswaran has been elected as the president of Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) for the year 2014-2015. The announcement was made at its Annual General Body Meeting held on 25 July.

    Publicis Communications CEO south Asia Nakul Chopra has been elected as vice-president of the association.

    Other elected members of the executive committee for the ensuing year are: Nagesh Alai of Interface Communications, Sam Balsara of Madison Communications, Rana Barua of Contract Advertising, Aegis Media India’s Ashish Bhasin, Kunal Lalani of Crayons Advertising, Dentsu Creative Impact’s Rohit Ohri, Pranav Premnarayen of Prem Associates Advertising & Marketing, C V L Srinivas of Group M Media India, Vivek Srivastava of Innocean Worldwide Communication and R K SWAMY BBDO’s Srinivasan K Swamy.

    Immediate past president, Arvind Sharma, will be the ex-officio member of the new AAAI executive committee.

    The AAAI is the official, national organisation of advertising agencies, formed to promote their industry interests so that they continue to make an essential and ever-increasing contribution to the nation.

  • Indigo Consulting appoints Harshad Hardikar as COO

    Indigo Consulting appoints Harshad Hardikar as COO

    MUMBAI: Indigo Consulting which is a part of the Publicis Groupe, announced the appointment of   Harshad Hardikar as its new chief operating officer. Hardikar is the former senior VP, e-commerce & CRM at OgilvyOne India.

     

    Hardikar will be working closely with the agency’s managing director Vikas Tandon to help strengthen and grow its business nationally and internationally. Hardikar comes with over 17 years of experience in the industry. He is credited with launching India’s first coalition loyalty programme, iMint (now Payback).

     

    In his previous role as senior VP, e-commerce & CRM at OgilvyOne India, he led the agency’s ecommerce and CRM practice nationally, managing clients’ needs end to end.  Prior to this, he worked for Rediff.com, heading the company’s online sales division, Rediffshopping.

     

    Commenting on the latest appointment Tandon said, “FY 2014 has been a great year for us, we are once again ready to shift to a higher gear. Not only are we seeing great organic growth, our international business as a regional COE for Leo Burnett Asia Pacific is seeing phenomenal traction. From a service bouquet point of view, after establishing our Mobile and Social practices, we are now investing in e-commerce and CRM capabilities. This is the ideal time for Indigo Consulting to expand its top management and leadership team. Harshad’s blend of expertise in our focus areas, and experience in driving revenues and P&L is exactly what we need to fuel and drive our journey in the next gear. I am very excited to have him on board and look forward to working with him in scaling up the company.”

     

    Hardikar added, “I am very happy to become a part of this large family. Indigo already is a company with a great reputation and highly respected for their creative and technology capabilities. What really attracted me in this opportunity is the vision Vikas has, to grow this company further. I am sure with my experience of managing 360-degree digital work; I will be able to contribute to a greater success for this company.”

     

    In addition to Hardikar’s appointment, the agency has also roped in Rimjhim Ray as AVP strategy and client services and Hanisha Vaswani as business head for the agency’s Delhi office.

     

    Ray joins Indigo Consulting from Tata Consultancy Services, where she headed the company’s social media strategy department. In her new role, she will be responsible for steering the digital initiatives of key accounts, while also helping expand the agency’s portfolio.

     

    At her previous stint at Edelman, Vaswani was responsible for devising brand building, content, and engagement strategies for clients such as HP, GM, GE, Shell, Juniper Networks, and the 1st Indian Grand Prix. At Indigo Consulting, she will be responsible for bringing in new business as well as managing the existing accounts of the agency’s Delhi office.