Category: Regulators

Mumbai: DDB Tribal has announced the appointment of Purva Ummat as the Group Creative Director. With this appointment, the agency aims to further their innovative and data-driven creative solutions in a truly media agnostic way. Ummat will report to Iraj Fraz, who heads creative for DDB Tribal.

Prior to this, Ummat was with Dentsu Creative where she played a significant role in launching Nykaa Fashion. In her decade long career, she has also worked on prestigious brands such as Aditya Birla Group, Paytm First Games, Marico. Her journey as a creative leader began early with agencies such as Dentsu Creative, McCann Worldgroup, Ogilvy and was recognised at forums such as Social Samosa 30 under 30. 

Commenting on her new role, Ummat said, When it comes to thinking fresh and out of the box, DDB has been making all the roll noises. And DDB’S recent Network of the Year win at Cannes Lions 2023 shows the strength of their creative prowess. I am eager to add to this infectious energy and creative strength in Delhi.”

Fraz shared his thoughts, “DDB Tribal brings together digital-first thinking and classic insight-driven advertising, and Purva is made of the same ilk. The work she has created over the years stands as a testimony to the extraordinary energy she brings to every creative opportunity. As the most senior addition to our creative team, Purva is going to lead some of our key brands.”

Mumbai: OMTV, one of India’s leading media networks, is delighted to announce that Eika Chaturvedi Banerjee has come on board as its new chief evangelist. With a remarkable track record in diverse fields and a deep connection to ancient wisdom, Eika is set to embark on an exciting journey with OMTV, overseeing the company’s growth strategy and development. Her arrival marks a significant milestone for the organisation as she joins hands with seasoned leader Nitin Jai Shukla to lead OMTV into a new era of success.

Eika Banerjee is a pioneering figure in India’s business landscape, widely recognised for her outstanding leadership and dedication to harnessing ancient wisdom to address contemporary challenges. As the founder of ‘Eikam Resonance,’ an organisation that draws inspiration from time-tested wisdom, history, mythology, and literature to offer innovative solutions to modern-day issues, her unique approach seamlessly aligns with OMTV’s vision for growth and innovation.

As a chevening gurukul fellow for leadership & excellence from the University of Oxford, Eika brings a remarkable blend of traditional knowledge and contemporary management practices. Renowned as one of India’s leading corporate mythologists, she has penned the best-selling book “52 Red Pills,” captivating readers with insights on organisational transformation, engagement, diversity, and inclusion.

OMTV founder Nitin Jai Shukla said, “We are thrilled to welcome Eika Chaturvedi Banerjee as she partners our growth at OMTV. Her extraordinary background and deep understanding of ancient wisdom combined with modern business practices make her a critical enabler of our growth aspirations. This association is of paramount importance to us, and we firmly believe that Eika’s expertise will play a pivotal role in shaping OMTV’s future growth trajectory. We are excited about the possibilities ahead and look forward to achieving many more milestones of structured growth together.”

Eika’s professional journey spans over two decades, encompassing roles in private banking, general management, and entrepreneurship. With valuable experience from esteemed institutions such as Standard Chartered Bank, ABN Amro (now RBS), Citi, and Kotak, she honed her skills as an entrepreneur while successfully operating her wealth consultancy ‘Finsutra’ in India and Singapore.

In her most recent corporate role, Eika demonstrated her ability to nurture business development and leadership acumen as the CEO of Future Sharp Skills Ltd.

As OMTV extends a warm welcome to Eika Banerjee as the organisation anticipates an exciting and innovative future. Eika’s deep-rooted understanding of age-old Indian wisdom infuses a unique perspective, blending the best of the past with the potential of the future.

Eika Banerjee said, “As chief growth evangelist at OMTV, I am elated to collaborate on expanding the wisdom of Indian heritage globally. Promoting the growth of wisdom worldwide aligns perfectly with my own passion and purpose. Together, we’ll weave a tapestry of enlightenment, touching hearts and minds across the globe, enriching lives with the profoundly relevant wisdom from the Indian ancients.”.

Eika’s appointment as chief evangelist underscores OMTV’s commitment to leveraging her wisdom and expertise to fuel its expansion and development. In collaboration with Nitin Shukla and other esteemed leaders, she will lead initiatives that harmoniously blend modern management practices with insights gleaned from ancient wisdom, propelling OMTV to new heights in the dynamic media landscape.

Mumbai: Dharampal Satyapal Group (DS Group), a multi-business corporation and a leading FMCG conglomerate has announced the appointment of Jyotiroop Barua as the business head of Dharampal Satyapal Foods Ltd (confectionery). He will spearhead the business strategy and growth of DSFL while consolidating DS Group’s presence in the segment.

Jyotiroop Barua comes with over 30 years of FMCG experience across channels and zones having handled both domestic and international business. A business transformation leader, with deep understanding of sales & marketing, distribution, strategy, and operations in the consumer goods space, he has worked with MTR, Dabur and Anheuser-Busch InBev, Dunkans Industries Ltd., The Assam Company Ltd. to name a few. 

“It’s an exciting time for us and our team is geared up for an extremely successful decade ahead as we consolidate our position as one of the leading Indian FMCG majors. As we continue to evolve with the rapidly changing business landscape, we are delighted to welcome Mr. Barua to the DS family. With his extensive experience, we look forward to the market insights and fresh ideas that he brings to the table and are confident of his ability to grow our already well-established confectionery business,” said DS Group  vice chairman Rajiv Kumar.  

“DS Group has grown at a tremendous pace in the last few years with the evolving consumer needs and is recognized amongst the top three players in the non-chocolate FMCG segment in India. I am very excited to take the reins and help steer the company to new heights. Post entry into the chocolate segment, which is primarily dominated by MNCs, DS Group looks promisingly at the next decade to further consolidate its position in the confectionery business,” said Barua upon assuming his new role at DS Group. 

Barua has a Master’s and Bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Mumbai.

Mumbai: Pocket FM has announced the appointment of Pannagadatta K. Shivaswamy as the director of Artificial Intelligence (AI). In this role, Shivaswamy will spearhead the company’s AI initiatives, shaping the future of content personalisation and enhancing user experiences. Additionally, he will be responsible for overseeing the integration of voice assistants and content analytics, and playing a pivotal role in advancing Pocket FM’s generative AI capabilities. 

With an impressive track record in the AI field and extensive expertise in machine learning, recommender systems and personalisation, he brings a wealth of knowledge to Pocket FM. His strategic vision and technical prowess make him an invaluable addition to the company’s tech leadership.

With over 14 years of experience, Shivaswamy held significant positions at leading internet organisations like Netflix and LinkedIn. He specialises in large-scale machine learning and deep learning, focusing on personalisation, recommender systems, ranking, and search. Shivaswamy’s recent research interest also covers topics such as fairness, interpretability, calibration, causal inference, reinforcement learning, and LLMs.

“We warmly welcome Pannagadatta to lead our AI innovation,” said Pocket FM co-founder & CTO Prateek Dixit. “His extensive AI experience and deep understanding of the audio entertainment industry resemble our stature of work as we continue to innovate and enhance our platform. We believe his leadership will accelerate our AI initiatives, including voice assistants, audio analytics, content analytics, and delivering personalised and immersive audio experiences to our users.”

Shivaswamy will spearhead Pocket FM’s AI strategy, driving innovation in content recommendation systems, voice assistants, and audio analytics. He will work closely with the engineering and content teams to develop and deploy advanced AI models that revolutionise the way users discover and engage with audio content.

“I am honoured to join Pocket FM and have the opportunity to contribute to the growth and evolution of the audio entertainment industry,” said Shivaswamy. “Pocket FM has already established itself as a frontrunner in the entertainment space with a completely new audio series category, and I look forward to leveraging AI’s power to enhance its capabilities and create immersive experiences for millions of our users.”

In addition to his contributions to machine learning, he authored over 25 publications, presenting papers at prestigious conferences such as NeurIPS, ICML, KDD, WSDM, RecSys, JMLR, and JAIR. The impact of his work is demonstrated by over 1600 citations. Additionally, he holds six issued U.S. patents, showcasing his innovative thinking and problem-solving abilities.

Besides his professional excellence, he actively contributes to the academic community, serving on program committees and reviewing papers for renowned conferences and journals, including FAccT, KDD, NeurIPS, ECMLPKDD, ICML, AAAI, JMLR, and MLJ.

Shivaswamy holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Columbia University and a Master’s degree in Systems Science and Automation from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, in addition to a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering from S.J.C.E., University of Mysore.

Mumbai: Dentsu Creative India has announced the appointment of Manzoor Alam as Executive Creative Director (ECD). He will report into Dentsu Creative India chief creative officer- North, Joy Mohanty. 

As per the mandate, Alam will spearhead teams working on brands like Honda Cars, Max Healthcare, Catch Spices, Royal Stag, 100 Pipers, Herbalife, Hamdard, and Carlsberg, to name a few from the agency’s Gurgaon office. He will focus on nurturing and developing the agency’s creative talent pool, while also establishing it as a hub for delivering top-tier, innovative, and high-calibre work. Showcasing a strong emphasis on modern creativity, Alam’s aim will be to cultivate a vibrant and forward-thinking creative culture that empowers the agency to craft campaigns that deeply resonate with its clients.

Alam has had an exceptional 20-year career, with stints at agencies such as McCann and Rediffusion. Most recently, he served at Lowe Lintas, where he played a significant role in driving creative excellence for various brands. During his tenure, he contributed to the success of Google’s flagship products like Google Search, Google Photos, Google Assistant, Google My Business, and Google Voice. In addition, Manzoor also made significant contributions to other brands, including OLX, HP, Maruti Suzuki, and GoDaddy, among many others. His outstanding achievements and creativity in the advertising industry have been recognized and honoured with accolades at prominent events like Cannes, Effies, and AAAI awards.

Speaking on the appointment, Mohanty said, “Manzoor’s exceptional journey showcases a wealth of experience and an extensive portfolio of accomplishments with leading brands such as Google and OLX, as well as numerous start-ups and tech ventures. His unique ability to infuse his ideas with a strong sense of humanity has endeared him to brands across the spectrum. We are thrilled to have him on board and are certain that he will be instrumental in taking our goals of Modern Creativity to new heights.”

Alam added, “In today’s ever-evolving consumer landscape, it is important to consider both the ‘when’ and ‘how’ of every idea. This calls for a cohesive and integrated approach to deliver our concepts effectively. Dentsu Creative India’s philosophy of ‘Modern creativity’ synchs well with this emerging trend. The organization’s strong emphasis on digital-first, tech-driven initiatives, and data-backed solutions amplifies the potential for impactful ideas to flourish. This is exactly what has drawn me towards Dentsu Creative India. I am excited and look forward to embarking on this inspiring journey.”

Mumbai: The India Chapter of the International Advertising Association (IAA) announced the jury for its annual IndIAA Awards.

IAA president Avinash Pandey said, “We are delighted that Suresh Narayanan Chairman and Managing Director Nestle India will Chair this elite jury for our prestigious awards for creative excellence. These awards are unique. They are judged only by very senior advertisers, and you cannot enter these awards on your own. A select group of senior editors of trade publications who review advertising everyday, prepare a shortlist, thereby ensuring there are no scam ads here.”

The other jury members are:

M R Jyothy (Managing Director, Jyothy Laboratories Ltd.), 

Shashank Srivastava (Executive Director, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd),

Geetika Mehta (Managing Director, Hershey India) 

Arun Srinivas (Director and Head – Ads Business., Meta) & 

Veetika Deoras  (Vice President – Brands, Marketing and Data, The Indian Hotels Company Limited)

IndIAA Awards Committee VP IAA & chairperson Abhishek Karnani said, ” In their eighth year now, the IndIAA awards have been recognized as a hallmark of creative excellence in our industry. Since the awards are presented to the co-creators of the work, this event enjoys a very high profile audience of advertisers, creative agencies, media agencies, OOH agencies and PR agencies.

This year, we are pleased to announce that the prestigious four AFAA Changemakers For Good Awards will also be presented at our event, adding a new and meaningful element to our efforts.”

Mumbai: Former Sun Pharma Consumer Healthcare senior executive Tarundeep Singh Rana has joined Zydus Healthcare Ltd as the chief marketing officer. He was with Sun Consumer Healthcare for six years as head of marketing and e-commerce.

Rana announced his move through a LinkedIn post: “I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as CMO at Zydus Healthcare Ltd!  Prior to Sun CHC, Tarundeep was with Dr Reddy’s Laboratories as director – OTC for emerging markets.

He has over 23 years of experience in leading big global brands as well as establishing new brands in the consumer healthcare domain across India and emerging markets.

Mumbai: Zoo Media, a global independent network of 11 agency brands is pleased to announce the appointment of Vishnu Kanth Gokul BJ as the head of sales and partnership. With over 24 years of experience, including 18 years in the digital domain, BJ has superior expertise and a proven track record of success in his new role.

As the head of sales and partnership, BJ will be responsible for driving strategic growth and fostering valuable partnerships to further expand Zoo Media’s market presence. With a dynamic background in agency relationships, brand solutions, sponsorship sales, online/mobile ad sales, client servicing, and new product development, Vishnu is well-equipped to lead his team toward successful milestones.

Prior to joining Zoo Media, BJ held key positions at prominent organizations, demonstrating his versatility and proficiency in the industry. He served as the president of Revenues at Qoruz, where he played a pivotal role in driving revenue growth and enhancing the company’s market position. Before that, he served as Cricbuzz regional sales head, successfully developing and executing sales strategies that resulted in substantial business expansion.

Also, BJ has contributed significantly to companies such as Percept Ltd, Sulekha.com, 123Greeting.com, Sify, and Rediff.com, enriching his understanding of diverse industries and market dynamics.

One of BJ’s standout accomplishments is his exceptional networking prowess. He is credited with creating innovative events like the Unofficial Digital Night, Digital Premier League, and Digital Cricket League, fostering unparalleled networking opportunities between agencies and publishers/brands. These initiatives have strengthened relationships within the industry and resulted in mutually beneficial partnerships.

Regarding his appointment, BJ expressed his enthusiasm, saying, “I am thrilled to join the dynamic team at Zoo Media. Having worked in the digital sector for over two decades, I look forward to further building Zoo Media’s reputation in innovation and disruptive technologies that solve for the industry’s ever-evolving needs. Helping the organisation scale to new heights, especially globally, is what I will strive to prioritise in my new role.”

In his new role, BJ will report directly to Zoo Media CEO & founder Pratik Gupta, ensuring streamlined communication and alignment with the company’s overall objectives.

Gupta expressed his excitement about BJ’s addition to the team, stating, “With Vishnu spearheading the role as Head of Sales and Partnerships, we are keen to leverage his extensive experience and strategic insights in the digital domain, to accelerate Zoo Media’s growth and forge strong alliances that will elevate our position in the industry.”