Category: People

Mumbai: Cheil India has appointed Srijib Mallik as the head of Samsung Business. As a member of the Cheil leadership team, Mallik will report to Cheil India MD Carlos Limseob Chung and Cheil India COO Sanjeev Jasani. He will also be responsible for managing the Samsung Business and foster deeper engagement with them across functions by drawing on his past experience.

With a career spanning more than two decades in the advertising and marketing industry, Mallik’s expertise includes financial analysis, 360-degree campaign implementation and cross-geographic campaign deployment having worked across India and international markets like Singapore APAC, and the UK. His passion lies in delivering surprising work across touchpoints that enhance marketing metrics.

Prior to joining Cheil India, Mallik steered leadership roles across a wide swathe of agencies. His last stint was with TBWA where he was NU’s executive director & MD. He also held positions at Publicis, Venture Land & Creative Land Asia, Bates, Wieden & Kennedy and JWT. He has worked on brands like Pepsi, Nokia, HP, GM, Nissan, Phillips, Pizza Hut, etc.

Commenting on the appointment, Chung said, “Samsung is one of our largest and most prestigious businesses in India. We believe that Srijib possesses the required skills to help Cheil produce top-class work.”

Mallik added, “I am excited to join Cheil and lead such a large and important mandate. The sheer expanse of Samsung’s product footprint combined with Cheil’s Business Connected Agency Model that combines all functions of marketing services to deliver value is something that I am really looking forward to.”

Mumbai: SAMCO Securities has onboarded Womb as its mainline/creative agency, Dentsu Creative as its digital agency and Adfactors PR as the Public Relations agency for all verticals (SAMCO Securities and MF). The partnerships are expected to boost brand presence in the industry and aid retail investors in successfully navigating and acing the capital market.

Commenting on the vision for evolution, SAMCO Group founder & CEO  Jimeet Modi  said, “SAMCO Group is delighted to announce its collaboration with Womb, Dentsu Creative, and Adfactors PR to drive synergies for increasing the brand’s visibility. We are committed to deliver exceptional services, and the partnerships are a testament to our endeavours. We envision engaging with a significantly larger customer base and strengthening our position as a leader in the industry through holistic marketing initiatives and innovative campaigns.”

Elaborating on the partnerships, SAMCO Securities chief growth officer  Ajay Dusane commented, “Womb’s expertise in strategic marketing will assist us in building our brand preference, and we share a common vision with Dentsu Creative of providing impactful digital marketing solutions. As with Adfactors PR, we aim to position SAMCO Securities in strategic media platforms as the investors’ preferred choice for providing wealth creation solutions.”

Expressing his views on the collaboration, Womb founding partner Kawal Shoor said, “For both SAMCO and The Womb, it is a great cultural fit with our vision and deliverables. The Indian stock market is at a very interesting juncture with the number of investors and traders on the rise, thereby creating a need for effective hand holding in their journey to success. We look forward to embark on this transformative journey with SAMCO Securities as they enable their customers to create wealth.”

The robust growth strategy facilitated by the partnerships will accelerate the brand’s expansion through increased communication outreach with its target audience.

Mumbai : ZEE Media Corporation Limited (ZMCL) is in the process of appointing Abhay Ojha as CEO.

In BSE filing, the company said,“We wish to inform you that, the Nomination and Remuneration Committee of the Company, at its meeting held on today i.e. 14 February, 2023, considered the candidature of Abhay Ojha, for appointment as chief executive officer (CEO) and Key Managerial Personnel (‘KMP’) of the Company and advised the management to file the necessary application with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (‘Ministry’) for obtaining the prior approval of the Ministry, as required under the Up-linking Guidelines,”

Ojha was appointed chief business officer for all linear channels, excluding Zee Business and WION, in November of last year.

Ojha joined ZMCL in February 2022 and was named P&L Head for Cluster 3. He was previously the CEO of Changa. He has also held positions of leadership at HUL and Star.

Mumbai: It’s a homecoming for Neeraj Bassi, as he has returned to Cheil India as chief growth officer. Bassi will spearhead Cheil India’s business growth by adding to the roster of new clients and helping in delivering transformational work that builds on the agency’s capabilities in creative, media, data, activation, and retail.

In his current role, Bassi will report to Cheil India MD Carlos Limseob Chung and Cheil India chief operating officer Sanjeev Jasani. Bassi has also previously held the position of Cheil India’s chief strategy officer.

 A seasoned professional with more than 25 years of experience under his belt, Bassi’s expertise sits in brand management, internal process transformation, and strategic management.  His career trajectory encompasses stints as group chief strategy officer with Havas and president of planning at Ogilvy India. He has straddled strategic responsibilities for brands like Cadbury’s Dairy Milk & Five Star, Voltas, Honda, HSBC, and Vistara.

Talking about his appointment, Jasani said, “We are all geared up for the next chapter in Cheil India’s growth story.  We are uniquely positioned as a business connected agency that offers an integrated result-oriented offering of various services to our clients. The presence of veterans like Bassi helps us take this value proposition forward with our clients and deliver high-impact work that benefits the bottom line of our client”.

Commenting on his appointment, Bassi said, “Great to be back at Cheil, the agency that has always believed in creating integrated work for its clients. In my last stint, I focused on the Samsung business and was part of the team that did the big flagship launches. This time, as the head of non-Samsung business, I am looking forward to taking the learnings to other clients across mainline, digital, retail, activation, and e-commerce. Really excited to be back in a business role after a long time”.

Mumbai: Wunderman Thompson South Asia Group has announced several new appointments to its planning team, with a view to enhancing strategic business solutions for brands and helping them improve brand engagement and customer experience. Nikhil Thakkar has been appointed as vice president & strategic planning director in Gurgaon, Richa Dholi has been appointed vice president – strategy planning in Mumbai and Antara Dey has joined the Kolkata office as account director.

Thakkar comes with 14 years of experience in market research, advertising and brand strategy. He has worked across diverse categories ranging from HFDs, mobility, white goods, and home furnishing to tech startups. Thakkar had worked with Wunderman Thompson for six years. Prior to joining back he had a stint with Leo Burnett where he led strategy for the Iodex and Airtel accounts.

Dholi is the strategy lead on Wunderman Thompson India’s Unilever brands in Mumbai, lending her extensive experience in the marketing and digital ecosystem to the businesses. She has honed her strategic thinking and critical insights working with leading FMCG and lifestyle brands at Capgemini, Ogilvy, Lowe, McCann and most recently at India’s very own Twitter, Koo.

Dey comes with ten years of experience spanning multiple industries and categories. She has done time in the marketing function in organizations such as Matrix Clothing, Trujet Airlines, Tata Steel and Bennett & Coleman. And in her last assignment, she has worked with some blue-chip brands spanning categories such as foods, beverages, beauty, e-commerce and fashion.

Last year, another senior planner, Ayan Banik was appointed at the Kolkata office. With over 20 years of experience across some of the biggest and most respected agencies in the country, Banik joined as senior vice president – brand strategy. Working on an enviable repertoire of brands across diverse categories, Banik was also part of the core team that won the first-ever Cannes Glass Lion for both Cheil and Samsung India.

Commenting on the new appointments, Wunderman Thompson India chief strategy officer Pinaki Bhattacharya said, “The agency is at an exciting point in its transformation journey and finding strategists that fit our transformed purpose is a challenging one. We need them to have a robust understanding of brands, levers of brand growth, of consumer journeys and modern marketing. With a pulse on popular and emerging culture. And above all, they need to be interesting people. Not an easy mix to find, you would agree! Which is why I am delighted to have Thakkar, Dholi and Dey join the strategy team at Wunderman Thompson. In them, we have found just the kind of strategists we want. I am looking forward to working with them and to some really exciting work on the brands they are working on.”

Mumbai: The Mavericks Communications LLP, has announced the appointment of Ravpreet Ganesh as its chief integration officer. Ganesh’s appointment reinforces Mavericks’ vision to provide fully integrated marketing communications services to its clients.

Mavericks has been on a consistent trajectory of integrating public relations, digital marketing, influencer marketing, content marketing and research as a holistic service to its clients bringing harmonization in storytelling and efficiency and effectiveness in campaign management. Over 70 per cent of its clients have chosen Mavericks as their integrated communications partner.

Commenting on the appointment, Mavericks founder & CEO Chetan Mahajan said, “We are very excited to have a highly experienced and dynamic leader like Ganesh join the Mavericks mission. Ganesh has extensive experience in brand communications, creative, digital, content, and influencer marketing. With Ganesh on board, our clients will be able to deepen the integration of marketing services and consequently, the impact on their brand reputation.”

Ganesh comes with over two decades of experience in creative problem solving. She was associated with the Publicis Groupe for over 15 years and played multiple roles during her tenure, including chief integration officer, lead Publicis Content, executive vice president at Leo Burnett and executive director at Publicis. She has been associated with agencies like Rediffusion, Lowe and Dentsu. Ganesh’s role will strengthen strategic and creative thinking across the board.

Talking about the new role, Ganesh said, “Mavericks is a unique agency with its purpose to create an ecosystem of offerings that partners and employees want to belong to. I am looking forward to creating business solutions for all our partners that have the power to create behavioural change. I am excited to be part of the team where partners are put first.”

Mumbai: Wunderman Thompson India has on boarded Richa Dholi as vice president  strategy planning. Based in Mumbai, Dholi will be leading the strategy function on Wunderman Thompson India’s Unilever brands, lending her extensive experience in the marketing and digital ecosystem to the agency’s businesses.

A planner at heart and a writer by passion, Dholi has honed her strategic thinking and critical insights working with leading FMCG and lifestyle brands at Capgemini, Ogilvy, Lowe, McCann and most recently at India’s very own Twitter, Koo.

Dholi’s passion for consumer behavior and design thinking earned her recognition as ‘The Global Marketer Award during her time at Capgemini’.

Commenting on Dholi’s appointment, Wunderman Thompson Mumbai managing partner Anurag Tandon said, “In the post-pandemic world, consumers engage very differently with brands. We need to constantly recalibrate our thinking and creatively innovate to be ahead of the curve in terms of brand engagement and customer experience. With Dholi on board, we get the right blend of understanding business and strategy. We are excited to have her as part of our team and wish her the very best in her new role.”

On her new role, Dholi commented, “Being part of Wunderman Thompson is a privilege and a testament to the agency’s cutting-edge approach to blending culture, creativity, and technology. As a planner, I am eager to continue growing and evolving in this dynamic environment. I am grateful for this opportunity and have full faith in Anurag’s visionary leadership and outstanding creative insight as we embark on an exciting new chapter for Wunderman Thompson.”

Mumbai: KlugKlug, a global influencer marketing decision making B2B platform, has announced the onboarding of Amit Jain as its new mentor and advisor. While Jain is well known for his recent role as a ‘Shark’ in the popular reality show, Shark Tank India, he is also the CarDekho (Girnarsoft) co founder & CEO,  which has scaled into a juggernaut in the automobile and personal mobility ecosystem across India and now globally and its rise into a unicorn.

KlugKlug is a global platform founded by Vaibhav Gupta and Kalyan Kumar to facilitate brands on their influencer marketing outreach where Gupta serves as the co founder and chief product officer and Kumar as the CEO.

Jain who is an experienced and successful entrepreneur was keen to come on board as a mentor on KlugKlug to provide guidance and advice to the company in terms of its vision and meaningful growth. With Jain’s expertise and experience, KlugKlug can now refine and build better value for its clients and to drive better scale, precision and ROAS on their Influencer marketing journeys.

Commenting on this announcement, Kumar said: “We are thrilled to welcome Amit as our mentor and advisor, we feel boosted in our confidence to do bigger things for the Influencer Marketing and creator landscape. We were surprised at this astuteness for this space and how quickly we were aligned on our growth and areas of focus. We will continue to infuse more magic into our platform and make it the go-to resource for influencer marketing insights and strategies. His coming onboard is a testimonial to the possibilities of the Creator economy which we aim to contribute to significantly.”

Commenting on being a mentor, Jain said: “I’m thrilled to join KlugKlug as a mentor and advisor. KlugKlug is an innovative startup that has identified a unique problem and is creating a powerful solution that can help consumer businesses in ways that can change the Influencer landscape. Equally, It’s inspiring to see a team of passionate entrepreneurs like Kalyan and Vaibhav, working to solve a problem that has a strong positive impact on all stakeholders brands, brand partners and even influencers. I’m confident that with the right guidance and support, KlugKlug can become an even more successful business and make a difference both in India and Globally. As a mentor and advisor, I look forward to providing insights and guidance that can help the company navigate its goals meaningfully and quickly. Together, we will make a difference and create a business value, in line with some of the big wins they have already had.”

Mumbai: L&K Saatchi & Saatchi has roped in Hindol Purkayastha to lead the north & east operations as business head & executive vice president. He will be based out of Gurugram and will report to L&K Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Paritosh Srivastava. Purkayastha joins the agency from Dentsu Creative where he last served as executive vice president.

Purkayastha comes with a wide spectrum of experience and has spent over two decades with agencies such as Lowe, BBDO and Public is Capital. He has been part of the growth story of various brands, guided their digital strategies, and leveraged media powerfully and innovatively for the right brand outcomes.

Srivastava said, “We have expanded our footprint in North and East and many reputed brandshave trusted us with their mandates in the last few years. Purkayastha comes with vast experience and cultural understanding of the region, which will help take LKSS to even greater heights. I’m sure our clients and teams will benefit hugely from his rich knowledge of managing some of the biggest brands in the NCR. It’s like a homecoming for him to the Groupe and we wish him the very best in this journey.”

Purkayastha said, “I am excited to be joining L&K Saatchi & Saatchi. The agency is growing at a tremendous pace with big business wins, versatile talent and exciting work across different marketing disciplines. I look forward to creating a legacy of powerful work that benefits our clients and powerfully connects with consumers. And in the process, create new benchmarks of creative excellence in these regions by collaboration and working cohesively with the integrated teams.”