ITV

Category: Year Enders

  • The marketing noisemakers of 2022

    The marketing noisemakers of 2022

    Mumbai: Similar to the advertising and media agencies, the marketing industry too saw a lot of roil in terms of the people moving back and forth. The key factor leading to marketing people (like many others) making headway was essentially the economic slump – but in addition to that, people are looking for more moolah, more flexibility (considering the remote work lifestyle that many have adapted to), and undoubtedly, more happiness.

    Mondelez India’s Anil Viswanathan, who led the marketing role for the India business for nine years and last held the designation of vice president of marketing, was elevated. He assumed the role of managing director for Vietnam and Southeast Asia in October.

    With Viswanathan’s elevation to a larger role, Mondelez India appointed Nitin Saini as vice president of marketing.

    Myntra brought Sunder Balasubramanian on board as its chief marketing officer.

    Ceat appointed Lakshmi Narayan B as chief marketing officer.

    Aditi Anand, who held the position of head of creative strategy for India and Southwest Asia for The Coca-Cola Company quit the company and took up the role of head of marketing at L’Oréal Professionnel in December.

    Siddhant Narayan stepped down from his role at OnePlus to take over the marketing lead for Nike in India. This isn’t Narayan’s first stint with the latter – he had earlier been at Nike in various roles between May 2008 and October 2015.

    After an eight-and-a-half-year stint at Lenovo, Amit Doshi, whose last held designation at the company was chief marketing officer for India and South Asia went on to join Britannia Industries as chief marketing officer in January.

    Former chief marketing officer of Godrej Consumer Products Ltd. (GCPL) Somasree Bose Awasthi took over the reins of consumer goods company Marico as its new chief marketing officer in November. She’s also an executive committee member at the company.

    Former marketing lead for Dunzo, the grocery and parcel delivery app, – Sai Ganesh bid adieu to the company in June after a three year stint. He now serves as a brand consultant.

    Adhesive manufacturing company, Pidilite Industries’ chief marketing officer Vivek Sharma quit the company in April after a seven-year journey with the company. He joined the car and repair service company Fixcraft in the role of a marketing advisor. Vinay Subramanyam, who was vice president of marketing at Britannia, stepped into his shoes at Pidilite.

    Manav Sethi, the former chief marketer of Octro, Eros, and ALT Balaji, quit and went to take up a role at the electric two-wheeler Vida of Hero Motocorp – he joined the company as head of media, martech and growth for its emerging mobility business.

    Wingreens Group, a packaged foods and beverages company, roped in Pawan Sarda as its chief marketing officer and D2C head in July. Prior to this role, Sarda was group chief marketing officer of digital, marketing, and e-commerce businesses at the Future Group.

    Edtech brand Unacademy’s chief marketing officer Karan Shroff took off from the company in September last year.

    Haldiram Snacks appointed Divya Batra as head of marketing.

    Smita Murarka, who held the position of chief marketing officer for the sleep solutions brand Duroflex, quit from her role in December. She had joined the company in 2020 as vice president of marketing and e-commerce.

    Vedantu, the edtech giant, lost its head of brand marketing, Maninder Bali, to Ogilvy in August.

    The marketing industry also witnesses its own share of twists and turns every year, and it would be exciting to see what the new year brings!

  • GUEST ARTICLE: 2022: An exciting year of innovations for entertainment marketeers

    GUEST ARTICLE: 2022: An exciting year of innovations for entertainment marketeers

    Mumbai: The television marketing arena was not prepared for the sudden colossal shift that the pandemic ushered in 2020. Marketeers were compelled to unlearn everything they thought they knew until then and adopt new tactics of engagement with viewers who were nestled at home. As soon as the new patterns of interactivity began to settle in, the pandemic receded, and the television industry swiftly started recovering from its impact. The one bright spot in an otherwise difficult period was the enormous demand for entertainment, even in dire straits. As people seek more entertainment at home and in-person events are being revived, digital media engagement has strengthened, with Hindi general entertainment channels (GECs) aligning constantly with time. What has worked is that marketeers have created a universe that connects across cultures and makes for conversation in the public domain. There were several trends that ruled the roost in marketing. Let’s look at some of the trends that stood out in 2022:

    The marvel of the metaverse

    Creating a 3D, immersive digital world where people interact with one another has been all the rage in the marketing arena. Metaverse-driven campaigns have taken centre stage in 2022 and prepared the entertainment sector for the next age of interactivity. In fact, as a brand that is known for taking an innovative approach to campaigns, Colors was the first in the Hindi GEC space to harness the full might of the metaverse for its dance reality show Dance Deewane Juniors. The channel’s campaign took the audience on a virtual tour of the grand metaverse pathway. Before stepping into the metaverse, the users could choose their avatar and experience the magnitude of the platform in a virtual format while participating in various activities. The metaverse was complete with a glitzy photo booth, game zone, dance masterclass, and behind-the-scenes tours. The viewers got an opportunity to groove with one of the judges of the show, Nora Fatehi, through augmented reality. She was seen teaching dance moves from her popular tracks to the participants, followed by a fun-filled dance battle between them. This incredible level of interactivity and engagement cranked up the pre-show buzz.

    Owing to our innovative streak, this year Colors has been the only GEC to be showcased by Meta as one of the ‘top reel trends of 2022’ and torch bearers of innovation on their platforms.

    Expanding horizons with an influencer squad

    This year, we have noted the rise of an “influencer social squad,” which essentially means going beyond leveraging influencers and engaging them to build a set of evangelists for your brand who live and breathe its ethos. While this trend picked up steam in 2022, we expect it to continue to stay. Such collaborations ensure authentic conversations that can happen between the brand and the influencer’s audience, allowing for better audience targeting. This strategy, coupled with engaging with micro-influencers, whose content packs a stronger punch owing to higher levels of engagement, is also essential and has been leveraged by multiple brands! Contrary to popular belief, these influencers have played a larger role in converting leads and spreading brand awareness while spurring conversations across the relevant target audience in ways they prefer. Putting this learning into action, we at Colors created a universe of content creators from different parts of the country, solely focusing on creating content for the channel. We are the only GEC with an army of influencers currently who put out about 5–6 pieces of content each month, promoting our shows and artists. So far, they have created over 200 content pieces, giving us over 75 million views. 

    Building brand loyalty

    Every time we buy or consume something, we tend to repeat the patterns of the past, and that can be attributed to clever loyalty-building tactics by brands. Loyalty is essentially choosing one brand over the other consistently over its competitors. A loyalist is not swayed by price, availability, or comfort. It is the result of a brand consistently meeting and exceeding expectations. One example of a brand leveraging its loyalists is American rapper Travis Scott, who ensured a robust pre-buzz for his album Astroworld by selling its merchandise to his fans ahead of its release. Such was thewidespread acclaim of the album that it not only performed well commercially but also debuted atop the US Billboard 200. This unprecedented success right when the album was released gave him an edge over his competitors in the music industry. On our home turf, we at Colors adopted a novel way to harness our fan base through communities that have been created at the Golden Petal Club established across non-metropolitan cities such as Lucknow, Bhopal, etc. These members of the club become the spokespersons in their community, and they create buzz about our shows. Levelling with the challenge of the pandemic, we took the virtual mode for our interactions with these clubs. As soon as the covid-related restrictions were lifted, we connected with them on-ground again and adopted bigger and more innovative methods for promoting our shows.

    Continuing to capitalise on viral trends

    Capitalising on the current trends, whether they were photos, memes, or conversations that dominated the year, was very essential. Whether it was brands like Swiggy, Zomato, or Durex jumping in on innovative ways to congratulate Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor on their wedding or even wishing our team for the ICC T20 World Cup, quirky and short conversations have captivated audiences. However, capitalising on one such trend, Colors’ Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 10 launched a week-long campaign titled “Galaxy of Stars” with an image that claimed the discovery of a new galaxy of dancing stars titled #JDJ10. The cryptic picture piqued the curiosity of netizens, who came up with many interesting theories about the image. This campaign was inspired by Nasa’s widely circulated “deepest picture of the universe,” seen through the James Webb space telescope. The channel rode on the momentum generated by the photograph to create an image of its very own galaxy, which it named the “Galaxy of Dancing Stars.” While the image took the internet by storm, the channel ensured that netizens had their daily dose of mystery as snippets of information about these dancing stars were revealed through various sources. The show garnered immense awareness, and a part of its credit goes to its robust marketing machinery that captivated their attention.

    The new dawn of artificial intelligence in marketing

    The world of artificial intelligence (AI) has ushered in limitless opportunities to interact with target audiences through effective promotions. Going beyond gathering data-driven insights, brands have looked at integrating the power of AI into engaging with audiences. One simple but effective use of AI was creating personalised invitations for premieres of shows that allowed audiences to feel a deeper and stronger connection with the show or brand. It is one trend that will take the marketing realm by storm in the upcoming year.

    Leveraging new-age technology for interactive on-ground events

    Ever since the covid restrictions were lifted, it has given brands the opportunity to directly engage with audiences on the ground. However, viewers have evolved and now demand interactive and out-of-the-box on-ground activations. It has become essential to implement impactful campaigns while leveraging technologies that give the audience an experience rather than a simple activation. In the last year, on-ground marketing tactics have seen their share of innovation with digital hoardings and stunning anamorphic content. For example, Colors used an anamorphic 3-D display to promote its supernatural fantasy show Pishachini, and through it, the audience got an opportunity to see what it would be like to have an evil demon in public space and be introduced to its universe. For Dance Deewane Juniors, segments titled “Dance with Nora Fatehi” and “Live with Karan Kundrra” were activated, and the brand used augmented reality to give people a chance to groove and share the stage with Nora Fatehi and interact with Karan Kundrra live and virtually with the participants across cities. The experiences created at on-ground events were compelling enough for the target audience to step out of their homes and engage with the shows.

    So, what can we expect in 2023?

    Television will continue to earn the love and affection of audiences, especially as GECs deliver captivating shows with compelling narratives, and therefore some of the above-mentioned trends will remain pivotal in 2023. With the boom in digital influencer marketing, more regional content creators and influencers will come to the forefront, which is likely to bring a paradigm shift in the entertainment industry. As audiences continue to demand engaging and personalised content, we can expect to see an amalgamation of virtual reality, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, a surge in the number of micro-influencers, and innovative on-ground activations on the marketing front in the upcoming year.

    The author of this article is Viacom18 head of marketing and digital, Hindi mass entertainment Sapangeet Rajwant. 

  • 2022 was a mixed bag for OTT

    2022 was a mixed bag for OTT

    Mumbai: Over the last few years, India’s over the top (OTT) media services sector has more than doubled in size. According to the Ormax OTT Audience Sizing Report 2022, the Indian OTT audience universe now stands at 424 million people. In India, 119 million of these are active paid OTT subscriptions and increased by 20 per cent between 2021 and 2022. As per the Ormax Media Report, three out of 10 Indians watched online videos at least once in the last month.

    The Deloitte Report, states that the OTT market will grow at a CAGR of 20 per cent over the next decade, generating a staggering $13 billion-$15 billion in 10 years. According to a 2022 report, Indian subscriber numbers will grow at a 17 per cent CAGR to 224 million by 2026, up from 102 million.

    The Dentsu report, further adds, the ad-funded video platforms (AVoD) are set to overtake subscription channels (SVoD) with time, as major streaming platforms are adding ad-funded tiers.

    Also read: Revisiting OTT’s top-level movements in 2022

    According to Elara Capital senior vice president Karan Taurani, the new-age content platforms have undergone a 30-40 per cent erosion in ad revenues. The FMCG and auto sectors which are the largest advertisers are seeing a lot of inflationary pressures, which is impacting their growth. Therefore, most advertisers are cutting their marketing costs. 

    He says that the festival period typically sees 13-14 per cent growth in advertising revenue for most content platforms as well as TV channels, but this time around the festive ad revenue bump up has just been six to eight per cent.

    The OTT platforms are seeing a dip in advertising revenues not only in India but also globally, there has also been a dip in subscription revenues. This has made the platforms rethink their content acquisition as well as create fresh content. The acquisition cost across all platforms stands at 80 per cent of the overall cost.

    Most platforms decided to go slow on most projects and decided to greenlight tried and tested content genres. The days of experimenting with new content and content writers took a back seat, platforms were happy to go to marquee producers who had a legacy of producing good content.

    MX Player business head – SVOD & business partnerships Abhishek Joshi opines, “OTT platforms as a whole have continued their steep growth curve this past year as well. From an estimated 85 million subscriptions in 2021 we have reached 100 million subscriptions by the end of 2022. Some latest reports even go as far as to say that the number is close to 120 million subscriptions with a paying user on average accounting for 2.5 subscriptions.”

    He added, “The overall OTT market is estimated to be worth three billion dollars in India which is driven by around 400 million unique users, a majority of which are still AVOD consumers. Almost all the major players in the space have realised the potential of AVOD and the emergence of hybrid models is a testament to that. From pioneering digital native brands that were early adopters to established brands in the current scenario, we have seen AdEx grow substantially on OTT over the past few years.”

    Joshi goes on, “We as an industry know the importance of looking beyond the metros as one-third of our subscriptions are from the top six metros but the metros only account for around 10 per cent of our overall universe. To tap into the remaining universe, hybrid models will be the torchbearers. All of the aforementioned goes hand in hand with quality content and the ever-improving tech stacks.”

    He states, “Content investments have been steadily growing at a 15-20 per cent CAGR over the past couple of years and we see the same trend continuing with an increasing flavour of regional content moving ahead. As you go deeper into the country, you realise the importance of regional content to grow the overall OTT pie and that is why it is expected that regional content consumption will account for more than half the overall watch time on OTT platforms by 2025 from an estimated 30 per cent back in 2019. In closing notes, it’s still an early dawn in the OTT space and it will just get brighter from this point forth.”

    Today more and more advertisers are looking at some form of integration in OTT content, and that spend has been growing steadily, as most urban households have become cord-cutters and OTT is the only form of entertainment. Advertising in OTT also targets the brand’s TG exclusively and the ROI for an advertiser increases. There are an estimated 0.5 million cord-cutters in India at present however reports estimate 13 million households cutting the cord by 2026. This trend has been fully utilized by TV manufacturers as there is a demand for smart TVs, major players in this market are Samsung, Haier, TCL, etc.

    This year also saw a slowdown in the global economy due to the war; many new-age companies who spent heavily on digital platforms held back their spending and we may also see slower growth in the first quarter of FY ’23. Under the current economic headwinds, the ad market is estimated to grow by six to eight per cent in FY’23. In FY’22 the ad spending on digital was 53 per cent of the overall spending. 

    Along with the established players like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+Hotsatar, Sony Liv, and ZEE5, there are a plethora of regional players catering to specific regions and languages. The public broadcaster in India, DD India, signed an MoU with Yupp TV, an OTT platform that serves as a gateway for consumers of television, to increase the DD India channel’s global reach. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting claims that this is an effort to promote Indian culture and values around the world as well as present India’s viewpoint on major international happenings.

    There is a debate on what works in the OTT sector, AVoD or SVoD? India is a price-sensitive nation and everyone wants a bang for the buck, realising that the big players in the OTT segment are now offering reasonable pricing to woo subscribers. The regional market is gaining popularity among viewers, and the local players are now facing competition with the big players. Most players in the segment are offering packages as cheap as Rs 199 and even global players like Netflix are actively looking to go AVOD. 

    Despite the dominance of the big players in the OTT platform space, aggregated OTT services like TATA Play Binge, OTTplay, Watcho, and ScreenHits have experienced exponential growth in 2022. Most of these aggregators are now bundling the various platforms and giving their subscribers better offers. This month NxtDigital launched NxtPlay with 3, 00,000 hours of OTT content.

    Regulations

    TRAI for the first time has incorporated OTT into the telecommunication services in the Telecommunication Bill 2022, which was created by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) asserts that India has promoted the development of both traditional and over-the-top (OTT) service providers, as seen by the rapid expansion of the digital economy. 

    A suitable legal framework for the operational features of OTT communication services was the main goal of the proposed act. It is implied that OTT players will also have to pay a license fee by including them in the scope of telecom licensing.

    Telecom companies were among the first to provide an aggregated OTT service. They have bundled various offerings with their mobile tariff plans to attract smartphone users. The market is now flooded with app-based aggregators, DTH operators, and even OTT platforms.

    Movies and Series that have worked in 2022

    Hindi movies like Code Name: Tiranga, Qala, Chup Raksha Bandhan,  Govinda Naam Mera, Maja Maa, Darlings, Laal Singh Chaddha, and Good Luck Jerry worked. Films like Gargi, KGF-2, Vikram, RRR, Karthikeya 2, Jana Gana Mana, and Kantara were well received not only by regional audiences but also by Hindi-speaking audiences. And, as is customary, both Bollywood and South films made their debut on various OTT platforms. 

    Series like Human, Apharan Season 2, Abhay Season 3, Mai, Dharavi Bank, Panchayat season 2, Suzhal: The Vortex, Criminal Justice Season 3, Four More Shots Please season 3, Khakhi, Rocket Boys, Tamil Rockers, Mukhbir did well in 2022. The fourth season of Stranger Things became quite popular in 2022. Manifest, Delhi Crime Season 2, Mismatched season 2, and Never Have I Ever Season 3 were also factors in Netflix becoming the most-watched platform in 2022.

    Sports

    As per a report published by the CII, KPMG, and the Indian Broadcasting and Digital Foundation (IBDF), digital sports broadcasting revenues will increase from the current Rs 1,540 crore to Rs 4,360 crore in FY26. Broadcaster-owned and independent streaming services like Disney+Hotstar, JioCinema, SonyLiv, and Amazon Prime Video signed up big-ticket as well as other sports properties to grow their subscriber bases. 

    Disney Star retained ICC TV rights for India till 2027. It recorded a 31 per cent jump in viewership during T20 World Cup 2022. The digital rights for IPL were bagged by Viacom18 sports for a whopping amount of Rs 23,758 Cr and the TV rights were retained by Disney Star. Amazon Prime Video also had ad-supported cricket live streaming of the India v/s New Zealand Men’s Series 2022. 

    JioCinema is the new entrant and 32 million tuned in to JioCinema on the final day of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and throughout the tournament over 110 million viewers consumed the content on digital. The big ticket for them this year would be IPL 2023.

    Awards

    Indiantelevision.com organised the Indian Telly Streaming awards 2022 to celebrate the content and talent on the OTT platforms; OTTplay Awards 2022 also concluded last year. Filmfare also organised a special OTT Awards 2022 last month.   

    With users spending seven hours daily on their smartphones, digital platforms have a good engagement rate and per their convenience. The days of appointment viewing are still there in certain pockets but due to the advent of digital platforms, there is a shift. The rate of transition to digital platforms shows no signs of slowing.

  • Movements that happened TV news and GEC channels in 2022

    Movements that happened TV news and GEC channels in 2022

    Mumbai: 2022 saw a lot of top-level personnel movements happening in the media and entertainment industry’s news and general entertainment channels. Indiantelevision.com sneaked a peek into these movements to give an overview.

    Times Network

    Times Network appointed Rohit Chadda as president & COO of digital business and Vinay Sarawagi as senior vice president of digital content. Times Network vice president and cluster head Rolly Kapoor joined The Quint as VP and national sales head.

    The network has elevated Mihir Bhatt as business head – Times Influence and named Shivaraman Iyer as VP & national sales head of news & English movies. 

    The group’s assistant vice-president and marketing head of digital and business operations, Priyadarshi Banerjee, moved on and joined One Digital Entertainment as senior vice president. Times Now Navbharat has appointed Ranjit Kumar as senior executive editor while its revenue head, Gaurav Verma, has decided to step down. Senior editor Ankit Tyagi has also taken leave from Times Now Navbharat.

    Times Network senior vice president for digital video, strategy, partnerships, and marketing, Pranav Bakshi, decided to move on from his role to pursue an opportunity outside the company. Moreover, Gaurav Dhawan was elevated to chief revenue officer. Mirror Now also made an appointment of Shreya Dhoundial as executive editor.

    Network18 

    Network18 announced the appointment of Dipika Kaura as editor (standards and practices) and the departure of Vijay Sanil, its former CEO (language cluster), to lead Enterr10 as its new chief operating officer. Palki Sharma quit Wion to join the network as managing editor of a new project.

    Zee Entertainment Enterprises sales director Ankit Anthwal and chief consumer & data officer Prathyusha Agarwal moved.  Ex-senior vice president Krithika Sriram has been appointed chief growth officer of Plix while Madhu Soman joined Zee Media as chief business officer for Wion.

    Disney Star

    Disney brought Bob Iger back as CEO after Bob Chapek announced his exit. Mani Rangarajan has been further announced as the finance & strategy head of Disney Star.

    Dev Shenoy was named head of ad sales for the entertainment business, and Amrutha Nair was named executive vice president of entertainment ad sales and strategy. The executive director of ad sales for Hindi movies, Ankush Shetty, was promoted to sales director for the HSM GEC cluster. Senior vice president (ad sales) Prashant Shetty took on the role for Hindi movies.

    Disney associate director, ad sales Hitesh Shetty now handles Star Bharat. Anuradha Mathu Agrawal leads the Marathi, Bangla, and Odia channels. Executive director Milred Royan oversees Star Maa and Star Suvarna. Baagyalakshmi Nagarajan heads ad sales for the Tamil and Malayalam channels.

    Senior VP Samir Kadam is responsible for network accounts and the free-to-air portfolio. Executive director Nikhil Sheth heads brand solutions and new business development. Disney Star also elevated Ambarish Bandyopadhyay to sports sales head and Harry Griffith to rights acquisition & syndication (sports) head.

    Disney Star ad sales head Nitin Bawankule joined Amazon Web Services, while its content head, Gaurav Banerjee, joined Barc India’s technical committee.  Disney business operations, digital media for direct-to-consumer & international business head Nitin Chawla and Disney Star HR head for APAC & India Amita Maheshwari, both resigned.

    Shemaroo

    Shemaroo elevated Subhash Somani to lead the Hindi GEC cluster business and roped in Inderpal Singh Jaggi as head of India digital and international syndication. 

    It has also named Arghya Chakravarty as chief operating officer and elevated Rahul Mishra to head web 3.0 initiatives. Amit Haria has been elevated to become CFO. Prasanna Patil has been promoted as Shemaroo’s global telecom business head.

    Sony Pictures Networks Ltd.

    Ritesh Arora became the business affairs head at Sony Pictures International Productions, India.

    Sony Pictures Networks’ advisor to the management and board, Rohit Gupta, and SET & SonyLIV content head Ashish Golwalkar stepped down.

    Sony appointed Shony Panjikaran as GM & head of Sony Pictures Releasing International, India, and Lada Guruden Singh as GM & head of Sony Pictures International Productions, India. Barc India operations head Ankita Maheshwari joined Sony Music as GM-HR & CSR (India & Middle East).

    9X Media

    9X Media elevated Bhupendra Makhi as chief executive officer, while its chief business officer, Punit Pandey, moved on after 15 years of service. 9X Media senior vice president of finance Himindraa R. Saxena took additional charge of distribution for the network.

    Ajay Bedi, Darpan Kindalkar, & Anusri Unnikrishnan have been elevated as the national sales heads of 9X Jalwa, 9X Tashan, and 9X Jhakaas, respectively. 9X Media elevated Deepali Oroskar and Nihal Ghosh to senior vice presidents of advertising sales.

    Other movements:

    Shashi Sinha was appointed as new Barc India chairman.

    Enterr10 appointed Johnson Jain as chief revenue officer.

    Endemol Shine’s Anaya Mohanty joined Arré Studio as creative director & development head.

    Karan Pherwani and Mrunali Dedhia were promoted to vice president, Chtrbox, by QYOU Media Inc.

    Arré Voice appointed Gaana’s Divya Sharda as content head.

    Phantom Films’ CEO is Srishti Behl Arya.

    Rishi Negi has been appointed CEO of Endemol Shine India.

    Malayala Manorama Television appointed Smitha Narayanan as the new head of sales & marketing.

    Vice’s Virtue has appointed Hayden Scott as senior creative director for India

    Goldmines Telefilms brought Abid Qureshi & Vinod Nathan on as zonal ad sales heads.

    Pocket Aces elevated Rayvanta Kumar as head of the direct-to-consumer content business.

    Abhishek Kumar has been appointed Group CEO of Balaji Telefilms.

    Balaji Motion Pictures roped in Bhavini Sheth as chief operating officer.

  • 2022: The year of surprising account movements

    2022: The year of surprising account movements

    Mumbai: The year 2022 has finally seen a wrap, and Indiantelevision.com thought it would be great to put together a round-up of the advertising industry’s significant happenings, talking about the major account wins and mergers & acquisitions that took place.

    Getting on with the major account wins across creative, media and digital…

    WPP Group:

        Snack giant PepsiCo India ended its 30 years of partnership with WPP.

        Wunderman Thompson India won the creative mandate for Cera Sanitaryware.

        Contract Advertising won the mandate for Haldiram’s.

        Urban Company brought Initiative Media on board as its media agency on record.

        Mars retained WPP’s Mediacom as its global media agency.

        Mirum bagged the digital duties for IDFC Mutual Fund.

    The Glitch/VMLY&R

    Enamor appointed The Glitch as its agency on record. The agency also won Olx Autos’ digital mandate.

    Wavemaker

    In a severe blow to the WPP Group, Wavemaker lost the ITC Group’s media and digital business.

    The agency in turn gained the media mandate for Tata Consumer Products and Truecaller. Don’t know, though, if it would be enough to make up for the loss of the ITC biz.

    Essence

    Rebel Foods appoints Essence as its integrated media agency in India – the agency will help drive growth for brands like Behrouz Biryani, Faasos, Oven Story Pizza, Wendy’s, and EatSure, all operated by Rebel Foods.

    Beauty brand Plum India, too, assigned its integrated media duties to Essence.

    Omnicom Group India:

    Omnicom Media Group India won the integrated media mandate for Electrolux.

    BBDO

    Jack Daniel’s India appointed BBDO India as its integrated communications agency. The agency also won the creative mandate for Milkbasket.

    Publicis Groupe:

        One of the biggest account movements that took place in 2022 was that of Publicis Media winning PepsiCo India’s media agency mandate.

        Starcom bagged the media mandate for Vadilal Ice Creams.

        Hitachi assigned its creative duties to BBH India – the account was won after a multi-agency pitch.

    Leo Burnett

    PepsiCo, after ending its 30-year-old relationship with WPP, assigned its creative mandate to Publicis-owned Leo Burnett. The agency also won Meta’s corporate account.

    Leo Burnett became the global AOR for Jim Beam. Niva Bupa, too, onboarded the agency as its creative partner.

    L&K Saatchi & Saatchi

    L&K Saatchi & Saatchi bagged the creative mandate for Akasa Air and Somany Ceramics.

    Zenith

    Nestle India retained Zenith for its Rs 700 crore media account. The agency also bagged the media mandate for Eureka Forbes and the digital duties for LG Electronics.

    IPG Group:

        FCB Interface won the integrated creative mandate for Max Life Insurance.

        In a handsome win, IPG Mediabrands won ITC’s media and digital duties from GroupM’s Wavemaker. The account was worth Rs 600 crore.

        Lodestar UM retained BMW India’s integrated media mandate – the agency retained the media duties of the auto major for five more years following a multi-agency pitch.

    MullenLowe Lintas

    Mullen Lintas Delhi won the creative mandate for Vadilal Ice Creams, Ferns ‘N’ Petals, and ITC’s Fabelle.

    The agency also bagged the creative mandate for the Kolkata Knight Riders (IPL 2022).

    Interactive Avenues

    Interactive Avenues bagged the digital media mandate of Emami and Kohler.

    Havas Group:

        Burger King India assigned its digital mandate to Havas Worldwide India.

        Slurrp Farm’s integrated media mandate has been awarded to Havas Media Group India.

        Havas Media secured the integrated mandate for Valvoline and CoinSwitch.

    Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN):

        Taproot Dentsu won the creative mandate for Biba.

        Dentsu India won the integrated media account for Hero MotoCorp’s Vida.

        Dentsu Webchutney bagged the digital mandate for MakeMyTrip.

        Dentsu X won the digital media mandate for Dabur India and Reckitt Benckiser.

        Lenovo appointed Assembly and Dentsu as its media agencies of record.

    Zoo Media Network:

    Zoo Media Network secured the creative and branded content mandate for Kingfisher Premium and Ultra.

    FoxyMoron won Organic Tattva’s digital and performance marketing mandate. The agency also won the digital performance media mandate for Schwarzkopf Professional.

    Liqvd Asia:

    Liqvd Asia won the creative mandate for Go First. The agency also bagged the digital mandates for Parle Confectionery and Vega.

    Grapes Digital:

    Grapes bagged the integrated creative mandate for the media conglomerate, Zee Media. The agency also became the digital AOR for Faces Canada and the social media AOR for JBL.

    RepIndia:

    Sleepwell appointed RepIndia as its mainline agency for brand communication. The agency also bagged Haldiram’s digital mandate.

    Other important brand account movements include..

        Art-E MediaTech won the social media mandate for realme and the digital mandate for Pidilite Industries.

        Yellow bagged the creative account of Sephora India.

        SoCheers won the creative and digital mandate for Keya Foods.

        Humour Me bagged the creative mandate for Dunzo Daily.

        Meesho assigned its creative mandate to Sideways.

        Brand Visage bagged the digital mandate of Baidyanath Ayurved.

        Truecaller assigned its creative mandate to The Womb.

        Madison World bagged the integrated Godrej & Boyce media mandate.

        iCubesWire bagged the digital mandate for Luxor.

    Mergers and acquisitions (M&A):

        Langoor and Havas Group India decided to part ways.

        Homegrown advertising agency R K Swamy and international advertising network BBDO decided to part ways after an association of 37 years.

        Cake officially set up shop in India last year. Founded in 1999, this London-headquartered agency, which joined the Havas Group in 2008, chose India as its first global office outside the UK.

        WPP has acquired the remaining 26 per cent stake in MediaCom in India from Sam Balsara and Lara Balsara Vajifdar.

        GroupM merged Essence and Mediacom to form Essencemediacom, and Mindshare with Neo to form a new 9,000-person cross-channel performance platform based on AI technology.

    With so much happening in the year 2022, one can only look forward to what could happen this year!

  • Revisiting OTT’s top-level movements in 2022

    Revisiting OTT’s top-level movements in 2022

    Mumbai: The year 2022 proved to be a glorious year for OTT in terms of shows that worked and also got global recognition. The highlight has been how regional or local OTT players have found their footing in the media and entertainment industry. Indiantelevision.com has observed people’s movements in the OTT space.

    Getting on with movements of who’s who in OTT space ….

    Sony Pictures Network India appointed Saugata Mukherjee as content head of SonyLIV. Alt Balaji SVP of marketing, partnerships, & revenue Divya Dixit moved on. Snehil Dixit Mehra was named content & digital media head at ALTBalaji. Planet Marathi OTT roped in Shailesh Amonkar & Darshan Gangakhedkar as strategic advisors.

    Netflix

    Netflix marketing director (films & series) Shagun Seda moved on. She was in charge of the overall marketing of Netflix’s India content, brand, and talent. Netflix’s co-lead for series marketing, Tara Kapur, has joined Duolingo. Netflix content and brand marketing lead Dipashree Das also moved out of the streaming platform after a nearly six-year stint. Netflix India director – original films & licensing Pratiksha Rao decided to leave the organisation after four years of service.

    Netflix has hired Snap’s chief business officer Jeremi Gorman as president of Worldwide Advertising. The company has also roped in Snap’s VP of sales Peter Naylor, who serves as VP of advertising sales.

    Amazon

    Disney+ Hotstar’s original content head and EVP Nikhil Madhok joined Amazon Prime Video as its Hindi original content head. Amazon Prime Video head of acquisition – India content Manish Menghani has been elevated to director of content licencing for Prime Video and Amazon Studios.

    Amazon roped in former Times Network president – strategy & operations, digital & broadcast Vivek Srivastava joined Prime Video channels in India as head of partnerships.

    Disney+ Hotstar

    Disney’s international content and operations group appointed Sajith Sivanandan as executive vice president and head of Disney+ Hotstar. Disney+ Hotstar’s Udit Sharma joined ShareChat as chief revenue officer (CRO).

    Disney+ Hotstar’s marketing VP Goodies Narayanan joined Coursera as APAC CMO & D2C Business Head. Nishant Tandon has been named AVP-growth at Disney+ Hotstar. Disney+ Hotstar executive vice president (EVP) and chief marketing officer (CMO) Sidharth Shakdher took back his resignation. Namita Ved has joined Disney+ Hotstar as the head of customer marketing.

    Disney+ Hotstar’s vice president & product revenue strategy (entertainment) head Ankit Desai rejoined Marico as media & digital marketing head. Hotstar’s product SVP Gaurav Shahlot joined Khatabook as product head.

    MX player 

    MX Player’s Vivek Saxena joined InMobi as director of agency, programmatic & new business. MX Player & MX TakaTak SVP and revenue hed Viraj Jit Singh stepped down after an almost four-year stint. MX player head of strategic partnerships (All MXP businesses) – senior director Aditya Jhamb joined Viacom 18 Sports as senior vice president of partnerships (strategy, acquisitions & BD).

  • Movers & shakers of media agencies in 2022

    Movers & shakers of media agencies in 2022

    Mumbai: The first year after covid, 2022 has been that of exoduses and incomings, alike, for the media agency business. Not only the creative side, but the media side of the advertising industry, too, faced the backlash of the economic recession, which has directly or indirectly led to a toss-and-stir in the media agency biz. From appointments made at GroupM’s Wavemaker to the group making elevations at the newly formed EssenceMediacom, and restructuring at the helm of Lodestar, the media agency biz has been busy as a bee the whole year round.

    GroupM India:

    GroupM India promoted Ashwin Padmanabhan to the post of president of investments, trading, and partnerships. There were important APAC restructurings at the agency – Arshan Saha was pronounced CEO of GroupM Nexus APAC, Jon Thurlow was given an additional role of chief operating officer of GroupM Nexus APAC along with his corporate remit as chief operating officer of GroupM APAC, Deepika Nikhilender was elevated to CEO of Xaxis APAC, and Brett Poole was designated CEO of Finecast APAC and AUNZ.

    GroupM’s mSix&Partners elevated Subhamay Mukhopadhyay to managing partner. mSix&Partners national digital head Sahil Sachdeva quit; he went on to join GSK as the senior manager of digital marketing.

    Mirum got in Sooraj Keswani as brand management and strategy director.

    MediaCom appointed Rupert McPetrioe as the CEO of APAC.

    Sudip Sanyal moved on from GroupM.

    Essence/EssenceMediacom

    Following GroupM’s announcement of a global merger of Essence and MediaCom to form EssenceMediacom earlier this year, GroupM India elevated Navin Khemka as CEO and Sonali Malaviya as chief strategy and transformation officer for EssenceMediacom South Asia.

    Essence announced key leadership appointments – Bharati Joshi was roped in as vice president of product, India; Vinish Matthews would be vice president of client services for India and Southeast Asia; and Kunal Danda was brought in to head the agency’s Mumbai office as vice president of client services for India.

    Wavemaker

    Wavemaker India, one of the media agencies under the GroupM umbrella, announced Vishal Jacob as its chief transformation officer. The agency also appointed Deveshi Chugh as managing partner, Asia-Pacific; Radhika Radhakrishnan was roped in as the global chief financial officer.

    Wavemaker’s Suruchi Makhija moved to Essence as head of content. MediaCom’s Srinivas Rao moved to Wavemaker.

    Mindshare

    One of GroupM’s media agencies, Mindshare, elevated Amin Lakhani to CEO of South Asia; Parthasarathy Mandayam was appointed as chief strategy officer at GroupM South Asia.

    Mindshare appointed Sam Thomas as head of performance and product for India, Rehan Ali as partner of performance (North & East), Atishay Agrawal as senior director of performance (South), and Pratishtha Dehariya as partner of performance (West).

    Mindshare India also elevated Ruchi Mathur as its chief growth officer.

    IPG Mediabrands:

    Lodestar

    Nandini Dias quit as Lodestar UM CEO – Aditi Mishra stepped into her shoes; Hema Malik was pronounced chief investment officer of Mediabrands India.

    Interactive Avenues

    Pranali Sarkar joined Interactive Avenues as an associate vice president of media planning. The agency also appointed Juin Chakraborty as associate vice president of client servicing – West.

    Omnicom Media Group

    Omnicom Media Group (OMG) India welcomed Anand Chakravarthy as its chief growth officer. OMD India roped in Charul Tomar as its head of strategy; the agency also appointed Iti Kaul as head of digital practice.

    Carat India

    Carat India appointed Megha Jain as vice president of planning – South. The agency appointed Sayami Podder as associate vice president of strategy. Aruni Panda joined Carat India as digital vice president.

    Madison Media

    In a homecoming, Shobit Gaur returned to Madison Digital as vice president. Madison Media appointed Vinit Kumar as vice president.

    Madison Media chief operating officer Anita Bose put in her papers and joined Design Indya as president.

    Publicis Groupe’s Zenith India appointed Trishul Bhumkar as its managing partner.

    The new year is sure to bring in a fresh wave and high hopes for who will step in and out of the media advertising business, which is something we all need to look out for!

  • 5 sustainable brand campaigns that stood out in 2022

    5 sustainable brand campaigns that stood out in 2022

    Mumbai: While the world is on the brink of a new year, it’s about time that new resolutions are made and set. At times, we manage to be deterred enough to tick off the goal from our checklist that we had set out to achieve, and on other occasions, we barely manage to live up to it. But there’s one such collective resolution that we ought to strive for and fulfil despite the relentless struggles – the resolution to make the earth greener and better. And to follow suit, here are five brands that have stepped forward in pursuit of repairing the planet:

     1.Log9 Materials’ #MadeForThemAsWell:

    Mankind’s irresponsible actions have pushed the environment to a state of irreversible damage. Ever since Log9’s inception, their focal point has been pioneering responsible energy solutions that infuse conscience into commerce. Log9, a deep-tech startup that aims to bring about changes in the electric vehicle industry, Log9 has invested in sustainable energy solutions. The batteries they develop are suited for tropical climates and promise a life span of 15 years.

    2. #JaagoRe by Tata Tea to fight climate change:

    The campaign initiated by Tata Consumer aimed to create a climate-resilient supply chain by making the agricultural sector more sustainable. Tata collaborated with various partners to help tea farmers and producers and trained them on a range of sustainable agricultural practices, based on their specific situation and location. Between 2010 and 2020, Tata exceeded its target and reduced emissions of greenhouse gases by 26 per cent.

    3. Himalaya Wellness Company’s tree plantation initiative:

    Himalaya started its tree plantation drive in 2012 and has planted over 8,00,000 trees of 89 species in the western ghats. It partnered with the Society for Environment and Biodiversity Conservation (SEBC) to plant an additional 1,00,000 saplings of trees across the western ghats. Preserving flora and fauna remains core to Himalaya’s beliefs, and to practise what they preach, the tree plantation drive was born. This also paved the way for a number of employment opportunities for the local communities.

    4. Hyundai Motor India’s ‘save water challenge’ for customers:

    Hyundai encouraged its customers to choose dry washing when they took their cars in for servicing. Each dry wash saved approximately 120 litres of water. The 15-day ‘save water challenge’ commenced from 3 June 2022 and rewarded participants with online and offline activities.

    5. Nestle Maggi’s campaign “2-minute Safai Ke Naam”:

    This video campaign by Nestle was launched on World Environment Day 2022 and featured the Bollywood actor Rajkumar Rao to boost one of its renowned products, Maggi. They aimed to support “Swachh Bharat Abhigyan” and suggested customers throw the wrapper in a dry garbage bin. The idea was to instil in people that it takes just about two minutes to make a difference when one truly cares. It urged Maggi fanatics to not litter the surroundings by leaving the wrapper out in the open and instead dumping it in the dry waste bin.

  • Movers & shakers of advertising in 2022

    Movers & shakers of advertising in 2022

    Mumbai: This year, being the first since covid was done and dusted away with, has been one of upliftment for all industries, and advertising is no different. On the people movements’ front, however, Indiantelevision.com observed this year to be the year of churn for the advertising industry. From a slew of exits from Dentsu India, restructuring at VMLY&R, and key leadership changes at the helm of MullenLowe Lintas to various appointments and departures across the industry, it has been quite a ride.

    Getting on with the movements of the who’s who of advertising…

    WPP Group:

    Ogilvy

    In an interesting turn of events, Devika Bulchandani was brought to the helm of Ogilvy Group’s worldwide operations as global CEO – prior to this, she was global president and CEO of Ogilvy North America. Her visit to India was quite an elaborate affair.

    Also, Sumanto Chattopadhyay, aka Sumo – one of the oldest creative hands of the Ogilvy India Group with an association spanning three decades and chairman and chief creative officer of 82.5 Communications, decided to hang up his boots after spending three decades with the agency. Anuraag Khandelwal and Mayur Varma took on the role of joint chief creative officers of 82.5 Communications.

    The agency announced the promotion of Ganapathy Balagopalan to deputy chief strategy officer. Tithi Ghosh became president and head of Ogilvy Bengaluru. Hirol Gandhi took over as president and head of the Mumbai and Kolkata offices at the agency.

    Prakash Nair was elevated as president and head of office at Ogilvy Gurugram.

    Kunal Jeswani moved to Singapore as group CEO, and VR Rajesh took over the India role as group president.

    After the departure of Mahesh Gharat and Kiran Anthony, who held the designation of co-chief creative officers of Ogilvy South, the agency onboarded Puneet Kapoor as chief creative officer for the agency’s South operations.

    Former Ogilvy exec Samrat Bedi, who was playing the role of president at 82.5 Communications, joined Gozoop as CEO India.

    Ogilvy India president and head of office Shouvik Roy joined G.O.A.T Brand Labs. Ogilvy’s senior creative director Nikhil Narayanan moved on.

    Wunderman Thompson

    Ad veteran and long hand of 22 years at Wunderman Thompson, Tista Sen bid adieu to the agency. The agency also made senior appointments at its Mumbai office – Rakesh Varma as vice president and executive business director and Abhay Godbole as vice president and client servicing director.

    Jyoti Mahendru joined Wunderman Thompson as chief people officer. Wunderman Thompson Kolkata appointed Ayan Banik as senior vice president of brand strategy.

    VMLY&R

    VMLY&R got Saurabh Saksena as CEO when Pooja Jauhari put in her papers as group CEO of the agency. The founders of The Glitch, the VMLY&R network’s digital-first creative agency, Varun Duggirala and Rohit Raj, stepped down from their roles.

    IPG Group:

    MullenLowe Lintas

    MullenLowe Lintas saw senior-level departures – group CEO Virat Tandon and group chief creative officer, and chairman Amer Jaleel, decided to move on. S Subramanyeswar aka Subbu donned the hat of group CEO. Vidyanath PA quit Ogilvy to join MullenLowe Lintas as group creative director.

    Lowe Lintas appointed Shayondeep Pal as the regional creative officer of the Bangalore office.

    Azazul Haque moved on from MullenLowe Lintas and joined Media.Monks as the chief content officer.

    MullenLowe Lintas’ newly launched branded and original content division, Lintas C:EX Entertainment, appointed Niranjana H as creative director of brand solutions.

    Lintas C:EX Entertainment also brought in Shailendra Jha as the lead content advisor—fiction.

    Reuben Karkaria took up the role of group creative director at Lintas Live, the PR division of the MullenLowe Lintas Group.

    FCB

    FCB India hired Abhinav Kaushik as their new president, and Udayan Chakravarty was roped in as its executive creative director. FCB Interface appointed Aditi Patwardhan as chief strategy officer.

    Kinnect

    Kinnect announced leadership elevations: Kartikeya Tiwari was promoted to national creative director; Mithun Mukherjee and Ashish Tambe were pronounced executive creative directors.

    Varun Bansal joined Kinnect as an associate vice president for media to look after the Delhi operations. The agency also brought in Ankur Garg as executive creative director—Delhi and Bengaluru.

    McCann Worldgroup

    Vishal Ahluwalia has been named president of McCann Worldgroup’s south operations. PK Anil Kumar joined McCann Health as head of creative.

    Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN):

    Dentsu India was abuzz with people stepping in and out of the agency, literally, in 2022. Dentsu CEO APAC and chairman India Ashish Bhasin made headlines after resigning after 13 years and joining RD&X Network as co-founder and chairman.

    Sidharth Rao stepped down as CEO of dentsuMB Group India – he went on to set up a martech outfit with Madhu Sudan, Punt Partners.

    Taproot Dentsu chief creative officer Titus Upputuru put in his papers and flagged off his company – The Titus Upputuru Company, which offers creative and strategic solutions.

    Dentsu India onboarded Sunil Lulla as a consultant advisor.

    Dentsu India also roped in Bhasker Jaiswal as the chief operating officer of media. Unmesh Pawar was appointed chief people officer for India and South Asia. DentsuMB and Dentsu Webchutney chief creative officer Arjuna Gaur quit the agency in October – he had joined the agency network in April.

    Dentsu Creative India brought in Joy Mohanty as chief creative officer, and onboarded Dalip Daniel and Tulika Seth as executive creative director and group creative director, respectively. The agency also welcomed Ajeet Shukla as the group executive creative director.

    Sumeer Mathur joined Dentsu Creative as chief strategy officer; Sudhir Das came in as executive creative director; and Anu Gulati, too, was roped in as executive creative director.

    Dentsu India’s chief operating officer Narayan Devanathan, moved on. The agency appointed Saagar Sethi to lead Amplifi in India, who would additionally drive The Story Lab and Posterscope.

    Dentsu India appointed Aalap Desai to lead Taproot Dentsu & Isobar India as chief creative officer.

    Dentsu Isobar’s executive vice president Gurjot Shah Singh moved on. Dentsu International’s chief human resource office Rohit Suri jumped ship to Netflix as head of talent for the OTT major. Dentsu Webchutney’s Ashwin Palkar moved on; the agency elevated Harsh Shah to managing partner.

    Publicis Groupe:

    Publicis Worldwide India roped in Oindrila Roy as managing director at the agency; Srijan Shukla and Pratheeb Ravi were appointed as creative heads. The agency also roped in Nitin Sharma as senior vice president and head of client services, who would be based out of the Mumbai office.

    Google’s Amaresh Godbole joined Publicis Groupe India as CEO of its digital technology business.

    Pallav Jain and Sarfaraz Khimani, who were the co-CEOs of Performics India, decided to step down from their roles and move into a more developmental role – Publicis Groupe India appointed Lalatendu Das as CEO of Performics India.

    Publicis Groupe elevated Jose Leon as managing director of Indigo Consulting. Indigo Consulting appointed Sanjeev Kumar as senior vice president of customer success and operational excellence.

    Shonali Sharma has joined Publicis In-Motion to lead Arc Worldwide’s Delhi office.

    Publicis Media Services appointed Vivek Tyagi as head of performance marketing; Rajesh Viswanath joined as senior vice president of data sciences.

    Publicis Groupe brought in Hari Krishnan as managing director and head of Publicis Content.

    Anindya Banerjee was brought in as the new creative head for Publicis Health.

    Publicis Emil senior vice presient Anil Kotian quit and joined Zee5.

    Leo Burnett

    In a restructuring at Publicis Groupe India, Dheeraj Sinha was appointed as the chairman of BBH India, in addition to his existing mandate as CEO and chief strategy officer of Leo Burnett, South Asia. Subhash Kamath moved into an advisory role for the Groupe on other strategic initiatives.

    Amit Nandwani, who held the post of executive creative director and content head at Leo Burnett and was based out of the agency’s Gurugram office for nine years, quit the agency. Leo Burnett welcomed Bala G as its new executive creative director.

    Publicis Groupe also announced the launch of its creative council for South Asia – in addition to his role as CEO and chief creative officer of Leo Burnett South Asia, Rajdeepak Das was appointed chairman of the newly formed council.

    BBH India

    BBH India CEO and chief creative officer Russell Barrett decided to move on from the agency. The agency announced the promotions of Priya Gurnani and Arvind Menon as executive creative directors. It also appointed George Sebastian as executive creative director. BBH India elevated Radhika Burman to vice president and head of its Delhi operations.

    BBH India managing director Arvind Krishnan bid adieu to the agency; he got together with Prajato Guha Thakurta (Projo), who quit his role as national creative director at Leo Burnett India, to launch Manja.

    Digitas India

    Digitas India, Publicis Groupe’s marketing and technology services agency, made key senior-level appointments: Mohammedullah Shaikh aka Shariq and Richa Chugh were roped in as senior vice president and head of tech services and vice president of media, respectively. Digitas India appointed Abhinav Parshad as senior creative director; the agency roped in Abraham Varughese as the chief creative officer.

    L&K Saatchi & Saatchi

    L&K Saatchi & Saatchi India appointed Shitu Patil as head of art and executive creative director. The agency also appointed Avinash Jakhalekar as group creative director. Neeraj Sharma has been appointed senior vice president at L&K Saatchi & Saatchi. The agency appointed Amitabh Sreedharan as vice president.

    Omnicom Group:

    DDB Mudra

    DDB Mudra got Manish Darji as head of art – West. The agency appointed Aniruddha Deb as executive vice president and head of business—North. DDB Mudra Group also elevated Vanaja Pillai to head of diversity, inclusion, and impact.

    DDB Mudra appointed Mehak Jaini as strategy chief; the agency brought in Gauri Burma as associate creative director.

    Anand Murty and Pallavi Chakravarti, who held the positions of national strategy head and creative head west, respectively, at DDB Mudra, moved on from the agency.

    BBDO India appointed Naina Meattle as vice president of brand planning.

    TBWAIndia brought in Amit Kekre as chief strategy officer.

    Interbrand elevated Ashish Mishra as CEO, India and South Asia. The agency also appointed Satish Krishnamurthy as chief strategy officer.

    22feet Tribal Worldwide appointed Vishnu Srivatsav as national creative director.

    Havas Group:

    Jaibeer Ahmed quit Cheil after working there for three years and went on to join Havas Worldwide India as managing partner—North. Havas Group India’s health, wellness marcom and digital agency, Havas Life Sorento, elevated Sachin Talwalkar from executive creative director to chief creative officer.

    Havas Group India’s creative arm, Havas Worldwide India, welcomed Anupama Ramaswamy as the new chief creative officer; Nikhil Guha and Neeraj Toor were brought in as group creative directors. Govind Agarwal joined the agency’s Mumbai office as vice president – account management; Sulagna Chanda and Neha Gupta got in at the agency’s Delhi office as associate vice presidents of strategic planning and associate vice president – client servicing, respectively.

    Havas Worldwide appointed Jigisha Chawla as executive vice president for the Gurgaon office.

    Havas Sports & Entertainment roped in Arun Kumar Rao as senior vice-president. Havas CX strengthened its leadership with key appointments – Arunima Singh was appointed as vice president – customer success and Ashtad Gandhi was roped in as associate vice president – data and analytics.

    Havas Media Group elevated Uday Mohan to president and chief client officer. Havas Media Group brought in Chandra P Dobhal as executive vice president – investment.

    Cheil India

    Cheil India chief creative officer Emmanuel Upputuru quit the agency to set up his own outfit – Efgh Brand Innovations.

    Vikas Chemjong stepped in as the new chief creative officer of Cheil India. Kaushik Datta joined the agency as executive creative director. Cheil India senior vice president for integrated campaigns Abhishek Sen moved on from his role after spending six years at the agency.

    Wieden + Kennedy

    Ayesha Ghosh and Santosh Padhi aka Paddy quit Taproot Dentsu and joined Wieden+Kennedy as managing director and chief creative officer, respectively. Anirban Roy was allotted the position of head of strategic planning at Wieden + Kennedy India.

    Schbang

    Schbang elevated Aditya Mehendale to national creative director. FCB India senior creative director Manish Kinger put in his papers—he joined Schbang as executive creative director. Also, Amit Dhawan, who was the founding partner and business head of the Delhi operations of Schbang, went on to join Art-E MediaTech.

    Famous Innovations

    Famous Innovations elevated Mithila Saraf as CEO, and also roped in Mitali Srivastava Hough as national planning head. The agency appointed Tarvinderjit Singh as creative head, Delhi. Famous Innovations roped in two business heads – Renjita Menon and Kaushal Kansara.

    RepIndia

    RepIndia announced elevations in its senior leadership team – Nazneen Joshi was elevated to senior vice president of business and strategy (West); Neelanjan Dasgupta was promoted to the role of creative head (west) and Nikhil Kashyap was appointed as the vice president of business and strategy (North).

    Durgesh Tiwari joined RepIndia as a senior account director.

    Wondrlab

    Wondrlab brought in Bhavesh Kosambia as the content lead. Rajesh Ghatge was appointed as the CEO of Wondrlab Technologies, the outfit set up by Wondrlab to help businesses and brands adapt to the industry 4.0 digital landscape. The agency appointed Sameet Ali Soni as the content lead.

    Wondrlab roped in Siddhyesh Narkar as CTO and Shama Sayed as head of sales.

    Additionally, these movements also took place…

    Amit Saxena joined WPP’s Red Fuse Communications as head of digital and data.

    Ferzad Variyava was roped in by Langoor as chief creative officer.

    Manoj Jacob joined Crayons’ Delhi office as executive creative director.

    Chimp&z Inc. elevated Ashish Duggal as chief operating officer.

    Grey India promoted Rahul Pahwa to senior vice president and business head, North.

    Infectious Advertising brought in Siddhartha Singh as managing partner and chief operating officer; Anil Jayachandran was appointed as the agency’s chief strategy officer.

    Virtue, the creative agency powered by VICE, appointed Hayden Scott as senior creative director for India.

    FoxyMoron appointed Alin Choubey as business head, North. Chirag Sangai was roped in by Sociowash as the business head of the Mumbai office.

    Aejaz Khan was appointed as CEO at Makani Creatives.

    Liqvd Asia appointed Anish Varghese as chief creative officer and roped in Praveen Nair as its joint national creative director.

    Gozoop promoted Ahmed Aftab Naqvi as its global CEO. Burzin Mehta joined Gozoop Group as its chief creative officer.

    Thought Blurb Communications elevated Renu Somani to national creative director.

    Shashwat Manohar joined Enormous as vice president and head of digital.

    Grapes elevated Shradha Agarwal to CEO, and the agency appointed Partha Sengupta as creative director.

    HiveMinds appointed Saurabh Tyagi as chief client officer. HiveMinds Innovative roped in Aayush Arora as vice president – client success, at Gurgaon.

    Hashtag Orange roped in Amit Shankar as co-founder and chief creative officer; it also appointed Gauri Awasthi as chief digital officer.

    The year saw a lot of ups and downs, and we also lost a few stars along the way. One of the many includes the “grand old man” of Indian advertising, Gerson daCunha. We know that he made advertising a better place in his own way, and would be dearly missed.

    Dan Wieden, the man behind Wieden+Kennedy’s very famous ‘Just Do It’ tagline, which has stuck with the brand Nike, too, breathed his last this year.

    All in all, 2002 was a year that saw a mixed bag of comings and goings to and from the advertising industry. Let’s see what the new year has in store.

  • The industry witnessed a strong & steady comeback: Inox Leisure Ltd.’s Puneet Gupta

    The industry witnessed a strong & steady comeback: Inox Leisure Ltd.’s Puneet Gupta

    Mumbai: The year 2022 has been a roller coaster ride for the film industry when it comes to hits and flops. Post covid pandemic lockdown theatres were opened and witnessed steady growth in 2022, with a good response to Bollywood, Hollywood, and regional movies.

    Inox has 169 multiplexes spanning 720 screens across 74 cities. Inox recently launched Megaplex, a massive experience-driven entertainment destination at Palassio Mall in Lucknow and Inorbit Mall in Malad, Mumbai.

    In a conversation with Indiantelevision.com, Inox Leisure Ltd. corporate communications & marketing AVP Puneet Gupta discussed how the year 2022 went for Inox.

    Gupta has an overall work experience of 18+ years with organisations like Bharti Airtel Ltd., Market City Resources, & Jet Airways.

    At Inox, Gupta leads the PR & marketing responsibilities for the company and has led numerous brand and PR campaigns aimed at strengthening brand Inox’s recall and affinity among the masses. He has redrawn the marketing strategy at Inox, which revolved around technology, luxury & lifestyle, food & beverage, media & entertainment, and sports, besides innovations in movie promotions. Gupta, at 40, is fond of road trips, shopping, and eating out.

    Edited Excerpt:

    On the year 2022

    Cinema, in its century-long journey, has stomped over numerous challenges while redefining their propositions. 2022 will be remembered as yet another such milestone, when the industry not only defied a massive upheaval that called the industry’s existence into question but also staged a comeback. The year 2022 has had its fair share of brilliance in terms of content, creativity, and performance, which pushed the business measures closer to the pre-covid levels. The cinema exhibition industry has been witnessing robust growth in our country, thanks to the never-ending love for cinemas. Overall, the entertainment industry explored numerous eye-catching trends, and the year can be described as a test of the industry’s smarts and agility.

    On what worked in 2022

    Content has always been and will remain the driving factor for the business in any year. What makes the industry’s performance worth appreciating is how it recovered steadily post-pandemic, with every movie playing a part. While the reopening of cinemas was ushered in by the release of KGF 2 and Gangubai Kathiawadi, the release of The Kashmir Files and RRR ensured that crowds visited the cinemas at full strength. Bhool Bulaiyaa 2 became the much-needed fulcrum, and ultimately, the country was overawed with the storytelling of Kantara and the suspense of Drishyam 2. The roles of Top Gun: Maverick, Batman, Black Adam, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness were significant too. Finally, Avatar: The Way of Water was given a stupendous reception by the crowds, ensuring a fitting end to the year 2022.

    On the footfall

    The footfall trends have been extremely inspiring and indicate that the country’s passionate fondness for cinemas is intact, despite the pandemic. Once the content supply chain returns to normalcy in terms of the production cycle, the industry will witness its usual optimism and growth trends.

    On the pricing

    We will continue to price ourselves according to the content quality, time of the day, day of the week, paying propensity, and other cost parameters.

    On Avatar 2

    Avatar 2 has surpassed our expectations and performed phenomenally well in theaters. With its production quality, the movie has already enthralled millions.

    On learnings from 2022

    We have always believed that in the post-pandemic era, consumers would rely on brands they trusted. The year 2022 was a true testimony to this belief, as we enjoyed the support of the trust and faith that we had built over the years. We couldn’t have asked for more in the 20th year of our existence.

    On expectations in 2023

    We expect great consistency in the business going forward, thanks to a fascinating content lineup in 2023. There are some massive tentpoles like Cirkus, Pathan, Tehran, Shehzada, Maidaan, Selfiee, Pippa, Bholaa, and Bawaal, etc. in the immediate six months from now, besides a slew of content-driven, small-budget movies that might just spring a surprise. On the English front, we have movies like Kraven the Hunter, Ant-Man and The Wasp—Quantumania, Dungeons and Dragons, and Shazam: Fury of the Gods. Starting from Dhamaka (Telugu), Vedha (Kannada), Ved (Marathi), Thunivu (Tamil), and Alone (Malayalam), movies from other Indian languages are also going to provide a boost to BO collections. There are plenty of movies in Marathi, Punjabi, and Gujarati that would keep the cash registers ticking at a healthy rate.

    While the content plays its part, we will continue to innovate and focus on our re-engineered approach to our F&B business, with the addition of more F&B concepts and menu choices.

    Our innovation strategy would be driven by our unique brand partnerships and alternate content screening. The response to the Fifa World Cup and the ICC T20 World Cup has been nothing short of inspiring, and we will continue to strengthen our sports offering.

    On the 270-degree theatre in Malad

    We were the first in the industry to introduce 270-degree projection technology in India, called ScreenX. ScreenX technology offers an unparalleled 270-degree cinema viewing experience on three walls of the theatre. Audiences can see select scenes of their favourite movies expand to the left and right walls of the theatre, promising an immersive experience. The action sequences can be best experienced on the widest possible cinema screens, taking visuals to viewers’ peripheral vision and making them feel like they’re part of on-screen events. This new format has opened up new avenues for the viewer’s experiences, and it has left the audience breathless since its debut. We have received a phenomenal response from the audience about their experience with ScreenX at Malad.