MUMBAI: DDB Mudra West has won the creative mandate for ICICI Lombard General Insurance, post a rigorous multi-agency pitch. DDB Mudra West’s Mumbai team will lead the account.

ICICI Lombard General Insurance is a joint venture between ICICI Bank, India’s second largest bank with total assets of over $99 billion as of  31 March 2014 and Fairfax Financial Holdings, a Canada based $ 37 billion diversified financial services company engaged in general insurance, reinsurance, insurance claims management and investment management.

DDB Mudra Group executive director & DDB Mudra West president Rajiv Sabnis said, “ICICI Lombard General Insurance has already established a strong leadership through its promise of efficient and speedy claim settlement articulated as “Nibhaye Vaade” in its communication. Our challenge was to give sharper meaning to this promise while also contextualizing General Insurance in a new light. Most of General Insurance (Auto, Travel, Health) bought today is transactional and more or less mandated. We presented our point-of-view on how to make this category more relevant to people’s lives. It is an interesting journey and we are excited that ICICI Lombard chose DDB Mudra to take the brand to the next level.”

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MUMBAI: DDB Mudra West has roped in Rahul Mathew to lead the agency’s creative output.

Mathew will partner DDB Mudra West president Rajiv Sabnis and work closely with the group’s chairman and CCO Sonal Dabral, who he will be reporting in to.

Prior to this, Mathew was with McCann Erikson as the executive creative director. His career spans over 15 years wherein he has worked with some of the leading advertising networks including Ogilvy, JWT, Leo Burnett, Y&R (in Kuala Lumpur and India).

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Commenting on his new role, Mathew said, “Few agencies, the world over, can boast of a creative culture the likes of DDB. And to be appointed a custodian of such a celebrated culture is both exciting and frightening.  But with the talented bunch at the agency, Sonal and I hope to make DDB Mudra West one of the brightest stars in the DDB constellation.”

He will be working on clients including Future Group, Volkswagen, Johnson & Johnson, Kalpataru, Hindustan Unilever, Union Bank, Marico, Emirates, Gulf Oil, Godrej, Lavasa, Arvind, Adani Group, CenturyPly, Raj Petro among others among others. Rahul will Rahul joins the DDB Mudra Group from McCann Erickson, where he was the Executive Creative Director of its highly reputed Mumbai office.

DDB Mudra Group chairman & CCO Sonal Dabral said, “I’m very excited to welcome Rahul to the DDB Mudra Group family. I’ve known Rahul for a while now and have followed his career across countries and agencies, seeing him build brands and win multiple awards along the way. A new age creative thinker equally adept at traditional and nontraditional media, Rahul is just the talent to lead the creative teams in DDB Mudra West. With Andee leading the creative charge in MudraMax, Vipul in DDB Mudra South, Sambit in DDB Mudra North and now Rahul coming in to lead DDB Mudra West, we now have a formidable creative leadership in place. I’m looking forward to the teams creating some fantastic work for our clients in the coming years.”

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Adding to this, DDB Mudra Group West president Rajiv Sabnis said, “DDB Mudra West is the largest advertising unit of the Group, and it now needed a seasoned and talented creative partner like Rahul. With Rahul coming on board, our ability to provide creative business solutions to our clients gets a strong fillip. His experience across brands and the business success and creative recognition his work has received, are the reasons why we are welcoming him into the family today. Rahul comes across not just as a sharp professional but also a rooted person. We have had a great year in 2013 and we look to further strengthen our position in 2014 and beyond. We are hoping that Rahul will be an integral part of the journey hereon.”

Mathew’s work has been awarded in many forums, both international and local. He has won over 100 awards as the writer and has guided teams to about another 100. These include prestigious awards like Cannes, One Show and Clio; and includes precious metals like Grand Prixs.

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In 2013, he was ranked as the eighth most awarded writer by Campaign Asia. While in 2009, Campaign Brief Asia ranked him amongst the 5 most creative people in India. And even more recently, his Western Union Billboard was ranked the most awarded outdoor by the Advertising Age & Creativity 2013 Global Awards report.

MUMBAI: DDB Mudra Group has released its maiden Youth Report themed on “Beauty Money Sex Love Faith Substance”, the six entities which most acutely influence the choices and aspirations of urban young Indians.

“Our role has been to merely curate the content so as to ensure the insights are raw and relevant. We have further ensured the focus is on the core thought process that goes behind brand decisions which is more sustained so that the data can be of use to marketers while developing their communication” explains DDB Mudra Group chief operating officer Pratap Bose.

The report, unlike any other, has been collated by a panel of 40 college students, who themselves are a part of the TG, across five major cities including Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata.

“This report also features our six mindset archetypes, a proprietary tool we use to cut through conventional SECs to better understand youth buying behavior given the diversity and continuous evolution of this TG,” adds the agency’s chief youth marketer Samyak Chakrabarty.

Click here for complete report

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