MAM
Havas Creative Network India’s key leaders elevated
Mumbai: Havas India, part of Paris-headquartered global communications network Havas, has announced a significant leadership transition across three key agencies under the Havas Creative Network India umbrella, including Havas Worldwide India (creative), Conran Design Mumbai (brand design), and Havas CX India (customer experience).
1 Havas Worldwide India managing partner Kundan Joshee has been promoted as managing director of the India operations.
2 Havas Worldwide India CCO Anupama Ramaswamy, will also mantle the additional responsibility of joint managing director along with the CCO profile.
3 Conran Design Mumbai managing partner Geet Nazir, has been elevated to managing director of the agency.
4 Havas CX India managing partner Prashant Tekwani has been elevated to managing director of both Havas CX India and Ekino (technology) India.
Strengthening the creative network in India:
Havas Creative Network India, which now consists of eight agencies, has been growing steadily, driven by global expertise, acquisitions, new business wins, a strong talent pool, and numerous award wins. Havas Worldwide India, Conran Design Mumbai and Havas CX India have played a critical role in positioning the overall Havas Creative Network India as one the most future-ready networks in the country.
In addition, the Creative Network includes Think Design (UI/UX) led by Deepali Saini, CEO, Shobiz (experiential) led by Sameer Tobaccowala, CEO, PR Pundit Havas Red (public relations) led by Archana Jain, CEO, Havas People (employer branding) led by Arindam Sengupta as Managing Director, and Prose on Pixels (production) led by Makarand Nirmal, Vice President – Operations.
While Kundan, Geet and Prashant will be based out of Mumbai, Anupama will continue to be based out of Gurgaon. All four along with Sameer, Archana, Deepali and Arindam will continue to report to Havas India, South East Asia & North Asia (Japan & South Korea) Group CEO Rana Barua.
Over the last one year, Havas Worldwide India witnessed a flux due to some leadership exits but even during this period of transition, both Anupama and Kundan played a pivotal role in further consolidating the agency and strengthening its relationships with key clients like Reckitt, Stellantis, MamaEarth, Suzuki, William Grant, UTI Mutual Fund and Harman, amongst others. Anupama has been instrumental in not just creating some of the most talked-about campaigns of the last two years for clients including Harpic, Veet, Mortein, Mamaearth, IQOO, Vivo, Karnataka Bank, UTI Mutual Funds, Vanish and many more but also in consolidating and building a strong creative team. Meanwhile, Kundan has helped in fortifying and stabilising client relationships, winning several new businesses like Karnataka Bank, Indie (IndusInd Bank), IQOO and RealMe, to name a few, and streamlining processes that have strengthened the overall business, attracted talent, and increased client satisfaction scores.
Conran Design Mumbai was launched in 2021 under the leadership of Geet Nazir, who has led the agency to become one of the most prominent brand and design consultancies in India. Over the past three years, the agency has built a roster of marquee clients including Zydus Lifesciences, PayU, Coca-Cola India, Nestle, Usha Martin, to name a few. Within three years of its existence, Conran has won prestigious local and global awards including a Gold at Transform Asia, Silver in the South Asia Brand Design Agency of the Year category at Campaign’s Agency Of The Year Awards 2023 amongst many more. Recently, Havas launched Conran Design Group network, a new global offering dedicated to brand and design, based on the long-standing expertise and talent at Conran Design Group, and W, Havas’ leading creative branding agency in France. Geet’s elevation comes at this critical juncture and will play a central role in scaling up the agency further.
Prashant has been instrumental in building and leading Havas CX in India since 2020. Over the years, he has steadily built and consolidated the agency through a strong CX team along with Ekino, and some of the biggest clients including Bandhan Life (erstwhile Aegon Life), Bosch Mobility Services, Tata Steel, STT Telecommunications, Air Asia, to name a few. Over the years, the X-Index proprietary study by Havas CX has also made the agency a strong voice in the industry. Going forward, with Prashant at the helm, Havas CX India is going to play a more critical role in the region and scale up its India operations by ramping up talent and expertise like CRM, technology, loyalty, etc.
The journey ahead:
This transition marks an exciting phase for Havas India as it continues to innovate, lead, and deliver exceptional results for its clients.
In discussing the recent elevations, Rana Barua emphasised the strategic trajectory of the organisation, stating, “Over the past few years, our focus has been on enhancing our expertise and solidifying our position as the most progressive communications network in India. While our Media Network, under the leadership of Mohit Joshi, Uday Mohan, R Venkat, and Shibu Shivanandan, has thrived, Havas Creative Network India has grown exponentially both organically and inorganically and has built the creative repertoire of Havas India.”
“Kundan, Anupama, Geet, and Prashant have been instrumental in scaling up the operations of their respective agencies, demonstrating resilience and genuine leadership qualities,” Rana continued. “As we transition towards a new phase of growth, I am confident that these four leaders will play an even greater role in driving our growth, both within India and on a global scale. Their dedication and leadership is paving the way for our future success. I wish them all the best.”
MAM
Nielsen launches co-viewing pilot to sharpen TV measurement
Super Bowl pilot to refine how shared TV audiences are counted
MUMBAI: Nielsen is taking a fresh stab at one of television’s oldest blind spots: how many people are actually watching the same screen. The audience-measurement giant on February 4 unveiled a co-viewing pilot that uses wearable devices to better capture shared viewing, starting with America’s biggest broadcast stage.
The trial begins with Super Bowl LX on NBC on February 8, 2026, before extending to other high-profile live sports and entertainment events in the first half of the year. The goal is simple but commercially potent: count viewers more accurately, especially during live spectacles that pull families and friends to one screen.
The new approach leans on Nielsen’s proprietary wearable meters, wrist-worn devices that resemble smartwatches. These passively capture audio signatures from TV content, logging exposure to shows, films and live events without requiring viewers to sign in or self-report. In theory, fewer clicks, fewer lapses, better data.
Karthik Rao, Nielsen’s ceo, cast the move as part of a broader measurement push. He said the company’s task is to keep pushing accuracy as clients invest heavily in live programming that draws mass audiences. The co-viewing pilot, he added, builds on upgrades such as Big Data + Panel measurement, out-of-home expansion, live-streaming metrics and wearable-based tracking.
Co-viewing is not new territory for Nielsen, which has long tried to estimate how many people sit before a single set. What is new is the heavier integration of wearables and passive detection to reduce reliance on active inputs from panel homes.
For now, the pilot comes with caveats. Co-viewing estimates from the trial will not be folded into Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel ratings, which remain the industry’s trading currency. Instead, pilot findings will be shared with clients a few weeks after final Big Data + Panel ratings are delivered. Clients may disclose those findings publicly.
More impact data will follow later this year. Full integration into Nielsen’s marketing-intelligence suite is slated as a longer-term play, with a target of bringing co-viewing into currency measurement for the 2026–2027 season. This is only phase one, with further co-viewing enhancements planned beyond 2026 and additional timelines to be announced.
The push fits a wider pattern. Nielsen has in recent years expanded big-data integration, adopted first-party data for live-streaming measurement and broadened out-of-home tracking. It also positions itself as the reference point for streaming metrics through products such as The Gauge and the Nielsen Streaming Top 10.
In a market where billions of ad dollars hinge on decimal points, counting who is in the room matters. If Nielsen can pin down shared viewing, the humble sofa could become prime measurement real estate. The race to count every eyeball just found a new wrist to watch.
Brands
Delhivery chairman Deepak Kapoor, independent director Saugata Gupta quit board
Gurugram: Delhivery’s boardroom is being reset. Deepak Kapoor, chairman and independent director, has resigned with effect from April 1 as part of a planned board reconstitution, the logistics company said in an exchange filing. Saugata Gupta, managing director and chief executive of FMCG major Marico and an independent director on Delhivery’s board, has also stepped down.
Kapoor exits after an eight-year stint that included steering the company through its 2022 stock-market debut, a period that saw Delhivery transform from a venture-backed upstart into one of India’s most visible logistics platforms. Gupta, who joined the board in 2021, departs alongside him, marking a simultaneous clearing of two senior independent seats.
“Deepak and Saugata have been instrumental in our process of recognising the need for and enabling the reconstitution of the board of directors in line with our ambitious next phase of growth,” said Sahil Barua, managing director and chief executive, Delhivery. The statement frames the exits less as departures and more as deliberate succession, a boardroom shuffle timed to the company’s evolving scale and strategy.
The resignations arrive amid broader governance recalibration. In 2025, Delhivery appointed Emcure Pharmaceuticals whole-time director Namita Thapar, PB Fintech founder and chairman Yashish Dahiya, and IIM Bangalore faculty member Padmini Srinivasan as independent directors, signalling a tilt towards consumer, fintech and academic expertise at the board level.
Kapoor’s tenure spanned Delhivery’s most defining years, rapid network expansion, public listing and the push towards profitability in a bruising logistics market. Gupta’s presence brought FMCG and brand-scale perspective during a period when ecommerce volumes and last-mile delivery economics were being rewritten.
The twin exits, effective from the new financial year, underscore a familiar corporate rhythm: founders consolidate, veterans rotate out, and fresh voices are ushered in to script the next chapter. In India’s hyper-competitive logistics race, even the boardroom does not stand still.
MAM
Meta appoints Anuvrat Rao as APAC head of commerce partnerships
At Locofy.ai, Rao helped convert a three-year free beta into a paid engine, clocking 1,000 subscribers and 15 enterprise clients within ten days of launch in September 2024. The low-code startup, backed by Accel and top tech founders, is famed for turning designs into production-ready code using proprietary large design models.
Before that, Rao founded generative AI venture 1Bstories, which was acquired by creative AI platform Laetro in mid-2024, where he briefly served as managing director for APAC. Alongside operating roles, he has been an active investor and advisor since 2020, backing startups such as BotMD, Muxy, Creator plus, Intellect, Sealed and CricFlex through a creator-economy-led thesis.
Rao spent over eight years at Google, holding senior partnership roles across search, assistant, chrome, web and YouTube in APAC, and earlier cut his teeth in strategy consulting at OC&C in London and investment finance at W. P. Carey in Europe and the US.
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