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Tag: advertising agency

  • The Script Room completes three years; plans original web series

    The Script Room completes three years; plans original web series

    Mumbai: Ad agency The Script Room has completed three years and a hundred ad films. Founded by Rajesh Ramaswamy and Ayyappan Raj in 2019, the agency has been offering content strategies, script writing and production to support clients.

    The Script Room bagged its first project in April 2019 for Netflix India, a campaign around one of its originals “Selection Day.” Nine films were shot in one night. The campaign won the fledgling company the ‘Best Digital Creative Award’ at Star Re-Imagine awards. Their second campaign with a series of ten ads titled ‘So, what are you watching?’ for Netflix went on air during the World Cup and was an Effie Finalist. Post that The Script Room has worked with brands like OYO, Chumbak, Vedantu, Bumble, PhonePe, Great Learning, CoinSwitch, My11Circle, RummyCircle, PaperBoat and many more. Many of the films are popular and have won prestigious awards like Kyoorius and Abbys. 

    The young bespoke advertising outfit is modelled as a writers’ room and has worked with a diverse portfolio of clients. 

    “Over the three years, we’ve managed to run a smart, clean, cheerful set-up,” said The Script Room co-founder Ayyappan Raj. “Maintain a good work-life balance, avoid being factory-fied, encourage individuals to pursue whatever they want personally, good food, good drinks, bad jokes… simple joys and general happiness. Thanks to every single person who’s helped us do this.”

    “This year and the coming years we are going after two things, first is something that’s long overdue, developing our own The Script Room Original – a new web-series that’s in the final stages of writing. Second is creating a working model of writers room for advertising, where we engage with writers outside of TSR. This we piloted a few months back and it’s coming about quite well,” he added.

    “Like what one expects from a good movie script, we wouldn’t want The Script Room journey, our plot line, to lag or meander. Anything and everything that we’re doing is to progress the story further, while adding depth and colour,” he further said.

    “These three years has been quite a ride. Honestly, we hadn’t planned it out. In fact, we just decided to go with the flow,” said The Script Room co-founder Rajesh Ramaswamy. “We’ve met a lot of interesting people along the way. Enjoyed a lot of goodwill, faith and trust. A lot of friends cheered us along. A lot of clients embraced this model. Though we didn’t have a retainer model, they’ve been good enough to return. That’s encouraging. They’ve also been kind enough to spread a good word about us.”

    Ramaswamy added, “We’ve been clear that we want to collaborate with as many interesting people as possible. So, we’ve worked with a lot of established directors, and also a lot of new young talent. We keep engaging and meeting all kinds of writers from all fields with different sensibilities. People have given us books to read that they are working on. Some just come and jam with us on a story idea. Some come and sing us songs or recite shayari. All just for love. With no great agenda. We love this process and would always want to keep that alive. That’s our only trip.”

  • GUEST COLUMN: Five ways how a digital advertising agency can help grow your business

    GUEST COLUMN: Five ways how a digital advertising agency can help grow your business

    Mumbai: Amid the accelerating digitisation due to the pandemic, businesses are exploring the digital world. Companies are increasingly investing in digital strategies to stay relevant amid the competition. Although there is no dearth of online resources to help grow your digital presence, companies often lack the in-house expertise and resources to implement a robust digital advertising strategy. The digital landscape for a company can’t be short-term, or with temporary goals. Digital presence needs a robust thought process that should be backed by the business processes of the company. Digital advertising agencies play an instrumental role in assist in creating effective roadmaps. Performance-backed campaigns, and effectively utilise existing time and resources to maximise return on investment in marketing campaigns. 

    Here are five ways a digital advertising agency can help grow a business

    Ideate and develop a 360-degree digital roadmap: Helmed by seasoned marketers, digital advertising agencies help you ideate and plan a digital strategy to achieve your business goals. The brand and the agency work collaboratively to devise a plan with the right milestones for achieving marketing goals. These strategies may be short-term or long-term, depending upon the objective. The digital strategy is further broken down into actionable KPIs to be achieved within a predefined timeline.

    Craft fresh and engaging content: Content is the heart of digital advertising. Fresh and compelling content helps achieve your desired action- generate leads, boost sales, acquire new customers, etc., for your brand. Content is also the key to building long-term relationships with customers. Agency professionals are thoroughly abreast of the latest content marketing trends, which gives them an obvious advantage in content development and curation. They are experts in planning content according to the channel requirements and campaign goals while reinforcing the key messaging of the brand.

    Grow online presence: Like Taj Mahal wasn’t built in a day, the digital presence of a brand or company can’t be created overnight. A sturdy online presence is vital to enable users to find you easily. A combination of SEO, SEM and social media marketing strategies helps boost your digital presence and build a strong recall about your brand. With the availability of an experienced team with specialized people in a particular area of digital strategy, a digital agency is an asset to your business.

    Monitor campaign analytics: Big data is playing a pervasive role in measuring campaign outcomes against the objectives set during the planning stage. It allows the real-time modification of the running campaign to achieve desired results. If the campaign has already concluded, its insights serve as learning to plan the upcoming campaigns better and execute them well. Agencies have the latest tools and technologies at their disposal that automate day-today-operations, streamline campaign and account management, and draw actionable insights. This makes agencies a one-stop solution for tasks such as social listening, competitive benchmarking, keyword research, etc.

    Manage your marketing budget effectively: Digital agencies help develop a realistic budgeting plan with a prudent allocation among various channels such as SEO, social media, SEM. This minimizes the wastage of time and resources while helping you fast-track your marketing strategy.

    Today, an agency is an extension of the brand. Outsourcing digital marketing to the right agency can open a plethora of growth opportunities, facilitate knowledge-sharing and technical know-how and strengthen ideation for your brand. With the help of suitable tools, knowledge and resources, a digital agency can help propel your business onto a higher growth trajectory. Choose an agency partner who is equipped to align with your organisational goals the challenge for companies today is to access the digital partner with a balanced outlook with all the above-mentioned points. 

    (About Author: Khushboo Sharma is the founder of Zero Gravity Communications)

  • SoCheers scales up leadership team with key elevations

    SoCheers scales up leadership team with key elevations

    Mumbai: SoCheers, a digital-first full-service advertising agency has elevated some of its core team members across verticals, namely content and brand experience. The newly elevated members will now be a part of the senior management team, playing a pivotal role in the decision-making process, said the agency.

    Shivani Kamdar, who completed seven years with the agency this month, has been elevated from the head of content to associate creative director. In this new role, she will be extending major support to all creative departments, with a core focus on growing the teams, harnessing talent and helping cultivate bigger and more meaningful campaigns for the clients. Keeping a business-centric approach, she will add value to the top as well as the bottom line through her initiatives.

    Tanvi Bosmia, who has been associated with SoCheers for more than eight years, was elevated from the position of group account manager to associate account director of the brand experience team. She will be handling the overall clientele of the agency, in charge of bringing in more revenue from a business point of view.

    Aakash Gopalani, who was the account supervisor, has now been appointed as the group account manager in the brand experience team. He will be handling the client communications along with managing a team of 20+ account management professionals. He will also be leading the strategic initiatives of 15+ brands’ digital presence, followed by exploring newer revenue streams for the organisation.

    “Whether it’s client management or content development, each of these newly elevated individuals bring something unique to the table with their wide-ranging industry experience,” said SoCheers co-founder and CEO Mehul Gupta. “As we look forward to expanding our client base, catering to brands across different industries like finance, FMCG and D2C, and onboarding new talent this year, these elevations will be instrumental in achieving our target of 75 per cent growth in 2022.” 

  • Industry veteran Ajay Gahlaut joins dentsu Creative as group CCO

    Industry veteran Ajay Gahlaut joins dentsu Creative as group CCO

    Mumbai: Dentsu India has announced the appointment of creative veteran Ajay Gahlaut as group chief creative officer (GCCO), spearheading creative excellence across dentsu India’s award-winning creative agencies.

    Gahlaut will report to dentsu Creative India, chief executive officer, Amit Wadhwa and will be responsible for accelerating dentsu India’s creative businesses under one optimised service line, said the agency in a statement.

    Dentsu India initiated the formation of a new structure for its creative service line in June this year. The redesign – part of the network’s global plan to transform into the most integrated group in the world by 2024, brings together some of India’s best agencies under one umbrella and catapults Dentsu India into its fresh journey to 2.0. The agency brands that come together under this new creative design are Dentsu Webchutney, Taproot Dentsu, WATConsult, Perfect Relations, Isobar, Dentsu One, Dentsu India, and Dentsu Impact, said the statement.

    A creative genius with over 27 years of experience in advertising, Gahlaut wrote the line ‘Do Boond Zindagi Ki’ that anchored the famous Pulse Polio Immunisation campaign with the superstar Amitabh Bachchan. He also created more than a dozen commercials for the campaign and played a significant part in eradicating polio from India. He was also behind the line ‘Make It Large’ for the whiskey brand Royal Stag that transformed its fortunes and made it the highest-selling whiskey in its price range. He created the character ‘Mr Murthy’ for Voltas air conditioners and catapulted Voltas to the number one position in the category.

    Gahlaut has also created work for the whiskey brand Imperial Blue with the famous ‘men will be men’ sign off. He has won multiple Cannes Lions, One Show and D&AD awards in his more than a quarter-century journey in this business. He also led Ogilvy Delhi to win eight Lions at Cannes in 2013. Some of the most significant brands that Gahlaut has worked on are Pernod Ricard, BMW, HT Mint and KFC at some of the world’s best-known creative shops.

    “Dentsu India is in the midst of an exciting transformation journey towards dentsu India 2.0 and Ajay’s joining is a critical part of the plan,” said Amit Wadhwa. “Ajay is a well-respected creative leader with years of experience across categories and the right mindset that matches with dentsu India 2.0. With the brilliant creative minds in our business, we will be a force to be reckoned with, delivering growth for our clients while continuing our creative evolution at pace and scale.”

    “Dentsu’s creativity defines generations. When the opportunity came to join Amit and his team, I could not refuse. Creativity is in the spotlight, with brands looking to differentiate themselves in a disrupted marketplace – it has never been a more exciting time to work in this field rich with opportunity. I am excited to join dentsu, Amit and the creative teams, delighting clients and creating era-defining work together,” said Gahlaut.

  • MullenLowe Lintas elevates Naveen Gaur as Group COO, growth & innovation

    MullenLowe Lintas elevates Naveen Gaur as Group COO, growth & innovation

    Mumbai: In view of the ever-changing marketing landscape, MullenLowe Lintas Group plans to further consolidate its offering beyond strategy and creative. To this end, Naveen Gaur has been elevated as Group COO – growth and innovation, MullenLowe Lintas Group.

    Gaur’s mandate will be to strengthen the areas of marketing services that agencies within the Group offer – such as PR, digital, content creation and production, experiential, design, analytics, and MarTech. In addition to this, Gaur will also lead the marketing, reputation, and strategic growth initiatives for the Group.

    In his previous role as the deputy CEO of Lowe Lintas, he was overseeing the existing key business relationships and founding new ones. Gaur’s association with Lintas goes back to 2010 when he was branch head of Lowe Lintas Delhi where he encouraged an entrepreneurial culture of growth and business excellence. Under his leadership, the agency added large mandates that are a healthy mix of start-ups and established brands. He is also credited with deepening the agency’s relationship with Google, Pernod Ricard, Nestle, and Cargill foods.

    MullenLowe Lintas Group – Group CCO and chairman, Amer Jaleel, who has worked closely with Gaur on marquee brands of the Group like Havells, Google and OLX amongst others, said: “I’ve worked with Naveen as a partner for over 10 eventful years. He stands firmly proud of owning the intersection on brand and business. And would be fearless in pointing out the lack of either in a piece of work he would be judging. And that shows his innate understanding of both. Naveen remains oddly unserious despite having seen through hundreds of crises. He switches seamlessly and this quality is what Lintas wants to capitalise on to ride into its most transformative phase ever. Naveen will help broaden the scope of what it means to be a brand in the new age.”

    After leading Lowe Lintas into its next phase of growth as its deputy CEO, he will now be tasked with replicating the success for marketing services of the Group – Lintas Live, dCell, LinEngage, Lintas C:EX, and LinConsult. Naveen will aggressively grow these already strong suite of specialist services as well as develop new ones through an effective combination of build, acquire and collaborate.

    Commenting on the elevation, MullenLowe Lintas Group- Group CEO, Virat Tandon said, “We are living in very exciting times as we see shifts in the entire marketing landscape. This presents us with a great opportunity to extend our services across the spectrum of creative solutions eco-system. Naveen is a stalwart in the advertising business and is an entrepreneur at heart. There can be no one better to lead the agencies in developing and growing this ecosystem. We will be looking at serving our existing clients better by using our ‘Hyperbundled’ creative solutions process to bring all the specialist services around the client goals. At the same time, this eco-system will also develop their own independent clients and growth agenda. I am very excited to see Naveen take up this role.”

    Talking about the elevation, Naveen Gaur said, “Growth and value creation drive me. I am honored that the Group has entrusted me with this role and responsibility to make some bold moves and create future leading offerings and take the Group to the next level. I am looking forward to doing new things that will make me sleepless again.”

    Gaur assumes the new role from 1 September and he will be handing over his current responsibilities over the next few months to the new leadership at Lowe Lintas which will be announced soon. This transition will be completed by the end of 2021, the organisation said.

  • Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories appoints Reethika Nair as head of digital marketing and e-commerce

    Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories appoints Reethika Nair as head of digital marketing and e-commerce

    NEW DELHI- Pharma major Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd has appointed Reethika Nair as head of digital marketing and e-commerce. She updated her new role on LinkedIn.

    Prior to this, Nair was associated with Lodestar as general manager, handling the integrated marketing strategies of the agency.

    She had a three-year stint with Kimbery Clark in India, formulated the digital growth plan for Huggies, Kotex and also led the digital transformation at the World Gold Council.

    Nair carries over 16 years of experience in marketing and agency where she has worked with some of the biggest digital media agencies like GroupM, Starcom & Interactive Avenues, and was responsible for the content, performance-driven campaigns, media buying & deploying search marketing strategies.