ITV

Tag: appointment

  • L&K Saatchi & Saatchi bags creative mandate of Akasa Air

    L&K Saatchi & Saatchi bags creative mandate of Akasa Air

    Mumbai:  L&K Saatchi & Saatchi has won the creative mandate of India’s newest airline brand, Akasa Air. As its creative partner, the agency will manage strategic and creative initiatives for the airline, which include developing brand and tactical communication for above-the-line and below-the-line elements. It will also develop brand communication campaigns and creatives for launch and sustenance phases and be involved in designing brand identity applications across mediums.

    The account will be managed by the Mumbai office of the agency.

    Commenting on the association, Akasa Air co-founder and chief marketing & experience officer Belson Coutinho said, “We are on a journey to build India’s most dependable and affordable airline that delivers warm, reliable, and efficient service. Hence, it is inevitable to have a communication strategy that complements both the brand promise and our actual delivery on the ground. We want our brand communication to be authentic, drive creativity and innovation, and at the same time reflect our core value of empathy.”

    “We found L&K Saatchi & Saatchi an ideal partner to help us on our journey with their creative, collaborative, and insights-led approach, and we are pleased to have them on board as our Agency on Record,” he added.

    Sharing his views on how Akasa Air would power India’s growth engine, L&K Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Paritosh Srivastava said, “It’s literally a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to launch an airline; it doesn’t get bigger than this. The experience of being a part of the core team at Akasa and going through the journey of the launch of something as massive and transformational for our country and people is truly humbling. Aviation is a tough business, and everyone involved has to bring their best game to the table. We will try everything in our power to contribute to Akasa’s success in the time to come. We believe we are not an agency for Akasa; we feel a sense of ownership, and treat this as our own business.”

  • Zeno Group wins PR mandates of The Derma Co and Aqualogica from the house of Honasa

    Zeno Group wins PR mandates of The Derma Co and Aqualogica from the house of Honasa

    Mumbai: Honasa Consumer (HCPL) on Tuesday announced the appointment of Zeno Group to lead its strategic brand communications mandate for two brands, The Derma Co and Aqualogica.

    As part of the mandate, Zeno will lead the communication strategy for the two brands by managing communications across both traditional and new-age digital channels.

    Zeno Group has been tasked with driving awareness of the need for hydration while building equity for Aqualogica.

    In addition, Zeno will also partner with Honasa in promoting The Derma Co’s skincare solutions powered by science.

    Speaking on the appointment, Honasa Consumer co-founder & chief innovation officer Ghazal Alagh said, “We are delighted to appoint Zeno as our PR partner. Their experience in handling consumer brands and their excellent understanding of millennial and GenZ consumers were impressive. We are confident they will ably partner with us in our journey to educate Indian consumers to make informed choices on science-backed skin solutions from The Derma Co and Aqualogica.”

    Adding to this, Zeno India managing director Rekha Rao said, “We love skincare brands that stand true to their promises, like The Derma Co and Aqualogica. The refreshing product portfolio gives us immense scope to explore PR creatively. Added to this, working with an admirable, dynamic Indian unicorn as its strategic communications partner is a matter of great pride to Zeno.”

  • Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages names Juan Pablo Rodriguez as its new CEO

    Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages names Juan Pablo Rodriguez as its new CEO

    Mumbai: Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages (HCCB) has announced Juan Pablo Rodriguez as the new general manager and chief executive officer for HCCB.

    Rodriguez, currently the chief commercial officer for the Bottling Investments Group (BIG), will take over from current chairman and CEO Neeraj Garg, who is retiring in 2022. The transition will begin in September 2022.

    “In the last two years, Juan Pablo has led the BIG Commercial team in achieving significant growth ambitions, transforming our channel strategy, and ensuring we continue to win in the market through capability-building and portfolio innovation. He is a 22-year veteran of the Coca-Cola system with a proven track record of leading teams and driving sustainable growth across markets,” HCCB said in a statement.

    Neeraj Garg took over the responsibility of HCCB in 2020 and has played a significant role in continuing the growth story of the company, including delivering some of the best financial results ever, stated the company.

    “Throughout his career, Neeraj has brought to life his passion for people development by being an active mentor for talent across The Coca-Cola Company,” BIG president (The Coca-Cola Company) Murat Ozgel said. “He has played a key role in championing strong end-to-end business management capabilities in teams and growing talent across markets. I would like to thank him for his contributions to the HCCB team over the last couple of years. He will leave behind a strong legacy.”

  • Contract Advertising wins the mandate for Haldiram’s

    Contract Advertising wins the mandate for Haldiram’s

    Mumbai: In a strategic partnership with Wunderman Thompson, Contract Advertising has won the mandate for Haldiram’s, an Indian multinational sweets and savouries company headquartered in Delhi.

    The mandate was awarded to Contract Advertising India after a multi-agency pitch in which about 16 agencies participated. Contract Mumbai will handle the account.

    Haldiram’s has manufacturing plants in several states of India, including UP, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Bihar, J&K, and Guwahati. A plant is also located in the UK.

    The mandate includes brand strategy and creatives for the domestic market, the export market, and retail/QSRs.

    Welcoming Contract Advertising, Haldiram’s managing director Pankaj Agarwal said, “Haldiram’s has always been trusted for their quality offerings. As a key player in the snack, sweets, and restaurant sectors, we are known to generate excitement amongst the consumers. We, as a brand, are constantly innovating and trying to raise our high-quality standards. To make consumers aware of our wide brand portfolio, we needed an advertising agency that understood our constant rise and the consumer’s changing mindsets. And that is why we are excited to partner with Contract Advertising to build effective marketing communications and reach new heights.”

    Adding to this, Divya Batra marketing head Haldiram’s commented, “Over the years, Haldiram’s has expanded its range from traditional namkeens to western snacks, frozen snacks, ready to eat, ready to cook, chocolates, and many more food categories. To communicate the same to our consumers, we needed an agency passionate about reaching and engaging with consumers impactfully. After an extensive process and multiple pitch rounds, we are exhilarated to partner with Contract. Together with the data & consumer insights approach, we target to build effective marketing communication and increase brand footprint.”

    Started in 1937 in Bikaner, today, Haldiram’s is a household name across multiple states in India. It also supplies 400 plus SKUs internationally, with its trademark being registered in 80 countries, spanning six continents. The company is famous across the globe and is available at various international stores such as Walmart, Tesco, Spinney’s, Carrefour, Metcash, Costco, Woolworth, etc.

    “Haldiram’s is an iconic brand, and it is a household name in India. We are proud of being the agency that has been given the responsibility to craft the narrative for this brand in India and abroad,” added Contract Mumbai EVP and general manager Ayan Chakraborty.

    Contract Mumbai SVP and executive creative director Rahul Ghosh commented, “At Contract, we have a bit of history with Made in India powerhouses. Haldiram’s is one such global success story. Getting to work on the narrative of this iconic brand is the kind of challenge that is a part of our DNA.”

  • Dentsu India on-boards Bhasker Jaiswal as chief operations officer, media

    Dentsu India on-boards Bhasker Jaiswal as chief operations officer, media

    Mumbai: Dentsu India has announced the appointment of Bhasker Jaiswal as chief operations officer, media. As a member of the executive team, he will report to Dentsu South Asia chief executive officer, media, Divya Karani.

    In his new role, Bhasker will lead integration, transformation, and operational excellence agendas while driving innovations and excellence for Dentsu clients and businesses through its three media agencies: Carat, iProspect, and Dentsu X. He will work closely with Divya Karani to deliver business transformation, set up and standardise operations and systems, govern product leadership, and enable sustainable revenue growth.

    With over 24 years of experience in the media and advertising industry across APAC (India, Malaysia, China, and Singapore), Bhaskar specialises in building solutions for advertisers and media companies across monetisation, research, and media investments. His key strength lies in understanding the ecosystem of consumers, advertisers, and media owners, as well as the decision-making heuristic. He is passionate about disrupting the current thinking and has developed industry-leading proprietary products that bring efficiency and effectiveness across geographies and clients.

    Speaking on the appointment, Divya Karani said, “Bhasker joining the team here in India is another great step on our journey to become the go-to network of choice for brands in India. His impressive track record, savvy business judgement, operational excellence, and an innate understanding of people and their motivations make him ideal to lead our transformation and integration.”

    Bhasker Jaiswal commented, “I am excited to be joining Dentsu and being back in India, a big and complex market growing dynamically. I look forward to adding value by improving dentsu processes to impact client outputs as well as improving the lives of our biggest assets—our people.”

  • Cleartrip appoints Shubham Khurana as the head of brand marketing

    Cleartrip appoints Shubham Khurana as the head of brand marketing

    Mumbai: Cleartrip announced the appointment of Shubham Khurana as the brand head on Thursday. In his new role, he will be responsible for augmenting Cleartrip’s brand presence across the country and further expanding its footprint in the newer markets, along with enhancing the customer experience.

    Talking about the appointment, Cleartrip chief marketing officer Kunal Dubey said, “At Cleartrip, we strongly back the notion of scaling a business that will not only disrupt the OTA space through innovations but also build a brand that is loved and trusted by millions. We have the ambition to build the brand with a differentiated positioning. Shubham joined the marketing team at Cleartrip at a very exciting time as we were getting ready to take the category by storm. Shubham joins us with a unique experience in consumer marketing, travel, and digital marketing and will definitely add value to the team in our journey ahead.”

    Speaking on his appointment, Khurana said, “I am excited about this mandate as it brings me back to the industry that I’m extremely passionate about. Travel is one of the most inspiring categories with some of the most uninspiring communication as of today, which is possibly why there isn’t any distinctive brand from India in this space yet. There is a great opportunity to create a contemporary and exciting brand, breaking the clutter of the price and discount-led communication that dominates the industry. Cleartrip has been able to create a niche and a loyal base of customers over the years, and I’m looking to take the goodness of the platform to the world at large with a renewed and refreshing brand identity and communication as my first priority. I am excited about being a part of Cleartrip and look forward to contributing to its renewed growth and success.”

    Khurana joins Cleartrip with over 12 years of experience at corporates like Facebook India, Unilever, and startups like Treebo Hotels, where he played an instrumental role in accelerating the growth strategies of the brands.

    At Unilever, he built a deep consumer understanding and a strong business acumen, having handled their largest sales area followed by a stint leading their coffee brand, Bru. He joined Treebo in 2015 as the Brand Head, where he built the marketing infrastructure from scratch. At Facebook, he managed India’s largest FMCG advertisers like HUL, Nestle, Mondelez, etc.

    He also conceptualised and built Facebook India’s strategy for tier-two and tier-three towns. He has completed his engineering from IIT- Roorkee and his MBA from XLRI Jamshedpur. Amongst his many achievements, he has also been recognized at India’s top business forums with awards like ET Young Leader and IAMAI Digital Marketer of the Year.

  • Wunderman Thompson North America names Tom Murphy as chief creative officer

    Wunderman Thompson North America names Tom Murphy as chief creative officer

    Mumbai: Creative talent Tom Murphy will join Wunderman Thompson North America as chief creative officer, the agency has announced. He will report to CEO Audrey Melofchik. Wunderman Thompson’s global chief creative officer, Bas Korsten, has been acting as NA CCO for most of 2022.

    Known for his track record of creative excellence that drove McCann’s most celebrated work of the past decade, including the iconic “Fearless Girl,” Murphy has spent 16 years at McCann, most recently as North American CCO, and has influenced creative talent and effective work over the course of his career. His work has impacted brands including Verizon, Mastercard, Microsoft, Ulta Beauty, Lysol, Mucinex, MGM Resorts, NY Lottery, USPS, and HomeGoods.

    “Wunderman Thompson has such a massive breadth of capabilities. When those capabilities meet creativity, they become superpowers,” said Tom Murphy. “From my earliest conversations with Audrey and Bas, I sensed their ambition for the future of Wunderman Thompson North America. On our first call, I underlined two key words in my notebook: ambition and creativity. I could immediately tell we value the same things and will achieve great things together.”

    During Murphy’s tenure at McCann, he oversaw some of the most talked about and award-winning ideas of the past decade, ranging from “Fearless Girl” for State Street Global Advisors, the “True Name” campaign for Mastercard, “Universal Love” for MGM Resorts, “Generation Lockdown” for March for our Lives, and “Changing the Game” for Microsoft – which centred on the brand’s adaptive Xbox controller that makes gaming accessible to players with disabilities. He originally joined McCann as a group creative director in 2004, from DDB Chicago, where he worked on top brands like McDonald’s, Budweiser, and Bud Light.

    “Growth challenges facing clients today require an agency partner steeped in expertise across their entire ecosystem with creative firepower to ignite it in completely new ways,” said Audrey Melofchik, who became CEO of Wunderman Thompson North America in 2021. “From the moment I met Tom, I knew he was the perfect partner to lead Wunderman Thompson NA as we blaze a trail of inspiring creativity and growth with our client partners. He is an amazing thinker, leader, and human being.”

    “Tom coming on board is a testament to our future-forward creative ambitions for clients that we have as Wunderman Thompson in North America, as well as globally. He has proven himself as a powerful and inspiring creative leader that can impact business and culture,” said Wunderman Thompson global chief creative officer Bas Korsten. “I really can’t wait to see how Tom is going to inspire our ambitious clients and our people. He is the real deal.”

    Beyond Tom’s appointment, Wunderman Thompson has been building out its bench of talent with the additions of FCB’s business development leader, Wunderman Thompson North America chief growth officer Laura Cona; Wunderman Thompson New York BBDO ECD Susan Golkin; Swift (a Wunderman Thompson Company) chief creative officer, BBH LA creative lead Ned McNeilage and Inclusive Design global head Josh Loebner. Earlier this year, they acquired influencer agency, Village Marketing.

    Wunderman Thompson North America is enjoying momentum with a series of new business wins, including Snap and Courvoisier, while expanding its portfolio of work for Pfizer, Samsung, and Walgreens. In June, Wunderman Thompson was awarded the first BtoB Grand Prix at Cannes for Sherwin-Williams Speaking in Color, a voice-activated AI color system.

  • Dentsu Creative India names Sumeer Mathur as chief strategy officer

    Dentsu Creative India names Sumeer Mathur as chief strategy officer

    Mumbai: Dentsu Creative India has bolstered the strength of its strategy team with the appointment of Sumeer Mathur as chief strategy officer. Mathur will report to Dentsu Creative India chief executive officer Amit Wadhwa.

    Mathur’s mandate will be to build upon Dentsu Creative’s strategic capabilities in order to further enhance its work and market-leading creative reputation. His responsibilities will include brand management, digital, and PR. In addition to this, he will work closely with Dentsu Creative India Group chief creative officer, Ajay Gahlaut, and the business teams to ensure the highest quality of output from the agency.

    Mathur has over 20 years of expertise and is a firm believer in communication that creates business and brand impact. He has previously held national, regional and global strategic responsibilities for many brands, which include Colgate-Palmolive, Clinic Plus, Clinic All Clear, Fair & Lovely, Airtel, Horlicks, Royal Enfield, Livon, Taj Hotels, UNICEF, Adidas, LG, Microsoft, Bira, and Muscle Blaze, to name a few.

    He has worked with agencies like Rediffusion, DYA&R, Lowe Lintas, JWT, DDB Mudra, and Edelman. Prior to this, he was the national strategy head at Havas Creative. Additionally, Mathur has played a significant role in creating work that has won numerous effectiveness awards for brands like HUL, Airtel Money, Microsoft PCs, Livon, UNICEF, CHAI, etc. He has also served on the Effie India Jury for many years.

    Amit Wadhwa said, “Sumeer’s appointment takes us a step further toward our vision for Dentsu Creative in India to lead the way in Modern Creativity. He not only brings in knowledge and credibility from some of the best agencies but also has vast experience across brands, digital and PR, which indeed makes him the perfect fit. I, along with the entire leadership team, am looking forward to working closely with him and reaching new milestones in the future.”

    Speaking of his new role, Mathur added, “Frankly, it’s a privilege to join the team at Dentsu. There isn’t a communication agency in the country right now that combines tech, culture, craft, and ideas the way Dentsu does. They are ahead of the curve and have their feet firmly planted in the future, in order to deliver value to clients.” 

    Dentsu Creative India was recently declared the ‘Agency of The Year’ at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity 2022-a first-ever for India. It was a historic hat-trick with the agency also lifting a Titanium for the country for its ‘Unfiltered History Tour (UHT)’ campaign in addition to bagging three Grand Prix-another first, two Gold Lions and three Silver Lions-making UHT the most awarded work not only from India but globally.

  • Endorphins Entertainment bags PR Mandate for ZStack International in India

    Endorphins Entertainment bags PR Mandate for ZStack International in India

    Mumbai: Endorphins Entertainment, an integrated communications agency headquartered in New Delhi, on Wednesday announced that it has won the PR mandate for ZStack International. It is a cloud computing technology vendor specialising in the research and development of cloud computing software and hardware. The mandate was won following a multi-agency pitch.

    Endorphins Entertainment will closely work with ZStack International to deliver a media outreach programme in India. The brief includes providing a comprehensive communications strategy to help ZStack International with brand image building and accelerating the go-to-market strategy.

    ZStack International executive managing director Keith Poon said, “We are excited to offer our cloud solution services and the values they bring to help leverage the market potential for our technology, as well as accelerate our India go-to-market strategies. For the arrangement of PR activities, we decided to work with Endorphins Entertainment, a digital marketing and creative solutions-based company specialising in providing solutions to meet corporate as well as social needs. They provide result-oriented services, skillfully crafted by a global team of experts. I strongly believe that they would help ZStack discover unique and engaging ways to capture the attention of the audience. The multi-billion dollar cloud services market in India is expected to grow further stronger, with a significant part of the enterprise workload finding its way to the cloud. ZStack International is ready to proactively deliver our cloud solution services to empower every enterprise to have its own cloud in India.”

    “We are elated to be trusted by ZStack International for a critically important role of helping them to build their business in India through strategic public relations. With our expertise, we will be able to position the brand as the industry leader in providing cloud solutions services to enterprises at a competitive price. We will also help the brand to regularly engage with the key audiences in the country,” said Endorphins Entertainment CEO and creative head Manish Bhatia.

  • Bajaj Electricals elevates Anuj Poddar to the role of managing director and CEO

    Bajaj Electricals elevates Anuj Poddar to the role of managing director and CEO

    Mumbai: Homegrown consumer durables company Bajaj Electricals announced on Tuesday the elevation of Anuj Poddar to the roles of managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO). Shekhar Bajaj will continue as executive chairman of the company.

    Anuj Poddar joined the company in late 2018 as its executive director.

    This announcement comes on the back of the ongoing and significant transformation journey and keeps in mind the company’s long-term strategy. The separation of the chairman and managing director positions is a continuation of the professionalisation of the management of the company and marks the company’s commitment to strong corporate governance standards, said the company in a statement.

    Bajaj Electricals chairman Shekhar Bajaj said, “Over the last few years, we have embarked upon a significant transformation journey at Bajaj Electricals – involving many changes on the business as well as organisational front. In continuation of that, I believe this will provide further impetus to the achievement of our strategic goals and demonstrate our commitment to strong corporate governance. Anuj Poddar has demonstrated exceptionally visionary leadership, executional ability, and passion in driving this transformation journey, and I am confident that in his elevated role he will continue to drive our company forward and add value to all stakeholders.”

    Anuj Poddar said, “I am thankful to the chairman and our board for entrusting me with this elevated responsibility. I am truly excited about what lies ahead of us at Bajaj Electricals – we have a clear vision and roadmap for building this future, and together with our entire team, we are committed to being a best-in-class organisation that delivers superior performance and value creation.”

    Over the last three years, Bajaj Electricals has undertaken multiple initiatives, including strengthening of the leadership, streamlining of its corporate structure, a turnaround of its performance and balance sheet, and the planned demerger of the EPC business.

    Further, the company achieved a key strategic milestone of becoming net-debt-free on 31 March 2022 – a first for the company in over four decades. Having achieved these milestones, Bajaj Electricals is preparing for aggressive growth across its businesses in a focused manner.

    The company posted its Q1 FY 22-23 results. For the first quarter of 2022-23, the company achieved revenue from operations of Rs 1,229 crore as against Rs 857 crore, a growth of 43 per cent over the first quarter of the previous year. For the quarter, the company made profit before tax and profit after tax of Rs 57 crore and Rs 41 crore, respectively, as against a loss before tax and loss after tax of Rs 31 crore and Rs 25 crore, respectively, in the corresponding first quarter of the previous year. For the quarter ended 30 June 2022, the company generated positive cash flow from operations of Rs 165 crore in cash equivalents and surplus investments of Rs 254 crore.