Tag: Ashish Bhasin

Dentsu’s psLive Rural bags Gold at RMAI Awards

MUMBAI: psLive Rural, the rural marketing division from the Dentsu Aegis Network, has been conferred with three awards at the 6th edition of Flame Awards, organized by RMAI (Rural Marketing Association of India).

While it won a Gold for the campaign ‘Jaagte Mat Raho’ (client: Cholayil) for the soap brand – Medimix, its work for DuPont’s Coragen brought home a silver (for its Sweetness of Victory campaign) and a bronze metal (for its Kori Se Mulaqat campaign).

Dentsu Aegis Network chairman & CEO South Asia and Posterscope & psLIVE chairman – Asia Pacific Ashish Bhasin said, “It’s great to see psLive Rural perform so well. Rural marketing will become an extremely important area and psLive is expanding its network rapidly to gain leadership in a field that most agencies seem to have vacated.”

Rural Markets, psLive national head Keshav Chandorkar added, “We are proud to receive the honour that was showered on our intellectual properties in the field of rural marketing. We are thankful to our clients for believing and partnering with us. A special thanks to the Jury for believing in our work. We look forward to creating many more such campaigns in the future.”

This year, RMAI received as many as 300 entries from corporate and rural marketing agencies for the Awards. The entries were judged by a jury comprising top level executives.

March 24, 2015
IAA Debates: Are agencies rapidly reinventing?

MUMBAI: There is need for both advertising agencies and marketers to reinvent themselves. This was the basic message from the IAA Debates held in Mumbai earlier this month.

The topic of the discussion of the second of the new season of IAA Debates was: ‘Agencies are not rapidly reinventing themselves to stay relevant to changing advertiser needs.’

At the start of the debate, the overarching view of the audience was that agencies must reinvent to stay relevant. At the end of the debate, the view moved to that agencies are reinventing themselves and indeed more relevant than the initially held view.

Speaking for the motion (‘Agencies are not reinventing themselves’) were Dentsu Aegis Network chairman & CEO South Asia Ashish Bhasin and Marico chief marketing officer Sameer Satpathy.

Speaking against the motion (‘Agencies are reinventing themselves’) were Madison World MD and chairman Sam Balsara and Godrej strategic marketing group COO Shireesh Joshi.

IAA India Chapter president and IAA vice president-development, Asia Pacific Srinivasan K Swamy said, “The fact that some of the leading lights of the industry participated in the debate ensured that we had discussion of the topmost quality. By bringing in practising leaders of the industry, the IAA Debates has become a must-attend event from all section of the advertising, media and marketing fraternity.”

D B Corp chief-marketing and corporate sales officer Pradeep Dwivedi added, “We are delighted to partner IAA Debates in bringing about discussions around current, thought provoking subjects which have a bearing on the industry and our marketing, media and advertising community. As marketers figure out ways to maximise value from their agency engagements and vice versa, as was the subject of the recently concluded second debate of the season, we at Dainik Bhaskar remain committed to contribute to the spirit of discovery and discussion to help bring about change and evolution.”

The IAA Debates hosted so far have been in Mumbai, Goa, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai. The debates have featured senior advertising, media and marketing professionals such as Prasoon Joshi, Vikram Sakhuja, Lloyd Mathias, Josy Paul, Pratap Bose, Deepika Warrier, Anupriya Acharya, Arun Anant, Arunabh Das Sharma, Partha Sinha, Monica Tata, Vikram Chandra, Punitha Arumugam, Mahesh Murthy, Virginia Sharma, Ashok Lalla and Zerin Rahman, Sadashiv Nayak, Atul Phadnis, Ronita Mitra, and Amitabh Pande amongst others speaking for and against the motion.

February 27, 2015
“Agencies are not rapidly reinventing to stay relevant to changing advertiser needs”: IAA

MUMBAI: The India chapter of the International Advertising Association (IAA) is all set for the big debate.

To be held on 16 February, the theme for the new season of IAA Debate is: ‘Agencies are not rapidly reinventing themselves to stay relevant to changing advertiser needs.’

Speaking for the motion (that is agencies are not reinventing themselves) will be Ashish Bhasin (of Dentsu Aegis) and Sameer Satpathy (of Marico). Those presenting the points against the motion (that is agencies are reinventing themselves) are Sam Balsara (of Madison) and Shireesh Joshi (of Godrej).

The debate will be moderated by CNBC – Storyboard editor Anant Rangaswami.

IAA India Chapter president and IAA Asia Pacific VP-development Srinivasan K Swamy said, “I am delighted to see some of the leading lights of Indian industry raise the stature of the IAA Debates even higher. The topic chosen has been in the minds of industry professionals and IAA decided to debate this in the open. I am sure many in the industry will be there to witness this.”

D B Corp chief – marketing & corporate sales officer Pradeep Dwivedi added, “At Dainik Bhaskar Group, we are delighted to partner with IAA in furthering the spirit of discovery and engagement with-in all the stakeholders in our industry. The Indian economy is on the cusp of a significant growth curve and the innovation in our ideas will determine our success as marketing & advertising thought leaders, and hence the need to have serious introspection on our need to reinvent at a rapid pace. We are hopeful that our earnest attempt at being a harbinger of this change will be received very well.”

The IAA Debates hosted so far have been in Mumbai, Goa, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai. The Debates have featured senior advertising, media and marketing professionals such as Prasoon Joshi, VikramSakhuja, Lloyd Mathias, Josy Paul, Pratap Bose, Deepika Warrier, Anupriya Acharya, Arun Anant, Arunabh Das Sharma, Partha Sinha, Monica Tata, Vikram Chandra, PunithaArumugam, Mahesh Murthy, Virginia Sharma, Ashok Lalla and ZerinRahman, Sadashiv Nayak, Atul Phadnis, Ronita Mitra, and Amitabh Pande amongst others speaking for and against the motion.

February 7, 2015
Dentsu Aegis Network appoints Harsha Joshi as EVP- group trading

MUMBAI: Dentsu Aegis Network has appointed Harsha Joshi as its executive VP- group trading. Joshi will report to Dentsu Aegis Network chairman and CEO south Asia Ashish Bhasin.

Joshi is an industry veteran who brings with her over 23 years of experience in media buying & planning, branded content and media audit and advisory.

She has been the head of media buying at Fulcrum (Mindshare), headed media buying at Madison Media for 12 years. She also served as CEO – media & international at Spatial Access Media Solutions and her last stint was at McKinsey, India as media advisory.

Bhasin said, “The remarkable growth that the Dentsu Aegis Network has had has resulted in our scale growing rapidly. To ensure our clients get the best global practices in the extremely important area of Trading, we decided to invest in a very senior resource. After evaluating several candidates, we were delighted to have Harsha join us. She brings with her unparalled experience in the area of Trading and we will use her expertise across the Dentsu Aegis Network. Trading is our strength and Harsha will help us maintain that edge.”

Sounding excited about her new assignment, Joshi added, “I am truly looking forward to this role. With three strong media agencies, Carat, Vizeum and Dentsu Media in our group, and with so many large local and global clients, I am sure that we will be able to add value to our clients like no other agency can. Their professional and transparent approach, backed by best-in-class people, global tools, learning and systems attracted me to join Dentsu Aegis Network, which is India’s fastest growing advertising & media network for the second year in a row.”

August 4, 2014
We want to professionalise the Indian OOH industry: Ashish Bhasin

MUMBAI: While many Indian outdoor agencies are still struggling to get their due recognition, there are a few that have changed the game. One name that is worth mentioning is Milestone Brandcom. According to sources, the five year old agency has annual revenues over Rs 320 crore and is a leading outdoor company based on billings.

Things are going to get even better for the agency from now on. Dentsu Aegis Network has acquired majority share in Milestone Brandcom. With the acquisition of OOH agency, combined with Posterscope, a Dentsu Aegis Network’s global outdoor media agency, the network has strengthened its roots in this space.

Nabendu Bhattacharyya will continue as CEO and managing director of Milestone Brandcom and will report to Dentsu Aegis Network south Asia chairman and CEO Ashish Bhasin.

Speaking to indiantelevision.com Dentsu Aegis Network South Asia chairman and CEO Ashish Bhasin mentions, “With rapid retail expansion and ever evolving transmit media there is a lot that can be done in the outdoor industry. We added Milestone Brandcom in our family because there is a fit. Nabendu and his team are extremely passionate about this space. We hope that the move will help professionalise the Indian OOH industry.”

“This investment now establishes clear leadership for us in the medium, making us the leader in the OOH and OOH Retail space in India. We believe that OOH will play an increasingly important role for clients in years to come so we are delighted to be able to offer clients a market leading service,” adds Bhasin.

Bhattacharyya is extremely thrilled to join hands with Dentsu Aegis Network. “The main idea behind this development is to understand global practices better and execute them here. Our philosophy is very similar to Dentsu Aegis Network’s and we are confident that as market leaders we will continue to be at the forefront in the business,” he says.

With a 175 strong team of specialists, Milestone Brandcom is the most awarded OOH agency in India with clients like Colors, McDonalds, Axis Bank, L’oreal etc. The agency also has many other verticals such as event promotion, activation division, rural OOH activation, retail and digital OOH division.

It was recently when Milestone Brandcom had launched ‘Milestone Optimizer’, a powerful tool which optimises OOH media plans by tracking 25,000 sites across India and providing Gross Impression Points of an OOH campaign, which is one of its kinds in the country. The company will retain its identity, branding and culture and share its knowledge in creative and OOH planning with the group.

July 28, 2014
Advertising agencies keenly await Budget 2014

MUMBAI: Thanks to elections, the year started with a bang for the media and entertainment (M&E) industry.

The political parties didn’t hesitate to spend on the various mediums – print, TV, digital, OOH – to woo the voters. Various studies by media agencies also estimated that advertising by political parties will boost the AdEx by up to +2.5 per cent.

This apart, the year is estimated to be good for the industry. With ad spends of most FMCG companies on the rise to ride on the back of higher disposable income due to election spending and recent RBI policies leading to a more favourable business environment, the industry is hoping for healthy year even with various issues (digitisation, ad cap, service tax, FDI etc) gripping it.

Indiantelevision.com spoke to various advertising agencies heads to know what they are expecting from the budget.

Dentsu Aegis Network chairman & CEO South Asia Ashish Bhasin

Service tax should be rationalised, the surcharge on it should be removed and also the quantum of it should be reduced a bit. It can be noted that the process and procedure of collecting service tax is cumbersome. What we as an industry want is transparency in this process. I am also keen to watch some FDI in media in the coming days.

Perfect Relations founding partner Dilip Cherian

Undoubtedly, there are high expectations from the Budget and it remains to be seen how Finance Minister Arun Jaitley goes about restoring growth while reining in the deficit. We need something that in the next six months will start generating revenue for the long run. A push in the infrastructure sector is vital because that will help growth of the core sectors — steel, cement, construction etc and create jobs. I would like to see Jaitley spell out his plans for this vital sector, which will also have a long lasting impact on the economy. The introduction of the goods and services tax (GST) has been delayed for far too long. Though this is a point of contention between the Centre and the states, I would be happy to see some positive movement on this front.

FCB Ulka Group chairman Nagesh Alai

The days of seeking specific tax sops or concessions are really over, more so when over the years a fair amount of tax rationalisation has already happened. How do you expect the government to run the country? However I do expect the government to stick to its promise of withdrawing the one time surcharge of 10 per cent which was imposed for the FY 2013-14, but there has been no notice of that withdrawal yet. Secondly, the authorities should also honour their commitment of timely refunds to assesses rather than putting counter pressures in the months running up to March every year by arbitrary add-backs and demands, which is just a ruse to keep refunds on hold. In the interest of avoiding short termism and addressing the macro-economic issues effectively so that the fiscal and revenue deficits can be plugged, we should seriously consider having a fixed budget for say three or five years. This will bring about a stability of tax regime and also help all constituents plan better, including the government. The annual budget exercise has perhaps become a lobbying exercise for political and power brokers. Lastly, agriculture income should be brought into the tax net. It is an anachronism – and is perpetuated for the benefit of the few rich politically powerful people.

Madison World chairman and MD Sam Balsara

I don’t think my expectations from the budget are unique or different from what the nation expects. I expect the budget to do more than its bit to grow the economy which is the major need of the hour. Whatever is required to give a shot in the arm to the economy, the budget must do. This year’s budget is going to be specially important because it is the first budget that the BJP will present after its landslide victory and all Indians, as well as global businesses are going to evaluate it and form an impression about the future of India. The Finance Minister is keenly aware of this and being an intelligent and practical man, I am sure he will not miss this opportunity, nor will he try to pull wool over our eyes. Whatever it takes to spearhead growth, he should do, be it GST, divestment, roping in more tax payers especially at the top end or abolishing retrospective tax loss, etc. What is good for the economy is good for the advertising industry.

Global Advertisers MD Sanjeev Gupta

After achieving a historic victory in General Elections 2014, we have high expectations from the newly-elected Modi-led government. From an outdoor advertising industry perspective, we believe that our growth is the reflection of development in our country. Better infrastructure, improved road connectivity, advance transport mediums, enhanced public spaces give us opportunities to connect with end consumer. India is likely to emerge as the world’s largest middle class consumer market with aggregated consumer spends of $ 13 trillion by 2030. With increasing population and their demand, it has become essential for MNCs / SMEs to be visible on different advertising mediums to promote their services / products. Therefore, outdoor advertising industry needs government support to grow in the future. We would like the center government to focus on creating new opportunities for us, allow FDIs, develop transparent policies and reforms, and address tax issues and licensing procedure of public structures. We wish to see changing India, growing India.

July 9, 2014
Ashish Bhasin wins 2014 Business Excellence Award for Media CEO of the Year – India

MUMBAI: Winners of the prestigious 2014 Business Excellence Awards were announced in London and Ashish Bhasin has received the ‘Media CEO of the year – India’ award.

Voted for by a worldwide network of professionals, advisers, clients, peers and business insiders, the Acquisition International Business Excellence Awards celebrate the individuals and firms whose commitment to excellence sees them exceeding clients’ expectations on a daily basis while setting the bar for others in their industry.

The awards, open to businesses from any sector or region, are handed out solely on merit. They are given to only the most deserving businesses, departments and individuals who have consistently demonstrated outstanding innovation, performance and commitment to their business or clients over the past 12 months and who have received independent nominations from their clients or industry peers.

Speaking about the awards, AI Global Media awards coordinator Siobhan Hanley said, “Our Business Excellence Awards are quickly becoming one of our most popular, with businesses all over the globe eager to showcase the amazing work they’ve been doing to achieve stellar results for their clients while really setting the standards for what can be achieved in their sector. We’re proud to be able to showcase some of the most innovative and committed organizations from across the business world and the winners can be rightly proud of the game-changing work they’ve been doing over the past 12 months.”

Commenting on receiving the award, Dentsu Aegis Network- South Asia chairman & CEO Ashish Bhasin said, “I am honored to receive the 2014 Business Excellence Award for Media CEO of the Year. I am lucky to have such a wonderful team at Dentsu Aegis Network.The award is for my team’s efforts, I am just receiving it in my name. It’s been an amazing journey for Dentsu Aegis Network in India but the best is yet to come.”

July 5, 2014
Today, digital is about hyper specialisation: Ashish Bhasin

MUMBAI: When large network companies are looking at acquiring smaller speciailsed digital agencies, the Dentsu Aegis Network, which was formulated last year, has taken a different step.

The network has formed a digital council with CEOs of its three digital specialist companies – iProspectCommunicate2, Isobar and Webchutney. The council will be led by iProspectCommunicate 2 MD Vivek Bhargava, Isobar India MD Shamsuddin Jasani and Webchutney CEO & co-founder, Sidharth Rao.

Dentsu Aegis Network Chairman & CEO South Asia Ashish Bhasin speaks at length on the newly-formed digital council, the agency’s plan for its digital businesses and much more…

The Denstu Aegis Network already has rich talent pool. How has acquiring digital boutique agencies helped you?

In early days when we were Aegis media, I was very clear that digital will play an extremely important role in marketing in the days to come. That is the very reason why we invested on the first digital agency of the network – isobar. The organic start up picked up really well, the agency that had just two people on board then has over 100 professionals today. At present, isobar is a full service agency with creative at its heart.

We also started observing that search will soon be an integral part of our lives. This thought turned into a fact as mobile and internet penetration is today exploding in the country. Keeping this in mind, we partnered with our global digital agency iProspect. We could have gone ahead to set up a search agency but that would have taken a longer period of time. It was soon after that we acquired Communicate 2 which is one of the leading agencies in the search space which then was renamed to iProspect Communicate 2.

After the Denstu Aegis merger, we further got lucky to get on board WebChutney. Today, digital is all about hyper specialisation and I think with such rich talent in house, it has only taken our businesses to the next level.

What will be the role of the digital council?

The objective is very clear, while we have specialised talent on board, we wanted to bring them together. While each of them operating independently we thought why not create a body that can influence the industry as a whole. Digital as a segment needs to be understood by certain clients and is becoming very important for many of them. With the council, there will be ways and means by which all the three agencies can be an influencer to a client.

How do you think will the council help in the overall functioning of the network?

With 500 digital specialists and the three leading digital specialist companies in India as part of our group, we will look forward to add best talent to our network. The vision is basically to make sure that we remain consistent in our work and be at par with the global standards. To create a consolidated vision together this will help us scale up the business.

How much does digital account for the network’s revenue?

All I can tell you is that 40 per cent of our talent is working on digital. This is a marketing leading proportion. Also, both in India and globally, we get a relevant proportion of our revenue from digital.

With digital been an integral part of a brand’s media plan today, how has marketers’ briefs and demands changed?

There are various kinds of marketers; some who are very digital savvy with a good understanding of the medium while there are some who know that digital is no longer a medium to experiment with but need it to build the communication plans. These are the multinationals and global players. The other set of clients are the smaller ones which are just stepping up to leverage the medium.

We are going to invest heavily on technology. All the three digital agencies are now expected to have a common tech platform so that we are able to give solutions on these grounds. Social media is also another area where clients are demanding to integrate in the overall digital communication strategy.

It is not about media plan any more, it is about bringing in digital as an integral part of the communication strategy.

What are the other plans lined up for the digital side of the business?

One aspect that we will be investing time on is to bring best global practices in India. We believe it is time to bring across world class campaigns and move beyond the basic hygiene work.

June 30, 2014
Carat Fresh integrated to become psLIVE

MUMBAI: To be the first in the region, Dentsu Aegis Network’s experiential marketing agency, psLive, which was recently launched in APAC, will be rolled out in India.

Carat Fresh Integrated, which has built itself to a strong 95 experiential professionals, across eight offices, over the last five years, will transform to psLIVE in India, giving it a great platform to build upon.

Dentsu Aegis Network South Asia chairman & CEO Ashish Bhasin will take on the additional role of chairman APAC, Posterscope and psLIVE – Asia Pacific.

In India psLIVE will be focusing on experiential marketing, PR, rural marketing, branded entertainment, sports marketing, creative and consultancy as the key areas of operation in the initial phase. psLIVE India will be the first truly global experiential marketing agency, offering the entire gamut of services, which is built for the digital age.

Commenting on the development, Bhasin said “We are very happy to transform Carat Fresh Integrated to psLIVE because this puts us in a unique place of having a strong ground based operation, backed by all the global knowledge and tools. All aspects of experiential marketing, particularly activation and rural, are becoming extremely important in India. Having a world class operation like psLIVE as part our offering, will give the Dentsu Aegis Network clients a unique opportunity to tap these areas, through a professional set-up.”

psLIVE India will commence its operations with 95 employees, in eight offices. These offices are located in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Chandigarh and Guwahati. psLIVE has a ground network of over 3500 people. It is expected that by end 2015 the ground network will touch 10,000 and over 1,00,000 villages would have been covered by then.

R Ravi Shankar will head psLIVE India while Sidharth Ghosh, vice president, Keshav Chandorkar, rural markets national head and Ajay Rao, vice president, will form the core management team of psLIVE.

April 22, 2014
Star India’s Rs 20,000 crore sports gamble

MUMBAI: That Star India is betting big on sports is well-known. How big the bet it is placing is now becoming clear.

The News Corp-owned media and entertainment leader in India today announced that it is committed to invest Rs 20,000 crore in building the sports business in India. The investment will be used to fuel the expansion of sports coverage in the country as well as in building exciting new leagues including the Indian Super League in football, the Hockey India League and the Indian Badminton League over the next few years, it stated.

Simultaneous with this announcement, the network today unveiled a new brand for Star Sports across six TV channels – Star Sports 1,2,3,4, HD1 and HD2 and its online portal starsports.com.

The new logo is a metallic silver star with an incandescent swoosh of colours symbolising the authority and passion of sports with the powerful slugline – “Believe.”

Uday Shankar is investing big in building a sports ecosystem in India

“Cricket is too big to be confined to just one channel. Today, we are redoubling our efforts to showcase the best of Indian and international cricket to the sports fan. We will cover more of it, have wider coverage, go deeper, use multiple languages and take it beyond television,” says Star India CEO Uday Shankar in a press release. “The new brand is also about showcasing our commitment to other sports. While cricket will be central to our approach, we will also be faithful to our role as a sports broadcaster and bring in the best of local and world sports to India, whether in soccer, hockey, badminton, tennis, F1 or the many other sports that fans in India are deeply passionate about.”

He adds: “For us, this is not just about being the country’s leading sports broadcaster. We want to build a platform that will help nurture heroes out of the millions of passionate, young sports fans across India. We want sports to be the trigger for creating and nurturing outstanding new opportunities for India’s youth. And today, we are signalling that we are deeply committed to making this transformation happen, through our investments, our ideas and our efforts.”

As of midnight 6 November, the six channels under the erstwile ESPN-Star Sports umbrella will give way to new brands. Star Sports will be called Star Sports 1, Star Sports 2 remains Star Spots 2, Star Cricket will become Star Sports 3, ESPN will be rebranded as Star Sports 4, Star Cricket HD will become Star Sports HD1 and ESPN HD will be renamed as Star Sports HD2.

The big change really is with Star Sports 3, India’s first 24×7 Hindi sports channel with content, graphics and shows in Hindi. It hopes that this push into Hindi will dramatically increase the reach of sports in India where it says less than 10 per cent of the populace understands English and a much smaller number are native speakers. Star Sports has seen success in Hindi commentary with Hindi now accounting for 70 per cent share of all viewership in the recently concluded CLT20 series.

A high decibel promotional campaign has been drawn up featuring MS Dhoni as its first brand ambassador

In addition to this, the Star Sports network said that it will be showcasing new non-live programming and new shows and formats which will run into more than 5,000 hours of content, including around 200 days of live cricket annually. Amongst these is a half hour show called Star Power which will give comprehensive updates, insight and analysis and will be telecast twice a day at 8:00 pm and 10:30 pm on Star Sports 3 all seven days of the week.

On the digital front, Star India is aggressively reaching out to young, ardent sports fans who want to access sports across screens. The digital service offers a variety of sports including cricket, soccer and F1, in HD quality streaming. The service has received exceptionally positive consumer feedback for its revolutionary timeline (a first for cricket anywhere in the world) that gives the fan complete control of how he wants to view his favourite games, whether for live or catch-up.

A high decibel promotional campaign has been drawn up featuring MS Dhoni as its first brand ambassador. The campaign, says the network, urges India to “Believe” and it outlines the beliefs that have made M S Dhoni one of the most iconic heroes of our time. It will run on the Star network’s 33 channels and rolls out on 6 November when India tunes into watch Sachin Tendulkar play the last series of his career.

Star has the right pedigree to pull off healthy returns for the huge investments it is putting into sports says Ashish Bhasin

Star’s sports gamble is getting praise from senior media professionals.

“It is a very professional and calculated move to get deeper into sports and into developing niche sports. The channels are already established with viewers as they have been around for a long time and the rebranding and promotion will only deepen the connect with them,” says Aegis Group chairman India & CEO south east Asia Ashish Bhasin. “Star is putting its money where its mouth is and it has the right pedigree to pull off healthy returns for the huge investments it is putting into sports.”

November 5, 2013