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Tag: Ashish Bhasin

  • Cannes Lions 2019: Dentsu Webchutney bags 3 Lions

    Cannes Lions 2019: Dentsu Webchutney bags 3 Lions

    MUMBAI: Dentsu Webchutney, the creatively-led digital agency from the house of Dentsu Aegis Network, has bagged 1 Silver and 2 Bronze Lions at Cannes Lions 2019.

    The agency won a silver for Swiggy’s ‘Voice of Hunger’ campaign in the Social and Influencer category. Meanwhile, it scored a bronze in the Direct Lions category and another bronze in the PR Lions category for its ‘Code Name: Uri' executed for the film URI: The Surgical Strike. 

    Commenting on the achievement, Dentsu Aegis Network CEO Greater South and chairman and CEO India Ashish Bhasin said, “Dentsu Aegis Network leading with 19 shortlists and now Dentsu Webchutney winning three metals today further endorses our view that 3-5 years from now, there won’t be anything like a digital agency. All agencies will have to be digital. Old world, legacy creative agencies will vanish. Am particularly happy with Dentsu Webchutney’s performance, across categories and a big congratulations to Sidharth and Team Dentsu Webchutney.”

    Dentsu Webchutney co-founder and CEO Sidharth Rao said, “It’s surreal to us at Dentsu Webchutney, but there’s much that’s gone on behind the scenes in terms of building the right set of teams across locations, striving hard to win the client roster that we have today. I believe all of that has come together now.  For now, we will continue to double down on what we’ve been doing, and look forward to even more killer solutions to bring to the table here next year. An area of incredible focus is telling our research and strategy story even better, we lead the business in terms of our thinking and our clients know this, but the ecosystem still looks at Dentsu Webchutney at a pure-play creative agency. We’re ready for brands with outlandish ambitions for what’s possible. Stay tuned.”

    With 19 shortlists across direct, outdoor, social and influencer, mobile, brand experience and activation, media and creative e-commerce, Dentsu Aegis Network has emerged on top of the India tally at Cannes Lions 2019.

  • Dentsu Aegis Network gets new leadership for Happy mcgarrybowen

    Dentsu Aegis Network gets new leadership for Happy mcgarrybowen

    MUMBAI: In a bid to strengthen its global creative agency mcgarrybowen’s India footprint, Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN) has elevated Samarjit Choudhry to the role of president – happy mcgarrybowen (HMB) India. In addition to this, the global media and marketing communications conglomerate has also entrusted Soumitra Karnik with the additional charge as chief creative officer (CCO).

    Choudhry joined the Network in 2017 as COO – Happy mcgarrybowen India. Armed with more than 20 years of experience, he has worked with agencies such as Ogilvy and Leo Burnett. At Leo Burnett, he was the chief growth officer for the group and was also instrumental in setting up Orchard and Black Pencil for them. In addition, he has also worked to create India’s premier comic book content company, Virgin Comics.

    Speaking on his appointment, Choudhry said, “mcgarrybowen has a strong philosophy of solving real problems. They truly operate as a media-agnostic agency. In India the foundation for this is already there and the agency has been operating as Happy mcgarrybowen for over 2 years now. My mandate is to take it to the next level. Other than communication, we already have a strong design practice and in conjunction with the other offerings from DAN, today we offer our clients a one stop solution for whatever their needs might be. I look forward to taking the opportunity to take the legacy forward. And all we ask is, ‘Give us your biggest problem’.”

    Soumitra Karnik joined the network in 2012. Prior to that, he was an ECD at JWT. In over 11 years spent there, he worked on a variety of clients including Pepsi, Airtel, Nestle, and Hero Honda. Karnik has also worked at Lowe and Percept. Amongst his notable campaigns are the Pepsi ‘Yeh Hai Youngistaan Meri Jaan’, ‘Slice Aamsutra’, ‘Yaari Ki Gaadi’ for Hero Honda Splendour NXG, and the ‘What Makes Us Click’ campaign for Canon, to name a few.

    Speaking about the role, Karnik said, “Happy mcgarrybowen is a phenomenal creative brand and has an enviable body of work to prove it. All these years, I have greatly admired them from a distance and I count my blessings for being given this opportunity to be a part of their creative trajectory.  I assume this role with utmost confidence only because the culture of HMB will not have it any other way. I shall take my mandate from Gordon Bowen, our Global CCO, in the coming days and will talk about it soon. Personally, I’d like to build a collaborative creative culture where everyone works with everyone and everyone learns from everyone. There is so much talent out there in the world and sometimes all it takes is a simple call to say, ‘Hi, I have this idea and I need you to make it even more amazing’. Most clients deserve a spectacular package. Anything less is just plain misfortune.”

    Happy mcgarrybowen India is going to be a key piece in DAN’s India creative strategy.

    DAN CEO greater south and chairman & CEO India Ashish Bhasin said, “With its new leadership in place, I am more than confident that the agency is now in extremely able hands. Happy mcgarrybowen has always been a brand to reckon with and I have no doubt that Samarjit and Soumitra, together, will further fuel this brand legacy and help Happy mcgarrybowen scale new heights.”

  • Despite 30% y-o-y growth, Indian digital ad industry lagging behind global market

    Despite 30% y-o-y growth, Indian digital ad industry lagging behind global market

    MUMBAI: Even though the digital advertising industry is showing impressive growth, touching a year-on-year rise of around 30 per cent, there is scope for it to boom when compared to the global market. “If we look at expenditure made on digital advertisements in India, the average is still 4 dollars per view, while in countries like the US and China it is quite higher. China’s ad spends per view are at $88 per view. Even sub-Sahara African regions, which have a different GDP than ours, are spending much more than us,” said Interactive Avenues (a Reprise network company), IPGMediabrands COO Shantanu Sirohi at Future of Video-India conference in Mumbai, recently.

    He was the part of a panel discussing if digital ad spends are shifting back to TV. Joining him on the dais were Dentsu Aegis Network CEO, greater south and chairman, CEO, India Ashish Bhasin, and Zee Media managing director Ashok Venkatramani.

    The panel unanimously declined any possibility of such a shift and maintained that digital is showing tremendous growth and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. They also said that advertisement on television is also growing, though at a slower pace.

    However, the panel highlighted some of the constraints that might hamper this glorious growth rate of the digital advertising industry in the future. Venkatramani said that the industry has come to realise that one can’t build a brand using just the digital platform. He quoted, “Digital serves a purpose, which is of performance marketing. It creates impact and also high marketability as you know what your input is and what your output is. The spends on digital also give very quick results. But what one can’t do using digital is build the brand in a classical sense.”

    Further highlighting the constraints that can hamper digital’s growth, from an advertising perspective, Ashish Bhasin added, “From an advertising perspective, digital can land into trouble in two areas. One is this whole [issue related to] reliability, credibility and fake news, wherever one’s ad is appearing. That is starting to scare off the people a little bit. And the second thing is the lack of a measurement system. This should be the most measured medium but as an industry, we haven’t come to a consensus on a common currency like BARC or IRS.”

    Sirohi concluded by saying that when it comes to keeping a tab on data, the digital medium has been ‘always over-measured’. He said, “You always have third-party applications that you can run to measure the data. The entire concept of fraudulent e-links or bots comes in when agencies or the clients are not doing what they are supposed to do. They must plan around the media and pass only the end-goal metric to the third party. Otherwise, there always are people who will figure out the way to make a little more money from the advertiser. But on the whole, the internet is not the problem.”

  • Dentsu Aegis Network expands Anand Bhadkamkar’s role to CFO & COO South Asia

    Dentsu Aegis Network expands Anand Bhadkamkar’s role to CFO & COO South Asia

    MUMBAI: Following Dentsu Aegis Network’s (DAN) announcement to promote Ashish Bhasin to the expanded role of CEO greater south, Dentsu Aegis Network and chairman & CEO India, the global media and marketing communications conglomerate has now entrusted Dentsu Aegis Network – South Asia CFO Anand Bhadkamkar with the additional charge of chief operating officer India.

    With this announcement, Anand will now also be responsible for driving operational excellence in business and oversee support functions including HR and IT in India.  He will continue to report to Ashish Bhasin.

    Commenting on the appointment, Bhasin said, “Anand is exceptionally dependable, comes with strong leadership capabilities and has a very strong understanding of our markets, clients and services. Dentsu Aegis Network India is currently standing amid enormous market opportunities and with my expanded role and new geographies to look after, it was imperative for Anand to take up the operational responsibilities. Anand has always been integral to DAN operations and, in some ways, this is a formalisation of this duty. I strongly believe that Anand will successfully implement and integrate our strategies to take this growth forward.”  

    Commenting on his new role, Bhadkamkar said, “I am extremely excited and honoured to take on this additional responsibility. I look forward to embarking upon a new chapter in my career, having been part of the company’s journey over the past 10 years now. Dentsu Aegis Network India is very well positioned in today’s digital and transformational environment. I look forward to supporting the Group in its next growth phase and continue driving operational excellence across the organisation in South Asia.”

  • Dentsu Aegis Network India strengthens creative structure

    Dentsu Aegis Network India strengthens creative structure

    MUMBAI: Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN) India has announced an enhancement in its creative structure. Taproot Dentsu chief creative officer and co-founder Agnello Dias (Aggi) will now take on the additional responsibility of Dentsu Aegis Network India creative chairman. In his new role, Dias will now also guide and mentor the creative output of all DAN India companies even as he continues his services with Taproot Dentsu.

    Taproot Dentsu CCO, co-founder and DAN India creative chairman Agnello Dias said, “Taproot Dentsu is now a robust, full-fledged agency, based in two cities and run by a team of capable and talented professionals. In fact, this is the team that has been at the forefront of everything the agency has done for some time now. With the structure now in place and Paddy (Santosh Padhi) leading the way with the rest of the team, it was felt that I could stretch myself to also work with the other hungry and talented teams across the DAN network in India. It is an exciting part of my life’s journey and I hope it’s fruitful for all.”

    Speaking on Agnello’s enhanced role Dentsu Aegis Network CEO greater south and chairman, CEO India Ashish Bhasin said, “It is really delightful to add on an additional responsibility of Creative Chairman DAN India to Aggi. The entire creative community in India looks up to Aggi for his tremendous achievements. His mentoring of creative talent across all DAN India agencies will make DAN India an unbeatable creative powerhouse. I am really glad that Aggie has agreed to stretch himself and share his unparalleled talent across the group. I look forward to him chairing the DAN India Creative Council.”

    Dias, previously the national chief creative officer for JWT India, has been with Taproot Dentsu, the agency he co-founded, for 10 years now. Today, the agency has a robust structure with Santosh Padhi (CCO & co-founder), Umesh Shrikhande (CEO), Pallavi Chakravarti (ECD), Ayesha Ghosh (general manager) and Shashank Lanjekar (head of strategy) in Mumbai and Harjot Narang (general manager), Titus Upputuru (ECD) and Anand Murty (head of strategy) in Delhi, leading their teams across a diverse portfolio of national and local brands.

  • Advertisers weigh in on effectiveness of BARC’s integrated TV plus OOH measurement

    Advertisers weigh in on effectiveness of BARC’s integrated TV plus OOH measurement

    MUMBAI: In a significant move, the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India recently announced the integration of TV and out-of-home (OOH) TV viewership in its media workstation software. The decision will allow BARC India subscribers to get a comprehensive understanding of the overall viewership.

    Brands and marketers have welcomed the move for the viable opportunities it can create. However, a few of them point out that such ratings will be impactful only during big-ticket event-based OOH viewing.

    Dentsu Aegis Network CEO greater south and chairman and CEO of India Ashish Bhasin is of the view that it will help marketers in making more informed decisions. He says, "I believe it is a step in the right direction. A lot of TV viewership, particularly around sporting events like IPL, happens outside of homes and the more research that we can get, the more clarity of data we can get, the more it helps the medium and also helps in making more informed choices."

    L'Oreal head of media Neel Pandya feels that while it is too early to tell how the policy will fare, it is going to be interesting to see how the advertising culture will evolve accordingly. He says, “It’s a great move by BARC to include out of home TV viewership as a part of its offering. Over the years, the only large media available for mass audience have been TV and OOH. As urban India is spending more time out of their homes on weekends, this service will enable marketers to get a holistic picture of the audiences’ TV viewing habits. OOH is an attractive proposition nowadays, leading to its extensive use and a boom of OTT players in the country. The only hurdle for large advertisers to invest heavily in OOH is its measurement system. While it’s too early to tell, it will be interesting to see how advertising evolves to capture the attention of increasing OOH TV viewing audiences.”

    The service will allow broadcasters and advertisers to uncover more value and insights into TV-viewing behaviours, both inside and outside the home. The data will also be available in the planning module for agencies to plan effectively and account for this audience.

    RSH Global CMO Poulomi Roy is of the view that the integrated ratings will help the marketers during event-based properties like IPL but otherwise the impact is going to be negligible. She says, “Big ticket media properties like IPL & World Cup which have a homogeneous group of people with common sentiments viewing together will show better reach and hence, marketers who spend on these properties will get affected in a positive way. However, it is important to know the sample size and coverage area and lastly how the data will be interpreted. Barring these days when such properties are not airing, the impact of these measurements is negligible because for a consumer it will be forced viewing of whatever is served by the social hotspots.”

    KMPG India partner and head, media and entertainment Girish Menon thinks that while the intent behind the decision is very good, one needs to think through how the measurement metric will work to cover a large number of people who will be watching at one place along with demography of those viewers.

    He says, “The way we need to look at out of home viewing is in two types. One is event-related viewing, mostly relevant to sports, and the other is consumption in the hotel. For an event-based viewing, for example, if you go to a restaurant, 50 people might be watching (from one screen). How do you really measure the number in such case? If you look at hotels, that model is very different. There is a reasonable chunk of the transient population that means, a person either flips through channels to pick up something interesting or typically goes to his favourite channel. Either way, it is not appointment viewing. But at least brand loyalty will have a larger play. So, therefore it is slightly more advantageous to larger and more well-known channels. There we benefit at the channel level, not necessarily at the programme level.”

    Menon says that the way advertising works in India is ratings-based in terms of reach, people and demography. “Essentially, it will add to those ratings. Therefore from an advertiser’s perspective, it is a little bit better because it expands the population the advertisers will be able to target. But at the end of it, it benefits the advertisers like all other measurement systems.”

    BARC had started the OOH TV viewership management in 2018, in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. The council has also announced the expansion of this service to 120+ urban towns as well. This also comes at a time when BARC India has expanded its panel to 40,000 metered homes within the committed timeline of March 2019

  • Dentsu Aegis Network promotes Ashish Bhasin to CEO of expanded cluster Greater South

    Dentsu Aegis Network promotes Ashish Bhasin to CEO of expanded cluster Greater South

    MUMBAI: Dentsu Aegis Network, the global media & marketing communications conglomerate, has promoted Ashish Bhasin, currently chairman and CEO, Dentsu Aegis Network – South Asia to the expanded role of CEO, Dentsu Aegis Network Greater South and chairman and CEO of India.

    With this announcement, Bhasin will now also be responsible for overseeing India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia and Myanmar. He will continue to be based out of India and report to Takaki Hibino, executive chairman of Dentsu Aegis Network APAC.

    Commenting on the appointment, Takaki Hibino said, “Ashish has proven himself to be an exceptional leader. Under his direction, India today stands to be one of the most important revenue growth markets for Dentsu Aegis Network globally. I know he will be able to replicate the same story for the important Southeast Asia markets as well, even as he continues to fuel growth in his current responsibilities for South Asia.”

    Commenting on his new role, Ashish Bhasin said, “I am extremely excited to take up this new challenge. The newly formed Greater South region is extremely important for Dentsu Aegis Network. Both Southeast Asia and South Asia are very interesting and high potential markets. I feel very lucky to be leading this fantastic set of leaders and managers and hope to take Dentsu Aegis Network forward during these interesting and transformational digital times. Since I have had experience in running Southeast Asia in the past, in some ways it feels like a homecoming and I am excitedly looking forward to it.”

    Bhasin’s remit will exclude Singapore which, as a regional hub, will be led by Masaya Nakamura in addition to his role as deputy chairman and chief growth officer of Dentsu Aegis Network APAC.

  • [Podcast] Media Minds: Dentsu Aegis Network’s Ashish Bhasin talks about everything digital

    [Podcast] Media Minds: Dentsu Aegis Network’s Ashish Bhasin talks about everything digital

    MUMBAI: As one of the biggest digital marketing agencies in India, Dentsu Aegis Network has been at the forefront of leveraging the digital content sphere and also establishing a robust ecosystem for this fast-growing industry. For the past two years, it has also been releasing a comprehensive Digital Advertising in India 2018 report that gives an insight into the numbers, trends and the general ecosphere of the industry.

    The third edition of the report was launched earlier this year. On the occasion, Indiantelevision.com spoke to DAN South Asia chairman and chief executive officer Ashish Bhasin for the first-ever episode of our podcast: Media Minds.

    We talked to Bhasin about the report and why it is important for brands to use the digital medium smartly and responsibly. Talking about the launch, Bhasin proudly says, "We are very excited and very happy with the way the whole report has come out. What's very clear to us at DAN is that there is no business that is not going to be affected by digital. And as leaders of digital communication and advertising in India, we see it as our responsibility to make sure that authentic research on that is available, which, unfortunately, has not been revealed in India so far."

    He also shared how government intervention has helped the digital ecosphere to boom, the implications of the growth of programmatic advertising, the efficient use of video platforms, and the general perception of the brands and agencies towards digital in 2019 and beyond.

    Listen to the complete interaction on the first episode of ‘Media Minds’ here:

  • Viacom18 presents India’s premier advertising festival “Goafest 2019”

    Viacom18 presents India’s premier advertising festival “Goafest 2019”

    MUMBAI: The apex industry event that celebrates milestones in the Indian media and advertising industry – Goafest is all set to be held on 11th, 12th and 13th April, 2019  at India’s festival destination.  Presented by Viacom18, Goafest 2019 will see the A&M fraternity celebrate sucessul campaigns and facilitate idea exchange on categtory growth drivers and game changing global trends. 

    Speaking about the 14th edition of the festival, Mr. Ashish Bhasin, President of Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) said, “Goafest is the Indian advertising industry’s largest and most representative event . It is not just a festival but an ode to the industry and  the pioneering work done through the year. This year too we will bring to fore an immersive event that will bring together the  industry’s most creatively curious, transformational and inspiring thoughtleaders and innovators from across agencies, brands and media houses. .

    Mr. Nakul Chopra, Chairman Goafest 2019 said “Goafest is all geared up for an inclusive and engaging 2019 edition. Our endeavor this year is to ensure that multi-category representation and participation, interactivity and thought leadership is at the forefront of all our initiatives. This year too  the apex industry event will continue to establish its eminence as a leading knowledge sharing and networking platform and we are happy to have partnered with Viacom18 in building this to further scale.”

    Speaking about partnering with Goafest 2019, Sudhanshu Vats – Group CEO & MD at Viacom18 said ““Goafest has, over the years, cemented it’s reputation as the country’s foremost amalgamation of the best and brightest of the creative and marketing minds of the Indian business. Our association with them is an extension of our belief that knowledge sharing leads to knowledge enhancement thereby benefitting the entire industry.”

    Talking about the focus at the upcoming edition of the festival  Vikram Sakhuja: President, The Advertising Club said “ABBY’s are the gold standard in creative awards and has always  recognized agencies and talent that push boundaries and challenge status quo.  Our endeavor with the festival and the awards this year is to ensure exceptional speakers, inclusive participation and thereby gain a headstart on decoding transformational global advertising and communication trends.”

    Shashi Sinha, Awards Governing Council Chair and Secretary, The Advertising Club said “We are all set for the ABBY’s and are hoping to see some pioneering and clutter breaking work being entered this year. ABBY’s is the ultimate national benchmark for effective creative communication.   Winning an ABBY holds a place of pride in the career lifecyle of every advertising and media professional.  We sincierly hope that  the awards continue to inspire the best minds in the industry to present their best foot forward. “

    Presented by the Advertising Club and AAAI the Goafest 2019 will once again see the entire advertising and marketing fraternity soon come together in Goa in April 2019.

  • DAN gets Facebook Marketing Partner (Ad-Tech) badge

    DAN gets Facebook Marketing Partner (Ad-Tech) badge

    MUMBAI: Dentsu Aegis Network India has announced that it is now an official Facebook Marketing Partner (Ad-Tech), making it the first global agency network to receive a badging for Ad-Tech, through its flagship platform Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN) Data Labs developed out of India.

    Facebook Marketing Partners are companies that have clearly demonstrated unique capabilities that help marketers scale and achieve efficiency with Facebook marketing and must demonstrate expertise and specialisation.

    Commenting on the badging Dentsu Aegis Network chairman and CEO – South Asia Ashish Bhasin said, “Aligned with our global vision of being a 100 per cent digitally-led business, DAN Data Labs is just the kind of innovation that drives our growth towards that mission. Led by Gautam, the data sciences team has had a record of driving innovation in digital marketing by bringing to the forefront new technologies to transform the way we do business today not only in India, but in several other countries around the globe.”

    DAN Data Labs is a globally scaled platform built by the data sciences division of Dentsu Aegis Network India. It includes a suite of sophisticated products that deliver deep audience insights, ability to activate across platforms and performance optimisation towards various goals. All of this in on a single system that is designed by digital marketers for digital marketers.

    Dentsu Aegis Network chief data officer- South Asia Gautam Mehra added, “We are proud to be recognised by Facebook as a Facebook Marketing Partner and being vetted for excellence in exactly the things needed to drive successful marketing campaigns. Receiving this validation is an added testament to the success DAN Data Labs has enjoyed in the 30+ markets where the platform has delivered efficiency at scale. It is indeed an honor to be the first global agency group to receive this badge and continue to achieve client satisfaction through innovation on a worldwide level. With this new partnership, we hope to continue to build new solutions on the backbone of machine learning and being exposed to even more product alphas from Facebook.”