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Tag: Carat

  • Maxus brings Navin Khemka on board as managing partner

    Maxus brings Navin Khemka on board as managing partner

    MUMBAI: Maxus has appointed Navin Khemka as its managing partner. Khemka will be heading the north and east regions for the media agency and will also be responsible for new business development across the country. He will report to Maxus south Asia managing director Kartik Sharma.

     

    With over 17 years of experience in the advertising and media industry, Khemka’s last appointment was with ZenithOptimedia, where he left as managing partner. With a tenure spanning the last eight years, he was initially the trading lead for key accounts such as Nestle and HP. He subsequently took over the business leadership of the HP account, delivering some award winning campaigns such as the HP Serena Williams campaign at Lakme Fashion Week. Thereafter he took on the additional role of new business director for India. He was instrumental in bringing on new clients such as Honda, Toshiba, Uninor, McVities, Karbonn Mobiles, Godfrey Philips, Best Rice, Greenlam Laminates, Olx.in, Jabong.com, Yatra.com at ZenithOptimedia.

     

    Sharma said, “Navin comes with a varied skill set and extensive experience across various product categories. He is an ideal leader to spearhead the Maxus team, and uphold our PACE value system across the organistaion.  At Maxus we endeavour to push the boundaries to delivering excellence for our clients, to achieve our 10/10 mandate.”

     

    Khemka said, “I am delighted to be a part of India’s most dynamic agency – Maxus.  Brand needs are changing and Maxus is geared up to providing a holistic solution to its clients. I look forward to work closely with the team and help provide seamless, media neutral solutions to our clients. Driving growth for Maxus in existing and new geographies also makes my role challenging. I am looking forward to exciting days ahead.”

     

    A graduate of St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata and MICA, Khemka started his career with Mudra where he worked for five years. Prior to ZenithOptimedia, Navin worked at Cheil Communications, Mindshare and Carat.

  • Aegis Media India launches Carat Fresh Rural

    Aegis Media India launches Carat Fresh Rural

    MUMBAI: Aegis Media India has launched Carat Fresh Rural, a professionally run, international rural communications agency. Carat Fresh Rural, the rural division of Carat Fresh Integrated, will provide comprehensive rural marketing and communication solutions to clients, which include rural planning, implementing outreach campaigns in rural areas, route planning, monitoring, van operations, haat and mandi contact programs, wall paintings, melas and any other marketing communication activities that may be required in small towns and villages.

    Interestingly, it has already bagged assignments from clients like Mahindra & Mahindra, Godrej Consumer Products, Escorts, Godrej, GPI, SONY MAX, Pidilite, Force Motors, Bayer Crop Science, and others. Carat Fresh Rural will be starting with a team of 30 rural marketers and a network of 1500 operators, across seven offices and 20 operation bases, led by the famous rural expert, Keshav Chandorkar, who will report to Carat Fresh Integrated head, Ravi Shankar.

    Before launching, they have already carried out activities in over 18000 villages across 21 states.

    “Rural Marketing Communications is the holy grail that no agency has successfully cracked in India, thus far. I believe that there is a universe at least equal to the size of the entire advertising industry available to agencies to explore in the rural marketing communications field. Carat Fresh Rural will, in many ways, pioneer that.  We are developing, for the first time in India, state-of-the-art rural management tools.  The Carat Fresh suite of Rural Tools will have the country’s only real time Rural Planning Tool, enabled by 3G connectivity and linked to a host of data sources including the rich census data, media data and 16 other sources of data. Since implementation in rural is key, every one of the Carat Fresh Rural operators will have an App on their GPS enabled trackers that will automatically monitor and relay data without human intervention. Several Tools and Apps are being developed to revolutionize rural communications in India” said, chairman India & CEO South East Asia Ashish Bhasin.

    Carat Fresh Rural aims to have a network of 10,000 people and 100 rural experts, across  26 states, by mid-2015. By 2015 Carat Fresh Rural expects to have covered over 100,000 villages throughout India.  In the second phase of expansion, which will span from 2016 t0 2018, it is anticipated that the network will grow to 20000 people, employees to 200+ and over 200,000 villages would have been covered.

  • Aegis Media appoints Alex Crowther to head General Motors’ biz

    Aegis Media appoints Alex Crowther to head General Motors’ biz

    BENGALURU: Aegis-owned media agency, Carat — a media communications specialist and a player in digital and diversified media solutions, has appointed Alex Crowther, former CEO of MediaCom Asia Pacific as Global Client President, effective immediately.

    Crowther, in this role, will be responsible for leading the General Motors business and continuing Carat’s track record of global success in managing the USD 300 crores global account.

    “Alex is the perfect person to lead the continued momentum and growth of General Motors’ global business for us,” said Aegis Media Americas & EMEA CEO Nigel Morris. “He’s a rare talent who brings extensive global experience and a proven track record working with major global brands across categories, but specifically with automotive. He has the entrepreneurial spirit and drive to find innovative ways to drive GM’s business forward in today’s convergent media landscape.”

    Crowther returns to Carat, where he once worked at Carat International, after a 19-year hiatus, and brings 26 years of global experience in the media industry. Prior to Carat, Alex was CEO Asia Pacific for the global media network MediaCom, part of WPP’s GroupM, sitting on the Asia Pacific board of GroupM and global board of MediaCom. During his first three years at MediaCom, Alex helped to double to size and scale of the business in Asia Pacific by winning multiple Proctor & Gamble country assignments, Coca-Cola in several territories and many other globally recognised brands.

    Morris continued, “Steven has been part of the Carat GM leadership team since the onset of our relationship, helping to open Carat’s office and global hub for the GM partnership in Detroit. He led the successful transition of Carat’s GM business across more than 70 markets and will move on to do more great things for other global and U.S. clients across our network.”

    Prior to MediaCom, Alex served as President/CEO Americas and Asia Pacific of integrated communications network Davinci, a part of Omnicom. Based in the US — much of it in Detroit, he was President/CEO Americas and Asia Pacific and as co-founder was instrumental in the company’s rapid growth from a standing start to a presence in more than 60 markets in seven years. During his time at Davinci, the agency managed the global media for Chrysler and Mercedes Benz as well as Mitsubishi Motors in North America.

    “Automotive has always been a passion of mine and a cornerstone in my career, so it only makes sense that I return to Detroit, especially to work at a global-leading media agency that is consistently ranked as the number 1 network by RECMA. Carat is the only network that truly understands convergence and is redefining the value of media to create better business value. I can’t wait to get started,” said Crowther.

    Crowther replaces Steven Feuling, who will be relocating to San Francisco and assuming a new role at Carat. During Feuling’s tenure as Global Client President for GM, Carat helped GM achieve significant gains from both a consumer and business perspective, including Interbrand naming Chevrolet as one the Top 100 Global Brands in 2013.

  • Carat Media Services appointed AOR of SCA Hygiene in India

    Carat Media Services appointed AOR of SCA Hygiene in India

    MUMBAI: Carat Media Services has bagged the media duties of SCA in India. The business will be handled by Carat’s Mumbai office.

    SCA is a leading global hygiene and forest product company that develops, produces and markets personal care products in categories such as baby diapers, incontinence care and feminine care, the world’s third largest suppliers of tissue, forest products and packaging solutions.
    SCA India VP consumer goods Cecilia Edebo

    The brands that SCA intends to launch on the Indian market in the coming months include Libero baby care, Tempo – for hand and face hygiene, TENA – the world leader in incontinence care, and Tork – the global leader in the away-from-home tissue segment.

    India being one of the emerging markets there would be under significant focus and investment towards fulfilling the needs of Indian customers and consumers in a spirit of innovation, through continuous efficiency enhancements and with a clear desire to contribute to sustainable development.

    On the launch, SCA India VP consumer goods Cecilia Edebo said: “SCA aims to grow organically and has extensive experience in the hygiene business, which should help to provide better hygiene for the Indian consumer. The large population and the low penetration of hygiene products provide the potential for SCA’s future growth. In this endeavor, we had a series of presentations and discussions to evaluate the strategic thinking capabilities of Carat to enable our differentiation at the market place, demonstration of tools and passion of the team. We are happy that Carat India’s team demonstrated great ability in strategic thinking capabilities backed by a solid integrated offering to support the Marcom. We are happy to have them as our media partner.”

    Carat India Sr. VP Himanka Das said: “We are delighted to extend our partnership with SCA in India, they have some great personal care and incontinence care brands in their portfolio to offer and we do look forward to partnering them in their India plans. We have been working with them for the last one year to firm up the launch strategies based on extensive media market analysis.”

    Carat is part of the Aegis Media Group. Other companies in the group include Vizeum, Posterscope the global OOH sector leader, Brandscope, Hyperspace (Retail), Carat Fresh Integrated (Activation), PSI (Airports), Doosra (Creative), Isobar, the global communications agency with digital at its heart and iProspect, the global leader in search and performance marketing.

  • Sony consolidates its media biz, IPG’s Initiative gains Rs 1.5 bn

    MUMBAI: Sony India has consolidated the media duties of all its businesses under IPG Mediabrands’ Initiative, giving the agency new businesses worth Rs 1.5 billion.

    Initiative has snatched Sony‘s mobile business media account away from OMD to take complete charge of the Japanese multinational‘s Rs 3 billion media spend in India. The IPG agency was already media
    servicing the other parts of Sony‘s businesses.

    IPG‘s new responsibilities would include handling both media and digital duties of the brand, one of the biggest advertising spenders in the category.

    “Sony Mobile spends around Rs 1.5 billion on media. So this is a good catch for Initiative,” says a source close to the development.

    The agency won the account following a closely fought pitch processover two months that saw all the big agencies in the fray, including Madison, Maxus, ZenithOptimedia, Carat and OMD.

    The contest went to the last and final round with Initiative edging out Madison to win the AoR.

    “It is a great new beginning for IPG Mediabrands India and we would like to thank Sony India for reposing their faith in the team,” says Shashi Sinha, the new CEO of IPG Mediabrands India.

    For Lodestar UM chief operating officer Anamika Mehta, the “massive win” is a “proud and happy moment” for her team. “This will be a game changer as we leverage IPG Mediabrands scale and market clout. We look forward to some path-breaking work with Sony in times ahead,” she says.

  • Carat wins Tzinga business

    MUMBAI: Hector Beverages, manufacturers of the energy drink Tzinga, have appointed Aegis‘ Carat to manage their account.

    The agency‘s Bengaluru office will handle the account.

    Hector Beverages director and co-founder Suhas Misra said, “The category is still under-developed and when compared to similar markets, the future growth potential is massive . We wanted a strong and dedicated media agency who can partner us in our growth plans wrt consumer and media understanding, and we found Carat as a perfect fit.”

    Hector Beverages media consultant Chirantan Chandran said, “We were delighted to see the response we received from Carat on the brief and their huge passion for our business. Their understanding of the brief and the customized media solution recommended by Carat using a combination of insights and cutting edge tools were something we were looking for. We are pleased to have them as a partner and are sure that they would contribute significantly to our business growth.”

    Carat MD Kartik Iyer said, “It has always been our effort to deliver consumer and business focused solutions and services to all our clients across India and are delighted that Hector Beverages found value in our proposal. We are happy to see that Hector Beverages reposed faith and confidence in our cutting edge media solution backed by relevant consumer insights.”

    Carat is part of the Aegis Media India Group that also includes Vizeum, Posterscope, Isobar, the global communications agency with digital at its heart and iProspect Communicate2.

  • Carat revises downwards ad spend growth to 5% in 2012

    MUMBAI: Media Communications specialist Carat, part of Aegis Media, has revised downwards the global ad spend due to economic stresses in Europe and the US.

    In its new forecast, Carat has predicted global advertising expenditure to grow at five per cent in 2012, down from its earlier forecast of six per cent.

    For 2013, Carat has downgraded the global ad growth to 5.3 per cent from 5.8 per cent. The company had made its previous forecast in March 2012.

    These latest forecasts are consistent with the view of the two-speed world whereby we continue to see significant growth from the faster-growing regions of the world versus the lower levels of growth in the developed economies of the US and Western Europe, with Western Europe being impacted by low or negative growth, particularly in Southern Europe.

    The data also shows that global investment in Digital Advertising will overtake investment in Newspapers sooner than expected, in 2012 rather than 2013, as audiences continue to move online.

    By media, digital remains the driving force in the market in terms of growth, continuing to outstrip growth in other verticals, followed by Out-of-Home (OOH) and television.

    Year on year percentage growth at current prices
    (Figures in brackets show the previous forecasts from March 2012)

     

    2012
    2013
    Global
    5.0 (6.0)
    5.3 (5.8)
    North America
    4.9 (5.0)
    5.3 (4.3)
    USA
    4.9 (4.9)
    5.3 (4.2)
    Canada
    3.3 (5.4)
    4.3 (6.1)
    Western Europe
    0.2 (1.5)
    1.1 (2.2)
    UK
    2.8 (4.0)
    2.8 (3.4)
    Germany
    1.1 (1.2)
    1.5 (2.0)
    France
    0.5 (1.5)
    1.9 (1.9)
    Italy
    -5.0 (1.2)
    -0.4 (1.0)
    Spain
    -8.0 (-4.7)
    -5.4 (1.6)
    C&EE
    7.9 (9.5)
    8.8 (9.0)
    Russia
    14.1 (15.2)
    13.1 (12.8)
    Asia Pacific
    6.8 (8.7)
    6.5 (8.6)
    Australia
    1.0 (2.9)
    2.0 (2.7)
    China
    11.0 (14.7)
    9.8 (14.6)
    Japan
    2.9 (3.0)
    2.8 (0.7)
    Latin America
    12.0 (10.7)
    9.0 (8.2)
    Brazil
    12.8 (10.5)
    9.4 (8.0)

    Commenting on the Carat forecasts Aegis Group CEO Jerry Buhlmann said, “Carat‘s latest ad spend forecasts show the continuation of two fundamental trends which have changed the advertising industry. Firstly, Digital Media continues to grow materially ahead of all the other media and has overtaken newspapers – a year earlier than expected – to become the second largest medium in terms of advertising spend, behind TV. The trend of audiences moving online shows no sign of slowing down, as demand for online content and the proliferation of internet and mobile access increases. In parallel to this, the trend of the two-speed world continues, with the rates of growth in the emerging economies remaining well ahead of the US and Western Europe.

    “With these two themes – globalisation and convergence – the media landscape is becoming increasingly complex. In addition, it is creating exciting new growth opportunities for the global advertisers and changing the demands they place on the advertising groups. In these changing times, for those that have the most focused and specialist offerings, along with the global reach and scale to provide innovative integrated solutions that deliver real results, there are exciting times ahead.”

  • Carat retains BMW media biz

    Carat retains BMW media biz

    MUMBAI: Carat Media has retained the BMW India media account following a multi-agency pitch that saw participation of agencies like Zenith Optimedia, Maxus and BPN.

    The elaborate pitch process had four phases which included credentials, strategy and value evaluations.

    BMW India marketing director Christian Saffer said, “India is a very important country in BMW‘s global portfolio and we needed to ensure that we were getting the best that the market could offer in terms of media planning and buying. In line with this, we invited agencies to present their point of view on our business. After the pitch we found Carat to be the most suitable and capable of handling our business. Carat came up with solutions focused on our business needs and went beyond traditional media planning. We have worked with Carat for a number of years now and are delighted with the way they came in with a re-energized perspective on BMW‘s media approach in India.”

    Carat India MD Kartik Iyer added, “We are totally committed to BMW India and are delighted that they gave us an opportunity to re-look at the way their media was being implemented. Our solutions focused on the brand challenges. We delivered a solution package that would enable BMW India to continue on its path of unchallenged leadership in the country. We do hope to work with BMW India for many more years and look forward to presenting a truly integrated solution and a team more than capable of delivering to the challenges in the future.”

  • Carat bags Reliance backed Extramarks’ media biz

    MUMBAI: Carat Media has been appointed the media AoR for new age digital learning solution company Extramarks Education. The brand plans to make sizeable investments on the media front with a high profile media campaign conceptualised by McCann Erickson.

    Infotel Broadband Services Ltd. (Infotel), a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL), has acquired a 38.5 per cent stake in Extramarks Education through its affiliate Reliance Strategic Investments.

    Promoted by Atul Kulshrestha, Extramarks was launched two years back commercially. It helps in making regular classes more tech savvy to make the teaching process interactive and more interesting.

    Extramarks CEO Rohit Jain said, “Extramarks is setting revolutionary standards in education whereby we aim to enhance the regular classroom experience and take a quantum leap forward – in the process, raising the quality of delivery for both students and teachers alike.”

    Carat Media EVP Vidhu Sagar said, “We at Carat are extremely proud to have been chosen by Extramarks as their media partner. We shall be partnering Extramarks in the media management exercise holistically – thus we’ll manage the entire set of media responsibilities for the brand including planning, buying and execution. Of course, we shall endeavour to do this with the help of all pertinent media platforms – including television, print, digital, OOH as well as activation.”