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Tag: Dentsu Aegis Network

  • William V takes charge as CFO of Jio Blast Esports

    William V takes charge as CFO of Jio Blast Esports

    MUMBAI: William V has been appointed chief financial officer of Jio Blast Esports, the joint venture between Reliance’s Jio Platforms and Denmark’s Blast ApS. He will oversee financial strategy, governance and operational efficiency as the company pushes into India’s fast-growing esports sector.

    A chartered accountant by training, William has more than two decades in senior finance roles. He currently also serves as CFO at JioAds. Before joining Reliance, he spent seven years at Dentsu Aegis Network as director of finance and group treasury, following a decade at Star India where he handled US GAAP reporting, Sox compliance and project evaluation. Earlier stints included Darashaw and L&T Finance.

    At Jio Blast Esports, William is tasked with driving financial planning, compliance and automation while supporting long-term value creation in an industry that sits at the crossroads of gaming, sports and entertainment.

  • Rohit Shaw boards Havas Media Network as senior vice president

    Rohit Shaw boards Havas Media Network as senior vice president

    MUMBAI: Rohit Shaw has rejoined Havas Media Network as a senior vice president, a significant move for the integrated marketing strategist. Starting this July, Shaw will be part of Arena Media, focusing on agency relations and key client management.

    Shaw’s return to Havas follows a year as senior vice president at Bharat Media & Entertainment group (BMEG), where he spearheaded national planning and strategy, driving client growth and revenue. Before that, he spent two years as a strategic client lead consultant at Havas Media group.

    His extensive career includes a three-year tenure as senior marketing manager – consumer marketing strategist at Dabur India Ltd, where he managed marketing strategy and media deployment for multiple successful brands. Prior to Dabur, Shaw was the senior manager and head of media marketing at Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd., overseeing marketing communications for Domino’s India and providing strategic recommendations based on market intelligence

    Shaw’s agency experience also includes roles at GroupM, where he was an associate director of business and business group head, managing media requirements for brands like Paytm and Dabur. He also served as a business group head at Dentsu Aegis Network, handling accounts for Microsoft, Nokia, and General Motors. 

    Early in his career, he worked as a media planner for Emami Ltd, managing brands such as Boroplus and Navratna, and held an assistant manager position in business development at Consim Info Pvt Ltd.

    Shaw’s appointment is expected to bolster Havas Media Network’s client engagement and strategic capabilities, leveraging his deep understanding of digital marketing, media planning, and consumer behaviour.

  • Rahul Rajput takes the hot seat as VP–Investment at Dentsu India

    Rahul Rajput takes the hot seat as VP–Investment at Dentsu India

    MUMBAI: Dentsu India has elevated Rahul Rajput to vice president–investment, a move that cements his position as a key driver of the network’s media buying and planning muscle. The promotion comes after a one-year stint as associate vice president, during which Rajput steered the ship on high-stakes investment deals and cross-platform campaigns.

    Based in Gurugram, Rajput brings over a decade of experience to the role, including a six-year run at Dentsu Aegis Network as investment director and nearly three years at Mindshare, where he held the title of director–The Exchange. His career began at VivaKi and Havas Media, where he sharpened his chops as a media buyer.

    A self-described music enthusiast and natural networker, Rajput blends strategic thinking with people-first leadership. His mantra? “Everyone you meet has something to teach you.”

    With India’s digital and TV adex in flux, Dentsu’s bet on Rajput signals its intent to double down on smart, agile investment leadership in the months ahead.

  • Value 360 locks in Keshav Shanbhag as CFO for upcoming public listing

    Value 360 locks in Keshav Shanbhag as CFO for upcoming public listing

    MUMBAI: A company on the brink of a public listing needs a steady hand at the financial wheel enter Keshav Shanbhag, Value 360 Communications’ newly appointed as CFO. The firm prepares to make history as the first publicly listed PR company in the country, Shanbhag’s arrival signals a strategic push towards financial strength and investor confidence.

    The timing couldn’t be more significant. Value 360 Communications recently closed Its pre-IPO investment round, attracting heavyweight investors including film star Huma Qureshi and is set to file its Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) for its SME IPO. In this high-stakes moment, Shanbhag will oversee financial strategy, investor relations, and corporate governance, ensuring a smooth ascent to the stock market.

    With over 17 years of experience, Shanbhag isn’t new to the high-pressure world of IPOs, mergers, and turnarounds. He’s played pivotal roles at MCX, IN10 Media, and Dentsu Aegis Network, financial strategies that drove business transformations. His work at MCX, in particular, made waves when he spearheaded the company’s IPO, bagging the title of best mid-cap equity deal in the APAC region and earning himself the coveted most valuable player award.

    Value 360 Communications group CEO & co-founder Kunal Kishore said, “Bringing Keshav on board as CFO marks a strategic advancement in our journey. His proven expertise in managing IPOs, M&A transactions, and driving business transformation perfectly complements our ambitious five-year growth strategy. We are confident his management will be instrumental in creating substantial value for our stakeholders as we work toward scaling our operations exponentially as we complete 20 years of operations in 2027.”

    Shanbhag himself is no stranger to high-stakes financial management. Speaking about his new role, he remarked, “I’m honoured to join Value 360 Communications at such a transformative juncture in its corporate journey. The opportunity to steer the company’s financial strategy as it prepares for its public listing represents a unique challenge. I look forward to leveraging my experience in capital markets and investor relations to advance Value 360 Communications’ position as the market pioneer in integrated communications, while delivering exceptional value to our clients, stakeholders, and future shareholders.”

    Value 360 Communications isn’t just preparing for an IPO it’s gearing up for exponential growth. The company’s five-year roadmap focuses on expanding operations, investing in technology, enhancing capacity, and pursuing strategic acquisitions. Its impressive client roster already features Tata Motors, Pernod Ricard, Kia Motors, Skoda, Fedex, Digi Yatra, Poco, Zupee, Mondelez, Audi India, and Easemytrip, among others.

    With Shanbhag at the financial helm, the company is set to break barriers, redefine communications, and make waves on the stock market.

  • Ashit Chakravarty joins Magiccircle as associate partner & COO

    Ashit Chakravarty joins Magiccircle as associate partner & COO

    MUMBAI: Ashit Chakravarty has been appointed associate partner & chief operating officer at Magiccircle. With a distinguished career spanning renowned global agencies, Chakravarty brings extensive experience in brand strategy, marketing, and business growth.

    Dentsu Creative appointed Chakravarty as managing partner & brand strategy & west, following key prominent roles at Dentsu Webchutney, where he advanced from vice president to executive vice president & growth & strategy. His expertise in forecasting, cross-functional management, & consumer behaviour has shaped campaigns for top brands.

    Leo Burnett, contract advertising, and Dentsu Aegis Network have also been part of Chakravarty’s professional journey, along with his role as head of brand marketing at Zopper.com. 

  • Honor taps Zivpreet Kaur to lead India marketing

    Honor taps Zivpreet Kaur to lead India marketing

    MUMBAI: Smartphone maker Honor has appointed Zivpreet Kaur as its marketing director for India from late 2024. Zivpreet brings substantial experience from her previous role as regional media, advertising & communications lead for the Middle East and Africa region, where she managed media strategy across multiple territories.

    The appointment comes at a crucial juncture for Honor, which has been working to strengthen its position in India’s fiercely competitive smartphone market. Zivpreet’s  expertise spans digital transformation, e-commerce, and cross-functional team leadership—skills that align with Honor’s  ambitions in the Indian market.

    Prior Honor, where she is celebrating her sixth year, Zivpreet held senior positions at Huawei consumer business group and Dentsu Aegis Network, where she managed global accounts including General Motors, MasterCard, and Philips. Her track record includes developing integrated marketing campaigns and optimising media investments across traditional and digital channels.

    The move signals Honor’s  commitment to bolstering its marketing operations in India, where the brand faces stiff competition from established players. Zivpreet has been tasked with shaping consumer engagement models and reinforcing brand recognition in what remains one of the world’s fastest-growing smartphone markets.

  • OMD APAC promotes Namrata Roy to vice-president strategy

    OMD APAC promotes Namrata Roy to vice-president strategy

    MUMBAI: OMD APAC has elevated Namrata Roy to vice-president strategy, marking another step forward in her four-year tenure with the media agency network.

    Roy, who most recently served as associate vice president strategy for OMD India, brings extensive experience in media strategy and client leadership to her new role. Her promotion comes after successfully leading strategy for OMD India and previously heading strategy for OMD Malaysia, where she managed key accounts including Danone, Nissan, and Allianz.

    Prior to joining OMD in 2021, Roy held the position of strategy director at Zenith Malaysia, where she managed the Nestlé account. Her career spans over 15 years across leading media agencies, including roles at DDB Mudra Group, Madison Media, Dentsu Aegis Network, and Mindshare.

    Roy’s experience includes working with prominent brands such as Cipla Health, State Bank of India, Mondelez India, and ICICI Group. She began her career as a management intern at Ogilvy, working on Unilever and Mondelez accounts.

    An IPA Advanced Certificate holder in effectiveness, Roy’s appointment reinforces OMD APAC’s commitment to strengthening its strategic leadership across the region.

  • Ashish Bhasin thinks advertising needs to find the balance between optimism and realism

    Ashish Bhasin thinks advertising needs to find the balance between optimism and realism

    NEW DELHI: A movie buff, a chess lover, and a businessman with great intuitions and understanding, Ashish Bhasin is one of the easiest persons to talk to in the industry. An excellent leader with a future-focused vision, he might now be called the Nostradamus of the advertising world as his prediction of digital becoming the pack leader of marketing pies has been coming true amazingly, though in a scenario that neither him nor any other agency head, for that matter, could have predicted.

    The CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network’s APAC operations & chairman for India, Bhasin is currently heading a number of markets, including the origin of the Covid2019 pandemic, China, as they set their sails for the ‘new normal’. Recently, in a virtual fireside chat with Indiantelevision.com founder CEO & editor-in-chief Anil Wanvari, he talked about his experiences in the industry, how he is handling the lockdown and managing his national and international teams, and his thoughts on the economic slowdown we are in. Edited excerpts follow

    So, have you been going back to your favourite classics, Gone With The Wind and The Sound Of Music during the lockdown or agency work is keeping you busy?

    Well, the days are surely busy and longer for me now. It’s even hard for me to remember if it’s a weekday or a weekend. I start my day around 6:30, that’s when calls with the Australian team happen, and then as most of our senior management is in the UK now, the time stretches till late in the night sometimes. But I am not complaining. I love my work. I find it extremely satisfying that you have something that you're passionate about and you get paid for it.

    So yes, I did not have much time to go back to these movies but still, I managed to watch The Sound of Music twice or thrice in these months. You can draw parallels from this film to your own personal and professional life. The whole movie is just about how you manage to keep your focus and enjoy working even in tough times. 

    What I love about Gone With The Wind is that it takes you to a whole different cultural era and shows human beings at their best. How with changes some hang on to older ideas and how some adapt. Also, it is one of the few movies that are as good as the book. Another such example is the Godfather. 

    And what about chess?

    Chess, yes, I keep playing regularly. It’s something that both I and my son enjoy and there is always a healthy competition going on. And now with digital, I sometimes play it against other competitors too. 

    You said you love your work. But had you not been in the profession, what career choice would you have made? 

    I think I would have been a lawyer. But whenever I sit and think about my life and would have done anything differently if given the chance to restart, 9.9 times I feel that I would do exactly the same things that I have done. I would get into the same profession, I would marry the same person, and I would want to spend each day as it has been. 

    What do you love the most about advertising? What keeps you going? 

    One is that I am very passionate about my work. I love what I do and I have a sense of ownership. And the second thing is that no two days or I may say that no two hours are the same in the advertising business. Every day is a new challenge. 

    Also, I am a social person. I love interacting with people. And you get to meet and work with so many interesting and intelligent people in advertising. You find people who dropped out of school and college formal education but are so bright and so smart. So I think just the pure variety of people that you get to work with and the joy and enthusiasm that they bring in that keep me going. 

    I have always seen it as a great business. I think that’s what most of the industry misses right now. Advertising is not seen as a business; as much as creative talents are valued or planning leaders are valued, business leaders are not valued as much. I agree that advertising is more than just numbers but if you don’t run it as a business, you will get out of it soon. 

    That’s the only area that confuses me about the profession. 

    Who have been your role models?

    Certainly, Alyaque Padamase, who was my super boss at my first job in Lintas. Then Prem Mehta, who was then the chairman of Lintas. I worked with him closely and learned a lot. Also, Martin Sorrell is one of the finest we have ever seen. 

    But I think at the end of it, you have to develop your own style, and you can just draw (energies, ideas) from people. 

    And what is your personal leadership style? Are you an optimist or a realist?

    See, I am an optimist in the sense that I see opportunities in adversities. Like right now, I am not seeing any sudden V-shape recovery happening, but I am sure that things will start getting better from here, month-on-month. So, I plan according to the real scenario but my goals are more optimistic. 

  • Dentsu Impact elevates Ajit Devraj & Anupama Ramaswamy to managing partners

    Dentsu Impact elevates Ajit Devraj & Anupama Ramaswamy to managing partners

    NEW DELHI- Dentsu Impact has elevated Ajit Devraj and Anupama Ramaswamy to the role of managing partners. The duo will continue to report into Soumitra Karnik, chief creative officer, Dentsu Impact, Dentsu India & mcgarrybowen India and Amit Wadhwa, President, Dentsu Impact.

    In their new role, Ajit and Anupama, together, will oversee the Gurgaon and Bangalore operations for Dentsu Impact. Here, Ajit will be the business lead while Anupama will head the creative arm of the agency. For the record, Dentsu Impact handles significant brands such as Maruti Suzuki, IKEA, Tata Consumer products, Subway, and Carlsberg, to name a few. 

    Erstwhile executive vice president, Ajit decided to dabble into the creative side of the business in 2018 when he joined Dentsu Impact. Prior to that, he was a management consultant with companies like Accenture and PwC in Australia and the UK.

    Anupama has successfully led Dentsu Impact as national creative director for four years. Under her leadership, the team has worked on some prestigious accounts like Maruti Suzuki, Ikea, Tata Tea, Max Hospitals, Max Bupa, Unicharm, Vivo, and many more. Previously, Anupama has worked with agencies like Cheil India, JWT, Draft FCB, and Lowe.  

    Speaking on the elevation, Devraj said, “I feel honoured to be able to take up the role of managing partner of Dentsu Impact. Our strength lies in being innovative. Over the years, we have built a unique set of capabilities ranging from pure creative and brand work to delivering end-to-end MarTech, design, and business-oriented solutions. A few years ago, bringing in business-driven, management, and consulting skills was a rarity and I would like to thank Amit Wadhwa, Narayan Devanathan, and Soumitra Karnik for their vision. Of course, I am grateful for the support of my team and our wonderful set of clients who have backed my learnings and growth into this role. I am looking forward to taking Dentsu Impact through its next phase of growth and supporting our clients in delivering a fully connected experience to their customers.”

    Commenting on her new role, Anupama Ramaswamy added, “Well, it is a huge and challenging responsibility. But creativity comes truly alive when there are constraints. The only way to fight stiff competition is to push ourselves harder, and think even more out-of-the-box. We must march forward into the future with ideas that are different yet relevant at the same time. With so many unique touch-points, it is critical that we become the single partners to every client, thereby ensuring that every element of communication has the same levels of quality and brand integration. The idea is to learn and unlearn and then learn again every single day. Soumitra and Amit have placed their trust in my abilities, and together, I’m sure we will create magic. I am absolutely looking forward to creating memorable stories that will help Dentsu Impact shine.”

    Speaking on the development, Soumitra Karnik said, “I am thrilled to announce the second phase of Dentsu Impact. Our journey has been really exciting so far and we are proud to hand over the steering wheel in the able hands of Ajit and Anupama. Both are absolutely amazing at what they do. They bring in a lot of method and discipline, which is required during this time of constant fast changes that our industry is going through. They have a hard task ahead – to embrace ‘what’s new’ faster than others, to deliver growth at the back of solid creative reputation, to be always ‘people-first’ and to keep the joy of advertising intact.”

    Amit Wadhwa added, “This is an important phase for Dentsu Impact. We move into a new era, hereon, where creativity embraces the new approach to communication. We could not have better leaders than Ajit and Anu to lead the organisation into this exciting phase. Both come with extremely balanced mindsets and have the hunger and eagerness to accept new challenges and work towards achieving them. I am excited!”

  • Digital-first & internet- based brands and the magnetic appeal of IPL 2020

    Digital-first & internet- based brands and the magnetic appeal of IPL 2020

    NEW DELHI: Apart from the brands and services available in shop shelves and in brick and mortar stores, a slew of players in the digital ecosystem has also boarded the IPL train and ridden on the track of success. The telecast of the league has played a vital role in building mass awareness and adoption of digital-first brands thus accelerating digital adoption in India.  Something which the SARS Cov2 virus has further hyper-speeded up over the past few months.

    Digital-first start-ups are normally on a fast-growth and customer acquisition path right from the get-go, egged on by investors to increase valuations and revenues. Marketing guru and director of the Ehrenberg Bass Institute at the University of South Australia Byron Sharp in his book How Brands Grow – what marketers don’t know highlights that “growth primarily comes from gaining new users rather than driving increased loyalty. Most brand users are light users. Hence, marketers need to build brand availability and mental availability. What this basically means is that if brands want to grow, then they have to ensure they reach non-users consistently.”

    Observers point out that this is something which digital brands can effectively do using the unparalleled large scale and simultaneous reach that the IPL offers. The league itself has taken a page out of Byron’s marketing theories, has innovated, increased its reach in different languages, added viewing platforms, increased viewers, thus growing year on year. Inventory on the IPL telecast on the Disney Star India channels is limited at 800 seconds an hour with shorter ad breaks of 50 seconds each because of the fast-paced nature of the T20 game. Thus the OTS for a TVC is higher than on other television genres leading to high TOM recall. Research has also shown that increasingly TV viewers are constantly using their mobile phones as a second screen; hence cleverly crafted TVCs or ads leading audiences to respond instantly using their handheld device can generate instant and repeat interaction with a digital-first brand and even a transaction during IPL matches.

    Consider the experience of digital lending marketplace Paisabazaar and insurance price-comparison and booking portal Policybazaar.  Brand managers at the two companies have regularly put their ad bucks behind cricket to build their brands and reach out to potential customers. In 2019, the duo advertised around IPL as well as the ICC World Cup and made a huge impression on viewers.

    Paisabazaar chief marketing officer Sai Narayan is sold on the efficacy of the IPL as a national promotional platform. “IPL is one of the important vehicles for digital-first brands to increase their reach,” says he. “Brands continuously spend on digital mediums to generate ROI but TV gives scale. It generates a huge amount of free traffic and people end up searching for the brand. It creates a pull effect for the brand instead of the push effect.”

    Narayan agrees that IPL is costlier than any other platform but the returns are also better as the conversion rate is higher and the brand recall and impact are much higher.  Says he: “Brands are ready to pay a premium for the incremental jump. If you advertise around it regularly, it helps in creating a strong brand salience,” says Narayan.

    Additionally, his teams have been consistently witnessing jumps in the free traffic from 40 per cent to 50 per cent above the usual. Elaborates Narayan: “Whenever we have considered cricket, we have observed a substantial surge in our web traffic, resulting in lowering our cost per lead at a daily/ monthly/ campaign/ market level. The canvas to play within live sports is far bigger than traditional mediums, there are so many elements you can play with. A typical sporting event is long enough for brands to build a lasting recall value. If there were no live sports we might not have reached 40 million monthly users on Paisabazaar and 30 million monthly users on Policybazaar.”

    Urban Company (formerly Urban Clap) went aggressive with its Ayushman Khurana-anchored TVC during the IPL 2019 promoting the company’s air conditioning (AC) services targeted at males on Star Sports’ HD channels.  The net result: searches and bookings for the sorely needed air condition repair service in the summer climbed. This allowed the management to expand Urban Clap into newer services as well as its footprint to newer Indian cities. Earlier this year, it went in for a rebranding exercise calling itself the Urban Company.

    No wonder Dentsu Aegis CEO APAC & chairman India Ashish Bhasin believes that this season’s IPL presents a perfect opportunity that digital brands should exploit. “The pandemic has benefited digital companies as we have all moved more to digital as we have been working from home,” he says. “It’s obvious there is a distinct advantage to digital businesses to associate with the IPL as they are running well whereas the brick and mortar companies are still struggling to get back on their feet. The digital firms also have cash as they are well funded. Associating with the IPL gives them distinct benefits as well as tremendous exposure and engagement.”

    Online food ordering and delivery platform Swiggy partnered with the IPL in 2018 and 2019 as an official associate broadcast sponsor.  It created six witty slices of life TVCs which were focused on the love of Indians for cricket and food. The core message the commercials conveyed: Swiggy allows consumers to enjoy the absorbing battle on the ground even as it looks after their stomach’s needs.

    “Our TVCs are reflective of the national brand that Swiggy is today,” says Swiggy VP marketing Srivats T. “Post the last IPL campaign, we had millions of users download the app, waiting for Swiggy to go live in their cities. We saw growth in both new and repeat users. There was a phenomenal engagement on Swiggy Sixes – a property using which fans would get discounts if they placed an order within six minutes of a six being hit – with over a million viewers opting for it.”

    Edutech company Byju’s has backed the IPL and even team India in recent times. According to VP marketing Atit Mehta, the Byju’s app sees increased downloads during India matches as compared to non-cricket days. “Other measurable objectives like awareness, audience engagement, time spent on the app, conversation rates, etc., also have shown an upward trend,” he said.

    Digital payments company PhonePe too met with successful results when they chose the IPL as a consumer outreach and acquisition platform.  “We wanted to build awareness around digital payments and PhonePe amongst both rural and urban audiences in 2019,” said PhonePe founder &CEO Sameer Nigam. “We used a mass media platform like TV, the most popular sport cricket, and the IPL – the biggest sporting event of the year – to launch our new brand campaign.”

    His faith in the league was justified when PhonePe reported a 115 per cent growth in the number of transactions.

    These are some compelling figures marketers at startups and emerging digital businesses simply can’t ignore. The IPL has always been one of the largest marketing platforms for brands and marketers to gain from. With so many testimonies that prove this in more than just one way, it’s evident that this is the right time to get a lot of traction with the IPL and the festivities coming together from a timing perspective. It’s all about the right choices when it comes to Adex and spends. And when timed right, this can really turn a brand’s journey around. As the saying goes, success – though it may seem unsure initially – embraces those who go boldly were few have gone before.