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Tag: Dentsu Aegis Network

  • Curtains down on Amitabh Bachchan’s ‘Aaj Ki Raat Hai Zindagi’ on 10 January

    Curtains down on Amitabh Bachchan’s ‘Aaj Ki Raat Hai Zindagi’ on 10 January

    MUMBAI: Amitabh Bachchan completes yet another inning on television as his non-fiction show on Star Plus – Aaj Ki Raat Hai Zindagi comes to an end.

    Being a finite series, the show had a life of 13 episodes and will air its last episode on 10 January.

    A source close to the development informs Indiantelevision.com that Big B signed a Rs 1.5 crore deal with Star for hosting the show. What’s more, the ad rates for the show’s 10 second slot was Rs 2 lakh.

    Additionally, the channel had roped in Maruti Suzuki as the presenting sponsor and Cadburys Dairy Milk as the powered by sponsor for the show. 

    However, despite have oodles of celebrity quotient on the show as well as having a unique feel-good factor, the show failed to generate good ratings for the channel. 

    “It didn’t do well in the terms of ratings. Despite bringing in so many celebrities on the show, it didn’t prove a profitable proposition for the channel,” said a senior media planner, on condition of anonymity.

    Dentsu Aegis Network South Asia chairman & CEO South Ashish Bhasin opined, “It’s true that having a celebrity onboard a show does give it an edge. Therefore it is helpful in the initial few days to set up its fan base and audience. But in the long run that won’t sustain a show. Ultimately it’s the content of the show that will retain eyeballs. Advertisers understand this as well. They might want to take advantage of the initial popularity of the show for a celeb, but for continuous investment they will go for a show that is doing well long term.”

    Star India COO Sanjay Gupta said, “Star India has always endeavoured to explore new and disruptive content – one that can fuel a billion imaginations. Aaj Ki Raat Hai Zindagi is one such show that, at its heart, captured the ethos of Star. Through this 13-episode finite series, our vision was to celebrate the extraordinary deeds done by ordinary people thereby inspiring people to believe that they too can make a difference and positivity can triumph. By celebrating the inherent goodness in people, we believe that people will be inspired by the feel-good and do-good spirit of the show long after the series reaches its culmination.”

    On 10 January at 8 pm, the show’s finale will see the legendary Jai-Veeru moment from Sholay being recreated on the stage of Aaj Ki Raat Hai Zindagi along with a surprise performance by Farhan Akhtar for Bachchan. 

    Whether the channel brings back the show for a second season, remains to be seen.

  • Dentsu expands footprint in Canada with Grip acquisition

    Dentsu expands footprint in Canada with Grip acquisition

    MUMBAI: Dentsu Aegis Network has acquired Canadian agency Grip Limited known for its creative, digital and branded content work. This latest acquisition extends the footprint of Dentsu Aegis Network Canada and continues the expansion of its digital offering in the region.   

     

    Toronto-based Grip is a full-service agency founded in 2002. Now counting over 150 employees among its ranks, Grip credits its early adoption of digital capabilities, including social, analytics, mobile, CRM and branded content creation as the main drivers of its growth.

     

    Following the acquisition, Grip will maintain its name and branding, and operate as a specialist brand within Dentsu Aegis Network Canada.

     

    The agency will continue to be managed by the senior leadership team of the founding partners, Bob Shanks, managing partner, and creative partners, David Crichton, David Chiavegato, Rich Pryce Jones, Randy Stein, and Scott Dube.

     

    “What attracted us to Dentsu Aegis Network was the ability to scale our capabilities across a broader network in order to expand and enhance our offering to existing clients, and attract new prospects both here in Canada and globally,” said Shanks.

     

    “Grip is a fantastic additition to our network in Canada in terms of expertise and capabilities, with a strong culture and vision that complements our current roster of agencies and talent. This is a key acquisition to increase our scale with an established global client base, enhance our digital capabilities and achieve a dominant position in the market. We look forward to helping Grip expand its reach and contribute to the overall offering of Dentsu Aegis Network,” said Dentsu Aegis Network Canada CEO Annette Warring. 

     

    Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

  • Dentsu India elevates four execs; eyes No. 2 rank by 2017

    Dentsu India elevates four execs; eyes No. 2 rank by 2017

    MUMBAI: Dentsu India is set to move towards version 3.0 of its India story.  The company has a two-fold aim to transform the creative reputation of the Dentsu brand in India, bringing it into the top 5 and contribute towards the objective of taking the Dentsu Aegis Network towards an ambitious No. 2 position by 2017.

    In line with this, the roles of four key professionals in the India leadership team of Dentsu have been upgraded.

    The current CEO of Dentsu Creative Impact Group and national planning director (Dentsu India – North) Narayan Devanathan has been promoted with immediate effect to the newly created role of Dentsu India group executive & strategy officer.

    In his role, Devanathan will be the chief steward of the Dentsu brand in India, ensuring consistency of vision and output, in line with Dentsu’s global philosophy of good innovation. He will also play the role of an integrator with the other members of the Dentsu Aegis Network, both within and outside India, helping leverage the power of the network.

    In addition, he will continue to helm the two specialist units of Dentsu Mama Lab (dedicated to connecting brands with mothers meaningfully) and Citizen Dentsu (dedicated to connecting brands with social purpose).

    Dentsu Marcom branch head Harjot Narang has been promoted with immediate effect as the company’s president. In recognition of Narang’s contribution to the agency’s turnaround over the last four years, and his continued drive to catapult the agency to be counted among the top 3 agencies in the Delhi / NCR market, Narang will be charged with driving the pace of growth at Dentsu Marcom.

    Dentsu Creative Impact brand head Amit Wadhwa has been promoted with immediate effect as the agency’s president. 

    Over the last four years, Wadhwa has grown from heading the account management function to overseeing the branch’s operations, and has grown the agency from strength to strength. His charge, with more autonomy, will now be to transform the creative reputation of the agency while achieving never-before scale.

    Dentsu branded agencies India group CFO C.P Arora will have an expanded role in the Dentsu Aegis Network in India as well. He will now, in addition to his existing responsibilities, take charge as Dentsu Aegis Network India (North) CFO.

    Commenting on the developments, Dentsu Aegis Network, South Asia chairman & CEO Ashish Bhasin said, “We are now at the forefront of our next phase of growth in our creative agencies and it is important for us to recognise the excellent talent pool that we have within the network and give them more autonomy to better service our clients. Narayan, Harjot, Amit and C.P. are amongst the best that we have in the network and I am sure that, they will drive the Dentsu Creative Agencies to new heights and help Dentsu Aegis Network become the second largest agency group in India by end-2017, overturning for the first time the existing ranking which has historically been in place for over 80 years in India.”

  • Dentsu Aegis & Tencent ink deal for ‘big data ecosystem’ in China

    Dentsu Aegis & Tencent ink deal for ‘big data ecosystem’ in China

    MUMBAI: Tencent Online Media Group (OMG) has formed a strategic partnership with Dentsu Aegis Network to allow joint access to its smart data and establish an integrated big data ecosystem in China, by bringing together disparate data islands.

     

    Dentsu Aegis Network brands will be able to leverage Tencent’s data to improve Data Management Platform, facilitate programmatic buying, as well as the ability to analyse consumers’ brand experience and attitudes that will guide advertising spend.

     

    “Dentsu Aegis’ global expertise and ability to connect brands and people, together with Tencent’s smart data solution, will help brands make more accurate and powerful advertising decisions to improve the effectiveness of brand and performance marketing,” said Dentsu Aegis Network China COO Nobuaki Kyushima.

     

    “In the past, some companies built their own large data assets without considering that such platforms are actually isolated from each other. In addition, these companies did not have clear models for data application,” added Tencent corporate vice president Steven Chang. “We are delighted to be able to collaborate with Dentsu Aegis in building an integrated data ecosystem that allows advertisers to more effectively reach their target audience, while setting industry standards and best practices for the markets,” he added.

     

    Tencent has invested heavily in its data capabilities and introduced a variety of data services to the market in China. It provides a full-volume rather than sample-type data access for comprehensive consumer insight, enabling advertisers to adjust their advertising campaigns through real-time monitoring of advertising impact. In addition, Tencent helps companies analyse user consumption behaviour and track the decision-making cycle to facilitate highly accurate targeting, multidimensional data analysis and management across media, terminals, platforms and contexts.

     

    Amplifi China president and Dentsu Media Greater China CEO Tsuyoshi Suganami said, “Tencent has a clear advantage in its technological capabilities especially on big data development. We are proud to partner with Tencent so that we can improve and enrich our data, drive innovation, and empower our advertisers to make increasingly well-informed data-driven programmatic buying decisions in real time.”

     

    Under the cooperation framework, brands under Dentsu Aegis Network such as Isobar, Carat, &C and Amnet will leverage Tencent data to offer diversified data solutions and deeper consumer insights.

     

    Amplifi China head of global media partnership Meg Chen added, “We’ve worked closely with Tencent on some successful projects such as Mondelez, Carat and Tencent Joint Business Plan. Today’s comprehensive data partnership unveils a new chapter of our collaboration.”

  • Carat realigns global leadership for next phase of growth

    Carat realigns global leadership for next phase of growth

    MUMBAI: In response to the tremendous growth and success of Carat over the past five years, the agency has realigned its global leadership team to ensure continued momentum and resources to drive growth and innovation for its clients.

     

    Doug Ray will refocus on Carat US, continuing as CEO, charged with leading the agency’s continued double-digit growth in the world’s largest market. Will Swayne, with more than 15 years leadership tenure within the network, will succeed Ray as Carat global president.

     

    Under Ray’s leadership, Carat has grown to become the world’s third largest media agency network by billings, according to RECMA, and the fourth-largest in the US, from seventh in three years.

     

    During Ray’s tenure, Carat has been named Agency of the Year some 54 times across 15 markets, and last month was named the number one media agency network by RECMA in its global qualitative evaluation, Carat’s fifth such distinction in the last six reports.

     

    In the US, Carat has won close to $1.5 billion new billings this year from clients including P&G, Mondelez and Pfizer, with global clients including MasterCard, Mondelez, adidas and GM all headquartered in the US.

     

    “Our momentum, particularly in the US over the past five years, has been tremendous, and the size and scale of Carat today now requires dedicated leadership both locally and globally to continue to deliver on our vision and our commitment to redefine media on behalf of our clients. I am looking forward to refocusing on my US role. I’m incredibly proud of all that Will and I have achieved so far and look forward to continued success,” said Ray.

     

    Swayne and Ray have worked closely together for the past six years, with Swayne most recently Dentsu Aegis Network global client president for P&G. He assumes his new role on 1 January, 2016 as part of a planned transition, and will be responsible and instrumental in driving Carat’s next phase of growth globally.

     

    Leading its clients through the digital economy, Swayne will be based in London and will report to Dentsu Aegis Network CEO global clients and media brands Peter Huijboom.

     

    Swayne’s career at Dentsu Aegis began when he joined Aegis Media in 2000, as part of Carat International. In 2005 Will moved to Asia and became MD of Carat Hong Kong before transferring to the US in 2009 to take responsibility for Carat’s P&G Gillette business in North America.

     

    While in the US, Will took responsibility for all of Carat’s P&G North America business and in 2012 was promoted to Carat US East MD in recognition of his success across a number of areas, including driving forward relationships with leading global clients.

     

    Will was appointed global client president for P&G in January 2014, and during this time Dentsu Aegis Network has significantly grown its relationship with P&G, winning media assignments in Italy, Canada, Brazil, Spain and most recently expanding its remit in North America, as well as growing its digital and creative contracts too.

     

    “Carat is a critical driver of Dentsu Aegis Network’s momentum in the US, and Doug’s vision, visibility and leadership in this market is integral to our and our clients’ success. With a growing roster of US-based global clients, as well as significant opportunities to pilot and scale industry-leading innovation from here, we are well-placed to continue our progress and deliver on our vision to lead in the digital economy,” said Dentsu Aegis Network US CEO Rob Horler.

     

    Commenting on the announcement, Huijboom added, “Through Doug’s leadership, Carat has achieved unprecedented success and global recognition as the leading media network that is truly redefining media. With Doug concentrating on the buoyant US market and Will taking the helm globally, the talented team at Carat and its clients have all to benefit. Will’s client-centric approach and wealth of experience globally across Carat during the last 15 years made him the standout candidate following an extensive internal and external global search.”

     

    Swayne said, “I am delighted to be taking on the role as Global President of Carat and leading the network through the next phase of its growth. Carat is the most dynamic and agile media agency network, with the best and most diverse talent in the industry. With a superior understanding of people, we are best placed to lead our clients in the digital economy and be a catalyst for their growth.”

  • Dentsu Communications names Vishal Nicholas as planning head

    Dentsu Communications names Vishal Nicholas as planning head

    MUMBAI: Dentsu Communications has roped in Vishal Nicholas as senior vice president – head of planning. 

     

    Nicholas will report to Dentsu Communications CEO Simi Sabhaney and will be responsible for the planning output across all its offices.

     

    Prior to this, Nicholas was Lowe Lintas, Bangalore VP – planning.

     

    Dentsu Aegis Network chairman and CEO South Asia Ashish Bhasin said, “Dentsu Aegis Network has already entered its next phase of growth and we are ready to add muscle to our might by supplementing our existing strong team with the right kind of talent. Vishal comes on board with immense industry exposure and I am very glad to welcome him into the network.”

     

    Sabhaney added, “The need of the hour is to devise interactive and engaging communication strategies that will create an impact on consumers… strategies that can weld together brand ambition and consumer needs. I believe Vishal Nicholas is a new age planner who is equipped to offer effective solutions in the changing communication landscape.”

     

    Nicholas said, “I have always believed in the need for planning to not only be interesting but also useful. I look forward to continue practicing that philosophy with the solid team here as well as in collaboration with the other integrated offerings under the Dentsu Aegis Network.”

  • Liquor Ticker World’s first ad ticker on WhatsApp

    Liquor Ticker World’s first ad ticker on WhatsApp

    MUMBAI Cafe TC and  the digital agency from the Dentsu Aegis Network – Dentsu Webchutney have created Liquor Ticker, claiming it to be the world’s first ad ticker on the popular messenger WhatsApp.

    Cafe TC, earlier known as Turquoise Cottage, was on the lookout for a low-budget campaign to promote its makeover to target mainly its patrons. Executed by Dentsu Webchutney Innovation Lab, Liquor Ticker converted Cafe TC’s status into a running ticker and the profile pics into ever-changing Graphics Interchange Formats (GIFs) to show a vast variety of content – from its brand new logo to the new menu and a host of offers. Users could send a screenshot of an offer they liked to avail of it at the bar.

    “Our brief was clear to the agency. Promote our revamp in a way never done before, but of course, with a limited budget!” revealed Cafe TC founder Gaurab Soral. He added, “When the agency told me that they planned to use WhatsApp, I was a little sceptical since WhatsApp doesn’t offer any official ad space! And we’re not the kind of brand that would spam its users.”

    Dentsu Webchutney Innovation Lab CCT Gurbaksh Singh said, “We were toying with this idea for quite some time now, but were looking for that perfect match. With a little play of technology, read that as modifying WhatsApp’s API (Application Program Interface), we created an ad space on a medium that doesn’t have any! Liquor Ticker might just open the floodgates of advertising on WhatsApp.”

    Last year, Cafe TC along with Dentsu Webchutney came up with the award-winning Happy Hours Rewind where users could turn back time and extend the happy hours by tweeting more and more.

  • Isobar India hires Praveen Raj as creative director – West & South

    Isobar India hires Praveen Raj as creative director – West & South

    MUMBAI: Dentsu Aegis Network’s full-service digital agency Isobar India has roped in Praveen Raj as creative director – West & South.

     

    As part his new mandate, Raj will be responsible for Isobar’s creative teams in Mumbai and Bangalore.

     

    In his new role, Raj will report to Isobar group creative director Anish Varghese and will also be part of the Isobar creative council, which will include creative Varghese and Isobar India director – North Anadi Sah. The council will lead Isobar’s creative vision into 2016 and beyond.

     

    Isobar India managing director Shamsuddin Jasani said, “The creative wing of Isobar is the heart and soul of the agency and I am very happy that Praveen has joined us to strengthen an already strong creative team. I believe that the creative council will be able to take our work above and beyond global standards.”

     

    Speaking about his new role, Raj said, “Isobar has a very young and enthusiastic team and a roster of great brands to work with; not to forget the opportunities for collaboration with the extensive Dentsu Aegis Network agencies. So I’m looking forward to working closely with the team to build some serious creative chops and do outstanding work for our clients.”

     

    Varghese added, “Praveen is a seasoned professional. Besides his ideation and detailing expertise, he is a true blue marketer. He has hands-on experience in blending art with technology. And his stint with start-ups and Ogilvy will just be the elixir to boost our creative squad.”

     

    Prior to this, Raj was creative lead at AgencyDigi and was responsible for winning clients such as Axis Mutual Funds, HDFC Securities, and Enrich Salons & Academy. He has spent more than 13 years in advertising with a primary focus on digital media. Before joining AgencyDigi, he spent four years with OgilvyOne Worldwide fronting businesses for several top brands like Vodafone, Diageo, Emirates and Disney.

     

    During his three-year stint with Hungry & Foolish Intellectual Properties, Raj was involved in creating advertising for Kamasutra and Lenovo apart from crafting several other independent creative products.

  • Dentsu Aegis’ Ashish Bhasin wins 2015 Business Excellence Award

    Dentsu Aegis’ Ashish Bhasin wins 2015 Business Excellence Award

    MUMBAI: Dentsu Aegis Network chairman and CEO South Asia Ashish Bhasin has been named as the  Media CEO of the Year – India at the 2015 Business Excellence Award.

     

    Additionally, Bhasin was also given the Best in Brand Communications – India award of the year.

     

    “I am honoured to receive the 2015 Business Excellence Award. I am lucky to have such a wonderful team at Dentsu Aegis Network. The award is for my team’s efforts. It’s been an amazing journey for Dentsu Aegis Network in India but the best is yet to come,” Bhasin said.

     

    The winners were voted by worldwide network of professionals, advisers, clients, peers and business insiders. The 2015 Business Excellence Award, which recognises outstanding achievement, game changing innovation and stellar performance, were hosted by Wealth & Finance International.

     

    The award is open to businesses from any sector or region and is given to only the most deserving businesses, departments and individuals who have maintained consistency in demonstrating outstanding innovation, performance and commitment to their business over the past 12 months and have even received independent nominations from their clients.

  • BARC rural ratings: What some industry professionals had to say

    BARC rural ratings: What some industry professionals had to say

    MUMBAI: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” Thus said  John Wanamaker, who lived in the 19th century and, built up a $100 million retail business before becoming US Postmaster General.

     

    Media agencies, advertisers, and broadcasters oft complained that the TV viewership and ratings methodology leaves a lot to be desired, because of which they did not know if the money that was being pumped into television was being well spent.

     

    Thus was born the industry-backed Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India, which earlier this year swallowed the earlier ratings provider TAM Media. There was hesitant happiness all around. One complaint that was consistently voiced was that BARC was taking its time to expand its viewership monitoring into rural areas, as that was what agencies and advertisers wanted to understand.

     

    Came week 41 and BARC announced its new ratings, which included its rural panel. And lo and behold some surprising – or not so surprising results – emerged. Amongst them that Sun TV is the most watched channel nationally, while rerun and library channels such as Zee Anmol, Star Utsav and Rishtey figure among the Top 10. Another glaring number that emerged is that the leading Hindi news channel Aaj Tak had a viewership 120 times more than the English news channel Times Now.

     

    Indiantelevision.com reached out to industry stakeholders to get their opinion on what they thought about the introduction of rural ratings by BARC. On the whole, most of them opined that they had not got enough time to go through the finer details of the ratings and it was early days. But they were quite delighted that BARC had finally done what it promised.

     

    Said Havas Media CEO India and South Asia Anita Nair, “I haven’t had a look at the BARC rural data as of now so I’m not sure about the numbers, but I think it was important for us to get the rural data because the metro cities are getting saturated and 60-65 per cent of the audience are residing in rural areas. Thus if we have the rural data, we will know the exact trend in terms of number of viewers watching in rural areas, which in turn helps us in understanding as to how much money we are putting behind the audiences. Anything that has not been measured in the past and is measured now gives it lot of potential. Moreover research data especially in dark areas is always most welcome.”

     

    Dentsu Aegis Network chairman and CEO of South Asia Ashish Basin added, “I think rural is very important in many categories as urban is getting saturated. So the level of penetration is increasing in rural. Therefore, for the first time we are going to have all India information, which will help in fine tuning media planning effectively.”

     

    Helios Media managing director Divya Radhakrishnan said, “I am not really surprised with the BARC data as it has reflected exactly what we used to estimate. Though the biggest surprise is Sun TV being the number one TV channel in India as it is a Tamil language channel. Moreover, the data is going to impact people whose brands are going to the rural market.”

     

    Added Lowe Lintas CCO Arun Iyer, “I think the BARC rural data is not going to change the creative of advertising. Rural ratings are going to help because overall advertisers are going to know whom they are reaching, what they like and what they don’t like. The better the data gets, the better it is for the advertisers. Moreover, the ratings will help realise the taste of audiences in rural India and offer a better understanding about them.”

     

    There were others who tweeted. For example Unilever Asia, Africa, Middle East, Turkey and Russia vice president – media Rahul Welde said, “Great job @parthodasgupta. Great batting on a turning wicket. Jai ho.”

     

    AAAI president Dr M G Ambi Parameswaran added on Twitter: “Congrats BARC. This is a first for the country.”

     

    Colors CEO Raj Nayak tweeted that it’s “a big leap for the industry.”

     

    ET Now Brand Equity anchor Sonali Krishna congratulated BARC India CEO Partho Dasgupta, adding that she was “looking forward to it.”

     

    And Indiantelevision.com founder & CEO Anil Wanvari tweeted: “Congrats Partho & BARC team.Look forward 2 some action from advertisers.”

     

    And that is where the crunch lies. This is just week one; advertisers, agencies and broadcasters will probably not resort to any knee jerk reactions. They will play a wait and watch game. BARC’s viewership ratings will likely settle down and some trends will emerge as the weeks and months go by. Then each of them will have to rework their spends, programming, sales pitches and business models. Things will change further as it expands its sample and as television in Phase III and IV areas gets digitised over the next few years. It may have to respond to those changes with fine tuning how it studies viewing.