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Tag: Dentsu Aegis Network

  • Kotak Securities partners with DAN Data Sciences & Dentsu Webchutney to reinvent Customer Acquisition

    Kotak Securities partners with DAN Data Sciences & Dentsu Webchutney to reinvent Customer Acquisition

    MUMBAI: Dentsu Aegis Network’s (DAN) Data Sciences division has collaborated with Dentsu Webchutney to reinvent ‘Customer Acquisition’ for Kotak Securities. The teams have developed MarTech solutions to reach out to potential consumers with DAN Sync. For the record, DAN Sync is a proprietary custom solution built to link CRM with online marketing endeavours.  

    The consumer journey is no longer linear. While a lot of the journey is completed offline, the online signals are not strong enough. Meanwhile, acquisition of a new prospect has become increasingly expensive, especially in the cluttered BFSI space.

    “The better one is able to harness the intelligence of data mines, the better the end numbers look,” believes Kotak Securities EVP and head marketing, products and customer service Jaimit Doshi,

    Dentsu Webchutney director media Nishant Malsisaria identifies the problem. He says, “For Kotak Securities’ Trading account offerings, performance campaigns ran on multiple channels online. However, optimization was possible only for first level leads since a large part of the final conversion is done through offline call centers. The resultant marketing strategy assumed focus on high acquisition rates with lesser control over quality leads, since reverse transfer of marketing intelligence was not happening then.”

    With Facebook being one of the key platforms of the acquisition strategy, the task at hand for Dentsu Webchutney was to narrow the acquisition funnel by reaching out to the closest prospects for conversion.

    Explaining the strategy, chief data officer (South Asia), Dentsu Aegis Network and CEO DAN programmatic Gautam Mehra says, “The problem with the traditional form of digital advertising is that intelligence built offline is not passed back to inform online strategies. Using a custom built product such as DAN Sync that was created to transfer offline learnings for online optimizations, we deployed the globally renowned DAN Data Labs Product Suite – that uses best in class machine learning algorithms – over the hashed data from the client’s CRM to deliver a new benchmark for the industry.”

    “Although expected, the results were astounding enough for augmenting the client’s confidence. The tool performed magnificently well, improving the lead to account open ratio by 500%,” adds Mehra.

  • 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.”

  • Dentsu Aegis Network Data Labs launches its own Blockchain Engine

    Dentsu Aegis Network Data Labs launches its own Blockchain Engine

    MUMBAI: As an industry-first move, the Data Sciences Division of Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN) India has announced the launch of its own ‘DDLCoin’ with an aim to power transactions on its flagship product, DAN Data Labs.

    Being an industry that is swift to adopt new technologies to scale operations and drive innovation, this ad tech ecosystem promotes and fortifies new technologies while offering its clients with holistic innovative solutions. With a team of data scientists, ethical hackers and martech experts, the Data Sciences Division of DAN powers its DDLCoin with blockchain.

    Commenting on the launch of the ‘DDLCoin’, Vivek Bhargava, CEO DAN Performance Group said, “Trust and transparency has become almost a necessity in the way we enter into contracts with our clients. The recent wave of distrust in the advertising ecosystem has provided many in the industry with sleepless nights. With the use of trust-building technologies like distributed ledgers – known as the blockchain, the ad tech industry has the unique opportunity to rebuild trust by creating a more transparent ecosystem for all. It gives me immense pride to be a part of a network that has the capability to service this modern need of clients and be pioneers in adopting this technology.”

    By mining and generating its own system of distributed ledgers on a blockchain, the DAN India Data Sciences Division will create an immutable store of every single transaction for every single user journey on its platform, DAN Data Labs. Through a gamified process, clients (both internal and external) will be presented with the opportunity to gain access to exclusive audience insights reports, conduct in-depth campaign audits and run competitive industry insights to strengthen their strategy and market position.

    Commenting on this new wave of change, Gautam Mehra, Chief Data Officer- South Asia, Dentsu Aegis Network added, “DAN Data Labs has been known for being the industry gold standard in driving innovation in the way we plan and execute campaigns in the modern-day digital ecosystem. It has been our vision to provide a solution for whatever the need of our clients may be when it comes to data driven marketing. The product has been known to be swift to adapt to the changing environment by being constantly updated with the latest tech, advancements in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence and now trust systems like the blockchain.”

    DAN Data Labs made headlines earlier this quarter for being the platform that made the Dentsu Aegis Network the first global agency group to be badged as Facebook Marketing Partner (Ad-Tech) for its sophisticated campaign planning and optimization engine.

  • 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.

  • Dentsu X among most significant full-service media agencies

    Dentsu X among most significant full-service media agencies

    MUMBAI: Forrester has recognised dentsu X as one of the most significant media agencies in “The Forrester Wave™: Full-Service Media Agencies, Q1 2019.”

    The report evaluated nine media agencies and assessed them across 26 criteria grouped into three categories; current offering, strategy, and market presence.

    dentsu X is a new global proposition with an established presence in APAC. It particularly demonstrated strong strategic ability compared to the pool of agencies included in the evaluation. In the report, Forrester stated that it shows “strength in its ability to strategically think beyond ‘media as usual’ and command data through M1 (Dentsu Aegis Network’s data platform),” when compared with other agencies. The report also states; “clients like its strategic thinking for paid, owned and earned media environments….”

    dentsu X CEO Divya Karani commented, “This is an acknowledgment of our client-centric, data-driven solutions, carefully crafted as brand immersive experiences.”

    Forrester also cited how dentsu X is “focussed on creating consumer experience activations with media and digital technology” investing in products like iMotion and DynaMo to help identify motivation behind behaviour. Forrester likes dentsu X’s “progressive approach to media and its ability to leverage the power of Dentsu Aegis Network’s resources.

  • 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

  • SBI Life Insurance launches breast cancer awareness campaign “Thanks a Dot”

    SBI Life Insurance launches breast cancer awareness campaign “Thanks a Dot”

    MUMBAI: SBI Life Insurance, one of India’s largest private life insurers, has launched ‘Thanks A Dot’, an innovative breast cancer awareness initiative that is supported by the Women’s Cancer Initiative -Tata Memorial Hospital. The programme intends to empower the women of India by educating them about early lump detection through simple self-examination techniques. An easy-to-use self-training module to detect the early signs of lump formation can be ordered free of cost through SBI Life’s corporate website.

    To take this initiative forward and ensure maximum reach, the communication and promotions online will be handled and executed by SBI Life’s digital and social media partner, WATConsult, the digital and social media agency from the house of Dentsu Aegis Network.

    Tata Memorial Hospital vice president of women’s cancer initiative and a Breast Cancer survivor Devieka Bhojwani said, “The Women’s Cancer Initiative, has been constantly working towards making a difference, by spreading awareness about the importance of early detection in Breast Cancer. India is seeing a steady rise in the cases of Breast Cancer, with as many as 1,00,000 new cases being detected every year. Early detection is vital and can improve cure rates in about 80% of the cases. Many Indian women and their families rarely understand the importance of this issue and fail to undergo regular check-ups. SBI Life’s Thanks-A-Dot tool allows you to learn and understand what a lump would feel like. It is your way to start familiarising yourself.”

    ‘Thanks A Dot’ self-detection tool has been designed using real breast cancer mammograms to re-create breast cancer lumps using a special algorithm and 3D printing. The breast cancer lump shapes are put on a learning card in the form of a language inspired by Braille. Users solve puzzles and quizzes using the special language (present on the learning card), thus capturing a positive feeling of carrying out early detection examination and promoting regular self-checks. 'Thanks A Dot' helps improve tactile (touch) capacity in women to detect early signs of lump formation.

    SBI Life Insurance chief of brand and corporate communications Ravindra Sharma said, “Cancer in India has more than doubled over the last 26 years. The impact can be devastating on families both emotionally and financially. Though breast cancer is most common among Indian women both in terms of occurrence as well as mortality, it continues to remain a taboo in India. Moreover, women who are aware of the concept of self-examination are unsure of what a lump feels like. ‘Thanks-A-Dot’ is a path-breaking initiative. While improving tactile capacity in women it also simultaneously fosters positive conversations around self-breast examination, thereby breaking social barriers that have plagued our society for long.”

    “As a responsible life insurer, we believe that we have an important role to play in educating and empowering women by increasing awareness about breast cancer and its financial implications. We hope that ‘Thanks A Dot’ can make a meaningful difference by helping women in being prepared for the uncertainties of life,” Sharma added.

    SBI Life has leveraged multiple digital platforms to launch the ‘Thanks a Dot’ awareness initiative; the campaign has rolled out with the launch of a video that highlights the significance of the power of touch and showcases the benefits of self-breast examination through this tool. The video urges every woman to take a step further and inculcate a habit of self-breast examination regularly and confidently.

    WATConsult founder and chief executive officer Rajiv Dingra said, “Early detection is the key to breast cancer survival and even though many women are aware of this, most are unsure of the feel of a lump formation. Thus, taking an inspiration from the Braille language and Power of Touch and to inculcate a habit of self-examination at an earlier stage, we created an innovative product – "Thanks A Dot", an easy-to-use self-training puzzle card to bring the power detection to your fingertips and enabling women to take necessary actions sooner rather than later.”

    The first phase of the initiative kick-started on International Women’s Day, featuring the ‘Real Life Real Story’ video of Sujaya Walia, a breast cancer survivor and activist. In the video, Walia is seen talking about her journey fighting cancer, how family and financial preparedness holds key and urges more women to come forward and discuss such issues openly.