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Tag: Dhunji Wadia

  • Everest Brand Solutions elevates Samir Chonkar as Mumbai creative head

    Everest Brand Solutions elevates Samir Chonkar as Mumbai creative head

    MUMBAI: In a recent restructuring of the top-level management, Rediffusion Y&R and Everest Brand Solutions have elevated its executive creative director Samir Chonkar to head the creative function of its Mumbai operations.

     

    Rediffusion Y&R and Everest CCO Rahul Jauhari said, “Samir’s contribution to the growth of Everest has been phenomenal. In addition to being a pillar of my team over the past few years, Samir has created work that has not just won, but also added immense value to our clients. His down-to-earth demeanor and relentless pursuit for perfection is respected by clients and colleagues alike. He steps into a role he has earned, in every sense of the word.”

     

    Rediffusion Y&R president Dhunji Wadia added, “Samir has a proven reputation as a creative leader and is held with enormous regard both internally and his clients. Samir’s passion for our agency, his integrity and intellectual curiosity, along with his deep collaborative way of working will make a difference to our clients and to our agency.”

     

    In his stint of more than 20 years in the industry, Chonkar’s work has featured across international awards shows and Indian award forums like DMAI Echo, IDMAI, Goafest, Digital Crest and Indian Marketing Awards to name a few.

     

    In recent times, his work for Tata Value Homes won the International Echo Award. His enviable body of work across Parle brands has been instrumental in Parle trusting Everest Brand Solutions with a significantly larger portfolio of brands.

  • Rediffusion Y&R India names Rahul Jauhari as chief creative officer

    Rediffusion Y&R India names Rahul Jauhari as chief creative officer

    MUMBAI: Rediffusion Y&R has appointed Rahul Jauhari as chief creative officer. The group will relocate Komal Bedi Sohal to Y&R Singapore as chief creative officer. 

     

    Jauhari is no stranger to the Rediffusion YR Group. His team created memorable work for the Tata Group on brands likes Tata ACE and Magic. His work was responsible for the successful repositioning of Kaya (Marico) and Onida, to name a few. Prior to Everest, in a seven-year-long stint at Rediffusion Delhi & Mumbai, Jauhari led the creative work on the agency’s biggest account – Airtel.

     

    Rediffusion Y&R president India Dhunji Wadia said, “Rahul has done a stellar job within the group. What I admire most is his passion and collaborative style of functioning and unending quest for creative excellence. Komal remains an ally within the network and we will continue to take full advantage of that and I wish her the very best in her new role.”

     

    Jauhari added, “Rediffusion YR Group is home to me. And I’ve enjoyed a great partnership with Dhunji over the last few years. Both Dhunji and I believe creativity is the pursuit of the entire agency and not just a department. For now, we’d like to put our heads down and focus on just that. The work comes first. Everything else will follow.”

     

    On the other hand, Sohal has spent the last two years as CCO at Rediffusion Y&R India, during which time the agency has undergone a resurgence, with a run of 16 new business wins and a return to The Economic Times’ list of India’s top 10 advertising agencies. 

     

    Commenting on her new role, Sohal said, “In the past two years Rediffusion has emerged as the top ten agency, won new business, awards and recognition. I am extremely thankful to our clients who have supported the creative and the teams who have tirelessly executed it. After two decades in India and Middle East, I am now ready to explore the exciting and emerging markets of South East Asia. I look forward to taking on new challenges at Y&R Singapore. I’m confident it will be equally thrilling and fulfilling.”

     

    Y&R Singapore managing director Melvin Kuek said, “Komal’s track record of both new business and awards success make her an ideal creative partner at the helm of Y&R Singapore. Having also ramped up the agency’s strategic planning team we’re very optimistic for 2015.”

     

    Over the past four years, Everest Brand Solutions under Jauhari’s leadership added accounts like SAB TV (Sony Entertainment), CNN IBN, Kotak Mutual Funds, India First General Insurance, Onida, Catch Spices (DS Group), Aditya Birla Retail & more. In addition to this, the agency added multiple brands from its largest account Parle Products. 

     

    Jauhari and his team helped building SAB TV from scratch to a powerful brand in the Indian GEC space. ‘Asli Mazaa Sab Ke Saath Aataa hai’ a line coined by Jauhari, was a campaign that has stood the test of time. Under his watch, Everest has rolled out significant work for Parle. From a most unusual set of five second TVCs for Parle G titled ‘Pehle Wali Baat’, to visible campaigns for Londonderry, Parle Marie and recently launched Parle Simply Good.

  • “Our focus will be on digital, mobile & activation”: Dhunji Wadia

    “Our focus will be on digital, mobile & activation”: Dhunji Wadia

    Regarded as someone with strong business acumen, great entrepreneurial instincts and affinity towards clients’ businesses, Dhunji Wadia was anointed as Rediffusion-Y&R president in December last year.

     

    With the Rediffusion-Y&R Group since 2010, Wadia had moved from JWT after spending 18 years there. Helming Everest Brand Solutions, he will now have greater responsibilities on his shoulders as he steps into the shoes of predecessors like Mahesh Chauhan, D Rajappa and Sam Ahmed.

     

    The 40-year-old company surfaced from choppy waters by reinventing itself. The years 2014 saw the agency bag a number of new accounts, including Videocon, Virgin Atlantic and Biba Fashions in Delhi; PC Chandra Jewellers and Cordlife in Kolkata; and Revtron in Mumbai.

     

    Indiantelevision.com’s Meghna Sharma spoke to the man, who has over 25 years of industry experience and has worked closely on brands like Parle, Tata, Unilever and Nike amongst others, to know his plans for the agency.

     

    Excerpts…

     

    A new year, a new beginning. What will be on your agenda for 2015 for Rediffusion Y&R and Everest Brand Solutions?

     

    2015 will be the year of focus. The number one priority is to focus on the creative work. Creative work is the whole agency. Of course, creative and strategic thinking are interlinked. But it’s the final output that moves the consumer. Once the creative work is in place, all good things will start to happen. It will positively impact the health of our brands, the agency’s fortunes, new business acquisitions and taking better care of our people.

     

    Having understood the destination, we are working on the strategy to get there. In the process, people who are excited about the opportunities will make it big rather than people who are happy to sit back and wait for things to happen. The results will speak for themselves.

     

    The year 2014 saw Rediffusion Y&R bagging new accounts like Videocon, Virgin Atlantic and Biba amongst others. The agency also regained its spot amongst the 10 advertising agencies in the country. What does this mean for the agency and how will this impact the future?

     

    Winning new business is always great. It gives us a chance to showcase new work. Regaining our spot in the top 10 was a great moral booster. It fills us with the confidence and enthusiasm to go further.

     

    What were the key lessons learnt from 2014 for you and the agency? And how will you implement those learnings in 2015?

     

    Today, the size of the agency makes no difference at all. Neither does the scope or the geographic reach of the agency. The difference for any client is really in the people. Do they bring the experience, knowledge and insight to a client that will make a big impact in that organisation’s results and bottom line?

     

    People are going to be the key going forward. We have a promising lot with immense potential and unleashing this potential will be a priority in 2015.

     

    What are the key areas that the agency has been working on?

     

    We have been focusing on our existing clients. Last year, more than half of our new business came from existing clients. It feels terrific when your existing clients trust you with their critical new brand launches. It’s a responsibility we cherish and specialise in.

     

    We are living in a ‘Breaking News’ world where what’s trending today is forgotten tomorrow, so we need to be in the news for the right reasons. We not only need to do the work but we also will have to come out and tell the world ‘Hey look, here’s what we’ve been doing.’

     

    According to you, what will be the highlights for the coming years?

     

    We hope to make our work the single biggest highlight of 2015 and beyond.

     

    What is your take on digital video format becoming a go to formula for advertising? Why are brands as well as advertising agencies opting for it?

     

    This is going to become a key differentiator in content marketing – one will be able to cut through online clutter to attract customers, increase engagement and guide customers throughout their buying journey. This would be possible on any screen, anytime, anywhere.

     

    Since brands are banking on creating films for digital platforms what do you enjoy the 30-second clip for TV or the long ones for digital?

     

    As opposed to bombarding the viewer with repeat telecasts of TV commercials, this is an option where you create a long duration commercial and hope the viewer likes, comments and shares the video.

     

    Going forward, clients won’t care about web hits because majority of the hits are now just bots. The main parameter for them will be sales. That’s what it was supposed to be in the first case.

     

    What are the plans lined up for the digital side of your business?

     

    We have done quite a few award-winning digital initiatives for our clients – SAB TV, Ranbaxy Volini and TATA Housing to name a few. Going forward there will be additional drive and focus on digital, mobile marketing and activation.

     

    How has storytelling evolved over the years?

     

    Thanks to the advancement in technology, storytelling is becoming increasingly compelling over the years. The recent Honda Type R commercial is a good example.

     

    One mandate which you are really proud of and why?

     

    Every mandate comes with its own unique challenges. And our credo is – To Resist The Usual. It would be impossible to isolate any one instance.

     

    Everest has won the Brand Revitalisation Award for Brand Everest, at the ‘Global Excellence Awards’ by World Brand Congress and also adjudged the ‘Happiest Agency in India’. What initiatives do you take to make sure employees are happy? And how productive are happy people?

     

    Happy people make a happy agency and in turn happy clients. It’s a happy circle. Most people join advertising in order to follow their passion. Majority of the work related grievances turn out to be minor issues when there is a common consensus. You need to have your heart in the right place.

  • Dhunji Wadia is Rediffusion Y&R president

    Dhunji Wadia is Rediffusion Y&R president

    MUMBAI: Rediffusion Y&R has announced the appointment of Dhunji Wadia as president of the agency, effective immediately. This is in addition to his role at Everest Brand Solutions.

    Wadia had joined Rediffusion Y&R Group in 2010.  On his new role, he said, “The group has given me the opportunity to use my experience and skills towards making a positive difference to our clients. I am looking forward to writing an exciting new chapter in the history of Rediffusion Y&R.”

    Rediffusion Y&R chairman Diwan Arun Nanda said, “Dhunji has strong business acumen, great entrepreneurial instincts and affinity for our clients’ businesses. What makes it all work is his ability to motivate and inspire people on all sides of the business. He’s an ideas guy who gets that great creative work and strategic insights are inextricably connected.”

    Wadia holds an MBA from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies and has over 25 years of industry experience. Brands he has worked closely on during the course of his career include Parle, Tata, Unilever, Nike, Levi Strauss, Diamond Trading Co, Kellogg, Aditya Birla Group, Sony Entertainment Television (MAX and SAB), and Kotak, among several others.

     

  • Everest bags Pantaloons strategic and creative duties

    Everest bags Pantaloons strategic and creative duties

    Mumbai: Everest has won the strategic and creative duties for Pantaloons.

     

    This is an additional account from the Aditya Birla Group for Everest that handles the More Retail business from the same group. There was no formal pitch process involved.

     

    Talking about the brand, Everest president Dhunji Wadia said, “We are happy to increase our presence with the Aditya Birla Group.  There is great joy when existing clients repose their faith in us with additional business. We are delighted to get an opportunity to work with Pantaloons. It’s a sharp and aspirational brand. Besides, it’s always a pleasure to work with a company whose business is also about creativity and fashion.”

     

    Adding Everest NCD Rahul Jauhari said, “It’s always a lot more fulfilling when an existing client gives you more business. We are delighted that the Aditya Birla Group has entrusted us with Pantaloons.  We look forward to creating some visible magic with them.”

     

    With a strong national presence in exclusive stores, Pantaloons houses over a 100 prestigious brands that have something fashionable for everyone.

     

    Commenting on the appointment, Pantaloons Fashion Retail CEO Shital Mehta said, “Everest are a young and energetic team and they will be a good match for us at this point of time since we are poised for substantial growth in market share and revenue in the Multi Brand Retail industry. We were looking for a team who could provide a new perspective and put in the necessary effort as a partner to take the brand to the next level.”

     

    Pantaloons Fashion Retail head (marketing & loyalty) Gaurav Chakravarty added, “We believe Everest will work with us as partners in building our brand equity.  We welcome them on board and look forward to working on some great campaigns together.”

  • Everest tells Parle Digestive Marie means healthy snacking

    Everest tells Parle Digestive Marie means healthy snacking

    MUMBAI: With the arrival of new players in the market, the brand needed to communicate its core promise to the consumers. i.e. digestive biscuit equals a biscuit meant for truly health snacking.

     

    Everest plans to tell the consumers that ‘Taste ke liye khana hai to kuch bi khao, par health ke liye only PDM’ in the new campaign for the confectionary brand.

     

    Everest president Dhunji Wadia said, “We wanted to come up with an eye-opener in the market. People assume ‘If it is a digestive biscuit, it has got to be healthy’. If you are genuinely concerned about your health, you just can’t eat any digestive biscuits. One needs to look closely in matters involving health, especially in a scenario, when eating digestive biscuits is the only thing you do for staying healthy. ”

     

    Adding to that Everest NCD Rahul Jauhari said, “We took the issue head on – just having a digestive biscuit is not good enough, you need to know what goes into it. The humour route worked for us and some good performances drove the point home, albeit lightly. Blink Pictures did a fine job of partnering us in making this film idea come alive.”

     

    The new ‘Office’ commercial brings out the brand promise through an honest and engaging discussion between a ‘health conscious’ employee and his ‘health smart’ boss.

     

    Parle Products GM marketing Pravin Kulkarni said, “As the Indian consumers are increasingly becoming more health conscious, Digestive biscuits are becoming a part of the Indian lifestyle. The digestive category has been growing at an incredible rate in the last 3 years. One can easily relate to the ad because of its simplicity.  Eating healthy snacks and biscuits has become a quick fix for maintain good health. But, is your healthy snack really healthy? Parle Digestive Marie is extremely relevant for the office going masses, which end up ignoring their health for work.”

    Parle Products group product manager Mayank Shah said, “As a culture, Indians consume a wide variety of snacks but all of them are not healthy. Tasty snacks like Samosa, Patties and Pastries are full of fat. We often consume them in between meals as an instant remedy for hunger. An active lifestyle can compensate for all this fat consumed, but most of us struggle to find time to do any form of physical activity. Hence, it is extremely important to check what we eat. Parle Digestive Marie is a good substitute to the unhealthy snacks which we unknowingly consume.”

  • Viral on your mind?

    Viral on your mind?

    A‘Kolaveri Di’ kind of video with the capacity to go viral doesn’t happen every day, and that’s something marketers and the junta might do well to remember.

    There have been enough and more cases of online campaigns that fell flat on their face just as there have been instances of campaigns that fared considerably well in recent times (Dove’s real beauty, Flipkart’s Nation wants to know, Dhanush’s Sachin anthem).

    Content is king

    So what are the ingredients that make for success? First up, it’s the content. GroupM ESP national director (sports and live events) Vinit Karnik opines that videos like ‘Kolaveri Di’ and ‘It’s your fault’ are an engaging and entertaining way to disseminate a social message and build awareness.

    Watch the video: Boost pays tribute to Sachin’s 23 years of stamina!

    Gasoline founder and chief creative officer Anil Kakar says the first rule of creating online content is that it needs to be worth sharing. “The potential reach shareable content can offer is enormous and brands are currently only scratching the surface,” he says.

    Referring to two recent viral videos ‘It’s your fault’ and ‘I quit’, Draftfcb Ulka Interactive (digital arm of Draftfcb Ulka) creative head Sudarshan Sudevan says: “These two videos share different lights in the context of one’s feeling, one is targeted at the mass and the second, targeted at a single person….her boss. But the common platform that they share is – being vocal about it. That’s the lesson you can learn from it. Exercise your freedom of expression to the maximum… without fear. You can be a total stranger but your voice is surely heard if it has a message. That’s the power of this digital medium.”

    Not to do list

    Successful online content is often disruptive, based on a powerful insight and more importantly, follows a set of rules in social media that are way different from other forms of media.
    Experts believe the most common mistake that someone/some brand can make while launching a digital campaign is to create it to go viral. According to Infosys global head (digital marketing) Ashok Lalla, that is the biggest fallacy. “Virals happen. Of course, one can help them happen through content which is very high quality and well produced, and also through extensively promoting the content. For example, Idea’s Honey Bunny was promoted across media and that drove the viral-ness of the video online,” he points out.

    Similarly, Everest Brand Solutions president Dhunji Wadia says if one tries to create a campaign to go viral, there are a million ways to go wrong as there is no fixed formula or template for these videos. “You just have to click with the consumers, literally! Firstly, if it doesn’t impress me, how will it impress the world? One can get carried away with an idea, which does not make as much sense after production as much as it made on paper. Don’t hesitate to start fresh in such a case. Secondly, is the product/service forced into the communication? Sometimes there is a ‘disconnect’ between the product/service and the ad concept. If the two are not inter-twined, the product will be left hanging after a great concept.  It will hardly be noticed. Try to find a common ground between the two.”

    Highlighting mistakes marketers/advertisers tend to make, Sudevan adds: “Low budget for a promotion to be launched ‘asap’ plus maximum output demanded (for example say 1 million likes) and hence resorting to social media leads to bad ideas and bad execution, considering the time the agency gets to churn this out in that shoe-string budget. Also, no research of the ecosphere of social media or what or how much a campaign should cost or the time it should get competed within leads to selection of bad ideas presented by some smart agency.”

    With or without social media

    All said, the social media universe is swelling and no advertiser or marketer can afford to ignore it. Besides, with the dipping rupee and dwindling economy, conventional Indian media is facing the heat, rendering social media the smartest option in the current scenario. 

       
    Says Kakar: “What makes social media unique is the fact that brands can, for the first time, have a conversation directly with consumers. This is a huge paradigm shift of sorts, which is already testing our collective skills as an industry. Also, for the first time, we can gauge accurate responses through analytics and tools, engage with a select audience, should the need arise, and alter content according to responses. Social media is also a great platform to engage opinion leaders or ‘feeders’, who help promote content onto blogs, twitter, facebook and other platforms for a multiplier effect, generating free PR, which would have otherwise cost an arm and a leg for an advertiser.”

    Watch the video: AIB seeks an answer to whose fault is it anyway?

    FoxyMoron co-founder and director – new business and innovations Pratik Gupta seconds Kakar saying: “A lot of brands want to reach out to their audience and it might be as simple as uploading a TVC on YouTube. One must remember that a TVC is watched by the entire family, out of which, not all could be the target audience wherein the people who will click on social media are the correct viewers.”

    Gupta gives the example of the campaign Baby Lips Kiss Song featuring Alia Bhatt that FoxyMoron recently did for Maybelline. He says there are many brands that are utilizing the platform to the fullest to reach their TG.  He also talks about the YouTube channel Q-tiyapa by TheViralFeverVideos saying they are doing everything right to strike a chord with the youth.

    And what do advertisers have to say about digital platforms? “Advertising is a 360-degree experience. That’s when a user feels the brand in totality and since every medium has its own plus points, it’s best to design any campaign keeping in mind the purpose of the campaign,” say advertisers.

    Then again, there are the naysayers who feel digital media and by extension, social media is still not a mass channel of outreach in India. Statistics for internet usage vary between 70-140 million and those for social media are a subset of this. So, it’s unlikely to be the medium of choice for all brands for all seasons. At best, digital/social media may be the medium of choice for a younger, urban-centric demographic concentrated in major metros and towns across the country.

    Whatever be the case, one thing is clear that with the medium encouraging conversations on various social platforms, the movement of content from ‘airing’ to ‘sharing’ can catalyze the internet audience to great effect.

  • Everest bags Pantaloons strategic and creative duties

    Everest bags Pantaloons strategic and creative duties

    Mumbai: Everest has won the strategic and creative duties for Pantaloons.

    This is an additional account from the Aditya Birla Group for Everest that handles the More Retail business from the same group. There was no formal pitch process involved.

    Talking about the brand, Everest president Dhunji Wadia said, “We are happy to increase our presence with the Aditya Birla Group. There is great joy when existing clients repose their faith in us with additional business. We are delighted to get an opportunity to work with Pantaloons. It’s a sharp and aspirational brand. Besides, it’s always a pleasure to work with a company whose business is also about creativity and fashion.”

    Adding Everest NCD Rahul Jauhari said, “It’s always a lot more fulfilling when an existing client gives you more business. We are delighted that the Aditya Birla Group has entrusted us with Pantaloons. We look forward to creating some visible magic with them.”

    With a strong national presence in exclusive stores, Pantaloons houses over a 100 prestigious brands that have something fashionable for everyone.

    Commenting on the appointment, Pantaloons Fashion Retail CEO Shital Mehta said, “Everest are a young and energetic team and they will be a good match for us at this point of time since we are poised for substantial growth in market share and revenue in the Multi Brand Retail industry. We were looking for a team who could provide a new perspective and put in the necessary effort as a partner to take the brand to the next level.”

    Pantaloons Fashion Retail head (marketing & loyalty) Gaurav Chakravarty added, “We believe Everest will work with us as partners in building our brand equity. We welcome them on board and look forward to working on some great campaigns together.”

  • Everest Brand Solutions adds Parle’s Wafers to its kitty

    MUMBAI: Everest Brand Solutions has bagged the creative duties of Parle‘s wafer brand.

    The account was earlier handled by Grey.

    Everest Brand Solutions president Dhunji Wadia confirmed the news to Indiantelevision.com.

    The agency won the Parle Wafers account after a multi agency pitch that involved other agencies on Parle‘s roster like Ogilvy and Grey.

    In January this year, Parle shifted its Rs 500 million media business from Maxus-TME to TME-MPG. Earlier, TME handled the confectionery part of the business while Maxus was responsible for the biscuits and snacks range.