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Tag: GroupM India

  • Mindshare names Sidharth Parashar as chief investment officer of APAC

    Mindshare names Sidharth Parashar as chief investment officer of APAC

    MUMBAI: Mindshare, the media services company that is part of WPP, has appointed Sidharth Parashar as the chief investment officer of Mindshare APAC. Formerly the president of investments & pricing at GroupM India, Sidharth will be based in Singapore and will be part of the Mindshare APAC leadership team.

    Reporting to Mindshare APAC chief executive officer Helen McRae, Sidharth will focus on enhancing Mindshare’s investment strategy across local markets as well as driving Intentional Investment and the opportunity for Good Growth in the region.

    Helen McRae said, “I am very pleased that Sidharth will be joining our regional team. He brings a tremendous depth of expertise and will be a great champion of Good Growth for our clients.”

    Commenting on his move from GroupM to Mindshare, GroupM South Asia CEO Prasanth Kumar said, “Sidharth has had a phenomenal career journey where the organisation has witnessed his evolution from a practice expert to a leader in the last 18 years with GroupM. He has successfully led the investment mandates across all media and has elevated the practice through innovative products and delivering exceptional value for our clients. I would like to wish him the very best and will continue to work closely with him as he drives the regional investment strategy for Mindshare.”

    Parashar said, “It has been an amazing journey at GroupM, and I am delighted to now take over this new Mindshare APAC investments role. I look forward to this opportunity in new markets to build value for our client’s business.”

  • GroupM India names Ashwin Padmanabhan as president – investments, trading and partnerships

    GroupM India names Ashwin Padmanabhan as president – investments, trading and partnerships

    Mumbai: GroupM India announced on Wednesday that Ashwin Padmanabhan will be promoted to president-investments, trading, and partnerships. Padmanabhan, who earlier led ‘Trading’ and ‘Partnerships’ will now also be taking on the ‘Investments’ portfolio from Sidharth Parashar. Parashar will be joining the APAC Mindshare leadership team as chief investment officer, Mindshare APAC, and will now be based out of Singapore.

    Padmanabhan will continue to report to GroupM South Asia CEO Prasanth Kumar and be based out of the Gurgaon campus. Over the next three months, Parashar and Padmanabhan will work closely to ensure a seamless transition into their respective new roles along with their key leadership team.

    GroupM South Asia CEO Prasanth Kumar said, “Sidharth has had a phenomenal career journey where the organisation has witnessed his evolution from a practise expert to a leader over the last 18 years with GroupM. He has successfully led investment mandates across all media, elevating the practise through innovative products and exceptional value for our clients. I would like to wish him the very best and will continue to work closely with him as he drives the regional investment strategy for Mindshare.”

    “I am also excited to see Ashwin taking over this additional role. He has a deep understanding of the business, and we continue to benefit from his knowledge of the media ecosystem. Focusing on cutting-edge innovation backed by his solid process orientation is a value-add for clients. His ‘start-up’ mindset has helped GroupM venture into new practices, deploying creativity to our products and solutions, keeping client delight at the helm,” he added.

    Parashar will report to Mindshare APAC chief executive officer Helen McRae, and work on enhancing Mindshare’s local market investment strategy and driving thinking on the opportunity of good growth and intentional investment for the region.

    Helen McRae said, “I am very pleased that Sid will be joining our regional team. He brings a tremendous depth of expertise and will be a great champion of good growth for our clients.”

    Sidharth Parashar said, “It has been an amazing journey at GroupM, and I am delighted to now take over this new Mindshare APAC investment role. I look forward to this opportunity in new markets to build value for our client’s business.”

    Ashwin Padmanabhan said, “GroupM has been a fertile ground for innovation and creating value in a highly entrepreneurial environment. This expanded remit motivates me to renew my focus on the GroupM value proposition for our clients, media partners, and technology partners. We want to keep the momentum up with these relentless efforts toward improving today for a better tomorrow.”

  • Box office records its best performance post-Covid in Jan-Apr: Report

    Box office records its best performance post-Covid in Jan-Apr: Report

    Mumbai: Box office numbers reach Rs 4,200 crore during January-April recording the cinema exhibition industry’s best performance post-Covid, as per a report by cinema advertising company Interactive Television, GroupM India and media consulting firm Ormax Media.

    The report titled ‘India is back…at the theatres’ found that average monthly box office collections stood at Rs 1,000 crore. “These milestones have been achieved despite the impact of the third wave and 18 percent of cinemas still being closed since 2019,” said the statement.

    “K.G.F: Chapter 2” is the best performing film of the quarter with Rs 1,008 crore in collections so far, followed by “RRR” and “The Kashmir Files” with gross collections of Rs 875 crore and Rs 293 crore, respectively. The report also indicates that in-cinema footballs have recovered compared to 2019 levels.

    While there were no Hollywood blockbusters released during January-April, the report indicates that with the strong line-up of Hollywood movies slated for the rest of the year, 2022 collections may surpass 2019 gross box office collections of Rs 1,595 crore for Hollywood movies. “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” which was released in May has done very well and upcoming films such as “Avatar: The Way of Water”, “Thor: Love and Thunder”, and “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” are expected to beat previous records.

    The future of regional cinema namely Marathi and Punjabi cinema looks positive with four Marathi films crossing rupees one crore in their opening weekend collection. Hindi cinema contributed 38 per cent to the box office and almost 60 per cent of this share comes from Hindi dubbed versions of South India films, primarily “K.G.F: Chapter 2” and “RRR”.

    GroupM South Asia CEO Prasanth Kumar, said “It is good to see the cinemas back on track. Five months into this year and we are seeing very promising numbers in terms of box office collection and consumer footfalls in the theatres. Movies have always been India’s favourite source of entertainment and this year looks very optimistic to us in terms of recovery, following two years of slowdown due to covid. This report will help advertisers plan their campaigns appropriately and it will help revive the in-cinema advertising domain which in turn will help recover the previously slowed down economy.”

    Interactive Television (iTV) founder and managing director & Kinetic India managing director Ajay Mehta said, “With the return of audience into the cinemas, we are also seeing major advertiser interest picking up on where it was left in 2019. We have already seen more than 350 brands active in cinema and with the festive season, we expect it to go much beyond that. The operating capacity of the cinema halls is set to cross the 90 per cent mark by mid-year. With several big-ticket releases planned across languages for the rest of 2022, we are very optimistic about this year’s cinema AdEx (advertising expenditure) as India comes back to its favourite entertainment hub.”

    The report states that 2022 is expected to be the strongest year ever at the Indian box office. With the resurgence of cinema, the medium is also attracting advertisers from various spectrums of the industry. As per GroupM, around 280 brands advertised their products/services in the opening week of “K.G.F: Chapter 2”.

    “Over the last two years, when cinemas were shut due to the pandemic, many analysts were quick to write an obituary of the theatrical medium,” said Ormax Media founder and CEO Shailesh Kapoor.

    “The first four months of 2022 have proven how far removed from reality that analysis was. The theatrical medium has not only bounced back but emerged as stronger than it has been in decades. 2022 will be the biggest box office year till date, and by a good margin too,” he added.

  • Sports industry spending exceeds Rs 9,500 cr in 2021: GroupM report

    Sports industry spending exceeds Rs 9,500 cr in 2021: GroupM report

    Mumbai: The year 2021 saw a resounding comeback for sports sponsorships and media deals, as compared to 2020 when the pandemic took over. The size of the Indian sports industry spending is estimated to have surpassed Rs 9,500 crore last year, according to the latest sports sponsorship report released by GroupM India’s entertainment, e-sports and sports division GroupM ESP. 

    With Rs 6,018 crore, sports advertisement expenditure (adex) surpassed 2019 levels in both TV and digital. Cricket yet again, remains the most popular sport, accounting for 94 per cent of the sports adex. The media spending on cricket in 2021 was higher (Rs 5,657 crore) than the overall media spends of 2019 (Rs 5,232 crore).

    The ninth edition of Sporting Nation in The Making – GroupM ESP’s sports report takes into consideration the sponsorship spends, player endorsements and media spends on sports properties. The spending on sports celebrity endorsement grew by 11 per cent year-on-year in 2021, says the report. A total of 444 brand endorsement deals have happened in 2021, with cricketers accounting for 318 endorsement deals and 87 per cent of total brand endorsement value. The Olympic Year of 2021 increased emerging sports athletes’ endorsements by 79 per cent, accounting for 13 per cent of the overall brand endorsement value, as per the report. 

    2021 got our sporting nation back to a billion-dollar scale with a 62 per cent growth over 2020, the report said. India’s performance at the Tokyo Olympics has been a morale booster for budding sports talent in the country and 2022 will bring new opportunities in multi-sport events.  

    The household penetration of TV sets in different markets over the country saw a major role in the growth of sports properties. With this, TV continues to be the largest medium since 2021 saw overall ad spends of Rs 5,051 crore, which was a growth of 59 per cent over 2020 and we saw digital spends touching Rs 965 crore.

    “2021 was a year of a major comeback for the sports industry. Not only in sports but we saw growth in sponsorships, endorsements, and media expenses in 2021,” remarked GroupM South Asia CEO Prasanth Kumar. “This year will also be a good re-start point for brands to invest in sports properties since sports will see a rise and will in-turn deliver ROI to brands.”

    “We even saw e-sports gaining significant traction and there was a major rise in the number of gamers in the country. Properties like PKL, ISL, etc. are also seeing a major rise in followers which goes to show that India is heavily invested in overall sports from an interest and inquisitiveness standpoint. As for cricket, we are seeing a growing interest by foreign private equity giants investing in Indian cricket which is proving that cricket will continue seeing a huge surge in India and with 2021 getting cricket back on track, we are seeing 2022 racing ahead, aiming to cross Rs 10,000 crore mark,” Kumar further said.

    Acceptance of visual media for live sports broadcast by fans led to a great demand of platforms like SonyLiv and Disney+ Hotstar who are now streaming a variety of sports for their audiences, says GroupM. The study finds the OTT space becoming more competitive in the years to come since India is adopting OTT for live streaming sporting action.

    “India as a sporting nation has finally arrived, overcoming all barriers brought in by the pandemic,” stated GroupM South Asia  head – sports, entertainment and e-sports Vinit Karnik. “Cricket being the hero of India, contributed 88 per cent of the sports spends. IPL and T20 WC boosted the sports adex growth. We also saw emerging sports contributing 12 per cent on the overall sports  spends. The media spends in 2021 were the biggest contributors, who accounted for almost two-thirds of all sports industry spending.”

    “While sports celebrity endorsement was on the rise in 2021, Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, Neeraj Chopra and PV Sindhu are the top athletes in the sports celebrity brand endorsement space. 2022 will be an exciting year with the Asian Games, Fifa World Cup, Premier Badminton League, and many more properties coming up, and the fans are in for a treat. The sports arena is an exciting drive ahead from the fanbase lens and the business lens too and we have a host of opportunities in the Indian sports industry,” he added.

    With an action-packed 2021, media spends in sports saw some heavy scoring in India as brands and consumers were brought closer by broadcasters and technology also played a very crucial role in evolving the way people appreciate sports, according to GroupM. 

  • Digital to become largest medium, bypassing TV with 45% media share: GroupM report

    Digital to become largest medium, bypassing TV with 45% media share: GroupM report

    Mumbai: India ad spends are estimated to reach Rs 107,987 crore in 2022, growing by 22 per cent over last year, as per the GroupM futures report ‘This Year, Next Year’ (TYNY) 2022. The country is set to be the fastest-growing market in ad spends among the top ten global markets retaining its ninth rank and the fifth highest contributor to incremental ad spends. Also, digital is expected to cross television as the lead medium with a reach of 45 per cent media share in 2022, predicts the report.

    GroupM India announced its advertising expenditure (AdEx) forecasts for 2022 on Tuesday. The agency also shared some of the top trends that will shape the Indian consumer and therefore industry. The trends presented were around the shifts in organisational structures, consumer sensitivity and sustainability, digital experience, data, commerce, creator ecosystem, growth of sports business, use of technology, performance marketing, addressable TV and evolution of offline media.

    “The pandemic has pushed the envelope towards digital and has hence topped the pie, with advertisers keen to explore more of it,” remarked GroupM South Asia CEO Prasanth Kumar. “E-commerce and telco will drive the economy, we also expect FMCG and auto to slowly catch up and contribute towards this growth.”

    GroupM South Asia president – growth and transformation Tushar Vyas opined that as digital capabilities enhance and connectivity becomes omnipresent, technology will further poise and change almost every sector of India’s economy. “With the pivot to digital by consumers and companies alike, digital emerges as the largest medium in 2022 with an estimated share of 45 per cent. Digital is estimated to grow by 33 per cent in 2022,” he shared.

    “With consumers gravitating towards themes like sustainability and sensitivity, brands are adapting rapidly, and media has the power to lead this change,” said GroupM South Asia chief strategy officer Parthasarathy Mandayam. “Flexible, specialist and distributed teams are the order of the day and this trend will be further enhanced with the arrival of 5G. The emphasis on performance marketing has further accelerated and is at the very core of marketing. Intelligent & responsible leverage of first-party data will be critical for brands & marketers in driving this.”

    GroupM India president – data, performance & digital products Atique Kazi added, “Marketers will have to bring together innovation, intelligence and integration in their strategy to win on Digital. In 2022; we will also see addressable TV coming to India in some scalable form and connected tv surge with smart TV sales and new fibre/broadband connections will be on the rise. Focusing on eCommerce, performance marketing, outcome-based media and addressable data is winning formula in 2022.”

    “While digital is set to take the larger pie, we are expecting a noteworthy revival for OOH & cinema too after a tough period,” said GroupM India president – investments and pricing Sidharth Parashar. “Advertising on e-commerce, the rise of influencers and short format videos along with OTT has witnessed growth in 2021, which would continue in 2022.”

    GroupM India president – partnerships and trading Ashwin Padmanabhan added, “The rapid digital transformation of companies, brands and the way they connect with consumers is reflected in the global advertising spends as well as the way even traditional media is expanding with their digital extensions. India in 2022 will see a rapid manifestation of these Global trends and thus fundamentally altering the media industry.”

  • GroupM India restructures Central Trading Group leadership

    GroupM India restructures Central Trading Group leadership

    Mumbai: GroupM India has restructured its media buying function – Central Trading Group (CTG) and announced four key appointments to the leadership team.

    Pratik Rathod who has been successfully leading buying for Wavemaker will be taking on an elevated group-level role of GroupM India national broadcast head. “Rathod’s expertise, vast experience and approach to creative solutions will help us further leverage one of the largest mediums. He will help strengthen GroupM’s OneVoice priorities and strengthen media partnerships,” said the company in a statement on Monday.

    K Srinivas Rao takes over the Wavemaker buying mandate from Pratik Rathod. Rao has been leading the Mediacom buying function for the past few years. For MediaCom, he has built a strong integrated buying team and strengthened the overall buying products by adopting strong processes.

    Rahul Satoskar, currently the region buying lead for Mindshare west, gets elevated to lead Mediacom buying nationally. 

    Muralidhar T is taking on an elevated role of leading buying function for the whole of Mindshare. Over the years, Muralidhar has done a commendable job and his contribution has led Mindshare buying scale-up to new heights. “Murali’s strategic thinking and astute commercial acumen would help the overall agency further enhance the buying product and enable higher value to unlock for the clients,” said the statement.

    “This restructure is a part of evolving transformation for GroupM,” stated GroupM India president of investments and pricing Sidharth Parashar. “The relentless commitment to delivering value to its client’s business is what truly defines team CTG, and I am privileged to lead a multi-dimensional team of leaders who are passionate about media and our client’s business. I am delighted to see these leaders grow and take on larger responsibilities in shaping the GroupM CTG transformational journey.”

  • GroupM India appoints Ritika Taneja as head of e-commerce

    GroupM India appoints Ritika Taneja as head of e-commerce

    Mumbai: GroupM India has announced the appointment of Ritika Taneja as head of e-commerce. In this role, Taneja will be leading the e-commerce product offerings to clients and will also be responsible for co-creating the e-commerce vision and strategy charter for GroupM India. 

    Taneja will be based out Gurgaon and report to GroupM India president – data, performance and digital products Atique Kazi, and closely work with GroupM APAC head of e-commerce services Toni Ruotanen.

    “There is a growing importance of strengthening e-commerce practices for brands in today’s digital economy and e-commerce has transformed the ways in which businesses are done in India,” said Atique Kazi. “Ritika’s appointment is a part of our continued investment in talent, especially in areas of enormous growth opportunities, like e-commerce. With the kind of extensive knowledge in this vertical that Ritika brings to the table, I am certain that we will continue to make the e-commerce practice a GroupM differentiator for our clients and brands.”

    Taneja comes with a diverse experience in the e-commerce and offline retail space. As a digital business leader, she has experience in engaging with consumer tech companies, said the agency. She joins the GroupM India team with a proven track record of building successful consumer-centric brands and businesses. 

    In a career spanning over 17 years, Taneja has spent a large part working in the online and offline retail space. Her experience also includes working on several international brands managing and growing their brand portfolios.

    “I am ecstatic to be a part of the GroupM family. The e-commerce landscape is evolving massively and there is a need for brands to advance their e-commerce strategies with this changing landscape and consumer behavior. GroupM provides a unique environment for leading the e-commerce sector that is transforming brands and helping the drive new trends in the country. I look forward to closely working with the leadership and help our clients on e-commerce opportunities by creating services and product offerings,” said Ritika Taneja on her new role.

  • Priti Murthy joins GroupM as president, GroupM Services India

    Priti Murthy joins GroupM as president, GroupM Services India

    Mumbai: GroupM India on Thursday announced the appointment of Priti Murthy as president, GroupM Services India. In her new role, Murthy would also be part of the GroupM India executive committee.

    Murthy will work closely with GroupM’s regional leadership team in ensuring seamless adoption of all the initiatives. She will report to GroupM South Asia CEO Prasanth Kumar and GroupM Asia Pacific COO Jon Thurlow. GroupM Services India leadership team would report to Murthy, stated the agency.

    As president of GroupM Services, she will be leading the centre of delivery excellence that comprises biddable, non-biddable, analytics, and reporting. Along with her strong leadership team, Murthy would work closely with agencies to understand their needs, incorporating best-in-class delivery metrics with ‘improvise and improve’ as the approach to continued excellence, said the statement.

    “It is a homecoming for Priti and strengthening of GroupM India leadership team with yet another remarkable industry leader. Priti’s product mindset powered by a unique blend of experience in setting and executing an organisation-wide vision will enrich the GroupM teams alike,” said  Prasanth Kumar. “As one of the most regarded women leaders in the industry, Priti also believes in GroupM’s future centric business approach and has always focused on building purpose-driven culture as a key leadership responsibility.”

    As an industry veteran, Murthy has spent a large part of her over a 22-year long career with GroupM. She has been an immensely effective leader contributing to the organisation in all her previous roles held within Wavemaker (née Maxus Global) during her 13-year stint. Her last held role with GroupM was as the chief strategy officer at Maxus Global. She has been heading OMD India as the chief executive officer for the last four years.

    “It is one of the best eras in the media industry, revival and rejuvenation being the focus. I am delighted to join GroupM, to walk the path to the future transformation of GroupM offerings in the marketplace and magnify the operational excellence that it is known for,” stated Murthy. “With GroupM’s focus on creating the best in class and house of excellence, my role will be to bring in the right mix of talent, process, and tech to ensure quality assurance and continuous improvement for biddable and non-biddable media for our partners and clients. I am looking forward to working with Prasanth and the entire ExCo in driving this focus.”

  • GroupM India elevates Atique Kazi to president – data, performance and digital products

    GroupM India elevates Atique Kazi to president – data, performance and digital products

    Mumbai: GroupM India, WPP’s media investment group, Friday elevated Atique Kazi to president – Data, Performance and Digital Products, with effect from 2 August. 

    Kazi will be based out of the agency’s Mumbai office and report to GroupM South Asia CEO Prasanth Kumar and Xaxis APAC CEO Arshan Saha. He will also be joining the conglomerate’s executive committee, the company said in a statement.

    Kazi has been a part of the GroupM family since 2013. He was integral in launching Xaxis in India before moving to Singapore to take over a regional role. He established the agency’s AI-enabled influencer marketing solution, INCA across 10 key markets.

    In his new role, Atique will continue to build on the brand’s best practices and technologies across the fields of data analytics, deep learning, process mining, performance marketing and business intelligence to create efficient, fast, and scalable value-added processes, it further said.

    Welcoming Kazi on board, Prasanth Kumar said, “At GroupM our focus is to continue evolving by offering flexible, scalable and innovative solutions. Atique joining the core team at GroupM India is the reflection of our commitment towards offering digital solutions that can create great value-add for brands in this ever-evolving market. I look forward to working closely with Atique and I am confident that he will continue to grow our digital offerings. His expertise of aiming at innovation and providing value-propositions will be key towards Digital Transformation of our clients and partners.”

    Arshan Saha said, “The scale and speed of digital transformation and the fact that India as a market has demonstrated its leadership in this area means that we need to have our best talent to fulfil this demand. Atique is one of our very best with a proven track record locally and most recently regionally in APAC where he launched and scaled GroupM’s Influencer and content arm – INCA.  Having worked with Atique for over 8 years, I can attest to his leadership, curiosity, knowledge and drive which are invaluable in defining and determining client success.”

    Before joining GroupM Kazi was a part of Yahoo! in London heading planning and strategy for emerging markets in EMEA. His career pedigree also spans The Economist, The Times Group, JVC etc over the past 18+ years.

    On his new role, Kazi said, “I am excited by this role given the scale of the opportunity to drive further growth within GroupM. I strongly believe that digital acceleration provides agility to organizations. With the support of better data, analysis, innovation, stronger performance, and result orientation we can better respond to brand challenges and accelerate their transformation journeys and help them achieve faster business outcomes. India is a market of opportunities and by leveraging GroupM’s digital expertise we can redefine the ecosystem.”

  • GroupM India appoints Karthik Shankar as head of digital trading

    GroupM India appoints Karthik Shankar as head of digital trading

    Mumbai: GroupM India, WPP’s media investment group, has announced the appointment of Karthik Shankar as head of digital trading. He will be responsible for digital trading and partnerships for the company and will report to GroupM India’s investments & pricing president Sidharth Parashar, the company said.

    Karthik comes with vast experience in building businesses using digital advertising technologies. He has worked with video technology start-ups and set up business units for programmatic & connected TV platforms.

    Sidharth Parashar said, “Karthik has a proven track record of managing tech & media partnerships, digital trading, e-commerce, and leading brand safety initiatives. We believe that Karthik would play a pivotal role, as we partner with our esteemed clients in their digital transformation journey,”

    On his new role, Karthik Shankar said, “These are exciting times for digital advertising which is witnessing hyper-growth in all spectrums including video, commerce, and data. Clients and partners seek guidance and support in navigating this complex ecosystem. This role has the right mix of understanding, access, and ability to collaborate with the ecosystem to streamline media investments. I am excited to join and be part of the GroupM family.”