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Tag: Initiative

  • Arun Sharma elevated to COO for Delhi business at Initiative

    Arun Sharma elevated to COO for Delhi business at Initiative

    MUMBAI: Initiative, which is a full-service media agency from IPG Mediabrands, has promoted Arun Sharma to the role of chief operating officer for Delhi business. 

    Prior to this, as senior partner of Initiative, Sharma played a pivotal role in spearheading one of the top clients of the agency, Reckitt Benckiser. Last year, Sharma was also given the additional mandate of IPG Mediabrand’s newly launched unit ‘Magna’ and was named managing director of the division.

    Initiative CEO Vaishali Verma says, “We couldn’t have found a better person for this position as he is one of our own and has been leading the RB business for the last 4 years with many industry and RB India firsts. Our approach to rapidly interpreting and acting on cultural data signals, creating relevant, long-lasting consumer connections that drive business results.”

    Talking about the new role, Sharma mentions, “Indian media industry is going through very exciting times. Initiative with its strong brand equity, perfect mix of large and reputed global and local clients, cutting edge tools and techniques, strong product offerings, talented and driven bunch of people is best poised to serve its client in this dynamic market scenario.” 

    In his dual roles as COO Initiative Delhi and MD of Magna, his key priority would be to help the clients grow their business by leveraging the company’s expertise, strategic use of tools, by implementing their global learning and dominant scale in media.

    Sharma started his career with Madison in 1998 as strategic planning supervisor for the Coca Cola Business. In 1999, he moved to Universal McCann as associate media director and handled businesses like Nestle, L’Oreal and Gillette. In 2003, he had a brief stint with Mediacom following which Sharma moved to the client’s side and joined Bharti Airtel as DGM Marketing. Following a stint of 11 years, in 2014, Sharma quit Bharti Airtel as VP marketing – head media (All Business, South Asia) and moved to Initiative as vice president to handle Reckitt Benckiser account as business head.

  • Vaishali Verma becomes CEO at IPG Mediabrands

    Vaishali Verma becomes CEO at IPG Mediabrands

    MUMBAI: Initiative, part of the Interpublic Group’s media management network IPG Mediabrands, has announced a major elevation and restructuring.

    Initiative COO Vaishali Verma has been promoted as the CEO of the agency. Verma will report to IPG Mediabrands India CEO Shashi Sinha, and will oversee the entire India operations.

    With over 22 years of experience in the area of media, advertising and marketing, Verma has been a strong force in helping brands connect better with consumers. Her work reflects a deep understanding of the evolution of Indian consumers backed with solid research based planning.

    Initiative – APAC regional president Will Anstee mentions, “I couldn’t be more excited to have Vaishali steer and deliver on our Initiative proposition in India. Her passion for the craft, her consistent high performance and the conscientious way she approaches every task, make her the natural choice for the role.”

    Talking about the appointment, Shashi Sinha adds, “What makes this truly special is that Vaishali is an insider and has grown from strength to strength in the group over the last 20 years. I am hugely proud to have such superlative talent from within steering the ship. She embodies IPG’s culture and values and is an inspiring leader. I couldn’t have found a better person to lead Initiative Media.”

    Verma says, “The advertising business is going through the most interesting times and it has never been more difficult than now to get consumer attention. Fortunately there is a better way of building audience relationship by being as relevant as possible and at Initiative we use culture as the bridge to stay relevant. Culture forms the canvas and the fabric of how we lead our lives. We help brands grow through culture by distributing ideas, content and conversation. At Initiative, we have the best of the global and local clients, the finest talent in the industry and cutting edge media tools. I think we have an opportunity to help shape the future of how brands engage with consumers. To be a part of this opportunity, to shape it with some of the sharpest minds in the business, is what excites me.”

    Verma started her career in advertising as a media planner with Mudra Communications in 1995, charting the media strategies of brands like McDonalds, Samsung and Nestle. She then moved to Universal McCann in 1997 as a senior media planner and worked with brands like General Motors, Reckitt Benckiser, Gillette, Madura Garments and ICI Paints. She joined Lodestar UM as general manager and handled brands like Wipro Consumer Care, Intel, ING Group and Madura Garments.

    In 2014, Verma was named the COO of Initiative and she has been overseeing the agency’s entire business in Southern India with the likes of Amazon Seller Service, MRF, Jockey, 3M, etc., leading a team of 100+ strong media professionals.

  • ‘Digital India Conclave 2014’ to intensify the ‘Digital India’ initiative

    ‘Digital India Conclave 2014’ to intensify the ‘Digital India’ initiative

    MUMBAI: The Narendra Modi led Indian government officially clicked through the ambitious ‘Digital India’ programme a few months ago. The vision is simple: to usher India into the digital age where each and every citizen can experience the impact. But this simple vision will require a lot of hard graft and investment towards the right kind of infrastructure.

    As a bridge between this vision and reality, India Inc. along with FICCI, Invest India and Chase India is organising a ‘Digital India programme’, a series of online and offline activities pivoting around two roundtables in New Delhi and Washington DC.

    India Inc. has created its own ‘Digital India’ initiative which ties in with the India-US Partnership Hub to bring in a series of online and offline programmes. It will explore the ‘Digital India’ vision and trigger dialogue to plug into this bold new programme.

    This online-offline integrated programme brings in perspectives and participation from senior policy decision makers within government and industry around a discourse to achieve the following objectives:

     • Identify the challenges and opportunities in the ‘Digital India’ initiative
    • Identify synergies that can be created between industries and the government to successfully implement the initiative
    • Explore how the India US collaboration could help achieve the ‘Digital India’ vision
    • Involve key stakeholders in defining a roadmap that will lead to a truly ‘Digital India’
    • Produce a series of online and offline activities to facilitate discourse culminating in a bespoke online publication
    • India is finally coming of digital age and we aim to provide an incisive new digital hub for this new age.

     Commenting on the initiative, Avian Media CEO and Chase India director Nitin Mantri said, “We are proud of this association with India Inc and a key aspect of this initiative is our first Digital India Conclave to be held in New Delhi on 5 December 2014. The sessions will focus on the prominence of the digital advancement across sectors and the requirement to streamline digital with the core business in order to initiate the Digital India initiative.”

    The conclave is in association with Amazon.in, Google and Qualcomm is supported by TCIL and NIXI and is the first phase of the programme which will bring together around 100 -150 key stakeholders across government/public sector, the private sector as well as other influencers such as think tanks, media and specialist experts.

    The first conclave of the ‘Digital India’ Programme is on 5 December 2014 in Delhi while the second conclave will be held in Washington in January 2015.

     

  • Animal Planet to have Hindi programming blocks from April 2

    Animal Planet to have Hindi programming blocks from April 2

    Animal Planet, a 24-hour channel which comes under Discovery Communications India, will also be providing Hindi programming from April 2, 2001.

     

    The Hindi programmes will air as a half-hour block from Monday to Thursday, 2 pm to 2.30 p m, and a one-hour block on Saturday and Sunday, from 12 noon to 1 PM

     

    Commenting on the new initiative, Discovery MD Kiran Karnik says: “We are delighted to add a Hindi audio to selected programmes. This will provide an opportunity to our present audience to enjoy the best of Animal Planet’s spectacular and high-quality programmes in a language that many of them may prefer.”

     

    Launched in 1999, the channel already reaches 7.5 million homes, according to a company press release.

  • Google teams up with US, UK govt. agencies to bring internet to the common man

    Google teams up with US, UK govt. agencies to bring internet to the common man

    NEW DELHI: Government agencies in the UK and US along with Google have announced a joint venture by the name of “Alliance for Affordable Internet” to bring internet to the population of billions on planet earth.

    The initiative is a joint venture by Google, US agency for International Development and its British Counterpart and philanthropic company run by eBay Founder Omidyar, Omidyar Network.

    Other helping firms include Yahoo, Microsoft, Intel, Cisco, Ericsson and African ISP MainOne. Alliance is going to work to pursue the governments to regulate and policy formation for better internet access.

    “A4AI has a specific goal in mind: to reach the UN Broadband Commission target of entry-level broadband access priced at less than five per cent of monthly income worldwide,” said Jennifer Haroon, Principal Executive of Google’s access programme, in a blog post.
    Group is working to contact 10 countries till 2015 to negotiate on easing of import of technology and resources to kick start the internet revolution in those countries. This envisaged goal can have far reaching impact not only in those countries but on whole global scenario. It can help reshape the social, corporate and political outlook which is visible by the part played by Social Media in Arab spring.