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Tag: JWT

  • Priyanka Rishi joins Taproot India as GM

    Priyanka Rishi joins Taproot India as GM

    MUMBAI: Taproot India has appointed Priyanka Rishi as its general manager. She will be reporting to CEO Umesh Shrikhande.

     

    “To be a part of an agency that has set benchmarks for the industry is professionally stimulating and exciting. I look forward to building on Taproot’s strengths and work ethos to create an even stronger organisation,” said Rishi.

     

    With more than 16 years in the business, Rishi in her earlier journey has had long stints with Ogilvy and JWT and brings with her solid cross category experience.

     

    Shrikhande said: “With so many interesting opportunities for adding value to our clients’ businesses and brands, Priyanka is a welcome addition to our talented team.  She is passionate about both strategy and creativity and comes with a deep and insightful understanding of brands. Infusing our team with such strong talent will further the process of adding depth and sparkle to brand Taproot.”

     

    She will be based in Mumbai.

  • JWT celebrates 150 years of Pioneering in Advertising

    JWT celebrates 150 years of Pioneering in Advertising

    MUMBAI: In celebration of the agency’s 150th anniversary, JWT today announced a yearlong program of innovative events and activations to highlight its pioneering spirit and rich history around the world.
     

    “JWT’s 150th is much more than just a birthday. This is a platform to galvanize our employees around our pioneering roots and spirit of inventiveness, and to share our mission with our clients and the world,” said Chairman and CEO Bob Jeffrey.
     

    J. Walter Thompson, the agency’s founder and the original ad man, paved the way for what is now known as modern advertising. Since the agency first opened its doors in 1864, Thompson’s vision as an innovator and pioneer has expanded into a global network of 10,000 employees, spanning 200 offices and 90 countries.
     

    “Every day is an opportunity to reinvent tomorrow, and together with our pioneering clients, we will continue to seize that opportunity for the next 150 years,” said Jeffrey.
     

    Over the decades, JWT has maintained a number of the industry’s longest-standing client relationships including: Unilever (109 years), Kimberly-Clark (84), Nestle (81), Kellogg’s (80), Rolex (68), Ford (67), U.S. Marines (66), Johnson & Johnson (51) and Shell (49).

    In celebrating the agency’s rich history of pioneering, JWT drives forward in its mission and vision for the future to invent pioneering ideas that people want to participate in and spend time with.
     

    “It is an honor to join JWT during such a momentous time. This is an agency with pioneering DNA – the brand, the clients and the people,” said Gustavo Martinez, Global President for JWT Worldwide. He added, “Our strategy for growth in the year ahead as a company will also draw its strength from our spirit of pioneering.”

     
    From hiring the first female creative director and pioneering magazine advertising to being the first agency to expand overseas and the first to send a Kit Kat into space, JWT has pioneered in the world of advertising with groundbreaking ideas that are bold and engaging, and introduced many of the world’s most memorable communications.

     
    In 2013, JWT’s innovative work won a number of accolades at global awards shows including the preeminent Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. JWT’s “Fakka” for Vodafone brought home numerous awards, including a gold lion and was also the most awarded piece of strategic work in the industry last year. Additional award-winning campaigns were JWT Beijing’s “Missing Children” app for Baobeihuijia.com and JWT New York’s “Yes, Virginia the Musical” for Macy’s.

     
    And, JWT’s work for Nestlé’s Kit Kat played a significant role in the brand being named one of the most influential candy bars of all time by TIME magazine.  

     
    To kick off the anniversary celebrations, Jeffrey and Martinez unveiled a commemorative logo that revives the original historical mark from JWT’s earliest visual branding: the Owl and the Lamp. The owl, long a symbol of wisdom in many cultures, and the lamp, an emblem of light and clarity of vision, together symbolize that experience and knowledge lead to success.

     
    Additional 150th celebrations underway for the year include:

    •The Commodore Challenge – an internal contest in search of the three most pioneering ideas for the world, with cash prizes

    •Cannes seminar on pioneering and innovation

    •Pioneering Influencer Series with clients, alumni and industry icons

    •Helen Lansdowne Resor Scholarship for female creatives

    •Interactive historical timeline

    •Historical content series highlighting JWT’s first and best stories from around the world

    •JWTIntelligence 150th Initiative

    In 2014, JWT will also continue to reinvent and bolster our digital capabilities. Actively managing digital change, JWT touts more than 2,000 nontraditional specialists dedicated to delivering digital work for clients. The agency will continue to acquire pure-play digital agencies, with a special focus on emerging markets — recent acquisitions include Thomas Idea in Thailand, Post Visual in South Korea, Designercity in Hong Kong and Lemon Sky in Poland — while expanding existing digital networks.
     

    New business growth is an important signal of JWT’s contemporary relevance, as it often involves attracting clients from newer industries. The agency was recently named global agency of record for PUMA, confirming JWT’s credibility in the booming sectors of sport and fashion. Other new business wins included Energizer personal care brands, Air Canada and The Singapore Tourism Board.

  • Rana Barua promoted as the CEO of Contract Advertising

    Rana Barua promoted as the CEO of Contract Advertising

    Mumbai: Rana Barua has been elevated as the CEO of Contract India.

     

    Rana who is currently travelling will take charge with immediate effect.

     

    His elevation as the CEO is in recognition of the stability and growth that Contract has had in the last one year.  He has been able to successfully build a team of some of the finest talent in the industry, along with winning several new businesses for the agency and enhancing existing client relations.

     

    Announcing the development, JWT South Asia CEO Colvyn Harris said, “In Rana, we have a leader who has very ably carried the mantle of leading Contract to a renewed position of power that has made the agency a destination of choice for brands and talent.”

     

    Over the last twelve months, Rana has driven Contract’s diversification across mainstream, digital, design and other platforms of engagement marketing to ensure the best value proposition for clients.

  • Anitha Krishnan to join JWT as Executive Business Director

    Anitha Krishnan to join JWT as Executive Business Director

    MUMBAI: Anitha  Krishnan will  be joining  JWT Mumbai  as an Executive Business Director effective January 13, 2014. Prior to joining JWT, Anitha was leading Contract’s Bengaluru office.

     

    In her new role, Anitha will be handling Godrej Corporate, Godrej Appliances, Godrej Security, J& J, Monsanto, LIC, UTI and other businesses.

     

    On her joining, Anitha  Krishnan says, “JWT is a much  larger playing field  and I am looking forward to the challenges and opportunities  that come with that kind of scale. What makes this move exciting is the diversity that JWT offers, be it the kind of brands, the people, platforms and the opportunity to present a truly integrated business solution.”

     

    Having spent close to a decade with Contract in Mumbai and Bengaluru, Anitha brings with her a wealth of experience of having handled brands across categories from FMCG to Retail and Financial services. With an overall work experience of 16 years,  Anitha understands the luxury and the youth segment with exposure to premium brands over the course of her career.

     

    While at Contract, Anitha was spearheading relationships with clients that include Louis Philippe, Platinum, HSBC Premier, Shoppers Stop, Royale from  Asian Paints and young brands such as Vladivar, White Mischief and Jockey.

  • Ad film maker Film Farm to foray into feature films post TV success

    Ad film maker Film Farm to foray into feature films post TV success

    Film Farm India, a leading ad-cum-entertainment film production house, is planning to foray into the feature film business after a successful foray into the television production. The firm is already working with top ad agencies including Lowe, JWT, O&M amongst others. The feature film will be an out and out commercial film.
     

    The Economic Times Brand Equity dated 4 June 2003 featured two of the ad film firm’s commercials in a compilation of “three best commercials of the week”. The two commercials that were featured in Brand Equity include “Rasna Juc- Up” directed by Pushpendra Mishra; and “Kissan Mr. Fruit” directed by Navdeep Singh, both a part of the Film Farm team of directors and both produced by Film Farm.
     

    In a double whammy, the company also celebrated the success of the television division’s successful foray into the TV production business at a party held in Mumbai on 6 June 2003. The serial Dil…Na Jaane Kyon on Zee TV – as part of it’s new initiative Chausat Panne – has reached the No. 2 slot in Zee’s Top 10 list just below Astitva Ek Prem Kahani.
     

    While speaking to the indiantelevision.com team, Film Farm India’s managing partner Harsh Dave says: “We are amongst two or three top companies that have adopted a different model – talent kitty within an ad film. We have a panel of young directors who have developed a core competency area of expertise and domain knowledge. The ad film industry is constantly evolving and clients/ad agencies prefer to rope in the younger generation in an attempt to get fresh ideas. The senior team within our group merely nurtures talent and guides them. Our films look much more contemporary and original.”
     

    Film Farm has a team comprising of 32 professionals. Different directors specialize in conceptualizing films related to different themes – be it fashion or food or people. “The younger lot has a lot of fire in their belly, more enthusiasm and have a broader perspective. Also, there is no one-upmanship within the team and everybody contributes in the brainstorm sessions,” Dave adds.
     

    Dave is also not in favour of creatively-oriented people running an ad production house. “We believe that production houses need managers who work out economies of scale and keep the focus on costs and schedules. There has to be a balance – since the business involves both Saraswati and Laxmi. There must be teams that focus purely on business development, others that nurture relationships and the rest who focus on creative aspects.”
     

    In less than five years since its conception Film Farm has done advertising work for companies such as Hindustan Levers, Dabur, Hero Honda, Revlon, MTV, J & J, Marico, Nerolac Paints, Jyoti Laboratories, MRF, Bombay Dyeing, Rasna, V.I.P. to name a few.
     

    “Clients and ad agencies want value and seek a comfort level while working with any ad film maker. The focus is not on cutting costs. After all, at any point of time, an ad film maker makes a Rs 3 million film that will be part of a Rs 30-million media campaign which in turn will decide the fate of a Rs 300-million brand,” adds Dave.
     

    Along with two more in-house and some more freelance directors from advertising fraternity, Film Farm has also produced TV commercials with directors of feature film background like John Mathew Mathan (Denim soap commercial), Mansoor Khan (Nerolac commercial), Pankaj Parasher (Hercules cycles with Akshay Kumar), Kundan Shah , Govind Nihalani and Rituparno Ghosh (Ponds). “We use different directors based on their styles or personality or expertise or even areas of interest,” says Dave.
     

    Besides India, Film Farm has done work for companies in Thailand, U.A.E.,Malaysia, Australia and South Africa working with directors from the same regions. Film Farm has also collaborated in production with U.K. based Academy Films for the prestigious music videos for bands like UB 40, Basement Jaxx.
     

    “We believe in two-way traffic. We have also done line productions and provided value added services to Europe/US firms that want to shoot in India. Through our international affiliations, we have also sourced good directors from a talent pool; got them down to India to shoot some of our campaigns.”
     

    Currently, the production house has an 80:20 mix as far as the ad business and television business is concerned. However, the mix will vary after we foray into the feature film production arena and increase our presence on TV channels,” adds Dave.
     

    Film Farm India is definitely planning to give it’s close competitors Big Brother and MAD a complex!

  • Sudhir Deokar’s visualisation was photographically perfect: Ivan Arthur

    Sudhir Deokar’s visualisation was photographically perfect: Ivan Arthur

    MUMBAI: It was in the early 60s, I was a cub writer then, Sudhir a young tiger. Every day, I watched him roar, bold and resonant on his easel. And I cowered behind my table wondering what I was doing in a place like this? Tentatively, I handed him a line for an Esso advertisement, expecting a growl of disapproval. He looked at it for a moment and with the salivary articulation of well-chewed paan, he said: “Tomorrow.” The next morning I glanced at his easel and grew a hundred feet tall. There was my line on his layout, for sure, but barely recognisable even to me.  Sudhir had made it resonate beyond the thesaurus.

     

    He did this always. He took lines and gave them roundness, movement, dimension, resulting in halos for copywriters, account directors, clients and their brands. He freed the Air-India Maharaja from the croquill’s ruthless line and caressed him with that soft roundness. He poured sex appeal into Haryana Breweries’ beer barrels, played mid-wife to both DCM and Wipro Data Products and placed Hamdard on the medical pedestal it deserved. Name any Thompson brand from the early sixties to the Millenium year; Sudhir has gilded it with his brush. He retired as creative chief of the Mumbai office of Hindustan Thompson Associates (HTA), now JWT.

    Sudhir poured sex appeal into Haryana Breweries’ beer barrels

    He worked his magic with 6-B pencil, croquill, rotring, Indian ink, water-colours and his sable hair wand; conjuring up caricatures, cartoons, stylised drawings and life-like water colours; his 20-minute layouts often used as artwork. Artwork became works of art, clients having them framed and put up in their offices. His visualisation of human situations or tabletop was photographically perfect. When the final picture was taken in the studio, you might not be able to tell the difference between the photographed picture and the 20-minute wash drawing. Mitter Bedi, Obi, Salian and so many others would marvel at the lens that was Sudhir’s eye.

     

    For close to three decades he gave my work the visual sanctification of his brush, and I feel blessed. I know that many who came before and after me will echo my feelings. He had the bigness and breadth to work with most anyone – from trainee to guru. Many of his trainees are gurus now. I look with awe today at a generation that thrives on the digital evacuation of ideas, but I still thrill to the memory of those visual insights shaped by hand and eye by artists like Sudhir. He was loved by all – from the most cussed of executives to the most difficult of clients.

    Freed the Air India Maharaja from the croquills ruthless line and caressed him with that soft roundness

    Besides being my creative soul mate, Sudhir became a friend of the family. His passing is a deep gash that my soul will have to bear for ever.

     

    (Ivan Arthur is the former creative director of JWT, India. He can be contacted at Ivan.arthur@gmail.com)

  • JWT wins the Grand Midas at Midas Awards 2013

    JWT wins the Grand Midas at Midas Awards 2013

    MUMBAI: JWT India has won the coveted Grand Midas award for its work, ‘Death Track’ for Aditya Birla Insurance at the Midas Awards.  JWT also picked up the Gold Midas for its campaign, ‘Even Gods Can Feel Insecure’ with Yuvraj Singh for Birla Sun Life Wealth with Protection Solutions.

    “A public service message from a brand which is relevant and compelling and today won us rich laurels worldwide. Immensely proud that JWT has partnered our client for such a worthy cause”, said JWT Mumbai NCD Tista Sen.

    The work for ‘Death Track’ was entered under the public service category for Birla Sun Life Insurance, the life insurance arm of the Aditya Birla Financial Services Group where it won the Grand Midas.

    JWT India’s work on ‘Even Gods Can Feel Insecure’ campaign with cricketer Yuvraj Singh, was one of the most talked and awarded campaigns of 2013. The integrated campaign, that traces the life of Yuvraj Singh who won a battle with cancer, tries to do justice to this remarkable bounce back story, which was almost scripted for an insurance company so that others can draw inspiration from it.

  • Nokia launches flagship Lumia 1520 in India; campaign in the offing

    Nokia launches flagship Lumia 1520 in India; campaign in the offing

    BENGALURU: Nokia India (Nokia) announced the all India launch from the NCR region and Bengaluru of its new flagship Windows operated smart phone – the Nokia Lumia 1510 yesterday. The company has already launched this phone along with the Lumia 1320 in other markets a while ago. Plans are afoot to launch the Lumia 1320 in India also shortly.

    Nokia has had an aggressive campaign for its Lumia and Asha series of phones across multimedia including television in the country. A campaign for the Lumia 1520 is being planned by Nokia India along with its creative agency JWT revealed Nokia India Sales director of south markets T S Sridhar to www.indiantelevision.com.

    Nokia’s mass communication message is likely to focus on three key attributes of the Lumia 1520 – it’s the first six inch screen smart phone from the Nokia stable, the 20 MP PureView camera with RAW capability and optical image stabilisation and the phone’s long battery life with a 3400 mAh battery revealed Sridhar further.

    Nokia India, Middle East and Africa Director – Smart Phone Devices Vipul Mehrotra, said, “Large screens are increasingly becoming popular among smart phone users and imaging is one of the key factors that define a good smart phone. With the Nokia Lumia 1520, we have boosted the Lumia design to a large six-inch screen, with the clearest and sharpest display offering people a better way to tell their stories.”

  • Puma appoints JWT New York as global creative agency

    Puma appoints JWT New York as global creative agency

    MUMBAI: Sports company, Puma, has appointed advertising agency JWT New York as its lead creative agency.

    Effective immediately, JWT will assume a leadership position over all Puma advertising and creative on a global basis.

    Over the last three months, Puma’s new management team has created a unified brand platform and simplified mission: Forever Faster. The new tagline that will launch in 2014, reflects a 65-year-old history of making fast product designs for the fastest athletes on the planet.

    On the appointment, sais Puma CEO Björn Gulden , “In JWT, we have found an agile agency with a global reach that understands the PUMA brand and culture.”

    He added, “The team quickly proved that they could deliver on our new mission to become the fastest sports brand in the world. Together we’ll craft a more nimble creative structure that will allow us to support all of the company’s sporting and lifestyle categories with a single consumer message and streamlined creative concept across territories”

    The account will be led out of JWT’s flagship headquarters in New York, with offices across the agency’s network contributing regional insight and localisation of the global brand campaign.

    “Puma is more than an advertising relationship for us; it’s a true brand and business partnership,” said JWT New York CEO Peter Sherman. “It will be a privilege to work with this team.”

    In the last couple of months, JWT New York has won various accounts including a consolidation of energizer brands and a creative assignment from Google.

  • Taproot India hires Mayuresh Dubhashi as associate CD

    Taproot India hires Mayuresh Dubhashi as associate CD

    MUMBAI: With plans to strengthen its creative team, Taproot India has hired Mayuresh Dubhashi as associate creative director.

    “There’s a reason why Taproot is the hottest agency in the country. It’s got the best brands and the best people handling them and more importantly, it’s going to offer the best possible opportunities to up my game,” said Dubhashi on his new job.

    He has eight years of experience. He started work at Lowe Lintas on Idea, Wheel, Surf Excel etc and then moved onto JWT Mumbai, where he spent over five years.
    Apart from many metals at Goa fest, he has also won the Young Lotus competition, represented India at Ad fest 2011 and won ‘Silver.’

    “I have worked with him in the past hence I know his strengths, passion and attitude towards work,” said Taproot India co-founder and chief creative officer Agnello Dias about Dubhashi.

    “Taproot India is a strong believer of young blood, Mayuresh is young and yet very mature in his thinking and approach,” added Taproot India co-founder and chief creative officer Santosh Padhi.

    Taproot India has 46 people operating from a single office, Mumbai.