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Tag: Madison World

  • Sooraj Bhalla to step down as founder & CEO of Mates

    Sooraj Bhalla to step down as founder & CEO of Mates

    Mumbai: Mates founder and CEO Sooraj Bhalla has announced his decision to step down from his position. Under his leadership, the entertainment specialist unit of media agency Madison World emerged as a prominent name in the industry. 

    Bhalla played a significant role in building the branded content and content marketing advertising vertical to its leadership position. His last day at Mates is 31 December.

    “So far, my focus has been to work towards driving impact for clients and touch an emotive chord with consumers with the power of content and communication,” said Bhalla. “In this next chapter of my professional life, I am looking forward to taking these years of rewarding experience with Mates and continue delivering value through the various channels of communication in the content space.” 

    An alumnus of Jamnabai Narsee School, Bhalla spent his initial 10 years in creating content – direction and production, followed by fourteen years in content marketing, branded content, film marketing, celebrity management and solutions.

    He has worked on blockbuster projects like “Andaz Apna Apna,” “Damini,” “Ghatak,” and “Barsaat,” having started his career as an assistant director to Rajkumar Santoshi. He was also the executive producer of Hindi feature film – “Shararat.”

    After procuring prolific experience in content production and direction, his first independent venture, TeamWorks focused on branded content, celebrity management & film marketing. It was eventually bought out by Sam Balsara to create Mates.

    Bhalla has worked on more than 100 films from the country’s top producers and studios, being instrumental in delivering breakthrough communication with engaging content formats. He has won over 17 accolades in the advertising and media industry.

  • HiveMinds expands in Delhi-NCR, appoints Mohit Grover to lead business

    HiveMinds expands in Delhi-NCR, appoints Mohit Grover to lead business

    Mumbai: Hiveminds Innovative Market Solutions, a division of Madison World has opened a new office in Gurugram, announcing a formal expansion in Delhi-NCR. To head its north branch, Hiveminds has appointed Mohit Grover, a business leader who has led key P&L roles in digital first businesses.

    The Bengaluru based full-service digital marketing company has a team of 200 people spread across Bangalore, Mumbai and NCR.

    Grover has worked in insurance and travel companies like redBus, Goibibo, and Make My Trip, and then followed it up with his entrepreneurial venture Neemrana Naturals, a startup connecting farmers to consumers to provide organic produce.

    Commenting on the new appointment, Madison World chairman Sam Balsara said, “With offices opening up gradually, the demand for on-site teams is also coming back. With Mohit at the helm, we’re now poised to expand our presence in North India to attract new clients and service the existing clients better.”

    “As digital transformation takes focus for all businesses, I am delighted to bring in a leader with high ownership & entrepreneurial spirit as our Delhi branch head to ride this wave. With the growing client roster, we feel that a senior team based in the region will be better placed to engage at the strategic level and contribute to overall growth for our clients,” stated HiveMinds founder and CEO Jyothirmayee JT.

    “I am excited to be leading the north India growth for HiveMinds,” said Mohit Grover on his new role. “I feel after building businesses in a highly competitive travel industry for over a decade, this will be a great next phase of my career. I look forward to assembling a formidable team and delivering value to our clients in the region.”

  • Madison Digital wins AVoD mandate for Zee5

    Madison Digital wins AVoD mandate for Zee5

    Mumbai: Madison Digital, a unit of Madison World has won the advertising-based video on demand (AVoD) mandate for home-grown video streaming platform Zee5. 

    The agency will handle media planning, social media, and creative development for Zee5’s B2B marketing function, said the statement.

    Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd chief operations officer of revenue Rajiv Bakshi said AVoD is a fast-growing OTT category and through its strong adtech and martech stack, Zee5 has paved the way for marketers and advertisers to engage with viewers through creative and innovative ways. “As a consumer-first brand, built on the back of our profound consumer understanding, the aim has always been towards providing customised and effective campaigns across multiple cohorts and segments. We have partnered with majority of brands across all industries, for multi-scale advertising, branded solutions and influencer-based marketing campaigns. We look forward to a successful partnership with Madison to further communicate our success story, distinct product offerings and fuel our growth in India,” Bakshi added.

    “Zee5 has seen a tremendous amount of growth over the last few years. The brand has been coming up with impressive originals suited for the Indian market. We are extremely happy to partner with Zee5 in growing the AVoD business for the platform,” said Madison Digital & Madison Media Ultra CEO Vishal Chinchankar.

  • Madison Media’s K Suresh Kumar succumbs to Covid2019

    Madison Media’s K Suresh Kumar succumbs to Covid2019

    MUMBAI: Madison Media Plus media director K Suresh Kumar passed away due to Covid2019 on Saturday, the media agency said in a statement. Kumar, who operated out of Madison Media’s Delhi office, had been with the company since November 2018.  

    The agency expressed condolences in a post on professional networking site LinkedIn:

    “We are shocked and saddened to share the news of our K Suresh Kumar (media director from Madison Media Delhi office) who succumbed to Covid on Saturday night.

    He has been a part of the Madison family for many years and contributed wholeheartedly to the success of Madison Media.

    May his soul rest in peace. Our heartfelt condolences to his family.”

  • Madison Media wins 23 new businesses in FY 2020-21

    Madison Media wins 23 new businesses in FY 2020-21

    Mumbai: Madison Media has created a record by winning 23 new accounts in a financial year, the agency said in a press statement. Amidst the nationwide lockdown and work-from-home, the new business wins amounted to a billing of $211 million as per Convergence New Business Report published in March 2021.

    The agency bagged the accounts of various firms, including Abbott Nutrition, RSPL Group, RSH Global – Joy Cosmetics, Welspun, Indira IVF, Licious, Weikfield, M3M India, Liebherr, Educational Testing Service (ETS), Aliens Group, Wonder Masala, Vijay Bhoomi, Practo, Gold Drop Oil, NextGen Software, McDonald’s integrated performance, Dhani Loans, Atomberg, Alchem Industries, Sunpure Oil, PAPA Brands, amongst others.

    Madison Media OOH partner & group CEO Vikram Sakhuja said, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going. As the pandemic impacted advertising spends profoundly we saw an opportunity to establish the link between media and marketing outcomes and doubled down on our pitch efforts. The result – 23 wins! I am overwhelmed by the teamwork, spirit, and smarts of our Madison family.”

    The home-grown agency also received a top score of A+ in the Comp Pitches Report for 2020 by Recma.

    Meanwhile, it also continues to handle media planning and buying for blue chip clients like Godrej, Marico, Asian Paints, Titan, Tata Consumer Products, Blue Star, TVS, Raymond, Viacom 18, Ceat, Pidilite, Bajaj Electricals, McDonald’s, Lodha, gaana.com, and many others.

    Madison Media is part of Madison World, India’s largest homegrown communication agency established in 1988. Madison World through its 11 units served last year, as many as 500 Advertisers.

  • Advertising veteran Sam Balsara demands stimulus package from government

    Advertising veteran Sam Balsara demands stimulus package from government

    NEW DELHI:  Lamenting the lack of support from Indian government, and Madison Communications founder and CMD Sam Balsara demanded a stimulus package for the advertising industry. He was speaking to Governance Now MD Kailashnath Adhikari on ‘Impact of Covid-19 on media and entertainment industry and the role of governance in the media sector’. 

    Balsara said, “The government needs to provide a stimulus package to the advertising industry and push consumer demand. Perhaps they think if they gave a concession to advertising, then it would be considered a concession to the sector itself. It is not a concession; it is a stimulus package to revive demand and that is how it should be seen by the government and positioned and not as a sop to the media industry." 

    He shared that the advertising industry has faced an overall steep drop of almost 75 per cent in the first quarter of the FY 2020-2021 adding that in April it was about 95 per cent, improved slightly in May, and recovered well in June, especially in the TV and digital media. 

    “Print, radio outdoor and cinema are totally in the dumps and will only see some semblance by Diwali provided the govt allows suburban railways in metros and majority offices open. The industry was expecting TV to recover 80%-90% of last year’s levels in Q2 of the FY,” he said.

    He also said that work from home is a huge setback to the economy as it could work well for individuals and companies but not create consumer demand. "When advertising is widely recognized as the engine for a large number of consumer companies and drives demand in its absence the economy goes into a downward cycle. To spin out of this de-growth and perk up, a massive dose of advertising is required in July August, September."

    Balsara also came down heavily on Indian news channels and said that he is disappointed at what they repetitively put out and have to break out of the current rhythm of content. He was referring to the daily headlines of highest no of Covid2019 cases and deaths being reported by news channels which he said look as identical every day as they did four months ago. 

    “There are many opportunities for news channels to innovate, be more humane, and capitalise news intake intelligently. But repetitive news content is bringing the viewership down. When in the first week of lockdown viewership of news channels had shot up 300 per cent today it has come down to February levels," said Balsara. 

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  • Platinum Outdoor launches India’s first-ever zero-contact savings account for Kotak via OOH media

    Platinum Outdoor launches India’s first-ever zero-contact savings account for Kotak via OOH media

    MUMBAI: The Covid2019 pandemic has brought with it changes in the consumption of services and work culture. While work from home and social distancing has become the new normal, Madison World’s outdoor unit, Platinum Outdoor recommended a pilot OOH campaign during Unlock Phase 1 to launch India’s First Zero-Contact, Video KYC Savings Account – Kotak 811 . 

    In Unlock Phase 1, people have begun venturing outdoors and traffic snarls made a comeback as few companies and other services opened in several parts of the country. Since local train services in Mumbai haven’t fully resumed, citizens are left with no option but to choose roads to travel. Taking stock of the situation, Platinum Outdoor, took up the challenge and devised an OOH strategy in tandem with evolved lifestyle, consumption behavior and OOH movement. After studying the change in speed patterns across the city, locations were identified to attract the target audience (TG). The new OOH movement amongst the TG were carefully studied from an OOH perspective. Impactful large formats were carefully identified, selected and deployed at high traction sites in Mumbai from Lower Parel to Jogeshwari. The campaign creative featured Ranveer Singh along with the brand logo and message. This campaign was active for a short period to gauge the audience response to the OOH campaign and increase client confidence in the OOH medium.

    Kotak Mahindra Bank joint president – consumer, commercial & wealth marketing Elizabeth Venkataraman said, “We are now living in a very different world and as a pioneer in digital banking, our focus has been on enabling our customers to transact safely & securely in a zero-contact manner. We are delighted to have introduced India’s first zero-contact, video KYC savings account through which Kotak customers can now open a full-fledged savings account from the comfort of their home without the need for a visit to the branch or in-person interaction. While the campaign is being driven by digital media, with the lockdown gradually being lifted, we decided to selectively include OOH media in our campaign targeting key, high-impact locations in Mumbai.” 

    Platinum Outdoor CEO Dipankar Sanyal said, “We always believed that OOH campaigns would pick up once the Unlocking phase starts. Kotak Bank has always been known for doing great outdoor campaigns. We managed to carve an impactful once again. The campaign was executed during our WFH status. It’s been a great learning experience.”