Tag: McCann Erickson

  • Samir Sagar joins TBWAIndia as senior VP

    Samir Sagar joins TBWAIndia as senior VP

    MUMBAI: Advertising veteran Samir Sagar has stepped into a new role as senior vice president at TBWAIndia, charting the next chapter of a career brewed in strategy, storytelling and brand wizardry.

    Before joining TBWA, Sagar helmed the business at Famous Innovations as Business Head, where he led integrated marketing and brand communication mandates for marquee clients. His longest stint, however, was at MullenLowe Lintas Group, where he spent seven years rising through the ranks from associate vice president to senior vice president, shaping campaigns across Mumbai and Bengaluru.

    Sagar’s early journey took him through McCann Erickson as brand leader and The Thinking Machine in Jakarta, where he worked as brand partner, experiences that helped sharpen his strategic lens and creative instincts.

    With this move, Sagar brings his trademark blend of insight, innovation and leadership to TBWA, an agency known for its “Disruption” philosophy. It’s a fitting match, one creative disruptor joining another.
     

  • Wavemaker veteran Ravishankar Iyer jumps ship to Hogarth as strategy chief

    Wavemaker veteran Ravishankar Iyer jumps ship to Hogarth as strategy chief

    MUMBAI: Ravishankar Iyer, the former national head of communications planning at Wavemaker, has landed at Hogarth as advisor-head of strategy. The appointment marks a homecoming of sorts for the Mumbai-based strategist, who returns to the WPP fold after a six-year stint at the media agency.

    Iyer’s career spans over two decades in India’s advertising trenches. At Wavemaker, he built what the company called a “highly successful full funnel content practice” anchored on culture, data and commerce. Before that, he spent four years at Mindshare, where his team became one of the country’s most garlanded, handling marquee accounts including Star TV Network, Castrol, Facebook and HSBC.

    The strategist’s résumé reads like a who’s who of Indian advertising: stints at Ogilvy & Mather, Bates, Lowe Lintas and McCann Erickson. He even dabbled in the start-up world as marketing director at VPTA, a grassroots sports venture.

    Hogarth, WPP’s creative execution powerhouse, appears keen to beef up its strategic muscle as brands demand more integrated approaches. Iyer’s appointment suggests the agency is betting on old-school planning chops to navigate an increasingly complex media landscape.

    The move comes as advertising’s traditional boundaries continue to blur, with strategy, creative and media planning increasingly overlapping. For Iyer, it’s another chance to apply his “cultural provocation” philosophy—this time from Hogarth’s Mumbai office.

  • Ogilvy India rolls out consulting arm, Neeraj Bassi returns to lead the charge

    Ogilvy India rolls out consulting arm, Neeraj Bassi returns to lead the charge

    MUMBAI: Ogilvy India has officially launched Ogilvy Consulting in the country, with seasoned brand whisperer Neeraj Bassi stepping in as head of the India practice. Based out of the Gurugram office, Bassi will also double up as head of strategic planning for Ogilvy India (North).

    Globally, Ogilvy Consulting is all about cracking the holy trinity of modern business challenges — growth & innovation, business design, and digital transformation. It ropes in Ogilvy’s best across brand strategy, customer engagement, commerce, PR, partnerships and influence, bundling them into one potent, integrated offer.

    For Bassi, this isn’t just a gig — it’s a return to base. Having last served as president – strategic planning at Ogilvy Gurugram till 2015, the advertising veteran brings 28 years of strategy-packed experience to the table. His most recent avatar was as chief growth officer at Cheil X, following stints at Publicis, Havas, JWT Dubai, and McCann Erickson, where his journey began in 1997.

    Ogilvy India chief strategy officer Prem Narayan  said, ” I have always admired Neeraj. He is one of the finest strategic minds in the country.   His rich experience across consulting, advertising and driving growth make him one of the rare few who excel at intersecting consumer x culture x brand x business x modern media landscape to deliver business impact and transformation.   There couldn’t have been anyone better to lead and launch the Ogilvy Consulting practice and drive excellence of the strategic planning function for Ogilvy India (North), Neeraj will make us sharper, stronger and sweeter.”

    Bassi, with his trademark cool, added: “I am really excited to lead the Ogilvy Consulting practice in India. Globally we are getting a good traction in this space and I am looking forward to offering independent, unbiased advice for full funnel management of marquee brands – right from fuelling desire to demand conversion at point of sale. Ogilvy Consulting would address the issue of distributed brand narrative that is happening because of domain experts working in their silos. Championing the cause of one brand, one narrative, Ogilvy Consulting will help clients integrate the domains at a strategic level. It’s a homecoming for me and coming home is always special.”

    With this move, Ogilvy India joins the global consulting party — and with Bassi at the helm, expect the narrative to get sharper, the strategies slicker, and the silos shaken.

  • Leo Burnett, Mondelez, & Ogilvy grab top honours at Ad Club’s Effies 2024

    Leo Burnett, Mondelez, & Ogilvy grab top honours at Ad Club’s Effies 2024

    MUMBAI: It was a noisy, raucous evening to say the least with agency executives screaming, blowing hard into their whistles, cheering as award after award was announced.  But the Ad Club Mumba’s Effie Awards also left behind a lot of happy faces at the Sea Lawns at the Taj Land’s End Hotel in Mumbai’s Bandra suburb  on the evening of 24 January .

    Team Ogilvy

    The winner of the Grand Effie for 2024 was Leo Burnett India for their work on Acko General insurance. The agency along with McCann Erickson definitely deserved another award: that of being the loudest bunch in the evening.

    The brand that walked away  with the client Effie of the year was Mondelez India which is the third consecutive year it has managed this feat. Kudos to it for creating memories for siblings, for special occasions with its confectioneries, chocolates  along with its agencies.
     

    Team mondelez

    The agency of the year was shockingly grabbed by Ogilvy India. It looked to be nowhere in the running. But it made a last minute dash taking home enough golds and silvers towards the last batch of awards to win the prestigious accolade. All in all it was a glorious memorable evening for Ogilvy India’s creative god Piyush Pandey who hesitatingly walked towards the stage amidst the melee of young executives who made a run for the stage when master of ceremonies Brian Tellis announced it as the winning agency .

    The highlight of the evening was a tribute to Bhaskar Da or Dr Bhaskar Das or BD which was offered by Ad Club president Rana Barua. What was great was the noisy crowd went completely silent when Rana spoke about what made Bhaskar Da so special and his long association with the Ad Club and the media industry as a whole. A short film by Pradyuman about Bhaskar Da with Tellis providing the voice over moved Rana to tears as he finished his tribute. 

    The Effie India awards stand out as a unique celebration of creativity, strategy, and effectiveness, recognised not just by industry peers but also by clients and academics. This year, the awards attracted 1,152 entries from 75 agencies, affirming Effie India’s position as the second-largest Effie globally in terms of participation.

    With a rigorous judging process involving 486 jury members, including 254 marketing professionals, the evaluation took place across Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore, ensuring top-notch standards for this year’s campaigns.

    The Advertising Club president and  Havas India group CEO Rana Barua remarked, “The Effie India awards exemplify the power of strategic creativity and impactful storytelling. With over 1,152 entries, this year continues to set benchmarks for the industry. Congratulations to all winners for their innovative campaigns that resonate deeply with audiences and drive measurable impact. These awards reflect the collaborative brilliance of our industry.”

    Effie India awards chairperson Mitrajit Bhattacharya  noted, “The evolution of the Effie India awards over the past 23 years is incredible. The awards not only celebrate creativity but also showcase the collaborative efforts from 75 agencies and 486 experts on the jury. It’s inspiring to see the industry push boundaries with remarkable campaigns that deliver tangible outcomes. Thank you to the jury and participants for making this edition memorable.”

    Effie India awards co-chairperson Pradeep Dwivedi  added, “The Effie India Awards have become a cornerstone of the advertising and marketing landscape, uniting the best minds in the business. Congratulations to all the winners for pushing the limits of creativity and strategy. Your work inspires and shapes the future of brand communication.”

    Globally recognised, the Effie Awards honor brands, agencies, and marketers that excel in driving business growth and delivering impactful campaigns.

    To go through the list of the winners of the various Effie awards click here

    To take a look at the total points tally of the client of the year click here. 

    To take a look at the total points tally of the agency of the year click here 

    (When the window pops up, you can zoom in on the pdf file to see the results)

  • “We are happy the way Kia has been accepted in India for all their cars” B. Shridhar

    “We are happy the way Kia has been accepted in India for all their cars” B. Shridhar

    Mumbai: The power of movies on television, often referred to as “The Big Picture”, has impacted how we consume entertainment, making it an essential part of our lives. Not only that, the synergy of Movies and TV has also proven to be lucrative for brands who want to reach India at large and impact their daily lives. In a series of chats with marketers and media veterans, we discuss all things related marketing, media and especially movies. Indiantelevsion.com founder, chairman & editor-in-chief Anil Wanvari, discusses all things related to marketing, media and especially movies with Innocean Worldwide Communication Pvt Ltd executive VP B. Shridhar.

    Edited excerpts

    On your early life, educational qualifications and extra curricular activities

    I was born in Delhi in a Tamil Brahmin household and spent my whole life in Delhi. My parents always emphasized the need for education but I was little better than an average student. Sports were a big deal for me. It was an escape from Mathematics especially. I studied at the Kirori Mal College, Delhi University and did BA Honors in Geography with the objective of appearing for civil services. Few of my friends got involved in the bandwagon of MBA so I also followed them because I was told you would be needing Maths at a working level rather than a scientist level. I also went into doing an MBA in marketing. When I was growing up in the late 1980’s, it was a great period for Indian advertising. I got a sense of freedom while working in the industry rather than getting clogged in a corporate suit. That’s me in a nutshell and I can say that despite being raised with old school values, I would say that sports have been a big deal in my life.

    On your journey and milestones

    When I started my career in 1984, I actually wanted to be a part of Account Planning because Mr. Santosh Desai used to be a faculty. Once he called me in his office while he was in Mudra and he said we have an opening in Media Planning but I said I wanted to do Account Planning. He said that taking Account Planning in the initial year is about going and doing research left, right, center. He reckoned that I will do better in media planning. So at the end of the day, I thought about doing some planning and I got pretty latched on to it, starting my career in Mudra. I used to mainly work on Nestle. I carried on and moved to McCann for a while. Then again I came back to do a second stint with Mudra and used to work mainly for Samsung. I was very happy that I was part of a company that was launching product after product every half year.

    After a second stint with Mudra, I got an opportunity to work in Ogilvy. I used to have similarities in the work culture and the environment as such. The whole thing which I started of in my career as a lifestyle that the advertising professionals lead and I thought that would go to the next level. At Ogilvy, I used to work at Electroluxx and Dabur. GroupM came into India and the media divisions of Ogilvy contract, HTA etc got merged into the entity of GroupM. I also worked with Initiative Media where I used to work for many brands of ITC. 2006 is when I joined Innocean and worked in 2 parts. It was Hyundai’s group company. I used to drive the media functions for Hyundai Motors. I worked till 2015 for my first avatar in Innocean and then I went away for one and a half years where I was driving the strategy & insight lead for Initiative Media. Towards the end of 2017, I returned to Innocean this time to head the media function for KIA Motors. KIA Motors was just about to come in India, and they ultimately rolled out their first car in the middle of 2019 but all the proprietary work including building of the launch and corporate campaigns, I was like part of minus two years of KIA in India and it’s been a great journey.

    On work life balance and initiatives which you are proud of

    I had a good work life balance working at Innocean and it depends on how you understand the needs of clients so somebody is more strategy oriented and someone is more proactive or a good organiser, a good manager. The point is strategy is something we would tend to do together but depending on the domain of expertise. The other thing is that both Hyundai and Kia Motors need the efficiency and executional brilliance because at the end of the day proof of the pudding is being able to serve your audiences in their way. I would say stuff that works in the marketplace and not necessarily with the jury of XYZ awards. I am absolutely proud to say that I worked on many of the Santro campaigns and launches. Going forward from there, they also launched many products which worked well with the audience in terms of creating positive brand disposition towards the products of Kia. Point is like doing things efficiently that’s the way it has been for both Kia and Hyundai.

    On initiatives which you are proud of

    This is going back to 2007 and when IPL was going to start in 2008. At that time, people really didn’t think the IPL was going to be glorified domestically. I am very happy to say that I could get a sense of what this is because I had an interest in football and watching the English Premier League etc. I thought that this was something to be in that zone. I was able to recommend that to folks at Hyundai to buy into it and really walk into the hearts of Indian audiences because in India there’s cricket and there’s Bollywood. I am happy that I could push this through and get them to invest in the IPL. I felt that nobody knew how to price this at that time because nobody has sense of what it could turn out to be. We also took it to the next level in terms of associating with ICC. Hyundai was a partner with the ICC for a good five years starting with the 2011 World Cup which after the rest of the 4 years it went into global association. If you could go back to the time when Dhoni had hit that six to win the World Cup, as the ball goes to the stadium, just at the nick of time, you can see a digital poll which pops up Hyundai. These are a couple of things which I have been part of. Going forward from there working on Kia which came as a late entrant when the market was very mature with big players in the market, a way dominant. Here comes a challenge for the brand. The thing that they backed themselves was the product quality and design as the big deal and turned it around into business success. I have been a part of each and every thing of Kia since they came into India to roll out their first car. So we are happy the way Kia has been accepted in India for all their cars. I am glad that I am gonna continue the journey with Kia even for the next few years.  

    On marketeers leveraging the box office success movies like Pathaan, Gadar 2 etc and strategies they can use for the growth of their brands

    Integration into content is the most important thing. Because you can do stuff over the promotion but being actually part of a movie and building synergy with the brand’s proposition and the movie’s plot. I dont watch many movies, but I remember one movie very vividly called ‘Road’. The car was such an integral part of the movie it seemed like a subject in itself. Therefore to be able to integrate meaningfully with the movie and it’s not so much about the screen time, it’s about the synergy.  Then it’s about magnification of collaboration by way of promoting it together. To create a lot of shoulder content to it and create anticipation both for the show as well as the brand and depending on the life stage of the brand whether it’s gonna be a tease for the audience or showcase what a product can do. Those things can come alive with a lot of shoulder content that can happen around it. Secondly, creating a ripple effect to content like post production, audience engagement. These are the buzzwords for leveraging a movie.

    On co-branding on promotional outlets whether its in retail outlet or digital-outdoor

    If you can do this exclusively, that’s the best thing. You can possibly take it into the realms of AFP (Advertiser Funded Programs). If not, there has to be some kind of synergy between the brands also wherein you are pulling in together. For example Coke and Adidas have better synergies and Pepsi and Nike have better synergies rather than vice-versa. So even if there are other brands coming into picture, we have to see whether they compliment each other or crossover with each other. Exclusivity is best but if not synergy is important in any case.  

    Between Hyundai and Kia, Hyundai is a little bit formal, more reaching out to the demographic kind of audience, not going on the edge kind of brand. Similarly Kia, being a late entrant, being salient is more important so therefore going more to the edge and kind of collaborating with people who personify the identity of Kia. I would define Hyundai as more functional plus lifestyle, Kia is more attitude. Kia could host Elon Musk and Hyundai could host Mr. Tim Cook better if we put it that way.

    On TV and OTT aggregating large audiences and brands leveraging big titles coming on TV.

    Being able to be there as a presenting partner or co-presenting partner and therefore using the brands own assets and creating a post production content piece and thereby engaging with the contest and gamification can work well. In any case they would get eyeballs because people definitely value a content that is two months old after theatrical release and doing well in the theaters. As I said, presenting partnerships, being a part of backend part stories, doing joint production. That can be a good way of leveraging WTPs.

     On strategy for movie genres and your ideal winning mix.

    You will have a scenario as in your max investment goes into the hero movie of the month, but you can also have a sprinkling of surround inventory to that movie and catch audiences also and in any case even if you didn’t want to invest more on hero movie, you will get peripheral content also, therefore you will have presence in ROS so far which is fine ultimately when you do post campaign analysis of any metric of ROI, Hindi movies tend to do very well and besides only focusing on hero content, if you take a package, it becomes much more efficient and greater amount of GRPs on any metric. In a nutshell, I would say diversify the mix.  

    On TV playing important role in building brand awareness

    Awareness is one point related to the mind metric to an audience. It’s not important that you know me or I know you but how well do I know you or how well do you know me that matters. Which means to say that awareness is one thing but do you build trust? Do you build confidence? Good amount of research has shown offline media, linear TV, newspapers, radio have greater trust and credibility than that in the digital space. Having said that, TV brings a lot of things other than basic awareness. It is trustworthy and credible. Therefore you will have a scenario of an influencer and the consumer of the product are all consuming the content at the same time. TV goes beyond the space of credibility and those kinds of mind metrics. Research has actually proven that it works very well from a brand’s lifecycle perspective also. Within the offline media space, TV was always a big thing. It is even bigger now. I would say generally even from my own practice, TV does continue to have its own importance and it’s not going anywhere.

  • Housing.com announces new ad campaign ‘ Parr…se Perfect’

    Housing.com announces new ad campaign ‘ Parr…se Perfect’

    Mumbai: Housing.com announced the launch of its latest TV and digital advertising campaign, “Parr…se Perfect.”

    With this new campaign, the company acknowledges that home buyers/renters or homeowners may end up not making a final decision to rent, buy, or sell for a variety of unique and personal reasons.

    The series of four ads was created by advertising firm McCann Erickson and is aimed at reaching over 100 million impressions, according to a statement from Housing.com.

    Housing.com, PropTiger.com, and Makaan.com Group CEO Dhruv Agarwala said, “We are really excited about our new ad campaign that captures the ethos on which Housing.com has been built—to facilitate the search and discovery for everyone till they find their perfect home. Our brand aspires to be a part of the consumer’s journey and provides them with maximum options so that they don’t have to settle for anything less than perfect.”

    With a clever word-play on the Hindi word Parr (which means “but,” referring to the many doubts that arise in the minds of anyone dealing with the question of property sale and purchase) in its slogan “Parr… se Perfect,” the Housing.com ad campaign showcases the real estate company’s basic principle of providing the maximum choices for homebuyers, owners, and tenants.

    Housing.com, PropTiger.com, and Makaan.com chief growth and marketing officer Snehil Gautam said,  “Through our brand-new ad campaign, we plan to send across a message to our audience that it is okay to have doubts when it comes to buying, selling, or renting a home. We all have doubts, and we shouldn’t bury them. At Housing.com, we are celebrating even the smallest of doubts as we are committed to providing maximum property options to home seekers and maximum customers to sellers and landlords.”

    Housing.com’s 360-degree campaign will help the company leverage high-impact TV, digital, and OTT platforms to capture more eyeballs with a blended media strategy.

    The campaign will be featured on live cricket and prime-time TV shows such as the T20 World Cup, Asia Cup, India vs Australia series, The Kapil Sharma Show, Kaun Banega Crorepati, Khatron Ke Khiladi, Indian Idol, Superstar Singer, and Jhalak Dikhla Jaa, as well as social media for a multiplier effect.

  • Awarded adman Prasoon Joshi is new CBFC chief, Pahlaj Nihalani exits

    NEW DELHI: Renowned lyricist and senior adman Prasoon Joshi has been appointed chairman of the Central Board of Film Certification with immediate effect.

    An official order said Joshi was being appointed chairperson of the CBFC in an honorary capacity from 11 August 2017 for a period of three years or until further orders, whichever is earlier in exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 3 of the Cinematograph Act 1952 read with rule 3 of the Cinematograph (Certification) Rules 1983.

    This marks the exit of filmmaker Pahlaj Nihalani who was embroiled in several controversies during his tenure.

    Joshi is the CEO of McCann World group India and Chairman (Asia Pacific), a subsidiary of global marketing firm McCann Erickson.

    Prasoon has received the Filmfare Best Lyricist Award three times, in 2007 and 2008 and again in 2014 for the Hindi movie Bhaag Milkha Bhaag. He has also received the National Film Award for Best Lyrics twice, for his work in Taare Zameen Par (2007), and Chittagong (2013).He was awarded Padma Shri by the Government in 2015 for his contributions towards the field of Arts, Literature and Advertising.

    Born on 16 September 1971, he started his career with Ogilvy & Mather in Delhi. He worked there for 10 years and eventually became the executive creative director of the Mumbai office. In early 2002, he joined McCann-Erickson as executive vice-president and national creative director. By 2006, he was regional creative director for South and South East Asia. In December 2006 he was promoted to executive chairman for McCann Worldgroup India and regional creative director for Asia Pacific

    Joshi created advertising campaigns for NDTV India (Sach dikhate hain hum), Saffola (Abhi to main Bhaag Milkha Bhaag.jawan hoon) LG, Marico, Perfetti (Alpenliebe, Chlormint), and the Cannes-winning Thanda matlab Coca-Cola campaign with Aamir Khan. His Happydent television commercial was listed by Bob Garfield of AdvertisingAge as one of his personal choices for the Cannes Gold in 2007, and it was chosen by a Gunn Report poll as one of the 20 best ads of the 21st century.

    He also wrote the lyrics for CNN IBN’s advertising jingle “India Rising’ and Coke’s Ummeed wali dhoop.

    In cinema, he made his debut as film lyricist with Rajkumar Santoshi’s Lajja, a critical and commercial success, and this soon led to Yash Chopra’s Hum Tum and a string of highly successful Bollywood films like Fanaa, Rang De Basanti, Taare Zameen Par, Black and Delhi 6. With Rang De Basanti (2006), he also became a dialogue writer.

    He won the Filmfare Best Lyricist Award for “Chand Sifarish” from the film Fanaa in 2007 and for “Maa” from Taare Zameen Par in 2008. He has won the prestigious National Award twice. The first for his work in Taare Zameen Par and the second one in 2013 for Chittagong.

    He had also written the script for the award-winning 2014 film Bhaag Milkha Bhaag.

    He started writing early in life and published his first book at age 17, Main Aur Woh, a ‘conversation with himself’, inspired by Frederich Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra. Two more books followed, establishing him as an author.

    His latest book, Sunshine Lanes, a collection of his songs, was launched at the Jaipur Literature Festival in January 2013.

  • Paytm salutes #SelflessMoms

    MUMBAI: Paytm has unveiled a new brand film on the occasion of Mother’s Day. The film is a tribute to the spirit of motherhood & how their selfless acts touch the lives of their children.

    With the current user base of more than 220 million, Paytm is on a mission to bring half a billion Indians to the mainstream of the economy using mobile payment.

    The video begins with a mother-son duo where the son is in two minds about shifting to a new city to pursue a career and has kept this a secret from his mom. But like most mothers, she gets to know and asks him to teach her how to book flight tickets on Paytm. In a sweet & selfless twist, the mother books her son a flight ticket to pursue his new job & promises to visit him often. The clip ends with the tagline ‘Flight Tickets Book Karo #Paytmkaro’.

    Speaking at the launch, Jaskaran Kapany, Vice President – Paytm, “This Mother’s Day, Paytm is celebrating the spirit of a Mother’s love with a film dedicated to selfless moms across the world. The film emphasizes not only on a mother’s importance in our lives but also highlights her sacrificing & giving nature. We hope this film will serve as a little nudge this Mother’s Day or any other day for children to catch a flight & fly back to their mothers for a visit. Our convenient travel booking options are waiting to help them in any way possible.”

    The latest brand film developed by leading advertising agency McCann Erickson will go live across all prominent channels and will be cross-promoted via Paytm’s YouTube channel and other social media platforms.

  • GroupM Dialogue Factory’s Katgara moves out, co-founds marketing solutions co

    MUMBAI: Group M Dialogue Factory Business Group Head Farhad Katgara has moved out.

    Farhad has been part of the advertising and marketing community for over 16 years. He started his career as Assistant Manager (Production) with Resources & Beyond, a support agency for Lintas, McCann Erickson, Tata Nova, Seventy and many more in 2000. He was also associated with various event companies like Showtime India Pvt Ltd, LIVE 1 Entertainment, CATPRO Events, Rams Relationship, Seventy, Cineyug Worldwide and Leo Brunette where he has successfully planned and executed events. His last stint was as Business Group Head at Group M Dialogue Factory in March 2017.

    Farhad has also successfully planned and executed events and activations for brands like HPCL, Mumbai Police, Lakhme Fashion Week, Smirnoff, Launch of Fiat Palio, Samsung Blue I & True I, Axe Deodorants and many more. During his career, Farhad has built and developed large teams providing brand development support through, events, sales promotion campaigns, visual merchandising and product merchandising.

    With years of experience in live concerts, corporate events, awards and corporate shows, Farhad has co-founded Resources Go Beyond, a result based Integrated Marketing Solutions provider.

    Resources Go Beyond is looking at coming up with three IPS this financial year. The first one is a Horror Short Film Festival slated for May 2017 in Mumbai.

  • NavinTheeng has joined Havas Worldwide as Executive Creative Director, Gurgaon

    NavinTheeng has joined Havas Worldwide as Executive Creative Director, Gurgaon

    MUMBAI: NavinTheeng has joined Havas Worldwide as Executive Creative Director, Gurgaon. He moves from Cheil Worldwide, Gurgaon where he was Group Creative Director leading a team handling Samsung mobiles, televisions and home appliances besides other business. Navin replaces the erstwhile ECD team of Nakul Sharma and TirthaGhosh.

    “At Havas, we are working towards not just blurring the line between digital and traditional creative but completely erasing it. And a creative leader who is comfortable with and excited by both is what we needed. I think we have found that person in Navin”, said Nima DT Namchu, Chief Creative Officer, Havas Worldwide, India. Theeng will report to Namchu and will be responsible for digital and traditional creative output of Gurgaon office.

    Welcoming Navin aboard, Chief Executive Officer, NirmalyaSen said – “Navin’s appointment is a part of our further strengthening of our already robust offering in Gurgaon. Navin brings with him not just an impressive track record as a creative mind, but also a reputation for leading his team to creative excellence. I wish him great success with Havas Worldwide.”

    “It’s a bit of a homecoming”, said Theeng. This is his second stint at the agency after a fairly long first stint. “But other than that, everything has changed. Technology was a bit of a bugbear 10 years back, but now the possibilities are endless. You can expect to see more technology-infused ideas coming from Havas.”

    In the 18 years he has been in the industry, Navin has worked with Bates, McCann Erickson, Euro RSCG, Rediffusion DY&R, Contract and Cheil handling brands across categories such as consumer durables, colas, airlines, mobile phones, liquor, real estate and sports.

    Along the way, he has won accolades at Cannes, The One Show, New York Festival, Spikes Asia and Goafest Abbys with quite a few of the wins in the ‘Integrated Category led by Digital’.