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Tag: McCann Erickson

  • 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’.

  • PNB MetLife gives a light hearted touch to ‘life insurance’ with LifeMeinTwist

    PNB MetLife gives a light hearted touch to ‘life insurance’ with LifeMeinTwist

    MUMBAI: In a country where life insurance is mostly either brushed off as a retired man’s business, or drill to get over with, or at the most, an investment tool, it becomes increasingly difficult for brands in financial services category to come forth and deliver an engaging campaign that doesn’t speak of ‘returns’, ‘services’ or ‘ease of claim settlement.’ To steer away from this clutter and make a unique brand positioning, PNB Metlife has launched their new campaign LifeMienTwist, which takes a light hearted take on the otherwise sombre topic of life insurance.

    Conceptualised by McCann Erickson and produced by Razorblade Films, with director Anwar Sayed behind the lense, the new campaign is digitally enhanced and rides on the success of its previous digital campaigns, #HappinessBuddy and #HealthForHappiness.

    PNB MetLife India strategy marketing and products director Niraj Shah said, “The objective with this digital-only film is to try and communicate our core proposition of trying to address situations where due to uncertainties life can come to a standstill or change from here on. In our case situations could be death, deterioration of health, or milestones such as retirement. We wanted to send home the message in a manner which is not very morose or serious. We wanted to communicate it effectively but not too seriously.”

    Though a shift from the band’s usual tone of brand communication, PNB Metlife took the decision to trial a completely different take on the treatment of the campaign after going through several consumer insights surveys and analysis. Using its social media touch points as a two way communication the brand gathered that consumers tend to engage with a serious subject like ‘life insurance’ with either heavy emotions or with laughter and fun, and are not concerned about mundane specifications and details of the product.

    The #LifeMeinTwist film opens with a couple and their son walking around in a street fair and their son drags them to watch a local magic show. The magician tries to attract a larger crowd by claiming to showcase his magical prowess of transforming a human being into a pigeon and subsequently turning it back. The magician’s assistant, who is a young boy, drags the reluctant man as a volunteer. The magician transforms the man into a pigeon. Unfortunately due to a background noise of balloon bursting, the pigeon flies off before the magician can transform him again. The film ends with a message that anything can happen in life at any time and it always better to be prepared.

    Through this film, the brand wants consumers to recognize the need for insurance to protect themselves and their families as ‘anything can happen in life’. While consumers are aware of this, they don’t want to even think that something unfortunate can happen to them.

    Keeping that in mind the phrase, ‘Life Mein Twist’ was singled out as the campaign message as it easy to relate to in a general situation, without preaching of preparedness for sudden death or accidents.

    Staying in tune with its core marketing strategy, for this campaign as well the brand has taken a digital first approach. Needless to say the bulk of the campaign’s marketing budget is also inclined heavily towards digital.

    On the digital only approach, Shah added, “We consciously tried to look at changing preferences of our consumer base of today and tomorrow. A lot of people are approaching viewership in a different way. If we look at data, a third of our population is already using the internet. We wanted to test our hypothesis and roll out a digital-only campaign and check our reach. We’ve done this in the past too, and the feedback we received was good. Digital allows instant feedback which allows us to react to it quicker and then put in a response.”

    The campaign will be first rolled out digitally followed by a spot on television, though the brand will follow up with regular consumer engagement activities on social media based on this campaign.

  • PNB MetLife gives a light hearted touch to ‘life insurance’ with LifeMeinTwist

    PNB MetLife gives a light hearted touch to ‘life insurance’ with LifeMeinTwist

    MUMBAI: In a country where life insurance is mostly either brushed off as a retired man’s business, or drill to get over with, or at the most, an investment tool, it becomes increasingly difficult for brands in financial services category to come forth and deliver an engaging campaign that doesn’t speak of ‘returns’, ‘services’ or ‘ease of claim settlement.’ To steer away from this clutter and make a unique brand positioning, PNB Metlife has launched their new campaign LifeMienTwist, which takes a light hearted take on the otherwise sombre topic of life insurance.

    Conceptualised by McCann Erickson and produced by Razorblade Films, with director Anwar Sayed behind the lense, the new campaign is digitally enhanced and rides on the success of its previous digital campaigns, #HappinessBuddy and #HealthForHappiness.

    PNB MetLife India strategy marketing and products director Niraj Shah said, “The objective with this digital-only film is to try and communicate our core proposition of trying to address situations where due to uncertainties life can come to a standstill or change from here on. In our case situations could be death, deterioration of health, or milestones such as retirement. We wanted to send home the message in a manner which is not very morose or serious. We wanted to communicate it effectively but not too seriously.”

    Though a shift from the band’s usual tone of brand communication, PNB Metlife took the decision to trial a completely different take on the treatment of the campaign after going through several consumer insights surveys and analysis. Using its social media touch points as a two way communication the brand gathered that consumers tend to engage with a serious subject like ‘life insurance’ with either heavy emotions or with laughter and fun, and are not concerned about mundane specifications and details of the product.

    The #LifeMeinTwist film opens with a couple and their son walking around in a street fair and their son drags them to watch a local magic show. The magician tries to attract a larger crowd by claiming to showcase his magical prowess of transforming a human being into a pigeon and subsequently turning it back. The magician’s assistant, who is a young boy, drags the reluctant man as a volunteer. The magician transforms the man into a pigeon. Unfortunately due to a background noise of balloon bursting, the pigeon flies off before the magician can transform him again. The film ends with a message that anything can happen in life at any time and it always better to be prepared.

    Through this film, the brand wants consumers to recognize the need for insurance to protect themselves and their families as ‘anything can happen in life’. While consumers are aware of this, they don’t want to even think that something unfortunate can happen to them.

    Keeping that in mind the phrase, ‘Life Mein Twist’ was singled out as the campaign message as it easy to relate to in a general situation, without preaching of preparedness for sudden death or accidents.

    Staying in tune with its core marketing strategy, for this campaign as well the brand has taken a digital first approach. Needless to say the bulk of the campaign’s marketing budget is also inclined heavily towards digital.

    On the digital only approach, Shah added, “We consciously tried to look at changing preferences of our consumer base of today and tomorrow. A lot of people are approaching viewership in a different way. If we look at data, a third of our population is already using the internet. We wanted to test our hypothesis and roll out a digital-only campaign and check our reach. We’ve done this in the past too, and the feedback we received was good. Digital allows instant feedback which allows us to react to it quicker and then put in a response.”

    The campaign will be first rolled out digitally followed by a spot on television, though the brand will follow up with regular consumer engagement activities on social media based on this campaign.

  • Dheeraj Sinha is Leo Burnett South Asia chief strategy officer

    Dheeraj Sinha is Leo Burnett South Asia chief strategy officer

    MUMBAI: Leo Burnett announced the appointment of Dheeraj Sinha as chief strategy officer. Sinha will be based out of the agency’s Mumbai office and will be responsible for planning across South Asia.

    Confirming the development, South Asia chief executive officer Saurabh Varma  said, “We are really excited that Dheeraj is joining us at this critical juncture in our evolution as an agency. We have incredible momentum as a team and both Raj and I were in the hunt for a partner. We wanted someone who can join us in our crusade to change the communication narrative in India. With Dheeraj, we hope to get radical convergence around our purpose and radical divergence around how to get there.” 

    On his joining, Sinha commented, “There’s great energy around Leo Burnett in India, and I am looking forward to be a part of it and adding to the momentum. In my conversations with Saurabh and Raj, what stands out is their commitment to the product and culture, leading to growth, rather than the other way round. There’s also a serious ambition to create work that’s in line with how the world has changed. They have evidence of having done such work in the recent past. I see this as an opportunity to collaborate and build something that we can all be proud of.”
    In a career spanning 17 years, Dheeraj has worked with McCann Erickson, Euro RSCG, Bates and Grey. In his last role, he led the strategic planning function for Grey in India, South & South East Asia.

    Sinha has worked on brands and businesses across markets such as Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and Bangladesh. He has spent time across categories on brands like Sensodyne, Indian Army, Britannia, 3M, ITC Juices, Maybank, Telekom Malaysia, Grameenphone, Reliance Mobile, Colgate, MasterCard, LG, DBS Bank, Tata AIA, TVS, Virgin Mobile, Max Bupa, Fiat, Reckitt Benckiser, Emirates, Dabur, Marico and CavinKare. 

    Dheeraj is the author of two books on the Indian consumer market:  “India Reloaded – Inside the Resurgent Indian Consumer Market” and “Consumer India – Inside the Indian Mind and Wallet”.

  • Dheeraj Sinha is Leo Burnett South Asia chief strategy officer

    Dheeraj Sinha is Leo Burnett South Asia chief strategy officer

    MUMBAI: Leo Burnett announced the appointment of Dheeraj Sinha as chief strategy officer. Sinha will be based out of the agency’s Mumbai office and will be responsible for planning across South Asia.

    Confirming the development, South Asia chief executive officer Saurabh Varma  said, “We are really excited that Dheeraj is joining us at this critical juncture in our evolution as an agency. We have incredible momentum as a team and both Raj and I were in the hunt for a partner. We wanted someone who can join us in our crusade to change the communication narrative in India. With Dheeraj, we hope to get radical convergence around our purpose and radical divergence around how to get there.” 

    On his joining, Sinha commented, “There’s great energy around Leo Burnett in India, and I am looking forward to be a part of it and adding to the momentum. In my conversations with Saurabh and Raj, what stands out is their commitment to the product and culture, leading to growth, rather than the other way round. There’s also a serious ambition to create work that’s in line with how the world has changed. They have evidence of having done such work in the recent past. I see this as an opportunity to collaborate and build something that we can all be proud of.”
    In a career spanning 17 years, Dheeraj has worked with McCann Erickson, Euro RSCG, Bates and Grey. In his last role, he led the strategic planning function for Grey in India, South & South East Asia.

    Sinha has worked on brands and businesses across markets such as Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and Bangladesh. He has spent time across categories on brands like Sensodyne, Indian Army, Britannia, 3M, ITC Juices, Maybank, Telekom Malaysia, Grameenphone, Reliance Mobile, Colgate, MasterCard, LG, DBS Bank, Tata AIA, TVS, Virgin Mobile, Max Bupa, Fiat, Reckitt Benckiser, Emirates, Dabur, Marico and CavinKare. 

    Dheeraj is the author of two books on the Indian consumer market:  “India Reloaded – Inside the Resurgent Indian Consumer Market” and “Consumer India – Inside the Indian Mind and Wallet”.

  • The Social Street names Deepak Singh as chief creative officer

    The Social Street names Deepak Singh as chief creative officer

    MUMBAI: Media agency start up The Social Street has appointed Deepak Singh as its chief creative officer. He will be based out of Mumbai and will report to Social Street founding partner and chairman Pratap Bose.

     

    Bose said, “I am thrilled that Deepak is joining us! Deepak is one of the most decorated art directors and one of the finest art talents we have in our country. Easy-going, light-hearted and humble to the core, he’s proof that looks can be deceiving. Because deep beneath that unassuming persona lies a hunger to keep raising the bar, only to topple it over. I wish him the very best and look forward to seeing some path breaking creativity from him!”

     

    Singh added, “I feel advertising now is much more than just TVCs, print and radio. That’s why with time we should change and try to explore bigger things. Pratap has a clear vision about his plans for The Social Street and knows why he was hiring me, which gives me more confidence. I think the next generation of advertising is much more than mainline advertising and that is what attracts me to shift, and I feel I can do more challenging things now. Digital, outdoor, interactive, activation makes advertising much bigger and more interesting. I am really looking forward to do some great work for The Social Street. My mainline experience will bring new solutions to clients’ problems.”

     

    In his 15 years of professional pursuits, Singh has over 400 national and international awards to his name and has worked with agencies like Leo Burnett, Grey Worldwide, McCann Erickson, DDB Mudra and Dentsu. 

     

    “I really enjoyed working with Bose at DDB in the past and I am very fond of his humble and simple nature and way of looking at things. I always wanted to work with him in the future and I am happy he chose me for this position. I know there are a lot of challenges and learning for me, but I think this partnership with Social Street will add a new dimension to my career,” Singh added.

  • Madison Media Plus appoints Anita Bose as COO

    Madison Media Plus appoints Anita Bose as COO

    MUMBAI: Madison Media Plus has appointed Anita Bose as chief operating officer. Bose will be responsible for driving the agency’s Delhi office.

     

    Madison Media and OOH group CEO Vikram Sakhuja said, “Today, business cycles have shortened, brand plans are more fluid, and the media environment is in a much greater flux. A person like Anita has the unique skills to lend stability to chaos. I look forward to Madison Media Plus rising to new heights under her leadership.”

     

    “It is an honour to be associated with Madison Media and work with accomplished industry veterans like Vikram Sakhuja and Sam Balsara, together. I am looking forward to empower the Delhi team so that we become an unbeatable winning team – committed & united, driven by client & industry needs – known to provide services that set industry standards,” added Bose.

     

    Prior to joining Madison Media Plus, Bose spent 13 years at WPP and GroupM agencies like Mindshare as business director, Team LG and MEC North as general manager. She has also had stints with agencies like Starcom MediaVest, FCB Ulka and McCann Erickson.

     

  • ‘Goafest 2016 to be more inclusive:’ Raj Nayak

    ‘Goafest 2016 to be more inclusive:’ Raj Nayak

    MUMBAI: “Bigger, better and far more inclusive,” is what The Advertising Club president Raj Nayak envisions Goafest 2016 to be. 

     

    To meet this goal for the upcoming 11th edition of the advertising festival, it is essential that Goafest 2016 gets complete participation from all stakeholders, clients and agencies. But with how things stand at present, will the “people’s person” Raj Nayak be able to pull it off?

     

    It’s no secret that industry heavyweights have deliberately refrained from attending the Creative Abby for the last few consecutive years. Whether their reasons — varying from Abby not being aspirational enough to disagreements on the shortlisting process — are valid or not, the continued absence of some of the top creative agencies such as Ogilvy & Mather, McCann Erickson, Leo Burnett and Lowe Lintas has dampened the spirit of the festival to a great extent. The festival has also lost the title of being a wholesome representation of the industry.

     

    All eyes are now on the new Ad Club president and current Goafest Organising Committee to successfully unite the industry and present an ad festival that truly reflects the industry as one unit.

     

    “A few members of the organising committee and I will be personally reaching out to the respective heads of the concerned advertising agencies and ask them to participate. We will implore them to share their reasons for keeping away from Goafest for the last few years. We are open to discuss their grievances. If it’s in our power to address such grievances to ensure their participation this year, we will be the happiest,” reassures Nayak. 

     

    Having said that, The Ad Club prez adds that the committee will be powerless if the condition of getting the aforementioned agencies is to ensure their dominating presence in the winners list. That being said, the current Goafest Organising Committee led by chairman – Publicis South Asia CEO Nakul Chopra, is making an active effort to ensure that Goafest 2016 is more inclusive.

     

    Agency participation is also driven to a great extent by participation of their clients in the festival. However, in the last few editions, Goafest has seen a dearth of representation from the advertisers, with the previous year witnessing an all time low. “We have a strategy in place and have taken new initiatives to get more representation from the advertisers. Although we don’t guarantee anything, but one can expect a steady rise in the number of chief marketing officers of top brands in the country attending the festival this year,” Chopra points out.

     

    While Goafest remains at its core a way to educate and inspire young advertising enthusiasts, the growing number of youngsters feel that the Abby is losing its aspirational value. Many from the industry blame the increased number of award ceremonies as being the reason behind it.

     

    Addressing the issue, Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) president Ambi M G Parameshwaran says, “With advertisement becoming more segmented and specialised and more streams coming into it, it is the need of the hour to recognise excellence in the various categories, such as digital. And I think the young blood in the industry understands this more than us, and appreciates us considering all the avenues of advertising instead of restricting us to core media. We have been taking several initiatives to make the festival more engaging for the younger generation. Have we achieved something? Yes. Can we do more? Absolutely.”

     

    When it comes to the content of the sessions and line up of speakers, the last few editions of Goafest haven’t been up to industry standards. Acknowledging the need to strengthen the festival’s speaker line up, Nayak adds, “For an organiser, it is a matter of pride that an event is lauded for its content. We thrive for it. If previous few years have disappointed the industry in its choice of speakers for the sessions at Goafest, this year our effort is to deliver higher standard of content. Keeping that in mind, we have put together a separate team, which is working to present a powerful line of speakers this year. We are also looking to invite speakers from a variety of industry. Whether it’s the tech startups, entrepreneurs or the torch bearers of the digital sphere — we are open to suggestions from the industry on who they want to listen to, or who the current generation finds engaging.”

  • MSM strengthens Sony team with four top-level hires

    MSM strengthens Sony team with four top-level hires

    MUMBAI: In an attempt to strengthen its team and galvanise renewed energy into its flagship channel Sony Entertainment Television (SET), Multi Screen Media (MSM) has made four top level appointments.

     

    The company has appointed Danish Khan as EVP & business head for Sony Entertainment Television. He steps into the shoes of erstwhile business head Nachiket Pantvaidya. Khan was previously programming head at Star Plus.

     

    Additionally, as a part of Khan’s core team, the company has made three new appointments. Anup Vishwanathan has been named as SVP and head marketing, Anshuman Sinha has come on board as SVP and senior creative director, whereas Ritesh Modi has been appointed as VP and creative director. The trio alongside Khan will be working with a battery of seasoned professionals at MSM. 

     

    As the man at the helm for SET, Khan will be driving the overall business of the channel including its objectives of channel growth, viewership and developing innovative revenue opportunities. Khan has earlier spent ten years in MSM in various marketing roles.

     

    In his new role, Vishwanathan will be working closely with Khan to amplify and support efforts towards the growth of SET and to substantiate the brand equity for the channel, primarily with its viewership base. 

     

    During the course of his work across various advertising agencies such as Leo Burnett, Mudra Communications and McCann Erickson, Vishwanathan has earlier serviced the SET portfolio from the agency side, for six years. He moves from Times Network where he was marketing head of the English Movie cluster.

     

    On the other hand, Sinha comes to MSM with 17 years of work experience. His forte lies in synergising consumer sentiment with progressive content. Sinha will join forces with Modi in charting a new creative course for SET. Modi, who has 18 years of working life behind him, specialises in non-fiction reality show formats and has a deep understanding of regional markets.

     

    MSM chief executive officer NP Singh said, “Given rising industry competitiveness coupled with a steady surge of growing audience expectations, innovation has become the key to success and growth. It is imperative that consumer insights dictate a channel’s look and feel as well as programming.”

     

    “The new team is not only seasoned and versatile but also willing to go the extra mile to ensure that consumer choice becomes the key to new offerings from SET – the flagship channel of MSM. This new team is committed to writing the next chapter of our growth story and they have my full support,” he added.

  • Vivek Rao joins L&K Saatchi & Saatchi as chief creative officer – North

    Vivek Rao joins L&K Saatchi & Saatchi as chief creative officer – North

    MUMBAI: L&K Saatchi & Saatchi has appointed Vivek Rao as its chief creative officer – North. 

    Rao is armed with 15 years of experience working with global marketing communications companies and driving growth for global and local brands.

     

    L & K Saatchi & Saatchi CEO and managing partner Anil S Nair said, “Vivek is not just a fantastic creative talent but an inspiring leader, who carries his team along with him to glory. He is an absolute team player and therefore a fantastic fit with our culture. We are very excited to have him on board and are looking forward to his positive contribution towards our creative profile and ambition.”

     

    Rao added, “Having worked with stalwarts like Prasoon Joshi, Pops, Agnello Dias, Nitesh Tiwari, Ashish Khazanchi, Prasanna Sankhe & Satbir Singh over the years, I was keen to apply and use all that I’ve learnt in a place that’s growing at a furious pace. Praveen Kenneth, Anil Nair and the core team have done a magnificent job in creating L&K into an incredible force, add Saatchi & Saatchi’s global might to that and you can see why it’s a place that’s hitting top gear right now.”

     

    He further said, “The dynamics of communication has changed and yet, the basics still remain the same. Solid ideas, simplicity of storytelling will always be the way for brands to connect with consumers. The good part is that clients are extremely keen to reach out to consumers in ways that aren’t necessarily from expected quarters. Praveen and Anil have a clear picture about the way ahead and my role will be to ensure that from a creative perspective we hit the right notes for our clients. The canvas is much wider now and the ride is bound to be fast and enjoyable.”

     

    Over the years, Rao has worked with agency networks like McCann Erickson, Leo Burnett, Contract Advertising, Publicis Ambience and Havas Worldwide.