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Tag: MEC

  • Digital media veteran climbs WPP ladder in Indonesia’s booming ad market

    Digital media veteran climbs WPP ladder in Indonesia’s booming ad market

    JAKARTA: WPP Media has promoted Mohit Sharma to president of client solutions, elevating a digital media specialist who has spent nearly three years navigating Indonesia’s rapidly evolving advertising landscape.

    Sharma’s ascent reflects the growing strategic importance of southeast Asia’s largest economy for global advertising conglomerates. Indonesia’s digital advertising market has exploded in recent years, driven by rising smartphone penetration and the dominance of platforms like TikTok and Instagram among the country’s 270m inhabitants.

    Since joining WPP Media in October 2022, Sharma has led the Beauty Tech Labs unit, overseeing a 120-person team delivering integrated media solutions spanning traditional planning, performance marketing, e-commerce and influencer communications. His primary client has been L’Oréal, the French cosmetics giant that has made Indonesia a key battleground in its Asian expansion strategy.

    The appointment caps a career trajectory that mirrors Indonesia’s digital transformation. Sharma spent nearly eight years at MEC (now part of GroupM) in India before moving to Essence and then MediaCom, where he served as partner and head of digital and e-commerce for the Indonesian operation.

    His promotion comes as western advertising agencies grapple with shifting client demands and the rise of local competitors across southeast Asia. Traditional agencies have struggled to adapt to the region’s unique social commerce ecosystems, where platforms like Shopee and TikTok Shop blur the lines between entertainment, social networking and retail.

    Sharma’s expertise in e-commerce integration may prove crucial as brands increasingly demand seamless pathways from awareness to purchase. Indonesia’s social commerce market is projected to reach $43 billion by 2025, according to consulting firm Bain & Company, making it a critical testing ground for advertising strategies.

    The move also signals WPP’s confidence in its Indonesian operations at a time when many multinational corporations are reassessing their Southeast Asian strategies amid economic uncertainties and regulatory changes. Indonesia’s advertising market, worth approximately $4.2 billion annually, remains one of the region’s most attractive despite periodic challenges from currency volatility and political shifts.

    For Sharma, the promotion represents validation of a bet on Indonesia’s long-term growth potential. His focus on data-driven strategies and digital-first approaches has aligned with local market dynamics, where mobile-first consumers have largely bypassed traditional desktop experiences.

    Whether his success can be replicated across WPP’s broader southeast Asian operations remains to be seen. The region’s fragmented markets, diverse regulatory environments and varying levels of digital maturity present ongoing challenges for global agencies seeking scalable solutions.

    Yet Indonesia’s importance to WPP’s Asian growth strategy seems assured. With the country’s advertising market expected to grow by 8-10 per cent annually over the next three years, elevating local expertise makes strategic sense—even if it means promoting from within rather than importing talent from established markets.

  • Ajay Gupte talks about the fabulous three years of Wavemaker India

    Ajay Gupte talks about the fabulous three years of Wavemaker India

    NEW DELHI: It has been three years since two very successful agencies called MEC and Maxus merged to give birth to Wavemaker India. The fledgling venture from the house of WPP’s GroupM already enjoys a market share of anywhere between 12 and 15 per cent, as per reports. Boasting valuable clients like Vi, Mother Dairy, Mondelez, ITC, and Supr Daily, to name a few, the agency has made great strides in seemingly no time at all. As the agency celebrates its third anniversary today in India, Wavemaker South Asia CEO Ajay Gupte, who took over from Kartik Sharma earlier this year, talks to Mansi Sharma from Indiantelevision.com about the journey thus far, their future growth plans, and how 2020 has made Wavemaker a more tight-knit and hands-on family. Edited excerpts follow.

    On three-years of Wavemaker

    Wavemaker, in many ways, is a very special and unique agency because it happens very rarely that you get this opportunity to take two powerhouses and merge them to create something massive. Combining MEC and Maxus gave us the ability to invest in many things that we believed in and understood will be important for the future. With our combined strengths, we invested in data, tools, digital, programmatic, etc. and that really helped us in creating a strong bond with our clients. All these investments also helped us greatly in managing our business through this tough time of the pandemic.

    On the challenging year 2020

    2020 has been a massive experience for all of us in many ways. But for the agency, it came as a big opportunity to utilise and promote the many investments we made in the previous two years – be it in the data and analytics space, influencer capabilities, the effectiveness labs, etc, and give our clients the best services possible.

    On the team-level, we have gotten much more closer and understanding of each other. Earlier, our teams in various states could manage to meet once or twice a year, but now we are having at least two meetings every week. We are thinking about the future, the challenges, and how we can improve on our offerings. We also managed to do some amazing work for our clients, especially in the content space.

    On the new leadership panel

    I am very blessed to have such a phenomenal team here in India. The recent shifts in roles and promotions have only made it better for us. Premjeet (Sodhi) is an industry stalwart and getting him on board has added so much depth and intelligence to our work. Kishan Kumar has been with us for 17 years and he is extremely innovative. Mac Machiach is a fabulous resource for client relationships and I am very confident of him handling our one of the most valuable accounts of ITC. I am very proud of Sandeep (Pandey) who has now taken up a global leadership role. The best part is that he is based in India, so we can always approach him to help the teams.

    On his vision for future

    I am positive that 2021 is going to be very positive for us. I see it as a massive opportunity. We, therefore, want to strengthen our capabilities and investments in the data, content, and influencer capabilities. Our tools, analytics, and strategies are only going to be sharper.

    From a work culture perspective, it is definitely on our agenda to make Wavemaker India an inclusive workplace with gender ratios balanced. In fact, it is a wider WPP agenda that we are very seriously following to adopt here as well. We are taking small steps by making women feel more empowered and comfortable in the workplace, giving them much-needed respite when it comes to maternity or family roles. I am not saying that we are perfect, but we definitely are making strides in the right direction, towards becoming a good workplace for people of all sexualities and socio-cultural and economic backgrounds.

  • GroupM’s Wavemaker launches India biz

    GroupM’s Wavemaker launches India biz

    MUMBAI: Wavemaker, GroupM’s new billion-dollar revenue, media, content and technology agency created from the merger of MEC and Maxus has opened its business in India.

    Wavemaker India will open with a team of 700+ professionals, lead by the recently announced new managing director Kartik Sharma and will serve a portfolio of clients including FMCG giant ITC and L’Oréal.

    Wavemaker India will be headquartered in Mumbai with offices in Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai, Thrissur and Cochin.

    Wavemaker India managing director of South Asia Kartik Sharma says, “I am excited as Wavemaker officially starts operations in India. All our people, processes and technology are united through our focus on understanding, accelerating and optimising purchase journeys; making them more satisfying for consumers and more effective for our clients.”

  • WPP’s merged MEC and Maxus entity to be called Wavemaker

    WPP’s merged MEC and Maxus entity to be called Wavemaker

    MUMBAI: The new billion-dollar revenue, media, content and technology agency to be created from the merger of MEC and Maxus will be named ‘Wavemaker.’

    The brand, along with a new visual identity, will go live locally as the merger completes in each country, to be finalised by January 2018. Wavemaker will have offices in 90 countries and over 8,500 employees. Major global clients include L’Oreal, Vodafone, Marriott, Colgate-Palmolive and Paramount.

    Making waves happens when media, content and technology come together – activating against our unrivalled purchase journey understanding for the clients we represent.

    The brand mark Wavemaker reflects the agency’s heritage, born from WPP and GroupM.

    MEC and Wavemaker’s global CEO Tim Castree, said: “Our purpose is to provide advertisers with the power to transform and grow their business through our Purchase Journey obsession; and importantly to do this through the integration of Purchase Journey insights and data with [m]PLATFORM, GroupM’s proprietary global audience technology. Our Wavemaker brand and positioning is a compelling manifestation of that purpose.”

    GroupM global CEO Kelly Clark added: “Wavemaker is an exciting new global agency brand with a powerful proposition for clients. Tim and his team have the full support of GroupM’s scale, resources and expertise.”

  • GroupM cos Maxus & MEC merged into new global network, digital-first media services expanded

    MUMBAI: GroupM, the world’s leading media investment group, has announced a portfolio restructure to improve service and delivery to clients.

    GroupM is committing to the expansion of Essence, its digital-first agency, by adding traditional media capabilities and a larger geographic footprint to the agency’s existing media and creative credentials. In time, Essence will also lead several key GroupM client relationships as part of this restructure.

    GroupM is also merging the global operations and teams of its agencies MEC and Maxus into a new, billion dollar revenue, media, content and technology agency under the leadership of MEC’s CEO Tim Castree.

    Maxus will continue to operate as an agency brand in India with the support of the newly formed global agency as well as the GroupM network.

    GroupM’s portfolio will now comprise three successful global media agency networks — Mindshare, MediaCom, and the new company – each with more than one billion dollars in annual revenues, plus an innovative digital-first agency, Essence. GroupM also plans new investments across all of its agencies and its [m]PLATFORM data and technology capabilities.

    “We’re committed to improving our service to clients. These moves will give us greater focus, help us innovate, and improve our speed of delivery,” said Kelly Clark, Global CEO, GroupM.

    Since Clark became global CEO in October 2016, GroupM has made a number of organizational changes. Clark recently appointed Lindsay Pattison as GroupM’s Chief Transformation Officer to lead a range of transformation initiatives. GroupM acquired Essence in November 2015.

    “The leadership team at Essence is excited about the opportunities this creates for our clients and our people,” said Christian Juhl, CEO, Essence. “Our mission is to make advertising more valuable to the world; with this infusion of talent, capabilities and markets, we can do this now on a bigger stage.” Clark named Castree CEO of MEC in November 2016.

    “Maxus and MEC share common values and ambitions. Both networks have a strong local market presence and entrepreneurial drive. Together, we believe we can create an exciting new media, content and technology agency which we look forward to introducing soon,” said Castree.

    “We’ve clearly signaled our ambition to transform, and we mean business,” said Pattison. “This allows us to more meaningfully invest in each agency’s future – retaining and attracting the best talent with inspiring and rewarding workplaces, creating differentiated cultures and approaches, and sharing in a focus on helping clients win.”

  • MEC India to handle Vistaprint media duties

    MEC India to handle Vistaprint media duties

    MUMBAI: MEC India, a leading media agency, has been awarded with the media duties for Vistaprint. The account will be handled by MEC’s Mumbai branch.

    Vistaprint is a brand from the house of Cimpress, a company based in the Netherlands, which started operations in India four years ago. A leading printing solutions expert globally, Vistaprint India maintains the same world class standards of quality & customer service.

    MEC India General Manager – West Mukti Kumaran said, “We are excited about extending our footprint in the e-commerce space. Online printing is an exciting category and is poised to take off in a big way in India. We look forward to a mutually fulfilling partnership.”

    Vistaprint Bharath CMO Bharath Sastry said, “With MEC’s proven track record on e-commerce brands, we are assured that they will create relevant campaigns that will strengthen our business in India.”

  • MEC India to handle Vistaprint media duties

    MEC India to handle Vistaprint media duties

    MUMBAI: MEC India, a leading media agency, has been awarded with the media duties for Vistaprint. The account will be handled by MEC’s Mumbai branch.

    Vistaprint is a brand from the house of Cimpress, a company based in the Netherlands, which started operations in India four years ago. A leading printing solutions expert globally, Vistaprint India maintains the same world class standards of quality & customer service.

    MEC India General Manager – West Mukti Kumaran said, “We are excited about extending our footprint in the e-commerce space. Online printing is an exciting category and is poised to take off in a big way in India. We look forward to a mutually fulfilling partnership.”

    Vistaprint Bharath CMO Bharath Sastry said, “With MEC’s proven track record on e-commerce brands, we are assured that they will create relevant campaigns that will strengthen our business in India.”

  • Gurpreet Wadhwa is MEC Vietnam’s Head of Digital

    Gurpreet Wadhwa is MEC Vietnam’s Head of Digital

    MUMBAI : MEC has appointed Gurpreet Wadhwa as the new Head of Digital of their Vietnam office.

    In his new role, Gurpreet Wadhwa’s main focus will be leading the digital team in developing the core digital strength of the agency and bring new thinking and capability to the fast growing MEC Vietnam. Gurpreet Wadhwa has more than eight years of experience working on the forefront of digital transformation and this experience makes him the right person to further fuel MEC’s digital expansion in the dynamic Vietnam market.

    Gurpreet Wadhwa will be reporting to MEC Vietnam MD Arup Bansal,who commented: “This is an investment into our digital expertise and growing client portfolio. We are committed to add depth to the dynamic digital conversations with a seasoned communication professional like Gurpreet in the lead.”

    Speaking on his appointment, Wadhwa said, “I am very excited to join MEC Vietnam, one of the fastest growing agencies in the country. Vietnam as a market is full of opportunities and challenges and I am looking forward to contribute to making MEC Vietnam a stronger partner for its clients.”

  • Gurpreet Wadhwa is MEC Vietnam’s Head of Digital

    Gurpreet Wadhwa is MEC Vietnam’s Head of Digital

    MUMBAI : MEC has appointed Gurpreet Wadhwa as the new Head of Digital of their Vietnam office.

    In his new role, Gurpreet Wadhwa’s main focus will be leading the digital team in developing the core digital strength of the agency and bring new thinking and capability to the fast growing MEC Vietnam. Gurpreet Wadhwa has more than eight years of experience working on the forefront of digital transformation and this experience makes him the right person to further fuel MEC’s digital expansion in the dynamic Vietnam market.

    Gurpreet Wadhwa will be reporting to MEC Vietnam MD Arup Bansal,who commented: “This is an investment into our digital expertise and growing client portfolio. We are committed to add depth to the dynamic digital conversations with a seasoned communication professional like Gurpreet in the lead.”

    Speaking on his appointment, Wadhwa said, “I am very excited to join MEC Vietnam, one of the fastest growing agencies in the country. Vietnam as a market is full of opportunities and challenges and I am looking forward to contribute to making MEC Vietnam a stronger partner for its clients.”

  • MEC launches MEC Touchpoints

    MEC launches MEC Touchpoints

    MUMBAI: MEC, a global media agency has launched MEC Touchpoints, a tool that builds on MEC’s knowledge of the consumer purchase journey combined with global media-survey data from the recently launched GroupM LIVE Panel.

    MEC Touchpoints is built around the Active and Passive stages of the purchase journey, as defined by MEC Momentum, the agency’s proprietary approach to understanding and quantifying how consumers make purchase decisions. Combining the strategic framework of MEC Momentum with data from LIVE Panel, GroupM’s global survey of media and consumer insights, MEC Touchpoints identifies the communication touchpoints that are most valuable to a brand, across any one of 15 categories in 30 countries.

    In contrast to the common assumption that there are general rules about which touchpoints perform particular roles regardless of category, MEC Momentum studies reveal that touchpoint influence is category-specific. Even within a single category, touchpoints play different roles for the same consumer, depending on where they are on the purchase journey. With the launch of MEC Touchpoints, MEC puts these findings to use to help brands determine which exact touchpoints will have the greatest influence over consumers at different stages of the purchase journey, and which present the best opportunity for growth.

    Commenting on the launch, MEC Chief Analytics and Insight Officer Stephan Bruneau, said, “All of our clients face exactly the same challenge: how can they create brand growth that outpaces their competitors? MEC Touchpoints gives us an immediate read on understanding our clients’ business, allowing us to create strategies and ideas that cut through the noise.”

    MEC Touchpoints is powered by data from LIVE Panel, GroupM’s consumer panel built from Lightspeed GMI’s global panel of 5.5m consumers.