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Tag: Nirvik Singh

  • GREY Group merges with Autumn Grey

    GREY Group merges with Autumn Grey

    MUMBAI: GREY, one of India’s leading creative agencies has merged with AutumnGrey – a digital/data companies. The company has announced a new structure and go to market strategy in India. Autumn Grey CEO Anusha Shetty, a digital-first leader & trailblazer, has been appointed as GREY Group India’s chairman & group CEO. 

    Shetty is known for her relentless passion in developing and driving client business. Under her leadership, Autumn Grey has delivered several ground-breaking and award-winning online and digital campaigns that have firmly established Autumn Grey as one of India’s premier digital agencies. Her leadership and management skills, along with her digital knowledge are second to none.

    With more than 20 years of marketing and advertising experience, and a career spanning across India and Silicon Valley, Shetty has co-founded Autumn Worldwide, a hyper-specialised digital marketing firm with offerings such as digital creative outreach, big data listening & insights, business intelligence, online reputation management, command centre management, media planning and buying and technology development.

    Prior to this, Shetty has held progressive assignments in agencies like Lowe and Euro RSCG, working on multiple brands including Intel, Titan, Unilever, Honeywell, to name just a few.

    Shetty will work closely with Nirvik Singh to ensure a seamless transition of leadership as they combine the creative strength of GREY with data-driven digital solutions from Autumn Grey, to create a future-facing agency model and framework.

    Anusha Shetty said, “Convergence as a topic is not new. But to see this in action, driving value for our clients and our end consumers, is a dream for all of us. The breakdown of communication silos is the only way to create a future agency model and I am delighted to lead this journey with Sandipan.”

    “Anusha is one of those unique talents who possess a rare combination of digital & social media knowledge along with entrepreneurial flair & business acumen. She is a natural-born leader who along with her team will bring ideal digital, creative and business solutions to clients across various industries. I think with her wealth of experience, she is the right person to take the agency to the next level. This is very much a game-changing moment for GREY India,” said GREY Group global COO and GREY AMEA chairman & CEO Nirvik Singh.

    Sandipan Bhattacharyya who has been promoted as the GREY Group India’s managing director (MD) & chief creative officer (CCO), has led the agency to win multiple lions at Cannes, India’s first D&AD Yellow Pencil in Design, a grand prix and over a dozen metals at spikes, Adfest, one show and several Effies. In addition, he has played a major creative role in all of the agency’s big business wins.

    The newly created role of the creative leader as MD signals GREY’s vision of putting creative front and centre of its growth story. As MD & CCO of GREY India, Bhattacharyya will be responsible for driving GREY’s mandate of famously effective work to the next level.

    GREY’s creative work is rooted in pop culture and under his leadership GREY has launched some of the most iconic campaigns in the last decade.

    Bhattacharyya has more than 20 years of experience in advertising, prior to GREY he has worked at BBDO India, Enterprise Nexus and Saatchi & Saatchi.

    “Sandipan is extremely talented and has been instrumental in taking GREY’s creativity to a global level. His creative direction & storytelling expertise is a conversation starter and his campaigns are found in the middle of pop culture. With a dual approach of creative and digital working in unison, GREY is in the right place to create more ground-breaking, famously effective work for its clients,” said Nirvik Singh.

    Sandipan said, “It’s the perfect blend of creativity, technology and data that’s happening at GREY and I’m lucky to be leading in these exciting times. Anusha and I are both intensely creative beings who think of ideas as a business multiplier, and we’re cooking up a hot new sauce. Watch this space or better still, give us a call”

    GREY India current CEO Yashaswini Samat will be relocating to Singapore to take up a senior integrated role for WPP/GREY. She will continue to report to Singh.

  • NIRVIK SINGH PROMOTED TO GLOBAL COO ROLE AT GREY GROUP

    NIRVIK SINGH PROMOTED TO GLOBAL COO ROLE AT GREY GROUP

    Michael Houston, Worldwide CEO of GREY group, today announced the appointment of Nirvik Singh as Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Grey Group, a new global position.

    A thirty-year veteran of GREY group and having started his career in GREY India, Nirvik Singh has served as Chairman and CEO of Grey Group Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa since 2016, a post he will retain, headquartered in Singapore.

    As COO, Singh will lead the development of Grey's borderless integrated marketing model; identify acquisition targets and new capabilities to enhance the agency's best-in-class offering and build its future-facing digital, social, shopper marketing and design practices.

    "For three decades, Nirvik has been a prime mover in Grey's growth and development in Asia, and most recently, in the Middle East and Africa," Michael Houston said.  "I know he will bring the same single-minded dedication and achievement to his expanded responsibilities.  He will work closely with me to broaden our reach and resources for the future."

    Singh has played an instrumental role in forging the Grey network's comprehensive offering across the regions.  His trademark business acquisitions have strengthened Grey's presence earning him widespread recognition as the key accelerator of strategic growth in multiple countries including: India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, South Korea, Philippines, Thailand and Nigeria.  Together, with a first-class management team, he has built a culture of innovation with an award-winning creative and new business performance.

    "I am looking forward to implementing Grey's global strategic plans and working with diverse talents and teams from across the different regions.  We have seen success in pulling in our collective resources for our borderless strategy, which encompasses agility and seamless creativity," Nirvik Singh said.  

    He continued, "There are ample opportunities to leverage the agency's centers of excellence and promote collaboration across all our offices.  We are always thinking of how best to serve our clients, and I am excited and motivated to be a part of this journey."

  • Grey Group’s Nirvik Singh gets expanded role

    Grey Group’s Nirvik Singh gets expanded role

    MUMBAI: Grey Group Asia Pacific’s chairman and CEO Nirvik Singh has got an additional role. Additionally, Singh will also oversee the company’s business in the Middle East and Africa. In his newly elevated role, he will continue to work closely with Grey Group chairman and CEO Jim Heekin and Grey Group global president Michael Houston.

    Under his leadership, Grey Group APAC was featured among the leading communications networks and his trademark business acquisitions has been instrumental in the development of Grey’s digital and shopper offerings in the region. He has played a monumental role in the growth and development of the network’s comprehensive offerings across Asia.

    “Nirvik has been a prime mover in our dynamic growth and development in Asia. He has been relentless in building our geographic footprint with premier acquisitions, accelerating our offerings in a host of disciplines including digital and shopper and raising the creative bar. He has won every major professional award in Asia. I know he will bring the same single-minded dedication and achievement to his added responsibilities,” said Heekin.

    Singh is a 27-year industry veteran of the global advertising and marketing agency headquartered in New York City. His highly-regarded business acumen has led to numerous additions to Grey network including; RC&M (Rural Communications & Marketing services) in India, Yolk (Interactive & Digital media network) in Singapore, DPI (Shopper), Star Echo (Marketing Services) and ArtM (Integrated Communications) in China, Vinyl-I (Creative Digital agency) in South Korea and nudeJEH (Advertising & Digital agency) in Thailand, etc.

  • Grey Group’s Nirvik Singh gets expanded role

    Grey Group’s Nirvik Singh gets expanded role

    MUMBAI: Grey Group Asia Pacific’s chairman and CEO Nirvik Singh has got an additional role. Additionally, Singh will also oversee the company’s business in the Middle East and Africa. In his newly elevated role, he will continue to work closely with Grey Group chairman and CEO Jim Heekin and Grey Group global president Michael Houston.

    Under his leadership, Grey Group APAC was featured among the leading communications networks and his trademark business acquisitions has been instrumental in the development of Grey’s digital and shopper offerings in the region. He has played a monumental role in the growth and development of the network’s comprehensive offerings across Asia.

    “Nirvik has been a prime mover in our dynamic growth and development in Asia. He has been relentless in building our geographic footprint with premier acquisitions, accelerating our offerings in a host of disciplines including digital and shopper and raising the creative bar. He has won every major professional award in Asia. I know he will bring the same single-minded dedication and achievement to his added responsibilities,” said Heekin.

    Singh is a 27-year industry veteran of the global advertising and marketing agency headquartered in New York City. His highly-regarded business acumen has led to numerous additions to Grey network including; RC&M (Rural Communications & Marketing services) in India, Yolk (Interactive & Digital media network) in Singapore, DPI (Shopper), Star Echo (Marketing Services) and ArtM (Integrated Communications) in China, Vinyl-I (Creative Digital agency) in South Korea and nudeJEH (Advertising & Digital agency) in Thailand, etc.

  • “Want to be the ‘Influencer Network’ in 2015”: Sunil Lulla

    “Want to be the ‘Influencer Network’ in 2015”: Sunil Lulla

    With over 30 years of experience, Sunil Lulla brings skills in media, marketing, communication and management.

     

    From spending an early part of his career, which spanned over a period of nine years, in advertising with JWT to rolling out indya.com, in the first wave of the internet; from bringing zing and youthfulness to MTV to help build the television business for The Times Group, Lulla has been a prominent member on many industry boards and forums where he shaped policies and set industry standards and best practices.

     

    His decision to move on from the Times Television Network managing director and CEO to Grey Group India chairman and managing director did come as a shock to many. Nonetheless, the man who engages in a new passion every few years is back to his first passion.

     

    In a freewheel interview with Indiantelevision.com’s Meghna Sharma, Lulla talks about his plans for Grey and much more.

     

    Excerpts…

     

    Back to advertising. So far, so good?

    Very good. The communications business is the best place to stay eternally young (smiles).

     

    If you had to compare, how different has been advertising’s evolution from that of broadcasting industry?

    Both bring new challenges and new ideas each day, blended with a frenetic pace and an youthful environment. TV broadcast is focused around the consumer via which it builds relationships with the customer. Advertising is built around the customer via which it creates story telling for the consumer. They are different spectrums. The TV industry faces significantly more regulatory challenges than the communication industry. There is a zameen aasman ka difference in scale and profitability. Advertising brings the edge of ideas unlimited.

     

    It’s been four months, any changes that you have brought in the company? Why?

    Grey group is a stable, growing business, producing famous and effective work. I’ve used the time to get to understand the business better. Meeting clients and understanding their challenges and in helping gear Grey group offer integrated solutions and ideas, across advertising, communication, the vast spectrum of digital and social; activation and advocacy. These are via our own Grey group services and those with partners / affiliates, such as RC&M, Penn Schoen Berland and Talent House. Importantly, working closely with the team, which is energetic, talented, innovative and always bubbling with ideas and energy. I believe in the short period of four months, gearing to grow and being able to work across services seamlessly, has been my focus.

     

    Many of our clients are now accessing more than one service from Grey group. For our affiliate partners, we have been able to provide Grey thinking, muscle and experience. What’s visible is perhaps the new campaigns of Swacha Bharat, the Border Security Force and the announcement of Quickr and Reach Mobile as new businesses.

     

    Importantly, in the next few weeks there are many campaigns of Grey group, which continue to define culturally sensitive communication, aimed at changing social behaviour, which is one of the biggest challenges any communication company can deliver on. We believe our clients should be satisfied with our services and offerings but continuously challenge us to deliver outstanding performance. Which is exactly what Grey clients do.

     

    How has the year 2014 been for Grey India?

    There has been top line and bottom line growth as per expectations. The new account wins are all based on differentiated communicate on briefs and the focus on adding alliances is preparing Grey group for a strong 2015. Talent has been stable and the awards have been coming in. All in all – a good year for Grey. We are not very boastful about our achievements; our clients hopefully do the talking for us.

     

    One mandate, which you are really proud of, and why?

    I cherish my new role at Grey group, via which we are building a differentiated service business to build strong brands for our clients. Each of our clients are precious to us and the work we do, we believe, plays a big role, in making their brands famous and effective.  I do believe the new ‘Swacha Bharat’ campaign enables us to work with the Prime Minister’s vision of changing behaviour which is always a tough task. The communication is simple, mass oriented and evokes the right emotive and attitudinal cord.

     

    How much of the business that you generate out of India is globally aligned?

    Some of our global alignments are P&G, GSK, Volvo, amongst others. 65 per cent of our business is India alone business.

     

    Competition is growing multifold, so how would you differentiate Grey from the others?

    We believe Grey group’s thinking and capability is being rapidly geared to offer integrated solutions around advertising, social, mobile, web, activation, advocacy, rural and crowdsourcing. With many more to be included. Powered by our vision to create Famous and Effective solutions, work and brands, Grey group is becoming a highly differentiated ‘Influencer Network’. We say Grey groups role to influence consumer choice and thinking and via its array of skills it is designed to be ‘an influencer network of choice, creating famous and effective work’. Each way of approaching the consumer needs to be true to the host medium but interconnected to the behaviour we need to change. Grey enjoys a very strong reputation because of its Planning, Creative, Digital and Communication Skills and this is poised to grow with strength.

     

    According to you, has Grey really been ‘Famously Effective’?

    Absolutely – the wins at Cannes and Effies are a great testimony. The growth of each of our clients business is evidence of the work – working!

     

    What are the plans lined up for the digital side of your business?

    Growth is the obvious agenda. Growing and strengthening resources in the Delhi and Bangalore NCR are on the agenda for 2015. Focusing on having more of our clients across our range of services avail of our Award winning Digital solutions. Continuing to create cutting edge and new solutions is the everyday task. Focusing on learning and training for our talent is the key.

     

    How do you see an increase in media fragmentation impacting creative agencies?

    Agencies should stop worrying about definitions. We do not see ourselves as a creative-alone agency. Grey’s role is to influence consumers and we believe that requires each of us to continuously grow skills and expertise, which is our focus. Agencies can easily learn, adapt and innovate to tell stories be it on a one to one basis or one to many basis. If there is no structured integration, then one must bring it in any way into the service, as businesses will not grow in a linear fashion.

     

    With an increase in penetration of smartphones and tablets, the biggest challenge will be on how to most optimally use the mobile phone for building a brand. What advise will you give the brands and digital agencies?

    We reserve recommendations like these, exclusively for our clients (Smiles)

     

    Do you think Indian advertising has been able to shift paradigms with changing times?

    The glass is always half full, which makes it encouraging for the industry to keep pouring skills, ideas, talent and investment in creating culturally cutting edge work. The new Swach Bharat campaign defines that. On an overview, the Indian industry has successfully paved the way for new paradigms.

     

    What is at top of your wish list for Grey India for 2015?

    Be the Influencer Network which successfully enables Famous and Effective Brands and Communications.

  • Grey Group wins Global Healthcare Agency of the Year at the New York Festivals’ Global Awards

    Grey Group wins Global Healthcare Agency of the Year at the New York Festivals’ Global Awards

    MUMBAI: This year’s New York Festivals’ Global Awards saw Grey Group Singapore sweep the healthcare awards including clinching the prestigious Grand Global award, five Global awards and three finalist certificates.

    The ‘MOVE – Human Calligraphy’ (GSK – Panadol Joint) has taken top honours with the Grand Global Award and two Global Awards.

    The award-winning “Water-Eye Performance” bagged two Global Awards for its innovative work on the anti-irritant and moisturising qualities of Eye-Mo (GSK).

     

    ‘A Moment of Beauty’ (GSK – Eye-Mo) was recognised with a Global Award and two Finalist Certificates, in addition, the team also brought home a Final Certificate for the ‘Pain Poems’ (GSK Panadol Extra Advance) campaign.

    Grey Group Asia Pacific chairman & CEO Nirvik Singh said, “The Global Awards recognises our creative strength and ranks us at the top of healthcare creativity. With an evolving healthcare and wellness industry, we are constantly working in tandem to produce ground-breaking work along with successful business results for our clients.”

     

    “To win at such a prestigious global awards festival is very gratifying. It is the effort and hard work of the team as well as the clients’ support that has culminated in Grey Group Singapore being named Global Agency of the Year. We are ecstatic with this news,” added Grey Group Singapore CEO Subbaraju Alluri..

    “What a great honour to receive this global recognition that places us at the very top. A position none of us dreamt to hold in our very first year of operations as new global hub for the key client GSK. To have reached this in such a short time is a true testament to a great team that has come together in Singapore to deliver nothing but the best. And it is a testament to our clients who share a spirit of making things happen,” said (GSK) executive creative director Till Hohmann.

    These wins follow the prestigious 2014 Spikes Asia Festival of Creativity where Grey Group was the most-awarded agency in the healthcare category.

     

  • Sunil Lulla will bring in a new dimension in our offering to clients: Nirvik Singh

    Sunil Lulla will bring in a new dimension in our offering to clients: Nirvik Singh

    When indiantelevision.com wrote about Sunil Lulla taking up a leadership position in Grey India, it did surprise many in the industry. Very few knew or recollected that Lulla’s roots have been in advertising: he was an account director at HTA (now JWT India) and had also taken the role of regional client servicing director on the Colgate Palmolive business with Y&R New York.

     

    The announcement of his joining saw the departure of president & CEO Jishnu Sen. Lulla is taking over at Grey India at a time when it is in the midst of a grow-grow phase. On the global front, Grey was ranked as the agency of the year by adage.com for its revenue growth, client retention and the fact that it won almost all of the client pitches it made in 2013.

     

    In India, Grey, the advertising network of the Grey Group, acquired a majority stake in rural and marketing communications services provider RC&M just as the year was drawing to a close.

     

    It has done well on the awards front too, both in traditional and digital advertising.  It can be noted that Grey India picked up a Gold Lion at the Cannes this year in the Press category for the work done for P&G’s Duracell Batteries.

     

    Indiantelevision.com’s Priyanka Nair got in touch with Grey Group Asia Pacific CEO Nirvik Singh to chat with him about the leadership change in India, and what he expects going forward.

     

    Excerpts: 

     

    With Sunil Lulla coming on board, what are the areas in which Grey India is looking at expanding?

     

    We have been investing in India continually and with RC&M coming under our fold, I believe we have the right expertise and capabilities currently across the full marketing spectrum. Sunil Lulla would play a critical role in integrating and strengthening our offering.

     

    In the 30 years of experience that Sunil Lulla has, he has been associated with the broadcast side of the business most. How do you think his expertise will help in the growth of Grey India?

     

    With his 30 years of working experience, Sunil brings with him a wealth of knowledge from the media side of the business, not just broadcast. From our conversations, he has shown that he knows the heavily fragmented media landscape in South Asia in depth. By having him leading our operations in India, he is able to add a new dimension in our offering to our clients.

     

    How has the year 2014 been so far for Grey India?

     

    2014 has been really good for Grey Group, not just in India but across Asia Pacific as well. We are seeing clients in the market increasing their marketing spend with us, both regional and local clients. All in all, I expect India to be a really strong performer at year end. Malvika Mehra (National Creative Director) and team have been performing consistently as well – they have brought home yet another Gold Lion from the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. This is their second year in a row they are doing so.

     

    What are the plans lined up for the digital side of your business?

     

    Sudhir Nair (Senior Vice President, Head of Grey Digital India) will be working closely with Sunil on this, but I must say our digital team has been stellar in their creative solutions and output (using Twitter to launch a car and YouTube for a test drive). Digital is definitely a big part of the picture and the continued investment in talent and capabilities is top of our priorities.

     

    What is at top of your wish list for Grey India?

     

    Win more Cannes Lions next year!

     

    Till when will Jishnu Sen be with Grey India? Could you elaborate on the experience of working with him? 

     

    It has been a truly great journey – I have seen him grow into the CEO’s role and he is a great chap to work with.

  • Grey forms strategic alliance with Eastern Advertising in Taiwan

    Grey forms strategic alliance with Eastern Advertising in Taiwan

    MUMBAI: Grey Group has formed a strategic alliance with a Taiwan-based ad agency, Eastern Advertising.


    Eastern Advertising CEO Paul Tsai said that the industry is currently experiencing significant challenges particularly with the advent of digital marketing in the total integrated communications mix. “Together with Grey Group‘s global resources, this opportunity will drive our agency ahead in the market”.


    Grey on its part is in an expansion mode across the Asia Pacific region. Most recently, the Group agreed to acquire a majority stake in Campaigns & Grey in the Philippines.


    Eastern Advertising serves international and local clients including Panasonic, Fujifilm, AURORA, Kanebo, Brappers, Marilyn, Sealer, Tombow, Joy English School, Ching Yeh Paint, Taiwan Beer, Ten Ren Tea, Pop-Smile and SHS.


    Grey Group Asia Pacific chairman and CEO Nirvik Singh stated, “This move reaffirms our commitment to the important Taiwan market. Eastern Advertising is a highly respected pioneer in the industry with an unparalleled wealth of local knowledge and business know-how, as well as an immense understanding of Taiwanese consumers across categories.”