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Tag: Publicis Groupe

  • Saatchi & Saatchi Focus rechristened to Publicis Health & Publicis Business

    Saatchi & Saatchi Focus rechristened to Publicis Health & Publicis Business

    MUMBAI: Building on the Publicis Groupe philosophy of Power of One, with customers at the centre of everything they do, Saatchi & Saatchi Focus, an award-winning; specialist knowledge-based communication agency has officially been rechristened to Publicis Health & Publicis Business. Its B2B, IT, Talent and Healthcare communication expertise over the last 20 years will add to Publicis Groupe’s comprehensive offerings to clients, which include creative, digital, PR, activation and production services, as well as media and digital transformation.

    Publicis Health will support the health and wellness verticals for the agency and would function out of its offices in Mumbai and Bangalore. It currently services an array of clients including Novartis, Sanofi, Abbott, Wockhardt, Clinton Foundation among others. Meanwhile, Publicis Business will cater to the B2B, IT and Talent space and would operate out of its office in Bangalore. It manages clients such as Bosch, AIS, ICICI Bank, Coats, thyssenkrupp, Sonata Software, Infosys among others.

    Speaking on the development Publicis Worldwide India managing director Srija Chatterjee said, “This initiative is an indication of our focus on being seen as an integrated solutions provider offering full-service capabilities under one roof. In keeping with the Power of One philosophy, the new entities will work seamlessly across our offices and assist in enhancing brand advocacy and growth of our Healthcare and B2B clients in India.”

    Saatchi & Saatchi Focus has been around for over two decades catering to the communication requirements of B2B clients who understood their business processes and were able to provide sales support. It later branched out into talent branding and healthcare verticals. The agency works with several IT, engineering, and pharma & healthcare majors across the country and overseas.

    Publicis Health is one of the four critical pillars as part of the Groupe’s core global strategy. Its goal is to create attitude-changing dialogues around health & wellness. Further, its mission is to deliver ideas of purpose that compel positive actions by the target audience towards better health. The unit comprises a diverse talent pool that thrives on relevant insights and remains intellectually curious to put out life-changing communication in the marketplace.

    Publicis Business works across Publicis Groupe clients to offer specialised solutions that are category-leading in the marketplace. The unit has been steadfast in its purpose of providing relevant, original, and impactful communication to its clients over the years.

  • Pankaj Vasani wins ICAI’s “chief financial officer of the year” award 2018

    Pankaj Vasani wins ICAI’s “chief financial officer of the year” award 2018

    MUMBAI: Publicis Groupe’s Executive President & CFO, South Asia, Pankaj Vasani, has been awarded “CA CFO of the Year in the Media & Entertainment Sector” by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) at the 12th ICAI’s Leaders & Business Excellence Awards held in Mumbai on 19 January.

    Pankaj received his award from Shri. Vijay Goel, Hon’ble Union Minister of State for parliamentary Affairs, CA. Naveen Gupta – President ICAI, CA, Dhiraj K. Khandelwal – Chairman Committee for Members in Industry & Business, and other key officer bearers of ICAI.

    The awards instituted by ICAI acknowledges the Chartered Accountants (CAs) in the industry who have demonstrated excellence in the way they conduct their profession, are exemplary role models in the industry, have created value to their company's stakeholders on a sustainable basis and are outstanding contributors to the society.

    On receiving the award, Pankaj said, “I'm truly and honestly thrilled to be here today, and sincerely grateful to the entire jury for the unique distinction. I might have done well at my job, but this recognition accorded by the Institute, which I greatly appreciate and accept with all humility and deep gratitude, comes in consequence of a lot of other people's work. I, therefore, accept this award on behalf of my family and friends for always being there and encouraging me, my mentors for believing in me and all my colleagues who I’ve worked in the past and work with at the Publicis Groupe, who made this moment, happen. This award is a compliment, an inspiration and cognisance that I'm on my journey to become a better professional, and a person of greater social significance.”

    The prestigious ICAI awards are given in various categories (i) CA Business Achiever (Chairman/CEO) (ii) CA Chief Financial Officer and (iii) CA Professional Achiever. The top five nominations in each category are short listed by the Nomination Committee, which then sends it to the Jury for final selection. The Jury consisting of eminent personalities from the Indian Industry, leading businessmen, representative of national trade bodies, regulators, academicians, heads of universities, past presidents of ICAI and other well-known personalities, then decides on the final winner of the awards. This year’s distinguished Jury was chaired by Shri Keki Mistry, Vice Chairman and CEO, HDFC. 

    The winners were chosen from various industries such as manufacturing sector, financial sector, services sector, information technology, media and entertainment sector, telecom sector, healthcare sector, public sector, infrastructure and construction.

  • Digitas appoints Amaresh Godbole as CEO India biz

    Digitas appoints Amaresh Godbole as CEO India biz

    MUMBAI: Digital agency Digitas, a Publicis Groupe brand, has announced a change in its country leadership. 

    Himani Kapadia, CEO Digitas and SapientRazorfish, who has been with the company for 11 years, is stepping down to pursue other interests. Amaresh Godbole, currently MD India for Digitas, takes over the reins as CEO of the brand. 

    He will report to Publicis Communications India CEO Saurabh Varma and to Digitas APAC CEO Annette Male for the brand. He will also join the Publicis Communications country leadership team.

    Saurabh Varma comments, “Himani has done an incredible job, building the country’s largest digital agency, and she could not have left it in a better place, with strong client relationships and a seasoned leadership team. I’m excited about Amaresh’s elevation. He is one of the few people in our industry who truly understands the power of combining data, creativity, media and technology to deliver successful marketing outcomes. I look forward to the next chapter of Digitas’ ascent.”

    Says Annette Male, “Himani has been the architect of the India story for Digitas and a champion of our unique culture. She will be dearly missed, all across the network. In Amaresh, she has had an able partner through this journey, and she has mentored him to take on the mantle of country leadership. I am confident he will deliver the next phase of growth for the brand in India.”

    Says Himani Kapadia about her plans, “It’s been an exhilarating ride, taking the company from its inception as a startup to a recognised A list agency. It was a rewarding journey with stories, learnings and relationships that I will carry with me for a lifetime. I feel I’m now ready for a new challenge. In Amaresh and the Digitas leadership team, I feel assured knowing that the company is in safe hands.”

    Amaresh Godbole commented on his new role, “I’m about to step into an industry giant’s shoes. What gives me confidence to take this on are the lessons learnt from Himani over the last decade, where we’ve seen the company through myriad circumstances. I look forward to working closely with Saurabh to learn new lessons. I am a big believer of the Publicis Groupe vision and the Power of One philosophy. Digitas has extremely unique capabilities and talent, and I hope to deploy these towards continued growth for the brand and the Groupe in India.”

    Digitas India is one of the leading digital agencies in the country, with 400 experts across data, strategy, creative, media and technology spread across four cities. Digitas works with some of the top-drawer clients in the country such as Nestlé, Hewlett Packard, FCA (Jeep & Fiat), Reliance Jio, AbinBev (Budweiser), TVS Motors, Parle Agro, HUL, Tata CliQ, Tourism New Zealand and JK Tyres among others.

  • Publicis Groupe to end its “no award” policy after a year

    Publicis Groupe to end its “no award” policy after a year

    MUMBAI: Publicis Groupe announced in June 2017 that it would shift its promotional budget away from industry events and awards shows until 1 July, 2018 in order to focus on the development of its Marcel platform. The Groupe’s policy has been scrupulously followed throughout the year.  

    Barring one exception, the Publicis Groupe had no entry at this year’s Cannes Lions festival, 

    In support of creative excellence and out of respect for the company’s decision, some of the Groupe’s clients and partners have taken on the cost of entering what they consider to be award-worthy campaigns developed by Publicis Groupe agencies. There are 399  such campaigns as of 9 June.

    The only exception to this is BBH London’s “3 Billboards” campaign for Justice4Grenfell, the organisation trying to get justice for the victims of the 2017 Grenfell Tower disaster in London.

    Publicis Groupe chairman and CEO Arthur Sadoun says, “Twelve months ago, we took the decision to pause our investment in promotional industry events for one year. It was a difficult but necessary sacrifice at a moment when our industry is in need of radical change. It gave us the means, the focus, and perhaps more importantly, the sense of urgency, to reinvent the way we work and start building Marcel.”

    12 Publicis Groupe leaders have been invited to attend the Festival as Jury Presidents or as part of the awarding juries. 12 additional Publicis Groupe leaders are members of the shortlist juries and will not be attending the Festival. 25 Publicis Groupe employees have been invited to attend Cannes Lions by their clients and by other industry partners. 15 Publicis Groupe employees have decided to attend the Festival by personally funding their trip. 20 Publicis Groupe account leaders will be participating in key client meetings taking place in Cannes-not attending the Festival. Their presence will be funded by Publicis Groupe.

    “And of course, a big big merci goes to all of our people. The Groupe’s creative community has had to shoulder much of the weight of our decision to pause our promotions this year, and they have been outstanding during this period, which will come to an end on 1 July,” Sadoun adds.

    At the invitation of the Festival, Publicis Groupe will present Marcel on Tuesday 19 June at 3:00 PM CET on the main stage of the Palais des Festivals. 

    Carla Serrano, Chief Strategy Officer of Publicis Groupe, Nick Law, Chief Creative Officer of Publicis Groupe and President of Publicis Communications and Arthur Sadoun, Chairman & CEO of Publicis Groupe will present a beta version and discuss why it’s an important part of the company’s future.

    Also Read:

    Publicis launches AI powered tool Marcel

    Publicis announces leadership team to for India, Sri Lanka

    Publicis Media bags digital mandate for ZEE5

    Publicis India appoints Russell John as VP for strategy

  • Publicis launches AI powered tool Marcel

    Publicis launches AI powered tool Marcel

    MUMBAI: Publicis Groupe has unveiled Marcel – named after Publicis Groupe founder Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet – an AI-powered innovation that will accelerate transforming the organisation from a holding company to a platform, creating the first truly borderless, frictionless enterprise workforce, comprised of 80,000 employees worldwide, and usher in a new era of creativity and innovation.

    Publicis Groupe chairman and CEO Arthur Sadoun says,“In June last year, Publicis Groupe announced the creation of Marcel, to connect our 80,000 employees and completely reinvent the way that we work, for ourselves and our clients. Since then, our industry has gone through unprecedented challenges, demonstrating that incremental change is not a solution. The need for reinvention is stronger than ever.”

    Marcel is a journey to shift Publicis Groupe from a holding company to a platform and give creative minds the freedom to progress and thrive in this ever-changing industry. With Marcel, clients will be able to leverage the incredible diversity of talent to bring to life the ideas they need to grow their business.

    The company says that tying the development of Marcel to its one-year industry event hiatus was a controversial decision, but a necessary one. It drew a line in the sand and showed its determined to do whatever it takes to reinvent an industry that has struggled to evolve over the past 40 years.

    In a world where people no longer want to work for companies and instead expect companies to work for them, Marcel is the first enterprise platform designed with people-first benefits and experiences in mind. At its core, Marcel is about empowering every single Publicis employee to the power of 80,000. Founded in a belief that an augmented workforce leads to higher engagement, which in turn leads to better work and results for clients, Marcel is built on the foundation of four key pillars: knowledge, connectivity, opportunity and productivity.

    The bold ambition to transform Publicis Groupe into a platform required that the Groupe take on very significant enterprise business challenges. One important challenge is around data. With more than 80,000 people and over 1,200 entities, spanning 200 specialities and thousands of clients, the Groupe has vast amounts of data. Publicis Groupe estimates well more than five billion data files.

    In order to unlock the value of this data, the Groupe created the Marcel AI Platform built on Microsoft AI and knowledge graph technologies. This knowledge graph connects both structured and unstructured data that exist across the organisation and then maps relationships within it. This centralised, integrated source of data will power Marcel as well as other enterprise initiatives. The group will use Microsoft’s sophisticated AI tools to process, filter, connect and organise the data to make it useful for its people.

    As a part of Marcel’s power of knowledge proposition, Publicis Groupe has entered into a partnership with the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity to access The Work, a unique digital platform that showcases over 200,000 pieces of award-winning creative work from 2001-2018.

    Built for today’s technology-savvy workforce, Marcel is launching as a mobile application for both Android and iOS. Future versions will include a desktop version or other interfaces as the need arises.

    Designed to be as user-friendly as any consumer app, employees can use Marcel through voice or text input. The AI engine will suggest refinements to queries that provide large returns to help someone rapidly make connections and complete goals. Marcel will do more than respond to requests. It will also proactively present relevant knowledge, connections and opportunities. Each workday, Marcel will serve six prompts tailored to the person’s role and interests in the form of a daily digest. Marcel will refine what it presents each day based on an employee’s interaction and feedback.

    Today, Marcel is tested by a team of 100 alpha users. In June, Publicis will release a beta version to 1000 people selected as an exact Publicis Groupe representation, by agency, role and geography. This group will provide feedback that will help refine the app. It wants to reach 90 per cent of its people by 2020.

    This beta phase will include a precise on-boarding process defined to ensure beta user profiles are complete, a training module available to get the individual familiar with the Marcel platform and a feedback function included for employees to provide real-time feedback. 

    The aim of this real-time exercise will allow Publicis Groupe to refine the app constantly, course correct as needed, improve the user’s experience and add functionality along the way. 

    There will be multiple, updated versions until the optimal state-of-the-art product developed for rollout to the entire Publicis Groupe. Publicis Groupe will begin Marcel rollout to the 80,000-person workforce in January 2019.

  • Publicis announces leadership team to for India, Sri Lanka

    Publicis announces leadership team to for India, Sri Lanka

    MUMBAI:  Publicis Groupe APAC CEO Loris Nold has announced the appointment of a Groupe leadership team to strengthen and accelerate Publicis’s capabilities at a national level across India and Sri Lanka. 

    The new team will be comprised executive leaders in India and Sri Lanka, including Publicis Media India CEO Anupriya Acharya, Publicis Communications South Asia CEO Saurabh Varma and the newly created role at Publicis Groupe South Asia for chief talent officer Surbhi Gupta.

    Additionally, Pankaj Vasani, who recently joined the company, will take on the new role of chief financial officer, Publicis Groupe South Asia. Vasani joins from Vodafone where he served for around five and half years and held various pivotal positions of responsibility in finance and tax.

    Nold said, “South Asia is a critical region of utmost strategic importance to us. With the appointment of such a strong leadership team, we are in a unique position to continue driving ‘The Power of One’ philosophy at the country level in this key market. With our recent appointments in Australia, this is a very important move as it allows us to continue driving and accelerating the exciting potential for transforming the way we work with our clients, as well as the opportunity it presents for developing and challenging our own talents.”

    The Groupe leadership team’s focus is targeted on helping brands to accelerate their transformation, enhance collaboration and achieve cumulative growth for clients.

    The Solution hub leaders who make up the Groupe leadership team in the Indian market will maintain their existing responsibilities and continue to cultivate collaborative opportunities and new business initiatives. 

    Appointed CEO of Publicis Groupe APAC in February 2018, Nold will work closely with the Groupe Leadership Team, supporting Publicis Groupe as it strengthens its relationship with existing clients, wins the trust of new ones, in addition to cultivating and attracting the brightest talent across its agencies and disciplines in the South Asia region.

  • Publicis Groupe announces global leadership elevations

    Publicis Groupe announces global leadership elevations

    MUMBAI: Publicis Groupe has announced the continuation of its transformation through the evolution of its solution hub leadership teams and the implementation of its regional leadership model. These moves are the next step in Publicis Groupe’s strategy aimed at breaking down silos while strengthening vertical practices.

    Mark Tutssel has been named as the executive chairman of Leo Burnett Worldwide while Rich Stoddart, currently president of Leo Burnett Worldwide, is leaving to pursue a new venture.

    In his new role, Tutssel will focus on creative excellence and growth, igniting the collective firepower of the global network on behalf of clients and leveraging the special culture of Leo Burnett. 

    Under Tutssel’s leadership as global chief creative officer, Leo Burnett has developed world-class campaigns for some of the most iconic brands and helped Samsung, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola earn the prestigious Cannes Lions Creative Marketer of the Year award. His work has helped the agency win nine Grand Prix at Cannes and consistently rank in the top five most-awarded agency networks in the world.

    Publicis Groupe CEO Arthur Sadoun says, “I want to acknowledge and deeply thank Rich Stoddart for his energy and commitment to Leo Burnett’s clients, culture and people. After 23 years with the agency, Rich has decided to move on to a new professional challenge. Mark’s appointment is a profound statement of the value we place in the power of creativity. Mark will be the first creative at the helm of the agency since Leo the man. Mark is one of the most proven, admired and awarded creative leaders in our industry, and I have great respect for his passion and authority in the world of brand-building creativity.”

    Tutssel adds, “I am truly delighted to assume the mantel at Leo Burnett, a global company that has the talent, the passion and the ambition to deliver the game-changing ideas our clients deserve. It is a tremendous honour and responsibility to live up to the ideals of Leo Burnett himself and deliver them in a new age of technology and opportunity.”

    At Publicis Health, Alexandra von Plato, a member of Publicis Groupe’s Management Committee, is appointed CEO, responsible for leading Publicis Health’s 17 agency brands in 40 offices across the globe. Nick Colucci, who has served as CEO since 2007, will act as chairman of Publicis Health and oversee a transition period until the end of the year.

    At Publicis Communications, Nick Colucci will also take on the new role of COO of Publicis Communications North America to partner with Andrew Bruce, CEO, in the transformation of Publicis Communications North America. This move comes as Andrew expands his duties to take responsibility of the Publicis Groupe North America strategy and growth team. Andrew will supervise the Groupe’s Global Client Leaders (GCL) in the region and focus on building and developing transformative solutions for the Groupe’s major clients across North America.

    At a regional level, Loris Nold, currently COO of Publicis Communications APAC and MEA, is promoted to the newly created role of CEO of Publicis Groupe APAC and will oversee all of Publicis Groupe‘s operations in the Asia Pacific market. He will work closely with our leaders in the region, to drive greater integration across Publicis Groupe’s capabilities, transform its relationships with existing clients, win the trust of new ones and of course cultivate and attract the best talent across its agencies and disciplines.

    Speaking about the global appointments, Arthur Sadoun mentions, “As we continue on our journey to be the market leaders in marketing and business transformation, these appointments will allow Publicis Groupe to reinforce our global practices. This is a key priority for us in order to constantly build on the quality of the expertise we deliver to our clients in a seamless way.” 

  • Praveen Kenneth retires from L&K | Saatchi & Saatchi

    Praveen Kenneth retires from L&K | Saatchi & Saatchi

    MUMBAI: Law & Kenneth founder and chairman Praveen Kenneth announced his retirement from active engagement on the sidelines of the final sale of his shareholding, in Paris.

    Law & Kenneth was the largest independent communication companies in India before becoming a part of Publicis Groupe in January 2014, to create L&K | Saatchi & Saatchi.

    Over the next six months during the transition, Kenneth will be involved in mentoring and guiding the teams.

    Anil Nair, the CEO and MD, who has been groomed over the past 24 months, and running the operations will now be leading the company.

    Publicis chairman of the supervisory board Maurice Levy said: “Praveen has been with us slightly after opening Publicis in India (1999) and had led the agency to growth and creative excellence. He then decided to launch Law & Kenneth ( 2002), which also has been a great success.”

    Kenneth stated: “The incredible success story of Law & Kenneth and L&K| Saatchi & Saatchi has been nothing less than a magical testimony of “making the impossible, possible.”

    “Building from zero, to four offices, 400-plus amazing people and being in the top 10. Winning at Cannes, D&AD, epic pitch wins and first class clients. It’s been a dream run,” he added.

    L&K | Saatchi & Saatchi has an enviable list of blue chip clients, which includes Renault India, HeroMotoCorp, Kent RO, P&G, Dabur, Pepper Fry, Jockey, Mondelez, Godrej Interio and Exide Insurance. It won two silvers at Cannes in 2016, and won again in 2017, and this time a Gold.