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Tag: Publicis

  • Publicis steals Coca-Cola’s $800 North American media crown from WPP

    Publicis steals Coca-Cola’s $800 North American media crown from WPP

    MUMBAI: Publicis Groupe has pinched Coca-Cola’s lucrative North American media account from WPP following a hush-hush competitive review, industry sources confirmed yesterday.

    The French advertising giant will now handle Coca-Cola’s media planning and buying across the United States and Canada, with the business estimated to be worth a fizzy  $800 million  in annual billings.

    The soft drinks behemoth conducted the review under tight wraps, with only WPP and Publicis invited to participate in what insiders describe as a “closed door beauty contest” between the two holding companies.

    For Publicis, the win represents sweet revenge after finishing as runner-up in 2021 when WPP scooped Coca-Cola’s global integrated business. Now, just three and a half years later, the tables have turned in North America.

    CocaCola

    The account covers media planning and buying for Coca-Cola’s extensive portfolio of over 200 brands, including its flagship cola, Sprite, Fanta, and various sports drinks, juices, and plant-based beverages.
    Despite the sting of losing North America, WPP will continue to serve as Coca-Cola’s primary global partner, handling media duties across the rest of the world and maintaining responsibility for creative work globally through its bespoke Open X agency setup.

    Coca-Cola spent an estimated $1.8 billion on US advertising in 2023, according to Ad Age Datacenter, with $621 million specifically on measured media. Globally, the beverage giant splashed out $5.15 billion on advertising in 2024, up from  $5 billion the previous year.

    In a statement crafted to soothe WPP’s bruised ego, Coca-Cola emphasised that “WPP is the only global marketing partner of The Coca-Cola Co,” describing Publicis merely as a “complementary partner for its US and Canada media business.”

    “The Coca-Cola Co is committed to the ongoing transformation of its marketing model to ensure the company is best positioned to connect with the evolving consumer marketplace around the world,” the statement continued, adding that “no other changes are expected, and Coca-Cola is in an advanced stage in the process of renewing its global partnership with WPP.”

     Coca-Cola globall chief market ing officer  Manolo Arroyoa,praised WPP’s contribution, highlighting achievements including “Coke being named Creative Brand of the Year at the Cannes Lions in 2024.”

    The Coca-Cola win continues Publicis’ remarkable run of form in the media pitch circuit, coming hot on the heels of major account victories with Pfizer and Hershey’s. This stellar performance prompted the holding company to upgrade its earnings guidance twice during 2024.

    Last year, Publicis overtook WPP as the world’s largest agency group by revenue, marking a dramatic shift in the industry’s power balance. The addition of Coca-Cola’s North American media business will only cement that position.

    The handover is expected to take place in the coming months.

  • Landor appoints Geet Nazir as managing director India

    Landor appoints Geet Nazir as managing director India

    MUMBAI, March 2025 – Landor  Ahas appointed seasoned brand strategist Geet Nazir as its new managing director India based in Mumbai, strengthening the firm’s leadership team across the Asia-Pacific region.

    Nazir joins Landor with over 15 years of experience in brand transformation and strategic design, having most recently served as managing director at Conran Design Mumbai. Her appointment comes as Landor seeks to expand its presence in key growth markets throughout the region.

    Landor president APAC Lulu Raghavan expressed confidence in the appointment: “Geet’s expertise in creating new brands and nurturing client relationships will be invaluable as we strengthen our position across strategic markets.”

    Prior to her four-plus years at Conran Design, Nazir held leadership positions at Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces as assistant vice president of brand marketing, and served in senior roles at Contract India and Publicis Capital.

    With a master’s degree in advertising from Boston University and a background in electrical and electronics engineering, Nazir brings a blend of creative vision and analytical thinking to her new role.

  • Reviews and recommendations dominate 70% of shopping conversations on Twitter

    Reviews and recommendations dominate 70% of shopping conversations on Twitter

    Mumbai: Shopping is a hot topic in the social space, and especially so during the festive season in India. While shoppers turn to services like Twitter to discuss their big splurge plans, do these conversations about brands and products actually impact sales? With the festive season in full swing, microblogging platform Twitter’s latest #LetsTalkShop report finds out how marketers can engage the festive shopper more effectively.

    Twitter partnered with Publicis to study 2,400 consumers in India on leading social platforms. The study reveals the sentiment that is driving conversations and shopping decisions today, while also throwing light on content consumption patterns and, most importantly, expectations from brands, both in terms of customer service and content.

    Through these insights, Twitter has revealed how brand conversation powers shopping. Twitter wants to help marketers lean into shopping conversations and drive festive success this season.

    Moreover, Diwali conversations on Twitter also open doors for Indian brands to connect and engage with the leaned-in shoppers who are looking to spend during the festivities. The service witnessed more than 3.1 million tweets about Diwali in the festive week (30 October 2021 to 6 November 2021).

    As we head to the festive highs this year, Twitter India country lead-large client solutions, Kanika Mittal said, “Shopping has always been a social experience and the festive season is one of the busiest times of year on Twitter. Today, online brand conversation has become a trusted, everyday part of the shopping process. Our data reveals that 97 per cent of people surveyed seek comments and opinions from others on the service, with reviews and recommendations dominating 70 per cent of shopping conversations. Trust, too, plays a major role. 9 out of 10 consumers are more likely to consider a purchase after seeing someone else’s opinion about a brand or product. In fact, for the majority of shoppers, these spontaneous conversations are as impactful on purchase decisions as traditional reviews. So yes, talk matters.”

    Reviews and recommendations on Twitter take a front-seat during festive shopping

    Connecting with other shoppers to share experiences and make decisions based on these exchanges forms a significant part of today’s tech-savvy consumers’ purchase decisions. As a testament to this, the report indicates that 9 in 10 consumers are more likely to consider a purchase after seeing someone else’s opinion about a brand or product.

    Reviews and recommendations dominate 70 per cent of shopping conversations on Twitter today. For consumers, Twitter has been one of the go-to services for them to help them in their purchase journey, as more than half (51 per cent) of Indian online shoppers agree that ads or tweets on Twitter help them discover new products or brands.

    55 per cent state that reviews and comments on Twitter are more trustworthy than on any other social media platform.

    Consumer Excitement And Buying Inclination During Diwali

    The study reveals that the build-up to the festivities is the most exciting for consumers as 50 per cent of the Diwali conversation on Twitter takes place before the festival, whereas 35 per cent of the conversation happens on the day of the festival.

    92 per cent of festive conversations around Diwali are mostly positive or neutral in tonality, with 75 per cent of mentions of Diwali on Twitter being linked to ‘joy’.

    As brands increasingly tap into the power of click ‘play’ to engage with their audiences, the report notes that 64 per cent of people on Twitter enjoy watching video ads to see what brands have to offer.

    Four in 10 shoppers are on the lookout for deals and promotional offers from brands around Diwali.

    Brand conversations: A beaming opportunity for businesses

    Brand conversation is increasingly becoming influential at every stage of the purchase journey and has the power to influence shopping decisions. As a matter of fact, 93 per cent of Indian shoppers recall brand conversations online before making a purchase.

    In fact, shoppers on Twitter consider 4 out of 5 (80 per cent) of the brand conversations as “trustworthy.” 88 per cent of brand conversations made people feel differently about the brand. Among consumers that made a purchase, 62 per cent said that their experience with brand conversation made them much more likely to consider the purchase.

    Evidently, consumers are increasingly seeking meaningful dialogue with brands. This festive season, engaging audiences beyond ‘clicks’ and moving towards ‘conversations’ is the route that brands must take to drive consideration and purchase behaviour.

  • Nutella partners with Publicis Worldwide to launch its new brand campaign

    Nutella partners with Publicis Worldwide to launch its new brand campaign

    Mumbai: Ferrero’s Nutella announced the launch of its new campaign “Mornings taste better with Nutella” in India.

    The new television campaign highlights the happiness that Nutella brings to the morning as soon as the jar is popped open. Nutella further reinforces its claim as a great breakfast companion for all those who love making their mornings brighter, better, and happier.

    The TVC will be featured and distributed across broadcast and online platforms.

    The TVC opens with a mother trying to wake her kids up one morning. However, the kids are still sleepy and disinterested in starting their day. Perplexed at their reaction to a lovely morning, the mother comes up with a sure-fire solution to get them up and out of bed. With a single pop of the Nutella jar lid, the kids are instantly out of bed and ready to start the day. The TVC continues with a product showcase on the quality ingredients of rich, selected hazelnuts and premium cocoa that create the incredible, unforgettable taste of Nutella. The TVC closes with the family enjoying breakfast together at the table — it is a “Happy start to the Morning” with Nutella!

    Speaking on the campaign, Ferrero India Nutella brands regional marketing manager Zoher Kapuswala said, “Nutella is one of the leading brands in the breakfast category worldwide and has always aimed at creating happy moments and inspiring consumers to celebrate breakfast with their loved ones. Breakfast is always at the centre of what gives a great start to the day, and rotis, parathas, dosas, etc., traditionally find their place on the breakfast plate for millions of Indians. Leveraging this insight, we wanted to communicate the versatility of Nutella, where it’s unique and delectable taste compliments many such Indian breads. Our India TVC campaign aims to bring this aspect alive, and as a brand, we look forward to being the breakfast companion for many more Indians.”

    Speaking on the creative front, Publicis Worldwide managing director Oindrila Roy said, “Nutella is an iconic brand, loved by millions across the globe as well as in India. This campaign was conceptualised keeping in mind the brand’s desire to be a part of more breakfast tables around the country, in line with its ambition to increase penetration in more households. In order to find a place for Nutella, we tapped into the breakfast moments of our potential consumers and found innovative ways to integrate it into what’s already present on their breakfast tables – dosas, rotis, and parathas. The campaign also beautifully captures how mornings are made happier with just a little dash of Nutella, inspiring families to create happy memories around their dining table. This integrated campaign has been conceptualised keeping in mind multiple touchpoints – television, digital, social, POS, among others.”

  • Publicis Groupe launches PubHub, Rajesh Ghatge named chief growth officer

    Publicis Groupe launches PubHub, Rajesh Ghatge named chief growth officer

    Delhi : Publicis Groupe on Wednesday announced the launch of PubHub, a comprehensive ecosystem that will create bespoke marketing transformation solutions at scale ,through the integration of specialised capabilities across data, content, technology, production, and commerce.

    PubHub will tap into PG India’s established model that provides services to some of the top global clients across multiple markets.

    The model has demonstrated success in connecting people, processes, systems and data needed to fuel marketing transformation in all aspects of design and delivery. It is built to be open source, connecting with tech partners and clients’ partner agencies alike to deliver on client goals better, faster and efficiently, said the agency.

    PubHub will be led by Indigo Consulting CEO Rajesh Ghatge, who now additionally takes on the role of chief growth officer, Publicis Groupe India. Ghatge is already leading the implementation of Global Hub for GSK.

    Last year Publicis won the global production mandate of Circle in partnership with Tag. It is a first ever model set up to deliver marketing transformation, using data, content , technology and production capabilities and will be servicing close to 90+ brands across 90+ markets.

    Ghatge has been with the Groupe for close to four and a half years and has close to three decades of experience across marketing and technology. Previously he has launched and built organisations in the space of travel, training  and brand activation . Before joining Publicis, he also led a technology-enabled social enterprise which trained and certified school drop-outs to become certified elder care workers.

    Publicis Groupe, South Asia, CEO Anupriya Acharya says, “Today, the demand for scaled marketing transformation solutions is growing exponentially– on the back of accelerated adoption of digital and tech. For Publicis Groupe , India has emerged as a massive capability centre for digital and tech-led deep expertise across contemporary and innovative marketing and business transformation solutions. Large mandates across global and national brands are being managed across the Groupe in India. The launch of PubHub is  timely and apt. With an intrinsic model to scale fast,  it has been designed to be agile and responsive while leveraging our proficiency and vast experience across the creative, technology and media competencies.”

    Rajesh Ghatge said, “As a client organisation, the choices of agency partners, consulting partners , tools and technologies are immense. These choices are giving rise to one big challenge – that of being able to weave together the right components of creative , data and technology to effectively win in the platform world. Moreover, reclaiming growth has become the number one priority for most enterprises in a dramatically changed world. In this added mandate , I am looking forward to leverage our diverse capabilities and experience to create repeatable and scalable solutions for our clients via PubHub, and fuel significant growth for them.” 

  • Network Advertising appoints Pooja Nair as VP – strategic planning

    Network Advertising appoints Pooja Nair as VP – strategic planning

    NEW DELHI: Network Advertising has strengthened its account planning division with the inclusion of Pooja Nair as VP – strategic planning. Nair comes with an experience of over 16 years and has worked in agencies like Ogilvy, JWT, Publicis, Saatchi (Colombo), Percept, and TBWA. She has considerable experience in handling cross-category brands like Huggies, Ponds, Bosch, Nutrela, Garnier, Godrej, Head & Shoulders, Oil of Olay, Electrolux, Allen Solly, Standard Chartered Bank, and many more.

    Network Advertising chief strategy officer Sunit Khot said, “We are glad to have Pooja on board the Network team. Her cross-category experience coupled with her natural curiosity will be invaluable to us in strengthening our integrated offering that is based on a strong strategic foundation.”

    Nair said, “What attracted me to Network is their philosophy of integrating Strategic Planning across all their functions, which essentially makes every Networker a thinker. I am looking forward to my role to enhance this already strong thinking culture within Network. The exciting cross-category roster of clients and the agency’s integrated offering makes it a dream for any strategic planner.”

    Network Advertising MD Vinod Nair said, “An integrated agency like Network needs to consistently over-deliver in the thinking area to bring alive our commitment to the brands we work on. Pooja is a welcome addition to the Network family and another brain to keep working on our mission of doing right by the clients we handle.”

  • Publicis Media ropes in Mimi Deb to lead platformGSK

    Publicis Media ropes in Mimi Deb to lead platformGSK

    New Delhi: Publicis Media has hired Mimi Deb to lead its dedicated bespoke unit platformGSK. In this role, Deb will manage end-to-end responsibilities under media investment management for GSK India, and work towards using media as a driver of brand and business growth. platformGSK brings together diverse talent with expertise across areas such as media, healthcare, consumer strategy and business transformation from across the Publicis Groupe for the FMCG giant GSK.

    Deb is a media veteran who comes with a wide spectrum of experience of over seventeen years across the media agency business and almost six-years of marketing & sales experience in the Middle East. 

    She has led and managed prominent FMCG, CPG & Digital-first brands like Dabur, Perfetti, Mother Dairy, RSPL, Amway, McCain Foods, OLX, GoDaddy and Shopclues, to name a few. Her last stint was with Wavemaker, earlier to which she has also worked with Universal McCann, OMS & Hakuhudo Percept in key roles.

    Zenith India CCO Ajit Gurnani says, “platformGSK is a market-leading, end-to-end platform for FMCG major GSK and given her experience and skills Mimi is the ideal person to lead the mandate by focusing on value creation, innovation, media excellence and product differentiation. I am confident that she will drive significant and measurable media, brand & business outcomes for platformGSK and GSK CH.”

    Deb said that she’s excited to be taking on the new role, and looks forward to building and executing marketing transformation for GSK. “I am delighted at the opportunity and look forward to harnessing the power of innovative media strategies for the continued growth of GSK CH. I am committed to accelerating platformGSK’s capabilities, driving business results and keeping our offering competitive, impactful and well-ahead of the curve.”

  • Publicis India rolls out integrated campaign for Zee Biskope

    Publicis India rolls out integrated campaign for Zee Biskope

    MUMBAI: For the first time ever, recently launched Zee Biskope has got on-board all three superstars of Bhojiwood – Nirahua, Pawan Singh, and Khesari Lal Yadav as its brand ambassadors. It also rolled out a high-decibel integrated ad campaign that celebrates the channel’s unique offerings. The campaign spanned across mediums like television, print, outdoor, digital, and radio with the aim to create awareness and build sampling momentum.

    Publicis India conceptualised a unique campaign that epitomises the three main genres of Bhojpuri movies: Action, Romance, and Drama which are essayed by Zee Biskope’s brand ambassadors Pawan Singh, Khesari Lal Yadav, and Niruaha, respectively. All three films were written and directed keeping the Bhojpuri audience and nuances in mind. The creative idea was to rejoice every moment of your Bhojpuriya life to its unabashed best just like Bhojpuri movies do.

    Highlighting the marketing idea behind the campaign, Zee Biskope and Big Ganga business head Amarpreet Singh Saini said, “The idea behind the campaign was to capture the essence of Bhojpuri movies albeit with a clutter breaking rendition. The films were meant to connect with the audience and at the same time establish the brand as a unique offering in the category. Each film takes a distinct and stand out route to introduction of the conflict, revealing the mega star and culmination into celebration of brand promise in three distinct styles. The high uniqueness score’ in brand survey corroborates the efficacy of this well thought out campaign. The collaboration with Publicis ensured authenticity and finesse across films, given their keen eye for detail and high thrust on sophistication in execution.”

    Adding his views, Ajay Gahlaut, MD & CCO, Publicis India MD and CCO Ajay

    Gahlaut said, “We wanted to appeal to the sensibilities of the delightful people of Bhojpuri belt – witty, funny and unapologetically over-the-top. We are giving the people what they want with this campaign – unlimited entertainment at all hours of the day. We are happy to see our messaging having a great impact with the audience it is intended towards.”

    ZEE BISKOPE aims to be the ultimate destination of authentic Bhojpuri entertainment. The brand signifies a space which enables viewers to rejoice their Bhojpuriyat at their unabashed best. Touted as the go-to destination for Bhojpuri movies; ZEE BISKOPE offers a slew of robust content spread across an array of genres highly popular amongst Bhojpuri audience, such as romance, drama, action and comedy. With a strong library of 300+ movies, ZEE BISKOPE boasts biggest blockbuster movies of last 5 years and the biggest hits of the top 3 superstars of Bhojiwood – Nirahua, Pawan and Khesari. The channel’s library enjoys movies across eras – region’s legends (Manoj Tiwari, Ravi Kishan), current superstars (Nirahua, Pawan & Khesari) and upcoming favourites (Chintu Pandey & Yash Mishra). With chartbuster movies, exclusive titles, movie-based programming throughout the day the channel is geared up to aggressively deliver its core proposition “Aathon Pahariya Loota Lahariya” (enjoy Bhojpuri entertainment throughout the day).