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Tag: Rajiv Dingra

  • RD&X network partners with ADDX to strengthen its global footprint

    RD&X network partners with ADDX to strengthen its global footprint

    Mumbai: A global advertising and marketing transformation startup called RD&X network has partnered with Singapore’s ADDX, a provider of financial technology. The collaboration revolves around ReBid, RD&X Network’s unified advertising and marketing AI automation platform.

    The platform is intended to provide a unified, real-time view of all search, social, and programmatic campaigns in order to generate value and maximise returns. The MarTech collaboration with ADDX also marks RD&X’s first foray into Singapore’s financial sector.

    RD&X network founder & CEO Rajiv Dingra said, “The fact that cutting-edge fintech startups like ADDX are trusting our ReBid platform to automate their digital marketing activation, reporting, and insights shows how we have truly created a market-leading platform for advanced marketers. We are excited to partner with ADDX, and together we believe we are building the platform-driven future of advertising and marketing.”

    RD&X network co-founder and chairman Ashish Bhasin added, “We are delighted to welcome ADDX, a forward-looking, future-oriented company, as our client. It is heartening to see progressive clients rapidly adopting ReBid as we together build the future of advertising and marketing, which we believe will be platform-based and tech-supported. We look forward to a long and fruitful partnership with ADDX. We are also pleased that clients across continents and countries are adopting ReBid, encouraging us to get truly global, faster.”

    ReBid is intended to provide ADDX with a comprehensive view of the customer and to scale its growth in a straightforward manner. ADDX intends to integrate its mobile measurement platforms’ tracking attribution with ReBid in order to gain a 360-degree automated view of all of its marketing and advertising efforts.

    ADDX head of digital marketing Ankit Narang said, “We are eager to partner with the RD&X network and look forward to driving data- and insights-driven growth for our digital marketing endeavours. As a fintech company delivering a fully digital experience to our clients, ADDX appreciates the intuitive user interface and experience on ReBid.”

    The ReBid platform will add value to ADDX’s marketing campaigns in three ways: effortless campaign activation across channels; simultaneous tracking of diverse campaigns across social media and programmatic; and optimisation of campaign returns.

    ADDX head of marketing and PR Ata Haftchenary said “With ReBid, we are aiming to gain access to instantaneous data across our marketing and digital campaigns, which will enable us to make key decisions in real time. In a rapidly changing market, responding quickly to investor behaviour will give ADDX a competitive edge and help us achieve our mission of democratising private markets.”

    RD&X network now serves clients in all three regions – MENA, the Americas, and APAC – with engineering and customer excellence teams based in India providing back-end support and product development.

  • #Throwback2020: Rejigs in the Indian marketing world

    #Throwback2020: Rejigs in the Indian marketing world

    NEW DELHI: Change is the only constant, and 2020 was a year of change. Big ones.On personal and professional fronts, both. Folkspicked up new skills, explored previously untried things, made self-discoveries. The trend reflected in the way people moved across industries, looking for fresh challenges and opportunities – looking for change. The marketing and advertising industry was also no stranger to this. There were a number of movements within agencies, some also chose alternate industries to grow, and many others were promoted to new roles. Here is part one of an intensive overview of how the year fared for the marketing and advertising world in terms of people movements, appointments, and elevations: 

    The year started with WatConsult founder Rajiv Dingra vacating the CEO chair and taking up an advisory role in the agency from the house of dentsu International (earlier Dentsu Aegis Network). He was replaced by Heeru Dingra. Rajeev went on to launch a new venture, RD&X Network, later in the year. 

    Next, Cheil India social media strategist Abhishek Mudgal exited from the agency to join Cars24 as brand manager -digital. Erstwhile CCO south-east and south Asia and VC – India at Ogilvy Sonal Dabral moved on from the creative powerhouse after a two-and-half-year stint to start his journey as an independent creative consultant. 

    Sonal Dabral

    Another big exit from the agency world came whenHavas Media India and SEACEO Anita Nayyar ended her 13-year-long journey with the agency. She later joined Zee5 as head – customer strategy and relationships. Following her exit, Mohit Joshi was elevated to the India leadership role. 

    Anita Nayyar

    The next big transition was made by Anita Kotwani. She left the post of SVP – new business and client lead, The Walt Disney Business at Mindshare India, ending a 16-year-long relationship with the agency, and headed to Carat India as its CEO. 

    Anita Kotwani

    Most recently, Nabendu Bhattacharyya, an industry veteran with more than two decades of experience in the Indian out-of-home (OOH) space, stepped down as CEO and MD of Milestone Brandcom, the India-based OOH specialist agency from the house of dentsu international. He is moving on to follow his personal interests after spending six years with the network. 

    Another exit from dentsu International came earlier in the year with Isobar India’s chief growth officer Shekhar Mhaskar departing the company. Also, Dentsu India CCO Malvika Mehra bid adieu to the network to begin afresh as an independent creative director and brand consultant.  

    Malvika Mehra

     

    Dentsu roped in Rohit Mukherjee as creative director, south for Isobar India. Prior to this, Mukherjee was associate creative director with Bates India. 

    A slew of exits happened at Publicis Worldwide India too. Managing director for the company’s India operations including Publicis Ambience, Publicis Capital, Publicis Beehive, Publicis Health and Publicis Business Srija Chatterjee left as the group dissolved the position. CCO and MD Ajay Gahlout also stepped down from his position to pursue personal interests. Chief strategy officer and managing partner Neeraj Bassi also called it quits in 2020. He went on to join Havas Group India as the chief strategy officer. 

    Neeraj Bassi

    On the other hand, Publicis announced the appointment of Sanju Menon as chief operating officer of Publicis Ambience and Publicis Beehive. He joined from Leo Burnett India, where his last role was as executive vice president managing the entire Bajaj portfolio for the agency. The group also roped in Deepak Pant as head, data science practice, from Cognizant where he worked as the director AI & analytics of the digital business.

    GroupM, South Asia COO and CFO Sridhar Ramasubramanian on boarded as the CFO for Publicis Groupe, South Asia. The group appointed Mimi Deb to lead its dedicated bespoke unit platformGSK. 

    Simultaneously, Rachana Lokhande, co-chief executive officer (CEO) of GroupM-owned outdoor agencyKinetic India, chose to resign from her position. She was replaced by Ajay Mehta who took on the additional charge as MD – Kinetic along with the post of managing director of cinema (ITV). Mehta also joined the GroupM India executive committee (ExCo).

    Wavemakar also found its South Asia CEO in Ajay Gupte, who was earlier the COO for Wavemaker India, after Kartik Sharma moved on to join Omnicom Media Group as Chief Executive for India operations,

    Ajay Gupte

    In another internal rejig within the GroupM network, Mindshare Fulcrum SVP Premjeet Sodhi joined Wavemaker India as chief growth officer. He was soon elevated to the post of chief strategy officer. Mindshare chief innovation officer – South Asia Mac Machaiah was appointed as the lead of Wavemaker unit for ITC business. Vishal Jacob returned to Wavemaker India as chief digital officer, after close to two years with GroupM as a principal consultant – change planning and transformation. Additionally, Sandeep Pandey, who led product and strategy, was elevated as Wavemaker’s global head of analytics.

    Additionally, Mirum India brought on board former 82.5 Communications SVP Mohit Ahuja as the director of brand strategy and client services. 

    To be continued… 
     

  • Transformation is an on-going process, never complete: RD&X Network founder Rajiv Dingra

    Transformation is an on-going process, never complete: RD&X Network founder Rajiv Dingra

    NEW DELHI: Like most people around us, serial entrepreneur Rajiv Dingra counts himself among those who polished their cooking skills during the Covid-2019 lockdown. Now he can now make two mean recipes to perfection: masala paneer and masala chicken. However, unlike most people, that’s not his only achievement. He also happened to work on his new entrepreneurial venture, RD&X Network – a unique deep-tech network to drive brand, business, media, and data transformation that he launched on 27 October 202o. In a recent candid conversation with Indiantelevision.com’s Mansi Sharma, he spilled the beans about his new company, the culture he is expecting to create, and how his creator instincts prompted him to develop something dynamic. 

    On his exit from WatConsult 

    Dingra, who was associated with Dentsu International (then Dentsu Aegis Network) as the chief mentor and advisor for  WATConsult till January 2020, a company that he had founded 13-years back, said that resigning from the agency was certainly not a very easy decision, but he was willing to take the entrepreneur’s seat again. 

    He said, “I had given up my complete stake in WatConsult in December 2019 and within a few days I knew that I did not want to continue as another employee. I do not mean to say that the status of a CEO is anywhere lesser than an entrepreneur but it was more about who I really am. I see myself as a creator, someone who can bring different ideas to life. Also, I was very sure that we had created a brilliant team at WATConsult and nothing would go wrong even if I leave.”

    Another reason that contributed to his exit was the internal transformation that is actively happening across Dentsu offices globally. “I am a person who can’t do three things at a time. I have to disconnect completely from one thing to focus on another and that’s why I preferred to move out.” 

    Read more stories on Rajiv Dingra

    On starting RD&X

    However, when he had put down his papers almost a year ago, he had no idea what his next step would be. But the Covid-2019 pandemic gave him the opportunity to dive deeper into the data and tech space and create RD&X. 

    “I had no idea what I would be doing when I resigned from WATConsult, I just knew that I wanted to create something new, transformative, and disruptive. My last day there was in January this year when Covid-2019 pandemic had just started spreading, but it was nowhere in India. At that time, I realised that deep tech is going to be the next big thing, so I started exploring it. In another era, I would have taken more time to launch something of this stature and vision, but with the pandemic, I knew the time was just right and along with our core team, we worked intensively to put it together.”

    With RD&X, Dingra plans to create a global network of data and technology companies that are aiming to lead the next leg of development. He is already in advanced-level talks with a number of small and mid-sized companies in the US, SEA, and EMEA markets to grow the network and is expecting to make some big announcements in the coming six months. 

    “I'm open to investing in, acquiring, and even buying out some early-stage companies to fit in our larger vision. We are right now investing right now for skill and not for scale, so the core idea right now is to aid our inorganic growth and create strong teams across geographies and then focus on the organic part of it. At the same time, we are creating in-house flagship solutions and looking forward to expanding our India team.” 

    On offerings of RD&X

    For Dingra, the term RD&X is the amalgamation of three things; real-time data, disruptive technologies, and exponential growth and that’s what is on offer at his new entrepreneurial venture. 

    “We bifurcate our core services in four key areas: structured brand transformation, business transformation, media transformation (across buying, planning, and selling spaces), and data transformation. As we go along, we will further fine tune these areas and introduce better tools and technologies to achieve exponential growth for our clients,” he elaborated. 

    “We are going to leverage technology to create and aid new business models. The examples of these are companies like Urban Clap and TikTok. While the former used the latest technology to transform how business is done at salons or home cleaning services, etc., TikTok based on real-time data and technology, did social media in a completely new and unique way.” 

    On the brand identity of RD&X

    While RD&X stands for the exponential growth driven by real-time data and disruptive technologies, the brand name also signifies his own initials, and X stands for the x-factor of all entrepreneurs who are investing in the venture, quipped Dingra. 

    “The brand name signifies an entrepreneurial network which is transformist in nature, which has the attitude of constantly learning, evolving, and making new mistakes,” he explained. 

    The logo, designed by Dingra, hints at the constant juggle between market profits and losses. “If you look at our logo, it has three colours: red, black, and white. Black and red colours have a great significance in the business world; they reflex the profit and loss situations. For me, profit and loss are a unique matrix– for example, Kodak was in the black when it suddenly vanished, and Instagram had been in the red for the longest time but today it is one of the most popular social media platforms. So, it is all very volatile and it comes to the spirit of the team to take none of this seriously. The white stands for the canvas in which these other colours stand; means that no matter where you are today, you will always be on a blank canvas and have the opportunity to transform yourself for better.”

    He continued, “The infinity sign on our logo is not connected completely. It signifies that transformation is never complete, it’s ever going.” 

    On the geo-agnostic, remote-first culture of RD&X

    Dingra is excited to create a unique geo-agnostic work-culture at RD&X, something that has been made immensely easy by the pandemic-induced lockdown and the evolved work-culture. He foresees the firm as a completely employee-first organisation and has created a massive culture and people manifesto for it. “To me, being employee-first means giving up the blanket rules and regulations that we have for all the employees. We need to stop seeing them as another resource but rather as individuals and that is what is going to be our core focus at RD&X,” he said.

    Additionally, he’s willing to create a hybrid work model for the employees. “We will be investing in physical spaces, definitely, so that people have a place to get together and discuss ideas and work together, but we want to be remote-first. That means, people can work from anywhere they want; if they are comfortable at their own homes, they can choose to work from there, but if there are people who are more productive and comfortable in office-spaces, they can come and work from the office. There is going to be no compulsion of any sort for anyone.” 

  • WATConsult’s Rajiv Dingra launches RD&X

    WATConsult’s Rajiv Dingra launches RD&X

    NEW DELHI: Rajiv Dingra (previously founder and CEO of WATConsult, a digital agency part of global network Dentsu International) has announced the launch of his latest entrepreneurial venture, RD&X Network — a deep-tech network that will drive brand, business, media and data transformation helping businesses globally become real-time, disruptive, and thereby achieve exponential growth.

    RD&X Network endeavours to leverage the impending deep tech and business model disruption across marketing, advertising, media, and business consulting with its unique transformational offerings. An initial corpus of $10 million has been committed for its organic and inorganic growth worldwide. Aiming to be a geography agnostic and remote-first company, its expansion plans include strategic acquisitions and investments in early-stage companies in areas of deep tech, gig economy, mar-tech, and ad-tech. Parallelly, in-house flagship solutions are also currently under development.

    While the India hub will serve as a global capability centre powering shared services and technology, there will be three international hubs in the US, EMEA, and SEA respectively. These hubs will function as centres of excellence offering brand, business, media, and data transformation services. RD&X Network is currently in advanced stages of discussion with multiple disruptive early-stage companies in each of these markets to join the network and plans to be fully operational across global markets by the end of Q2 2021.

    RD&X Network founder and CEO Rajiv Dingra said, “This decade belongs to deep tech disruption and every organization around the world will need to evolve through transformation to stay relevant today and grow in the future. We believe that the gig economy coupled with deep tech will create new business models that are agile and effective to scale globally. The disruption caused by the pandemic provided us with a huge opportunity of building a global network in the new normal. The impact of COVID-19 has accelerated the necessity for businesses to rapidly adopt technologies like AI, Blockchain, Robotics, XR, and IoT to navigate an uncertain future. We are already seeing early-stage companies at the forefront of this disruption and we are excited by our ongoing discussions with them. We look forward to such disruptive companies becoming a part of our network.”

    Rajiv started his entrepreneurial journey at the age of 20 in 2005. He founded his second venture WATConsult in 2007 which became a globally awarded digital agency from India with a team of 400 people. In 2015, he sold the majority stake in WATConsult in a successful multi-million dollar exit and became a part of the global advertising network Dentsu International. He stepped down from his position of Founder & CEO after 13 years in January 2020. During his time at Dentsu International, he played a key role as a lead member of the Digital Council and the Executive Board.

  • WATConsult elevates Heeru Dingra as CEO

    WATConsult elevates Heeru Dingra as CEO

    MUMBAI: WATConsult, the globally awarded hybrid digital agency from the house of Dentsu Aegis Network, has announced leadership changes. Effective from 01 February 2020 Heeru Dingra will be the chief executive officer (CEO) of the agency and Rajiv Dingra, the current CEO will move on to the role of chief mentor and advisor for WATConsult.

    Dingra, who is currently the CHRO & CFO, will now have a new role and an expanded set of responsibilities, overlooking the entire executive duties of the agency. In last 9 years of her journey at WATConsult, Dingra has played a vital role in building a team of more than 400 people and managing the day to day activities. She will continue to report to Dentsu Aegis Network India CEO Anand Bhadkamkar.

    The newly created roles will play an essential part in the agency’s vision towards growth and expansion in the coming years.

    Dingra said, “I am truly honoured to lead WATConsult which is full of talented people and brilliant brands. I am looking forward to work closely with our exceptional senior leadership team, along with Rajiv. Together, we will capture the next waves of growth for WATConsult by remaining laser-focused to serve our clients, deliver long term growth and value creation and provide the best career experiences for our people.”

    Anand Bhadkamkar said, “Heeru has been an integral part of WATConsult's growth story. She has led the agency alongside Rajiv in the capacity of CFO and CHRO and has an intimate understanding of this business. She works very closely with the leadership team at the agency and across DAN and is uniquely positioned to take on the role of chief executive officer at WATConsult. I am excited to have Heeru lead WATConsult on its next phase of growth alongside Rajiv, who now takes charge as the agency's chief mentor & advisor."

    “After leading WATConsult for the last 13 years, it’s time I move on to a new phase in this journey,”  Dingra said. “This new role would allow me to help guide the team in crafting an ambitious vision and would also allow the team at WATConsult to scale up in newer roles and achieve their personal growth.”

  • 84% of Instagram users are likely to shop using the platform

    84% of Instagram users are likely to shop using the platform

    MUMBAI: The digital and social media agency from Dentsu Aegis Network, WATConsult, under its market research division, Recogn, has launched its latest report on Instagram in India from a user's perspective.

    The report focuses on the user’s point of view on Instagram, highlighting usage patterns, content likeability, celebrity influence and what pushes them to shop on the platform. Interestingly, ads on Instagram that are perceived to be appealing lead users to search for more information for the said products or services, enabling users to shop. More than 75 per cent of the shoppers have had a satisfactory experience while shopping from Instagram and a majority of them are likely to shop in the future as well. Instagram, which was perceived to be a discovery platform because of visual nature and stickiness, has over time transformed itself into a platform that induces discovery as well as an influence leading to a purchase decision.

     Below are some key findings of the report:

    ·       Currently, Instagram has 117.1 million monthly active users and average time spent per user is 45 minutes

    ·       Instagrammers spend most of the time on the platform in the evening between 4-8 PM

    ·       For the users to be willing to purchase something on Instagram, they need to be made aware of the authenticity of the product. More than 75 per cent of the shoppers have had a satisfactory experience while shopping from Instagram and a majority are likely to shop in the future

    ·       84 per cent of the users are influenced by the platform resulting in likelihood to shop via Instagram

    ·       More than 50 per cent of the consumers have shopped using Instagram. Close to 75 per cent of the users from small metros and small towns have shopped using Instagram

    ·       51 per cent of the Instagrammers access it at least once a day with a large proportion of Instagram users accessing it multiple times in a day (32 per cent)

    ·       29 per cent of users prefer to upload images in the experiential categories or upload images of traveling, food etc. 26 per cent of the users like to upload videos and 24 per cent of the users upload stories, etc.

    Speaking on the same, WATConsult founder and CEO Rajiv Dingra said, “Instagram as a platform has grown tremendously in the last 2 years, and the user adaption rate is very quick. The app has a strong presence in the remotest of the city in our country. With this report, we are bringing forward to the industry, the behavioral patterns of the users, shopping habits and trends which can indeed add value to the brands in terms of shaping their marketing strategies.”

    According to the research, the usage of the social media platform Instagram is one of the highest amongst the respondent base. Users prefer to use social media platforms that they perceive to be informative, cool, enjoyable, popular and creative. The users perceive Instagram to be cool and somewhat interesting and trendy. One of the primary reasons people prefer to use this platform is for entertainment, to get inspired by seeing creative content from famous celebs in addition to being able to express their views.

  • WATConsult bags digital duties for Goibibo

    WATConsult bags digital duties for Goibibo

    MUMBAI: WATConsult, the digital and social media agency from the house of Dentsu Aegis Network, has won the digital mandate for Goibibo, India’s leading online travel company. The mandate includes digital media management and digital creative duties of the brand.

    As part of the mandate, WATConsult will focus on strategizing, conceptualising and developing digital campaigns to help expand the brand’s visibility and presence in the social media landscape. Additionally, the agency will be managing the creative duties of Goibibo on all digital platforms.

    Goibibo is one of the best-recognised online travel brand that provides a range of choice in all things travel – hotels, flights, trains, bus and intercity & airport cabs for travellers. It is one of the most trusted online travel companies in terms of providing quickest travel-linked search, bookings, fastest payments, refund processes and user experience. To further build and escalate its social media presence, the brand has partnered with WATConsult, which will help them reach out to a wider audience across the country, through interesting and innovating social media campaigns.

    Speaking on the win, WATConsult founder and CEO Rajiv Dingra commented, “With people eagerly exploring newer travel options than the traditional ones, the Indian online travel segment has been gaining a great momentum. With the best-in-class technology and user experience, Goibibo is one of India’s most trusted brands and we look forward to bring in some engaging and captivating campaigns, using our expertise of adapting newer technology, in the best possible way.”

    Sharing thoughts on collaborating with WATConsult chief marketing officer Sunil Suresh Goibibo said, “Goibibo is the travel brand of choice for young India on the move. At a time when Indians are increasingly making their choices on digital platforms – we want to convey our brand stories that are creative and engaging on the platform of choice of our customers. We are excited to collaborate with the young and vibrant team at WATConsult to help build wider and deeper connect with the ever-increasing base of digitally savvy Indian travellers.”

  • Bajaj Allianz General Insurance creates a new wave, launches ‘Pyaar Ki Azaadi’

    Bajaj Allianz General Insurance creates a new wave, launches ‘Pyaar Ki Azaadi’

    MUMBAI: The Year 2018 saw a new wave when the honorable Supreme Court of India decriminalized article 377. This historic verdict came across as a huge step in the direction of equality for the LGBTQIA+ community. This Independence Day, it will be for the first time that the community will rejoice the feeling of freedom, just like any other Indian in the country.

    Celebrating this new beginning, one of India's leading general insurance brand, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance under its new brand identity, ‘Caringly Yours’ and WATConsult, the digital and social media agency from Dentsu Aegis Network joined hands to launch a campaign, titled ‘Pyaar Ki Azaadi.’

    Leveraging all social media platforms, the brand launched a campaign video, showcasing the diversity of the world that we live in and the inclusion of the LGBTQAI+ community, as an extension of the brand’s core essence of care and inclusion. The video highlights this community coming together, cherishing and celebrating their true freedom to love, highlighting the sentiment of Independence Day that resonates with every Indian.

    The campaign involves renowned equal rights activist, Harish Iyer who had appealed to the honorable Supreme Court in the section 377 case along with Rahul Gopi and R Balaji, members of LGBTQAI+ community and Alisha Pais, the musician. Playing an active role, the aforementioned personalities would leverage social media platforms for creating empowering and encouraging conversations for "Pyaar Ki Azaadi"

    The talent starring in the film are from the community and the supporters of this community, standing up in solidarity. The film is designed to highlight the voice and sentiments of LGBTQIA+ persons with the poetic monologue complementing the sigh of relief when freedom ushers in. The video also aims at fostering a sentiment of care and inclusion towards this community.

    Rajiv Dingra, Founder and CEO, WATConsult said, “Pyaar Ki Azaadi is a step to celebrate the unique feeling of independence on this very first Independence Day since decriminalization of all kinds of expressions of love between all genders under section 377 under the Indian Penal Code. This campaign is a step to spread a message of love, care, respect and equality. Bajaj Allianz General Insurance has always been an inclusive brand and this is an opportunity to acknowledge a new possibility of national inclusion in India in a never-seen-before way.”

    Harish Iyer, Equal Rights Activist, Founder – The Jimmy Foundation, said, “Equality is not a privilege, it is our birthright. We all deserve the share of the equal sun. This initiative by Bajaj Allianz rekindles the flame of freedom within us. The fight for equality is a lifelong one. Initiatives like these will open minds and build an equal society that everyone can profit from. According to the World Bank report the economic cost of Homophobia is billions of dollars. In such a case – equality is the only true antidote to the recession-driven economy. Equality fosters profits. Equality fosters stability.”