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Tag: Satyajit Sen

  • Havas Media Indonesia appoints Satyajit Sen as CEO

    Havas Media Indonesia appoints Satyajit Sen as CEO

    MUMBAI: Havas Group Indonesia has bolstered its leadership strength with the appointment of Satyajit Sen as Havas Media CEO. In his new role, Sen’s mandate will be to accelerate Havas Media Indonesia’s journey of transformation and exponential growth with a focus on collaboration, new business momentum, and building and leading future-ready teams. He will report to Havas Group, SEA, India and north Asia chairman and CEO Vishnu Mohan.

    A media and marketing professional with 29 years of experience across leading and challenger brands across verticals, Sen joins Havas Indonesia from Samsung India where led the media management function from 2014. While at Samsung, Satyajit is credited with consistently improving performance and effectiveness of ad spend in turbulent market conditions.  Prior to Samsung, Sen was the CEO of ZenithOptimedia Group India where he successfully grew the business, consolidated key accounts and built the performance marketing team from scratch.

    Mohan said, “Satyajit’s proven expertise in delivering value across the spectrum of media services encompassing digital, content and data coupled with extremely strong leadership skills will build on what we have already achieved in Indonesia, which has a strong portfolio of media clients like Indofood, Grab, and Godrej and take Havas Indonesia forward in its next phase of growth and expansion. His experience encompassing both brand and agency will be huge advantage in a critical market like Indonesia. I am delighted to welcome Satyajit to the Havas family and I am confident that he will propel Havas Indonesia in its next phase of evolution.”

    “This is an interesting opportunity in changing and challenging times. Havas has been a pioneer in integration with its Village model of organisational structure and this multi-dimensional approach to marketing and advertising is exactly what clients are looking for. I am extremely excited to be a part of Havas Group’s futuristic agency model and looking forward to working with the team to start a new chapter for Havas Media in Indonesia,” said Sen.

    Sen’s appointment is effective immediately and he is based out of Jakarta.

  • ZenithOptimedia gets a new CEO and managing partner

    ZenithOptimedia gets a new CEO and managing partner

    MUMBAI: ZenithOptimedia has seen two major exits with Satyajit Sen and Navin Khemka moving on from the agency after eight years.

     

    Sen held the position of chief executive officer of agency while Khemka was the company’s managing partner.

     

    On their exit, ZenithOptimedia Group CEO Anupriya Acharya said, “After putting in eight years with ZenithOptimedia, Satya has decided to embrace a new challenge. We thank him for all his contributions to ZO and wish him all the very best. ZOG thanks Navin also for his contributions and wishes him well in his next assignment.”

     

    The agency has got on board Madison Pinnacle COO Dnyanada Chaudhari as the managing partner for ZenithOptimedia India and former JWT digital ECD Prasanna Kulkarni as the chief creative officer.

     

    Chaudhari will be based out of the agency’s Gurgaon office and on her appointment said, “I’m excited to be back and strongly believe in ZenithOptimedia’s Live ROI principle and am very keen on partnering marketing teams to not just look at efficiencies but to also strategically leverage alliances to drive thought leadership and brand ROI.”

     

    On her appointment, Acharya said, “Chaudhari brings with her the exact expertise needed for this role. Her diverse background across strategy, buying and media management as well as experience with large scale businesses, is especially suited to create and refresh our trading architecture and execution across all media including TV, print, radio, digital, OOH, experiential and other specialist services.”

     

     Based out of Mumbai, Kulkarni will be in-charge of creative and content marketing solutions across ZenithOptimedia, Performics, Resultrix and Newcast.

     

    Commenting on his new role, Kulkarni said, “Great opportunity to work across the focus groups like performance based marketing, content led communication solutions, and integrated campaigns with ZenithOptimedia and its divisions, extremely glad to be part of such multidisciplinary team at ZOG. I look forward to taking the organisation’s creative capabilities to the next level by elevating the bar for innovative content. I am confident we are on our way to making ZenithOptimedia, Performics, Resultrix and Newcast a stimulating place for creatives and patrons alike.

     

    On the appointment, Acharya said, “Increasingly we are finding our client requiring creative content solutions across not only online but even on integrated campaigns. Kulkarni’s role is towards driving competitive edge in our product through superior integration of creative and content solutions. In fact as we move ahead, we will be looking at getting more and more diversified talent on board.”

  • ZenithOptimedia bags media account of Bharti Retail

    MUMBAI: Bharti Retail, which operates a chain of multiple format stores, has awarded its media duties to ZenithOptimedia.

    Says ZenithOptimedia CEO Satyajit Sen, “It‘s a big win for us. Bharti Retail is a major client and retail is a great space to be in. We are also feeling good about it because we have won it against a media giant like Madison.”

    The account was being serviced by Madison Media. ZenithOptimedia had earlier taken the media account of Yatra.com from Madison.

    Madison Media had won the Bharti Walmart account in 2008 and had been handling it since then.

  • Ad Slowdown Looms

    Ad Slowdown Looms

    MUMBAI: A slowdown in the advertising economy looms large amid weakening domestic growth, a sliding rupee and wobbly markets.

    Fears of a crisis worse than the Lehman days in 2008 are spreading fast and wide as India reports its economic growth for the latest quarter at a nine-year low of 5.3 per cent.

    The ad economy will now struggle to match up to the early hope of a 10-12 per cent growth this year.

    Admits GroupM South Asia CEO Vikram Sakhuja, “The slowdown will certainly impact ad spends. We had forecast a 12 per cent growth for the advertising industry in 2012. But now that the economy is going through a slowdown, it will be difficult to assess at this stage the exact extent of impact it will have for the year.”

    A GroupM study pegs the ad industry size at Rs 333.88 billion in 2011, up 13 per cent. It estimates this to grow 12 per cent to Rs 373.97 billion.

    Madison Media has been more conservative with the growth estimates, expecting the media advertising industry to grow 9 per cent to Rs 280.13 billion in 2012.

    Forecasters will need time to make adjustments to their predictions made at the early part of the year. But many of them feel the need to make only minor downward revisions unless the clouds get stormier.

    “A clear pattern in consumer spends is not yet visible. A clearer picture will emerge three months down the road,” says Lodestar UM CEO Shashi Sinha.

    Historically, ad spends have seen cuts when the economic growth has softened.

    Says DraftFCB Ulka Advertising ED and CEO MG Parameswaram, “We have noticed that over the last decade ad spends are broadly aligned with GDP growth numbers. We have seen that when GDP crosses 7 per cent, it has a beneficial effect on ad spends. Similarly when it goes below 5 per cent, it sends signals for a big ad cut. Fortunately we have not gone below 5 per cent, but 5.3 per cent is still bad enough.”

    Media analysts feel the road is going to be bumpy this fiscal. Last month, for example, is a bump for the auto sector. Maruti, India‘s largest carmaker, reported a 4 per cent dip in sales in May while Hyundai Motor, the second in rank, saw a paltry 3 per cent rise.

    The demand outlook is unlikely to improve, made still harsh by a sharp increase in petrol price. External factors and a slow start may upset the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) to roll back its forecast of 10-12 per cent sales growth for the fiscal.

    Says ZenithOptimedia CEO Satyajit Sen, “Consumption will get impacted and there will be pressure on price. Being dollar dependent, the telecom handset manufacturers will be hurt. The financial sector will also see a slowdown. Everything, however, will depend on how we recover from the shock of the fourth-quarter economy growth numbers.”

    Print will be hurt the most if this slide continues and companies start shrinking their advertising budgets. Television networks, who depend heavily on advertising as their source of revenue, will also feel the heat.

    Says Sen, “Magazines and radio will feel the pinch while television will be the least affected medium.”

    Multi Screen Media president network sales, licensing & telephony Rohit Gupta agrees that television is more resilient than the other ad mediums. “Television is still the cheapest medium and in hard times we have traditionally seen print and hoarding face ad cuts. Even in the ‘Lehman‘ crisis, television grew by 10 per cent.”

    The mood among Indian industrialists is gloomy as they believe that the economic mess is largely due to government mismanagement and policy paralysis. Despite the European economy getting more desperate and the world, including China, slowing down, a broader ad retreat will not happen if the government starts taking corrective measures.

    Companies, however, have already started making efforts to ensure that their ad budgets drive in efficiencies.

    Says TV Today Network CEO Joy Chakraborthy, “Advertisers are spending but are showing more caution. In case of a slowdown, they will relook at genres and their advertising mix. Sports (read Cricket) may take a hit as it is a high-investment genre. Niche channels may also get impacted.”

    Broadcasters, in fact, will find it difficult to define their terms in case of hard negotiations with media agencies. Advertisers will take a hard look at expensive genres.

    Says Sen, “The price inflation in GECs (general entertainment channels) will be under question mark. However, the genre is still a valid opportunity.”

    Gupta does not agree that mass entertainment channels will feel the pinch. “The categories which are heavy on GECs are not going to cut back their ad spends. FMCGS are doing well and telecom service providers will continue to invest in promotions. Even the auto sector, which has increased its share of ad spends on TV, will be visible as there are many car launches taking place. Retail, finance and the manufacturing sector, which are seeing a slowdown, are, in any case, not heavy on television.”

    News TV broadcasters, however, depend on the financial and retail sectors. They are already struggling to up ad rates due to competition and fragmentation in the genre.

    Joy, however, believes that the situation can‘t worsen for them as news is still a terribly underpriced genre. There are also spike events in the calendar like the Olympics and the elections.

    “News broadcasters will not get affected unless the slowdown really starts biting more broadly. Let us not forget that news has a wider source of advertisers. Local advertisers are also present. The time, however, has arrived for innovative sales,” he says.

    The next two quarters are going to be crucial and companies will swing their ad budgets accordingly.

    Says LG CMO L.K. Gupta, “If the next couple of quarters or so are bad, then companies will draw up alternatives in terms of marketing spends.”

    Advertising will become sales driven. “With the consumer market being hit and inflation staying high, ad spends will definitely take a blow. The bottom line of companies will be under pressure. Advertising in this backdrop will have to be ROI oriented,” says ZenithOptimedia managing partner Sanjoy Chakraborty.

    India is facing headwinds from high gas prices, a slowing global economy and financial crisis in Europe. However, nursing the economy back to health will depend on the government‘s drive to manage the fiscal deficit and introduce policy reforms so that investments flow in. The ad industry can only hope that the situation doesn‘t turn grim.

    (With inputs from Prachi Srivastava & Urvi Malvania)

  • Best Foods awards media duties to ZenithOptimedia

    Best Foods awards media duties to ZenithOptimedia

    MUMBAI: ZenithOptimedia India has bagged the media planning and buying duties for Best Foods after a multi-agency pitch.

    The business was won through a competitive pitch amongst the top four media buying agencies in New Delhi.

    Best Foods is one of the largest rice producers, engaged in supply and trade of series of rice, health and wellness products.

    “As traditional Indian companies expand their market base to an evolved consumer, in an over cluttered marketplace, it becomes imperative to communicate through effective communication mediums. Our neutral touch point approach will help optimise the best marketing mix for the launch. We are very excited to work on yet another launch in India and are confident of achieving the desired ROI,” said ZenithOptimedia India CEO Satyajit Sen.

    Best Foods business director Aayushman Gupta added, “We are delighted to have ZenithOptimedia as our media partners for our India launch. It is their deep understanding on launching brands in India and their holistic approach to reaching all consumer touch points helped us decided on ZO. They are able to give Best a complete 360 solution to our go to market strategy.”