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Tag: Saurabh Varma

  • WondrLab Network acquires Polish agency Webtalk, Launches European Hub

    WondrLab Network acquires Polish agency Webtalk, Launches European Hub

    Mumbai: Wondrlab digital network, announces the acquisition of WebTalk. This strategic milestone marks Wondrlab’s fifth acquisition and its first international venture since its inception in 2020. The company has also announced the appointment of Jarek Ziebinski as chairman of the Supervisory Board of its European Hub in Poland.

    Founded in 2010, WebTalk, led by Michal Dunin, is a results-driven B2C digital marketing agency known for delivering outstanding outcomes in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region. With a decade of experience, WebTalk, comprising 100 specialists, serves 40 clients including Kia Motors, BNP Paribas, Heinz, Bosch, Volkswagen, Total, and Siemens among others, in Poland, CEE, and central Asia. It offers a comprehensive suite of services including digital strategy, social media management, content creation, paid media oversight, and innovative e-commerce support. Going forward Michal Dunin will be responsible for managing the newly created Wondrlab’s European Hub in Poland.

    Jarek Zielinski, a renowned figure in the global advertising market comes with over three decades of experience in marketing, media, and advertising. His illustrious career includes significant roles at Leo Burnett, where he managed the agency’s network in Central and Eastern Europe and served as CEO and chairman of Leo Burnett Asia-Pacific. Jarek’s role as Global CEO of Publicis One at Publicis Groupe further underscores his proficiency in change management and large-scale business transformation.

    With the launch of Wondrlab’s European hub, clients gain immediate access to services, products, and platforms across key pillars: Digital Video, Content & Community, Digital Media & Data, and Digital Business Transformation. This strategic move aligns with Wondrlab’s commitment to holistic solutions and global brand offshoring, integrating e-commerce, production, and content management, paving the way for expansion into hubs like Vietnam and the Middle East.

    On the acquisition and Jarek’s appointment, Wondrlab Network founder & CEO Saurabh Varma said, “Historically, we have witnessed global companies acquiring Indian companies. The moment has arrived for Indian companies to acquire global companies. This is our time. Today signifies a crucial milestone in our journey towards establishing a world-class network that sets global standards from India. This is our fifth acquisition and in 36-48 months we’ll be looking at 21 more acquisitions. Our journey in Europe is just beginning. This is one of the many acquisitions we’ll be making in Poland. The way we are thinking about our global network is a function of not just products and services but also building strategic hubs based out of India, Poland, the Middle East, and Vietnam. Warsaw is one of the critical pillars toward building our global organization, and we couldn’t have found a better partner in Jarek and Michal to drive our global ambition. The WebTalk team will be deploying a lot of the tech created in India to create magic for clients in Poland, CEE, and across the world. It is an absolute pleasure that Jarek has chosen to be a part of Wondrlab’s growth journey. Jarek has been my mentor, boss, and friend for more than 15

    years and I possibly could not find a better guru to supercharge our global ambition. He’s played a key role in helping us kick-start our European hub, based in Warsaw with the acquisition of WebTalk. And we will aggressively follow this with acquisitions across our key verticals – Digital Video Content & Community, Digital Media & Data and Digital Business Transformation.”

    Sharing his thoughts on joining Wondrlab, Jarek Ziebinski, said, “I am genuinely thrilled by the dynamic synergy between Poland and India, two innovation hubs that perfectly align with our vision. I am particularly eager to contribute to Saurabh’s ambitious plan of building full-funnel agencies across our pillars. What this synergy offers our clients in Europe is immediate access to an abundance of exceptional talent and readily available technology – a resource that can be utilized instantaneously. This partnership provides us with a strategic advantage, offering our clients ready-made tech solutions that would have otherwise taken us years to develop. With our new partner in India, we have access to scalable resources and expertise in crucial areas of marketing technology. We now possess ready-made products that can be swiftly deployed across our European clients, marking a significant leap forward. I look forward to being an integral part of Wondrlab’s growth story and contributing to its transformative journey in redefining the digital marketing landscape.”

    WebTalk founder & managing director Michal Dunin said, “Becoming part of Wondrlab is an exhilarating new chapter for WebTalk. Wondrlab’s focus on platforms, product innovation, and leveraging tech provided by Wondrlab will greatly benefit our clients in the broader CEE region. Our focus remains on delivering exceptional value to our clients ensuring that they have immediate access to the fantastic platforms built by Wondrlab such as Wisr, Hector (a performance marketing tool to win on Amazon), and the Salesforce talent in Cymetrix, from the get-go. My immediate priority is enabling our clients to leverage innovative solutions right from the start, propelling their success in the dynamic digital landscape. I look forward to working with Jarek to identify and acquire companies in Poland which can help us become a compelling hub out of Warsaw.”

  • Wondrlab launches open tech platform WISR

    Wondrlab launches open tech platform WISR

    MUMBAI: MarTech network Wondrlab has launched ‘WISR’. This is an open tech platform that connects brands and schools with the ambition to empower schools through brand partnerships.

    Wondrlab said that it believes in the power of brands and ‘marketing for good’. WISR was created to fundamentally solve the problem of below-par teacher salaries and the poor state of infrastructure in schools. Brands have the power to solve this problem. Wondrlab believes that WISR has the potential to add 20 percent additional salary for teachers across every participating school.

    WISR is a platform that creates additional revenue streams for schools. The opportunity is to help brands create unique opportunities to connect with 260 million students in more than 1.5 million schools across the country.
    The segment presents an opportunity for brands. Kids have huge power and influence purchase decisions across many key categories. The pocket money of kids even in 2017 was 22000 crore and grew by 100 percent every five years (in fact the pocket money is more than the GDP of 52 countries).

    The problem for marketers has always been a disorganised database. Seeking permissions has always been a manual and extremely cumbersome process. There has never been any ability to track and measure the effectiveness of communication initiatives.

    WISR lets brands Identify schools: an intelligent algorithm selects the right schools based on the category, marketing objectives and budgets. The platform lets brands schedule, deploy and optimize campaigns at the click of a button.

    WISR, at its launch, covers more than 1500 schools across 21 cities.It will onboard more than 50,000 schools over the next five years.

    Wondrlab founder & CEO Saurabh Varma said, “Our schools need help. They need help to better teacher salaries, create better infrastructure and create superior experiences for students. Brands can play a constructive role in making this happen. India’s move towards a five trillion economy is conditional on a superior education. That is our power. It will be extremely satisfying if we can play a small role in making this dream a possibility.”

    Wondrlab co-founder & managing partner Vandana Verma said, “Our aim with WISR is to do marketing for good. But we understand that this comes with its own set of challenges. As schools benefit from brand partnerships, they are also faced with a moral responsibility towards children with regard to the pieces of communication they interact with. So, to safeguard this, the platform has on-boarded a panel of educationalists, child psychologists, and a legal team of experts responsible for vetting all brand communication. As a team, they will ensure that all school guidelines and ethical advertising principles are being adhered to. The open platform will let all brands, media agencies and creative agencies participate across key verticals like sports, health hygiene and edutainment.”

    Wondrlab CTO Siddhyesh Narkar said, “Building this platform in-house has been a thrilling and rewarding experience. Careful planning and a clear vision have helped us develop this platform into something impactful. WISR allows school and brands collaborations by successfully deploying technology, data, and robotization.”

  • Wondrlab acquires performance marketing agency Neon

    Wondrlab acquires performance marketing agency Neon

    Mumbai: Leading MarTech network Wondrlab has acquired Neon – a leading performance marketing agency. The Neon acquisition follows the WYP acquisition and the Opportune acquisition.

    Neon uses data, creativity, and deep platform understanding to successfully deliver bottom-of-the-funnel campaigns. Since its inception, the agency has helped more than 100 brands grow, by delivering on conversions and leads.  

    Wondrlab advocates a full-funnel approach to helping brands win. This acquisition strengthens Wondrlab’s promise by enabling its clients to straddle brand creation as well as monetization. This is especially necessary for building a first-party digital landscape to survive in a cookie-less future.

    Wondrlab founder & CEO Saurabh Varma said, “Meher and his team share our passion for building incredible solutions that straddle both products and service. As the teams come together, it will help us deliver a seamless full-funnel experience for our clients. Super exciting.”

    Neon founder Meher Patel said, “We are excited to be a part of the Wondrlab family. The ambition to build India’s first Network is exciting, to say the least. The singular focus on delivering on the full funnel seamlessly is exciting. What is even more exciting is the ability of the Group to have real skin in the game. Our journey at Neon gets new wings.”

    “The only way to deliver on the full-funnel promise is to have incredible leadership and deep specialization. The balance between great storytelling and delivering performance has to go hand-in-hand. Beyond that, the chemistry and the human connection are critical. That is what we have focused on through the acquisition phase. Wondrlab wishes a warm welcome to the entire Neon family,” Wondrlab co-founder and managing partner Rakesh Hinduja added.

    Speaking on the acquisition, Neon co-founder Yesha Shetty said, “As a creative leader focused on performance, I look forward to learning how Wondrlab teams create magic through a deep understanding of human behaviour. And I look forward to adding my specialization to making the same thinking relevant and performance worthy. There is so much for us to accomplish together.”

    Malabar Capital Advisors served as financial consultants for the Neon acquisition.

  • M&E veterans Saurabh Varma, Utpal Acharya launch Content Engineers

    M&E veterans Saurabh Varma, Utpal Acharya launch Content Engineers

    Mumbai: Former Jio Studios chief marketing officer Saurabh Varma has joined hands with a former executive from Cinépolis Gulf and Sony Pictures Utpal Acharya to form a content creation studio – Content Engineers.

    According to a statement, the studio will put $50 million as an initial investment to create all forms of intellectual properties including feature films, web series, documentaries and docudramas to cater to both theatrical and OTT space.

    Content Engineers is backed by Silicon Valley-based technology consulting and Angel investing enterprise Veear Projects which has networks all across North America and Asia.

    “The content will focus on grass-rooted Indian stories with Indian values. The vision is to create films based on new-age, heart-warming Indian stories that will connect with audiences all across the world,” a statement said.

    The firm will set up its own ideation cell and think tanks, disruptive media-tech initiatives, technology innovations, VFX studios, a post-production unit, and virtual production and script lab. The team at Content Engineers will consist of writers, storytellers, content creators from all across India including tier 2 and 3 towns with a focus on commercially viable original stories.

    Varma has worked with Jio Studios, Inox, Reliance Entertainment and PVR Ltd, handling marketing, distribution, programming and content syndication. Varma has also directed multiple feature films. Acharya has been part of giant corporates like Sony Pictures, UTV, Studio18, Reliance Entertainment and Cinepolis Gulf handling box office, sales, business development, production, distribution, programming, content acquisition and syndication. Both will bring in the experience of over 45 years and more than 1500+ films together.

    “Good stories can survive the toughest of times and well-engineered content has the power to put ideas into the world today,” said Saurabh Varma. “The recent growth in demand for content due to the rise of so many OTT platforms has opened a world of opportunities to explore disruptive content. In today’s world, where language is no longer a barrier, we intend to create grass-rooted Indian content that is Indian and yet global in its appeal. Content Engineers intends to invest in people, emotions and stories seamlessly link these elements to create impactful and meaningful content.”

    “Apart from creating relevant IP’s and disruptive content, Content Engineers aim to build a wholesome system that will nurture the chosen projects from scripting till it reaches the audiences worldwide,” said Utpal Acharya. “At times, a good narrative fails to get the right audience due to the lack of proper strategy and initiatives. Content Engineers aims to fill that void by forming a fine balance between the creative and the commerce thinking in the media-tech business.”

  • Jio Studios onboards Saurabh Varma as chief marketing officer

    Jio Studios onboards Saurabh Varma as chief marketing officer

    Mumbai: Jio Studios on Monday announced the appointment of Saurabh Varma as its chief marketing officer.

    Noted business analyst and film critic Taran Adarsh shared this news on his Twitter handle, stating, “Saurabh will be handling Content Marketing Strategy for Films, OTT and Regional content.”

    Prior to joining Jio Studios, Varma has worked as a chief marketing officer at Inox Leisure, where he was a part of more than 700 films and launched more than 500 cinema screens. Varma worked at Inox from 2005 to 2007 as vice president, film distribution and programming and later joined Inox again in 2018 to work as the CMO.

    Varma also served as the CMO at Reliance Entertainment, from 2007 to 2009, where he was responsible for film marketing, film distribution, content acquisition, and more related segments. He has also worked at PVR Cinemas as vice president, marketing and corporate communications, and was a film director and film marketing consultant at Saurabh Varma Pictures where he has provided marketing expertise to top studios of India.

  • Wondrlab will be an omnichannel strategist for clients: Saurabh Varma

    Wondrlab will be an omnichannel strategist for clients: Saurabh Varma

    NEW DELHI: When Leo Burnett opened the doors to his new-found agency in the middle of the Great Depression, he started a ritual of welcoming all visitors by giving them apples. At that time, many had prophesied that it won’t be long before Burnett ends up selling apples instead of giving them away. Cut to 85-years later, Leo Burnett is one of the largest agencies in the world, and its global offices still keep apple baskets on their reception desks – a sweet reminder of where it all started. 

    While this yarn has been told and retold several times, Saurabh Varma, an industry genius who spent several years working with Leo Burnett and eventually Publicis, derived inspiration from it. He also went one step further by launching his own venture, a platform-first agency – Wondrlab – amidst a global pandemic and impending economic slowdown. 

    In an exclusive conversation with Indiantelevision.com, Varma highlighted that though it is difficult to begin something in times like these, he wanted to challenge the things that he had earlier taken for granted. 

    Started in partnership with his long-term colleagues and friends Vandana Verma and Rakesh Hinduja, Wondrlab is Varma’s ambitious project aiming to help clients win in the new marketing landscape. 

    He explains, “Wondrlab is a model communications company that aims to provide disruptive services to its clients in experiential, content, and brand building strategies with a platform-first approach. We are planning to partner with platforms like Facebook, Google, YouTube, etc, to offer our clients solutions that suit their needs the best depending on which platform they are targeting. We are going to be the omnichannel strategists for them.” 

    Wondrlab will invest in creating martech platforms to provide tools to enable hitherto complex expensive bespoke executions at the push of a button. All of Wondrlab’s solutions are backed by data and automation that leads to efficiency, measurability and ROI through user-friendly platform interfaces, centralised marketing controls, personalised content and automated solutions at scale.

    Varma shares that Wondrlab is seeking some strategic alliances and acquisitions to achieve this. 

    Apart from this, his short-term goals for Wondrlab are to invest in the right people and products, support the talent development of his teams, and create spectacular work for his clients. 

    “For me, the right talent pool is the one that is always ready to evolve and learn. Since we are doing something that is industry-first, we want people who are quick learners and are capable of collaborating with various platforms to support our platform-first strategy,” he highlights. 

    Currently, Wondrlab is a 70-people team with offices in Delhi and Mumbai, but Varma and team are on a hiring spree. For the mode of work, he is seeking to find a sense of balance between remote working and presence at the offices. 

    “The whole concept of the office is a paradox now and we are looking forward to striking the right balance between the options. We will obviously be partnering with various firms and people depending on a project-to-project basis,” he shares.

    For the long term, his vision is to scale up each of the capabilities that Wondrlab promises and create a unique proposition of platform-first services, technologies, and strategies for the clients. 

  • Vandana Verma promoted as Arc Worldwide India COO by Publicis Communications

    Vandana Verma promoted as Arc Worldwide India COO by Publicis Communications

    MUMBAI: Publicis Communications India has announced the promotion of Vandana Verma as Arc Worldwide India COO. She will continue to report to Publicis Communications South Asia CEO Saurabh Varma.

    Verma holds over two decades of experience in experiential marketing and had joined Publicis Groupe in 2012 as its VP. She was handed the reins of Arc Worldwide India in 2017. Under her astute guidance, Arc Worldwide has grown to become one of the leading brand activation and experiential agencies in the country working with top notch clients such as Nerolac, Citibank, Nissan, Welspun, Shell, P&G, Fitbit, Hewlett Packard, IOC, Skoda SBI, UB Group, Hotstar, Odisha Government, Cisco, Godrej Security Solutions and Sandisk among others, within just two years.

    Through the Publicis Groupe’s “Power of One” model, Arc Worldwide works closely with its creative, media, digital and PR agencies i.e. Leo Burnett Group, Publicis Worldwide, L&K Saatchi & Saatchi, Digitas, MSL, to deliver best-in-class experiential solutions that create shopper interactions with brands. These solutions are designed using tools, learnings and expertise from across the Groupe’s global network.

    Publicis Communications South Asia CEO Saurabh Varma said, “Arc Worldwide has seen tremendous growth in the last two years in India. The agency, under Vandana’s leadership, has played a critical role in enabling and taking our ‘Power of One’ platform to greater heights. Arc Worldwide has provided its clients meaningful “Acts” merging data, technology, human insights and behaviours, to create incredible work. The next few years is going to be big for experiential marketing in India and I couldn’t have asked for a better leader than Vandana to take this head on.”

    On her new role, Vandana said, “India has proved to be one of the biggest markets for Arc Worldwide across the globe. The shopper and experiential market in India is witnessing a shift from being looked at as an “activation” or “event” management category to a more robust solutions partner for brands. This is primarily because today, people want to have an immersive experience with products. For brands in turn it’s a great time to invest more in experiential marketing because of the different tools, technology and data points we use currently to help them understand their consumers a lot more in detail. I’m looking forward to exploring more innovative ways to really use this market to its full potential and continue to deliver on best-in-class solutions for our brand.”

  • Publicis Entertainment launches in India for branded content

    Publicis Entertainment launches in India for branded content

    MUMBAI: Publicis Communications has launched Publicis Entertainment, its new entertainment marketing unit in India. The unit was formally set up in June 2018. Publicis Entertainment will help all of Publicis Communications’ agencies (Leo Burnett India, Leo Burnett Orchard, Publicis Worldwide, Publicis Capital, L&K Saatchi & Saatchi, MSL Group, Indigo Consulting, Publicis Beehive, Digitas, Sapient.Razorfish and Prodigious India) collaborate with big players in the content and entertainment space by leveraging social and digital marketing.

    Publicis Entertainment will look after brand integrations for film and TV series, IP creations, partnerships between brands and clients, and celebrity management. It aims at being a one-stop-advisory for business solutions in the branded entertainment and entertainment marketing space.

    Publicis Entertainment executive director Pranay Anthwal will head the division. He will report to Publicis Communications CEO India Saurabh Varma.

    Speaking about the launch of the new division, Varma says, “Great storytelling is happening around us, even in an attention-deficit economy. We believe this is the biggest opportunity for our brands. We want the stories of our brands to intersect organically with the beautiful human stories already being told in popular culture. And we want to go beyond. Our unique model will unfold over the next 18 months. Pranay brings an incredible amount of expertise and passion to make our ambition a reality.”

    Anthwal is a multiple award-winning branded content and entertainment specialist. His career boasts of stints at Bartle Bogle Hegarty, Starcom Worldwide, The Times of India, Star TV, DHL and Zee Interactive, among others. Pranay has marketed over 150 successful films such as Munnabhai MBBS, Lagey Raho Munnabhai, Viruddh, and Krrish, to name a few. He has worked for key clients – Sony Pictures, Columbia Tristar, Buena Vista, Disney India – in the span of his career.

    Speaking about his new role, Anthwal mentions, “I am happy to be back to the Publicis family. For far too long, branded entertainment and entertainment marketing have been in the cost-per-deal space. This is because not many creative and strategy ad agency majors were involved in this process. So far it has been, and still is, a supply side market model. We hope to play a role where we curate and recommend entertainment industry partnerships from a brand lens, in addition to focusing on brand objectives instead of deal objectives.”

    “Our focus products for the first few years will be entertainment marketing, branded entertainment and co-creation of branded entertainment IPs for our big brands. We hope to move some big investments from the expenditure column to the assets column for some of our key clients,” he added.

    Publicis Entertainment is already associated with key brands such as Fox Star Studios, HDFC Life, and Avon Beauty, among others. For Fox Star, the unit has already conceptualised and created a very successful social and digital campaign for blockbuster film Sanju

  • Sudeep Gohil moves on from Publicis India

    Sudeep Gohil moves on from Publicis India

    MUMBAI: Sudeep Gohil, chief strategy officer and managing partner of Publicis India has announced that he is moving on from the agency. 

    Sudeep will be moving on after serving his notice period at the agency.

    The move follows the end to his 18-month contract, which will end in August 2018. He is contemplating his next career move, which he will announce very soon. 

    Sudeep Gohil joined the agency in March 2017 and was the planning head for a number of brands under Publicis India. He, along with his team of planners across Delhi and Mumbai, provided strategic direction and solutions for brands like Nestle, HDFC MF, Heineken, Citibank, Garnier, Twitter and others. Agency aside, he even espoused the role as an industry advocate with great fervour as he re-launched the Account Planning Group (APG) in India with much success. His efforts saw the coming together of planning heads from all major agencies to further the cause of the profession in India.

    Publicis Communications CEO Saurabh Varma says, “He was instrumental in shaping up the future of a number of brands with his dynamic ideas and out-of-the-box solutions. Under him, the planning function was established as a well-oiled unit resulting in the agency winning multiple accounts over the past year or so. We will miss his dedication and passion that he bought to work every day but I am sure he will excel in whatever next he does. I wish him the very best for his venture.”

    Additionally, Publicis India managing director Srija Chatterjee adds, “The past 16 months have been almost the same for Sudeep and me as we embarked on our journey at the agency around the same time. His mandate was to bring in finesse and ambition in the ideas that came out of the agency, and I am glad to say that he lived up to the promise to its fullest. Under him, the agency was able to throw up some fascinating and purpose-led work, which created quite an impact in the marketplace.”

    Sharing his views on leaving the agency, Sudeep Gohil says, “My tenure with the Publicis India team has been amazing. The energy, enthusiasm and passion is genuinely infectious, but all good things come to an end. I’m looking forward to seeing what more the crew achieves in my absence.”

    Sudeep Gohil has a vast repertoire of experience, and has worked across some of the world’s biggest agencies. He consulted on the agency’s Asia-Pacific plans in addition to leading the Adidas business globally. He has played key roles in agencies like BBH London, and Wieden+Kennedy Portland. Sudeep set up Droga5 in Australia and later became its CEO.

  • Saurabh Varma joins INOX Leisure Ltd as Chief marketing officer

    Saurabh Varma joins INOX Leisure Ltd as Chief marketing officer

    MUMBAI: Industry veteran, Saurabh Varma joins INOX Leisure Ltd as Chief marketing officer. With 21 years of industry experience, Saurabh has donned many hats such as of a  Film Director, Film Marketeer & Distributor, Content creator and many more. Prior to his current role, Saurabh was an entrepreneur and under his banner, he has directed many feature films, digital films, music videos etc, notable being Mickey Virus. He has also worked in Reliance Entertainment as Chief Marketing Officer and PVR Cinemas as marketing and Corporate Communications head. This is his second stint with INOX, he used to work as Programming and Distribution head with the company in his first stint.