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Tag: Starcom India

  • Dabur sticks with Starcom, retains Rs 500 crore media mandate in bold move

    Dabur sticks with Starcom, retains Rs 500 crore media mandate in bold move

    MUMBAI: In the high-stakes world of media accounts, loyalty is a rare commodity—but not for Dabur India. According to sources, the FMCG powerhouse has doubled down on its long-standing partnership with Starcom India, keeping the agency on board for its Rs 500 crore media mandate while merging its digital responsibilities under one roof. If this isn’t a power move, what is?

    Dabur first appointed Starcom as its media agency back in 2015, taking control away from multiple agencies. Since then, the two have built a formidable partnership, and this latest decision signals unwavering trust in Starcom’s capabilities. Industry sources peg the retained account’s value between Rs 450 crore and Rs 500 crore, making it one of the biggest wins in recent advertising history.

    Starcom isn’t the only player to have handled Dabur’s digital business. Dentsu X was entrusted with its digital mandate in April 2022, while Digidarts was recently roped in to fine-tune aspects of the company’s online strategy. But with this consolidation, Dabur appears to be streamlining its media operations under a single agency, ensuring tighter control and a sharper strategic focus.

    Dabur, a titan in hair care, oral care, healthcare, skincare, home care, and food & beverages, has kept a close eye on its advertising expenses. Its Q3 FY2025 ad spend stood at Rs 226 crore, down 7.9 per cent from the Rs 244 crore spent in the same quarter last year. This marks the second consecutive quarter of muted ad expenditure, following Rs 225 crore spent during the previous festive season in Q2 2025.

    Despite a more conservative ad budget, Dabur’s financials remained strong. The company’s net income for Q3 FY2025 saw a 2 per cent rise, reaching Rs 516 crore from Rs 506 crore in the previous year. Meanwhile, operating revenue climbed 3 per cent, hitting Rs 3,355 crore, up from Rs 3,255 crore in the same quarter last year.

    With Starcom at the helm, Dabur’s advertising playbook is getting a strategic revamp. 

  • Publicis Groupe South Asia elevates Lalatendu Das to CEO, Publicis Media South Asia

    Publicis Groupe South Asia elevates Lalatendu Das to CEO, Publicis Media South Asia

    Publicis Groupe South Asia announced today that it has elevated Lalatendu Das (LD), the current CEO of Performics India, to the newly created role of CEO of Publicis Media South Asia. Continuing to report to Publicis Groupe South Asia CEO Anupriya Acharya, LD will work closely with Zenith India CEO Jai Lala; Starcom India CEO Rathi Gangappa; PMX India MD Sejal Shah and other media leaders.

    LD joined Publicis Groupe India in early 2022 as CEO of Performics India and in these three years he has further added marquee accounts, incubated innovative products and pivoted Performics India to top place in performance marketing and end-to-end digital solutions. Before joining Publicis Groupe South Asia, LD spent nearly a decade at McKinsey as a Partner and founding member of McKinsey Digital Labs in Asia Pacific. He co-led the McKinsey Digital/Technology practice, focusing on new digital business builds, customer journey transformations, and advanced analytics-led transformations. LD has also held major operational roles at Tata Consultancy Services for over a decade. An engineer and Postgraduate in Business Management from IIM Ahmedabad, LD has 25 years of experience.

    Anupriya Acharya said, “LD is a remarkable leader with established credentials. He has led Performics India to great heights in the past three years. His extensive background in consulting, digital-led transformation, and large-scale operations across India and global markets made him uniquely qualified to drive significant value for our media clients. We are really excited to have him take on this new mandate.”

    Lalatendu Das said, “I am delighted to be leading Publicis Media South Asia at an exciting, pivotal, and transformative time.  It has scaled capabilities across strategy, insights and analytics, data and technology, and a strong and established portfolio of brands in its client roster. I look forward to keeping the growth momentum going, delivering industry-first offerings and tangible, exponential growth for clients. The canvas is vast, and the opportunities are huge.”  

    In a separate development, Publicis Media Services South Asia CEO Tanmay Mohanty is moving on to pursue new opportunities. He was overseeing the media operations of Zenith India and Starcom India in addition to the Media Product & Solutions Portfolio.

    Anupriya Acharya said, “I would like to thank Tanmay for his contributions which have been invaluable. During his tenure with us, our media services and capabilities have not only scaled up tremendously with some of our biggest clients, but they have become the best offerings in the market. We wish him the very best in his future endeavours.”

  • Eveready & ZEE join hands for a first-of-its-kind brand collaboration

    Eveready & ZEE join hands for a first-of-its-kind brand collaboration

    Mumbai: Eveready, a trusted name in the world of batteries has partnered with ZEE, India’s leading content company to promote its new range of batteries. As part of the brand collaboration, Eveready ULTIMA will feature prominently on ZEE’s popular and homegrown reality shows, including Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, Dance Bangla Dance, Dance Karnataka Dance and Telugu medium I school.. ZEE’s linear channels that are an integral part of the brand association are Zee TV, Zee Sarthak, Zee Tamil, Zee Marathi, Zee Bangla, Zee Kannada and Zee Telugu.

    Eveready ULTIMA will be showcased in the reality shows, and the brand’s logo will be integrated into the shows’ set design, graphics, and on-screen promotions. The battery brand has also worked closely with ZEE to create custom content for the shows, such as sponsored segments and product challenges.

    Commenting on this announcement, Eveready Industries India Ltd Sr VP and SBU head (batteries and flashlights) Anirban Banerjee, “We have recently unveiled our new and improved Ultima range of batteries supported by a 360 campaign ‘Khelenge Toh Sikhenge’. The campaign highlights that children in any family can learn valuable life lessons like caring, sharing, love and equality when playing in daily life with battery operated toys. Thus to keep the child’s play ongoing effortlessly, our new 400% longer lasting Ultima batteries are just perfect. Our collaboration with ZEE seamlessly aligns with the campaign’s objective and values, as majority of ZEE’s shows are packed with energy, fostering a blend of entertainment while actively nurturing the young talents. Eveready is committed towards its mission to empower the youth with the essential support they require for a brighter and more promising future, and our partnership with ZEE amplifies our ability to achieve this noble endeavour.”

    Adding to this, Starcom India COO Niti Kumar said, “At Starcom, we believe that a successful product launch requires a powerful platform that maximises consumer engagement and brand visibility. Such a key communication pillar was vital to drive home Eveready’s new message. ZEE’s reality shows enjoy immense popularity among Indians, which makes it a strong channel for brand collaboration. Accordingly, we forged this first-of-its-kind strategic partnership, which not only introduces Eveready’s robust product offerings but also harnesses ZEE’s expansive reach across diverse regions, languages, and content formats.”

    Eveready ULTIMA recently launched its campaign, ‘Kheloge Toh Bahut Kuch Seekhoge’, which highlights the exceptional longevity of Eveready ULTIMA batteries, perfectly suited to power the modern gadgets and appliances that have become an integral part of daily lives.

  • Starcom India gets top rank in RECMA New Business Balance Report 2021

    Starcom India gets top rank in RECMA New Business Balance Report 2021

    Mumbai: Global independent research firm RECMA has ranked Starcom India, part of Publicis Groupe India number one in new business in its ‘New Business Balance Report for 2021’. The research firm evaluates media agencies worldwide.

    The agency has gained the top position in competitive pitch wins across Consumer Products (CPG), New-Age, and App Economy which includes clients in Auto, D2C, FinTech, E-commerce, and Gaming, it announced on Monday.

    The Human Experience (HX) agency has also ranked high in its profile classification with significant 14-point growth over the last period, it added. This has been assessed on multiple parameters based on vitality (competitive pitches and momentum) and structure (resources and client profile.)

    Starcom India chief executive officer Rathi Gangappa said, “Starcom’s strong consumer understanding, data-led insights, integrated talent, focus on efficiency using competitive pricing and flawless activation has led to us emerging in the top position. We will continue our strong growth trajectory through very human, personalised brand experiences at scale and market-leading work.”

    RECMA publishes a wide range of media agency notation reports on a global scale and collects and analyses data from more than 1400 media agencies in 90 countries.

  • Starcom appoints Rachana Shah Monteiro as senior VP

    Starcom appoints Rachana Shah Monteiro as senior VP

    Mumbai: Media communications agency Starcom India has beefed up its leadership team and appointed Rachana Shah Monteiro as West head for India. As senior vice president, she will be responsible for leading and strengthening client relationships and business growth for the West office.

    Rachana comes with over two decades of experience in the media management ecosystem, from integrated strategy to investment planning & buying. In her career, she has worked with a number of media firms, across holding companies and handled iconic brands such as Gillette, Vicks, Heinz, Diageo, and Vodafone among others.

    In her last stint at Mediacom, she led the AOR for P&G Indian sub-continent.

    Welcoming Rachana on board, Starcom India, COO, Niti Kumar said, “She has a proven record in managing large businesses and teams and her expertise will help us drive more value for our diverse portfolio of clients. We have a fabulous team in Mumbai and I am confident that with Rachana at the helm they will strive toward greater heights.”

    Talking about her new role, Rachana said, “I strongly believe that the entire media agency model is segueing towards the collaboration of specialisations, in driving omnichannel marketing for the client. Starcom has a heterogeneous, very strong portfolio of clients and is known for bringing in compelling brand experiences through the use of data and technology. I look forward to delivering integrated value propositions that drive immense growth for clients and further strengthening Starcom’s culture of innovation and collaboration.”

  • Rajiv Gopinath new CCO at Starcom India

    Rajiv Gopinath new CCO at Starcom India

    MUMBAI: In a bid to enhance strategic product and delivery and usher in greater opportunities, Starcom India (Starcom) has appointed Rajiv Gopinath as its chief client officer (CCO). Gopinath will interface with key clients and will bring in perspective on businesses, enabling the company to develop strong client relationships.

    Gopinath’ s last stint was in East Africa where he headed planning on Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble (P&G), and other local businesses across seven sub-Saharan African markets. Prior to that, he was in China where he did extensive planning on P&G.

    “The dynamic marketing communications landscape is both a challenge and an opportunity. It calls for upstream strategies that bring in radical business transformation for brands,” said Starcom India group CEO Mallikarjun Das. “Starcom today is as much a business partner as a communications partner, offering deep-level category insights, data-driven personalised communication, real-time marketing and predictive models. We map the full consumer journey and come up with effective, media-neutral, integrated solutions.” Das said that Gopinath, with his experience and thought leadership, would enhance Starcom’s strategic offering still further and deliver the desired business results for clients.

    Said Gopinath, “Starcom is one of the few agencies that has truly has a pulse on the consumer and can leverage the power of integrated communications. It has great expertise on the evolving media product and a wonderful set of clients. I am delighted to get this opportunity and look forward to it.”