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Tag: Starcom Mediavest Group

  • Mediacom bags media biz of Mars

    MUMBAI: GroupM‘s Mediacom has won the consolidated business of Mars in India following a multi-agency pitch that saw participation of incumbent agencies and Starcom MediaVest Group.

    Mediacom already handles the account of Mars in 18 countries across the world.

    In India, the account was earlier divided between RK Swamy Media and MEC India. However, Mars‘ brand Wrigley India was being handled by Mediacom and hence the agency has retained the account.

    MediaCom India MD Debraj Tripathy said, “Yes we have won the account and we have already started working on it.”

    On 2008, Mars Incorporated together with Berkshire Hathaway Incorporated had boughtout chewing gum brand Wrigley.

  • Arnab Mitra quits Starcom to pursue own interests

    MUMBAI: Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) national director- digital Arnab Mitra has decided to move on from the agency.

    Mitra will be serving his notice period at the agency till the end of December.

    Confirming this to Indiantelevision.com, Mitra said, “Yes, I have put in my papers. The journey at Starcom was very good. I have been handling the digital practice of the agency. We have won many digital businesses and I am glad that we could do so.”

    Mitra declined to disclose his next venture but hinted that he might do something of his own. He has already invested in a couple of businesses.

    He had joined SMG in June 2011 from MediaContacts, a Havas Digital Company, where he was regional director – South Asia. He has spent nearly a decade with leading digital companies including three years in London with Purple Media, a UK based agency, where he was instrumental in launching and implementing their affiliate network across Europe.

    Mitra has also worked with Ignitee and Pinstorm before moving to the Havas group.

  • Harsha Joshi appointed as VivaKi Exchange COO

    MUMBAI: VivaKi India has appointed Harsha Joshi to the post of COO at VivaKi Exchange.

    Joshi will spearhead and oversee the media buying for Starcom MediaVest Group and Zenith Optimedia. She will report into VivaKi Exchange CEO Mona Jain.

    Prior to this Joshi was with Spatial Access Media Solutions where she was SA3- Media and International CEO.

    Joshi has over two decades of media planning, buying and digital experience. She brings with her knowledge of media buying audit, which includes development of rate benchmarks and devising buying process and buying strategy across all media.

    Joshi™s work span includes working on clients such as P&G, Godrej, Cadbury, Asian paints, Coco Cola, Britannia, Colgate and HUL.
    VivaKi (India) country chair Srikant Sastri said, “VivaKi Exchange (VX) has a great reputation for delivering buying value to clients of both SMG & ZO. Having an experienced person like Harsha focus more deeply on this will bring greater investment acumen and innovation.”

    Jain said, “Harsha brings to the table years of experience in media buying as well as media audit. Her collaborative approach and win-win attitude have earned her the respect of media owners and clients alike. Her deep knowledge of the media market and that of clients and media owners will help VX consolidate.”

    Joshi said, “I am delighted to return to main stream media post my short, but successful stint in Media Audit which I will leverage to deliver better value to VX and its clients. I am looking forward to this new and exciting chapter in my career.”

    VivaKi Exchange services from pre-buy evaluation to post-buy reporting and analysis. In addition it also offers a full-suite of marketing and audience data to better inform each buy. It is also involved in testing new models and automating transactional components of buying and measuring media when and where it benefits clients to do so.

  • Mallikarjunadas replaces Srinivas as SMG India head

    MUMBAI: Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) has announced that its India CEO Mallikarjunadas CR will assume full responsibility for running the agency in India.

    Mallikarjunadas replaces CVL Srinivas who has resigned to join GroupM as their South Asia CEO. Srinivas was the Chairman of SMG India but Mallikarjunadas will continue to be designated the CEO while assuming the role of Srinivas.

    He will continue to remain as the CEO. In his new role, he will report to Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) president, emerging markets Matt Blackborn, He will now join the Global Management Group, the SMG leadership team of market and client leaders.

    As CEO, Malli has been responsible for the day-to-day management of SMG‘s clients in India, as well as leading its business momentum, with recent client wins Dabur, Axis Bank and Aircel, and leading the development of innovative products and an analytical center of excellence for SMG, the company statement read.

    Blackborn said, “Since being named as CEO, Malli has worked very closely with CVL Srinivas (Srini), to grow its position in India, serve its clients and motivate its employees. During this time, Srini helped us build a new management structure and transitioned leadership responsibilities to Malli. With the structure set and a strong management team in place, the transition has been completed, and Srini is leaving the company.”

    Malli started his career at Leo Burnett Media (now Starcom) working on P&G and has also worked on the client side at Asian Paints and Tata Group, before joining Madison where he was COO of one of the Group companies. He had re-joined SMG as CEO in May 2011.

    Also read:

    CVL Srinivas replaces Sakhuja at GroupM as South Asia CEO

  • CVL Srinivas replaces Sakhuja at GroupM as South Asia CEO

    MUMBAI: CVL Srinivas, who has put in his papers at Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG), will join GroupM to succeed Vikram Sakhuja as its South Asia CEO.

    At SMG, Srini, as he is fondly known, was designated as SMG India chairman and LiquidThread APAC MD.

    Effective from early 2013, Srini will be responsible for all GroupM operations in India, Pakistan, SriLanka and Bangladesh. He will also join the GroupM APAC executive committee.

    In his new role, Srini will report to GroupM APAC CEO Mark Patterson.

    Patterson said, ” Srini was our first choice by some stretch for this role. In his previous roles in GroupM he excelled and he rejoins us with more and different experiences under his belt which will serve our clients , our people and our ambitions well. We have a world class business in the South Asia region and Srini has the skills, personality, relationships and attitude to build the business on strategy and with his own style and ideas too.”

    “He will add huge value in South Asia, to our business in the wider APAC region and no doubt WW too. I am personally very excited and delighted to work with Srini closely once again as I am sure are many of his colleagues and friends in GroupM,” he added.

    Srinivas said, ” I am really looking forward to taking up this role and going back to an organisation where I learnt the ropes and built a business . Vikram and his team have done a phenomenal job in growing the business and diversifying the service offerings to date I am thrilled to be joining a talented team and working with such a portfolio of powerful media brands and fantastic clients . Mark has outlined a vision for the business regionally and globally that I am excited and challenged about and one I look forward to participating in fully. “

    Sakhjua , former GroupM Asia CEO, was announced as the global CEO for Maxus in July. “It has been a privilege and a joy over the past fifteen years to work with Srini as a client, a colleague and a competitor . Srini brings truly disruptive thinking to the party and to my mind is the best person I can think of to take GroupM South Asia to an increasingly integrated , digital , data driven and addressable age. Welcome back to the family Srini,” Sakhuja said.

    Also read:

    Mallikarjunadas replaces Srinivas as SMG India head

  • SMG Delhi reshuffles senior management team

    MUMBAI: Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) has reshuffled its senior management team.

    As a part of the restructuring, Starcom North executive director (ED) Tarun Nigam is moving to a role with VivaKi Exchange by January 2013. He is currently in the process of transitioning from the SMG role to a full time role with the group outfit VivaKi. In his new role, Tarun will report to VivaKi Exchange CEO Mona Jain.

    Sulina Menon who is ED and head of team Samsung and Dabur will be taking charge of Nigam’s client portfolio in Delhi, in addition to overseeing the Dabur account.

    Meanwhile, Starcom South VP Sriram Sharma is moving to Delhi to head team Samsung.

    There would be a three-month overlap between Menon and Sharma on Samsung before they take independent charge of their roles in January 2013.

    In their new roles, both Menon and Sharma will report to SMG India CEO Mallikarjunadas CR.

    Mallikarjunadas CR said, “After a good run in the past 2 years, we are gearing up for an even more action packed future. Tarun, Sulina and Sriram have done exceedingly well in their respective assignments and have been great ambassadors of SMG. Their new roles with enlarged responsibilities are a testament to their performance. We wish them the very best in their new assignments”.

  • SMG bags Sennheiser India’s digital biz

    MUMBAI: Starcom MediaVest Group has bagged the digital mandate of Sennheiser India, a German audio company.

    The incumbent agency on the account was OMD which handled the business from their Delhi office.

    The size of the account is estimated to be at around Rs 30-50 million.

    The agency will be handling the entire digital media duties and performance marketing for Sennheiser in India. The company is also rolling out an e-commerce shop soon.

    SMG Digital national director Arnab Mitra said, “Sennheiser has plans to establish digital as one of the primary mediums for the future in context to customer acquisition and satisfaction. SMG digital is all poised to play a great hand for the same. With their new e-shop being rolled out, Sennheiser will soon become one of prominent players in the category.”

  • Starcom MediaVest Group launches Web+TV Optimiser in India

    MUMBAI: Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) has rolled out a fused TV + Web Optimiser across its entire organisation in India. It will allow the media planners at SMG to evaluate plans fluidly between TV and digital.

    This optimiser will sit within the planning tool Target Audience Reach Delivery Inventory Investment System (TARDIIS) suite. SMG India has been using the TARDIIS TV optimiser since 2006.

    This new optimiser runs on the local Television Audience Measurement (TAM) and Web Audience Measurement (WAM) datasets.

    SMG India CEO Malli CR said, “One senses that the growth of spends on digital should be faster than otherwise. There are several vehicles in digital whose reach is substantial and yet inertia and a lack of currency prevent investments. With this Optimiser, a planner can seamlessly build plan options between TV and digital. Does taking 10 per cent of the budget from TV and putting on to digital build better incremental reach? A planner would be able to do this on an on-going basis and raise the quality of the conversation between planners and brand managers.

    Every client‘s biggest complaint is about how plans for different target audiences look the same. This product is one of several things that will help change that. We have been testing the product internally since March and are seeing paradigm changing results. For a female, 25-44 SEC A plan, the percentage of investment on digital can quadruple. A lot of decision making in media happens through heuristics (thumb rules), and one needs new currencies to break out of the inertia of old thumb rules.”

    Malli feels that one of the biggest challenges in digital is increasing the share of spends of FMCG. “Our experience on TARDIIS Web + TV from other markets on FMCG clients has shown that it can lead to a totally different worldview on digital and increase spends substantially. TARDIIS Web + TV is one of the first tools with scale in this market that can accelerate digital spends and investments,” he added.

  • Madison Media Omega ropes in Dinesh Rathore as COO

    MUMBAI: Madison Media has appointed Dinesh Singh Rathore as COO of Madison Media Omega.

    Rathore comes in from Starcom MediaVest Group where he was head MediaVest, Mumbai and Delhi offices and was based in Bombay.

    Rathore brings with him 17 years of experience in media having worked with media agencies like Mudra. He has served as also served head of FutureWorks, the specialist unit of SMG that handled the Future Group business. During the course of his career, he has worked with brands like Zydus Wellness, Emirates, The Mobile Store, Tata Housing, Novartis, World Gold Council, Wipro, Toyota, SabMiller, Essilor, Hitachi, Rasna and Only Vimal.

    Madison Media group CEO Gautam Kiyawat said, “I am delighted to have Dinesh join our Leadership team and am sure he will add a lot of value to our clients in Bangalore.”

    Rathore said, “I am looking forward to this new role and contributing to an enviable list of clients.”

    Madison Media has seen quite a few appointments in the recent past including Madison Media Group CEO Gautam Kiyawat and Manish Bharil as GM to head the Brittania account. Madison Media also been in the news for winning the accounts of Crompton Greaves, Enamor and Dixcy Textile.

  • SMG Digital biz head for India Ritesh Singh quits

    MUMBAI: Starcom MediaVest Group’s Ritesh Singh, who was business head-India for SMG Digital, has put in his papers.

    Singh has been responsible for the growth of the digital business, managing and mushrooming existing business and also working with global teams on global clients.

    Singh had rejoined SMG in August 2008 as associate business director. He was later promoted to business director in April 2010 and then to business head- India, SMG Digital in August 2011.

    Singh comes in with over 12 years of experience in the industry and specialises in media planning, digital marketing, digital strategy, media buying and digital media.

    Prior to SMG, Singh worked with Genesis Colors. He has also worked with SMG in 2006-2008 as group head.