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Tag: strategy

  • Wunderman Thompson Kolkata onboards Ayan Banik as SVP – strategy

    Wunderman Thompson Kolkata onboards Ayan Banik as SVP – strategy

    Mumbai: Wunderman Thompson Kolkata on Tuesday announced the onboarding of Ayan Banik as senior VP – brand strategy. In this role, he will report to Wunderman Thompson India chief strategy officer Pinaki Bhattacharya.

    Banik joins Wunderman Thompson from Grey Delhi where he was not only heading planning for key clients like the GSK Portfolio, Volvo MMTC-PAMP, and Baidyanath. He was also heading the planning functions of key Bangalore and Mumbai accounts like the Britannia non-biscuit portfolio, Aditya Birla Group brands, Weilfield range of ready to cook and ready to eat range of products etc. 

    With 20 years of work experience, across agencies Ogilvy & Mather, JWT, Cheil India, Saatchi & Saatchi, Bates 141 and Grey Worldwide, Banik has worked on an enviable repertoire of brands across diverse categories that include names like Samsung, MMTC-PAMP, KFC, Eno, Pernod Ricard, Apollo Munich, Birla White, Volvo, Honda, in-shorts, Zee News, Mother Dairy, Britannia, said the statement. 

    “Ayan comes with rich experience across categories and brands and is adept at solving brand problems. What makes it even more exciting for us is that he will be based out of our Kolkata office- an office that handles some of our most cherished brands and has great momentum going for it,” said Pinaki Bhattacharya.

    “The WT Kolkata team has been on a roll with some very memorable award-winning work in the last few years,” stated Wunderman Thompson Kolkata senior VP and managing partner Vijay Jacob Parakkal. “Ayan’s rich Planning experience and infectious energy will really add more muscle to the team. I am really looking forward to partnering with Ayan and Arjun and doing some great work for our clients.”

    Banik was part of the core team that won the first-ever Cannes Glass Lion for both Cheil and Samsung India. He had also played an integral role in winning the prestigious WPP Partnership in Practice Award for Ogilvy India.

    “It’s an absolute honour and a privilege to work with industry stalwarts like Pinaki Bhattacharya and Vijay Jacob Parakkal,” commented Ayan Banik on his appointment. “Kolkata is one of the fastest transforming cities. With consumerism about to explode, it’s a really exciting time to be in Kolkata and create newer milestones in the advertising and marketing landscape.”

  • GUEST COLUMN: The harm that good ads do

    GUEST COLUMN: The harm that good ads do

    Mumbai: If you want to greet somebody in the morning, two things are essential. First, you have to say ‘Good Morning,’ not ‘Good Night’ or ‘Good Afternoon.’ And second, you should say it pleasantly. If this combination goes haywire, you won’t get the other person to say ‘Good Morning’ to you, and with a smile.

    What to say is the ‘strategy’. How to say is the ‘creative’. Effective communication is a perfect blend of content and presentation.

    The job of strategy is to set the message right. And to do that, it has to get the objective right. It should be a precise and well-defined objective. The objective must be in terms of a shift in feeling with reference to the brand in question. And then, to achieve that, the specific message has to be precise like the tip of an arrow. Sharp.

    A creative’s job is to say ‘Good Morning’ but in a way that is interesting and engaging. Saying it with a blank face and with a serious voice won’t cut any ice. At the same time, a creative cannot say ‘Good Night’ in the morning howsoever enchanting the way it is said in. Your audience will like the smile and the charm but won’t get that you wanted to greet them with a ‘Good Morning.’

    When the strategy is right, it may be basic, it may be obvious, but if it is right, the job of the creative is to engage the audience in a powerful manner. And only an emotional approach can engage the audience in a powerful way. Emotions can be of any kind, including humour, which is one of the most powerful emotions used for communication.

    Things start behaving like life when we forget this basic principle. When we create ads that are very engaging but they don’t say ‘Good Morning’ or ‘Good Afternoon,’ they might confuse people but in a very engaging and charming way. The road to disaster is paved with charming ads.  God forgive them for they know not what they were supposed to convey.

    And while they don’t communicate what they were supposed to, they obviously don’t get the right result, which is primarily contributing to the brand image and secondarily, helping sell the product. When the batsman doesn’t score the runs in spite of hitting some beautiful shots, the selectors start believing that those shots must not be used again. While the real culprit is the strategic miscalculation while executing these shots.

    Clients start believing that since these charming ads aren’t working in the long run, charming ads don’t work. They don’t see the bigger picture and become wary of ads that are highly creative. And they go back to dull and boring ads which they believe work for the brand.

    We need to understand and distinguish between four kinds of ads:

    1.     Boring ads based on wrong strategies.

    2.     Boring ads based on the right strategies.

    3.     Highly engaging ads based on the right strategies.

    4.     Highly engaging ads based on wrong strategies, and

    No 1) Boring ads based on wrong strategies are certified and guaranteed disasters. Nothing can save them. Everything is wrong with them. Life looks quite pointless after watching them. Something immediately dies inside you.

    No 2) Boring ads based on the right strategies are mediocre and will bring average results for the image. Look around, the world is full of them. These are donkeys walking in the right direction. But they are donkeys.

    No 3) Highly engaging ads based on the right strategies are the darlings of the industry. Everybody wants them. Though, not everybody recognizes them. There is no debate on these. They build factories.

    No 4) These are highly engaging ads based on wrong strategies. These are the good-looking villains which do the real harm. They are like ‘Asurs’ in the guise of ‘Apsaras’.  Because of them, you don’t get the message right. They say “Good Evening” in a beautiful voice at 7 am, leaving the audience charmed, confused, and lost.

    These ads give a bad name to the really good, charming, engaging, and creative ads. Clients become wary of all creative and clutter-breaking ads. Once bitten, twice shy. The Cred Rahul Dravid ad is the epitome of this category. Highly engaging and disruptive, but leave the audience asking “Arre kehna kya chaahte ho bhai?”

    (Kapil Mishra is a brand and creative Consultant at Indiassetz, where he oversees the entire marketing, social media communication, and advertising. The views expressed in this column are personal, and Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to them.)

  • Tilt Brand Solutions onboards Purvi Mistry as senior director, strategy

    Tilt Brand Solutions onboards Purvi Mistry as senior director, strategy

    Mumbai: Brand & communication consultancy Tilt Brand Solutions has brought on board Purvi Mistry as senior director – strategy. She will report to Gulshan Singh, Tilt’s chief strategy officer and head of BrandT – the brand consulting division of Tilt Brand Solutions.

    Mistry joins Tilt with over 17 years of work experience across retail, market research and strategic planning at Reebok, Kantar, Millward Brown, FCB Ulka & Wunderman Thompson. Her stints with research and advertising were across HUL, Cavinkare, Marico, Kellogg’s, Nutralite, Castrol, Bajaj Auto, Reuters, Bank of Baroda, AMFI, and many more.

    “Purvi joins Tilt at a very exciting phase in our growth journey. Her skills and experience are a great fit with Tilt’s vision and culture as we continue to scale up and work on consolidated mandates,” said Gulshan Singh. “I am looking forward to bringing her expertise into play for our brands and clients, and to continue building on Tilt’s tradition of excellence.”

    Mistry was also instrumental in launching Heinz as a brand in Indonesia. In her most recent assignment, she was associated with BBH as strategy director.

    “Very rarely have I seen an agency so committed to bringing to bear its vision for strategic planning. Its core philosophy of ‘Full Brained Thinking’ is something I have been a passionate believer in, and also what I believe is at the core of my learned competencies thus far,” stated Purvi Mistry. “I am looking forward to working with a set of impressive visionaries to create many impactful brand stories and have an enriching and fulfilling professional experience.”

  • The Walt Disney Company’s Kaumudi Mahajan elevated to SVP, marketing & strategy for Marathi network

    The Walt Disney Company’s Kaumudi Mahajan elevated to SVP, marketing & strategy for Marathi network

    Mumbai: The Walt Disney Company has elevated Kaumudi Mahajan to the role of SVP – marketing and strategy for Marathi network.

    She has been associated with the media conglomerate for more than 13 years. In her previous role as vice president – head of marketing and content strategy for Star Pravah, she was responsible for the P&L, viewer engagement both above and below the line, driving availability of the channel in consumer homes and programming strategy.

    A post-graduate in marketing and communications from MICA, Mahajan has also worked as a programmer analyst with Syntel in the past.

  • Wow Skin Science ropes in Karan Punjabi as SVP – strategy and analytics

    Mumbai: Wow Skin Science announced the appointment of Karan Punjabi as the senior vice president – strategy and analytics. He will be responsible for defining the strategic roadmap, building scale, and optimisation hereby driving fresh revenue and profitability.

    Punjabi has more than 16 years’ experience in corporate finance. He most recently served as vice president at Ather Energy and prior to that, with Avail Finance as chief financial officer. His past professional tenure also includes KPMG and Flipkart.

    “I am delighted to be an integral part of Wow Skin Science. The brand’s success story that we see today is the perfect strategic combination of market know-how, consumer behaviour analysis, and the brand fitment,” Punjabi said.

    Wow Skin Science co-founder Manish Chowdhary said, “I am pleased to welcome Karan Punjabi to the Wow family. Given his vast experience and his expertise of so many years, Karan will be an asset to our company.”

  • Amit Wadhwa promoted to CEO at dentsu Creative India

    New Delhi: On the back of its global organisational redesign, dentsu international on Tuesday created a new structure for its creative service line in India. The restructuring will bring together some of India’s best agencies along with their digital & PR capabilities – all from the house of dentsu – under one umbrella to provide a more collaborative and aligned offering to clients.

    The brands that will come together as part of this redesign as dentsu Creative include Dentsu Webchutney, Taproot Dentsu, WATConsult, Perfect Relations, Isobar, Dentsu One, Dentsu India and Dentsu Impact.

    With the eventual consolidation under the two strong global brands – dentsumcgarrybowen (dentsuMB) and Isobar, dentsu Creative will provide digital-native, brand-led, customer-centric, creative, and strategic solutions to clients, effortlessly, it added.

    In India, the dentsu Creative service line will be led by chief executive officer, Amit Wadhwa, who will be responsible for the integration, coordination, and implementation of the overall strategy for dentsu Creative in the market. He will lead the dentsu India creative service line leadership team, reporting to Anand Bhadkamkar and the regional dentsu Creative leadership. 

    Sidharth Rao, in addition to his current responsibilities, will now also be in charge of the brand dentsuMB Group in India as its CEO. He will work with the leadership team on dentsuMB’s brand strategy for the market. Shamsuddin Jasani, who continues to oversee the Isobar brand in South Asia as its managing director (MD), will also take on an additional role at dentsu Creative. He will now work with the regional and global leadership teams to support the Isobar practice area and will work closely with the Isobar Global leadership team on the same. 

    CEO India, Anand Bhadkamkar, said, “This global restructure is about consolidation of capabilities across our brands and businesses to bring the best of our services to our clients and provide those specialisms without any hassles. The idea is to ultimately stand true to our #OneDentsu strategy and thus, transform into a sharper and leaner business partner to brands. The changes in the India leadership team only reflect a step ahead in bolstering and scaling up our market ambitions. Amit, Sid, and Shams are amongst the strongest creative leaders not just within dentsu but across the industry; and with the kind of experience and knowledge backing them, I am certain that they will steer dentsu towards excellence not just in India but beyond.”

    The network has also elevated Narayan Devanathan as president – strategy & integration for India. In addition to his current role as CEO, dentsu Solutions, he will now support and achieve dentsu’s strategic objectives by defining, implementing, and driving growth and other vital initiatives for the market. He will continue to report to Anand Bhadkamkar for his additional responsibility as part of the India market leadership team. Meanwhile, Narayan will now also don a regional hat as APAC head for the dentsu Creative Strategy & Consulting practice. 

    “Narayan has been instrumental in driving integration across our units and, as part of the South Asia integration initiatives, he will be supporting the Sri Lanka team in strategy and integration across the two markets. He will now be moving away from his current additional role as chairperson, Creative Service Line for India, and will take up a regional leadership role as APAC lead – strategy & consulting Practice in the creative service line. In this role, he will be working with the Regional and Global leadership teams within the creative service line to help develop the area of Strategy & Consulting Practice in the APAC region,” Anand added.

  • Snapdeal targets low-end value shoppers in strategic shift

    Snapdeal targets low-end value shoppers in strategic shift

    KOLKATA: It has been more than six months since the onset of the pandemic. While most businesses have taken a major hit, e-commerce has been have a rollicking time with a further boost projected during this festive season.

    A recent report from ReedSeer Consulting said that goods with a gross merchandise value of  $3.1 billion were sold by e-commerce companies  like Flipkart, Amazon, Myntra, and Snapdeal  in less 4.5  days of starting their festive sales. Snapdeal’s Kum Mein Dum sale, which concluded on 20 October, saw a massive adoption in smaller cities. Eager to hold on to this fresh inflow of shoppers, the platform is widening the depth of the value segment, said Snapdeal communications & corporate affairs SVP Rajnish Wahi.

    He explained that a large part of the audience the company targets is in tier-2, tier-3 and beyond. Moreover, many of them have high aspirations but limited disposable incomes. After fulfilling basic expenditures, they may not have Rs 10,000 to buy a pair of shoes at the end of a month. But they shop often, mostly in local outlets. “Our target is to bring the same collection online which they would possibly go to local markets for,” he said, adding that most products on the platform are priced between Rs. 250-2,000.

    The e-tailer has added 10,000 small and local sellers  and manufacturers in the last couple of months.

    Along with creating the value shopping segment, Snapdeal is also trying to make the service easier and more accessible for buyers of all shades and income levels. As a number of them are not comfortable with English, it has also added eight Indian local languages to its user interface. 30 per cent of the overall users opt for the UI in vernacular languages. Not only can they shop in their mother tongue, but also get promotional messages in that language as well.

    “India is a very heterogeneous market. At first, the 80-100 million who came online were largely urban, English-speaking with high disposable incomes. In the second phase, up to 300-400 million are going digital, and these people have different tech-awareness, different language preferences, and lower disposable income. Those who seek to discover, who want to explore further are our target segment. What differentiates us is the depth of merchandise in  our "value" segment,” said Wahi.

    He emphasised that owing to its good brand awareness and high recall value, Snapdeal is among the top three e-commerce players in India.

    With the change in its business strategy, Snapdeal has also started going hell for leather by investing increasingly in digital marketing, especially on social  media. Wahi explained that the platform has moved beyond the brand-building phase and is now looking at a more targeted, result oriented marketing strategy.  While social media can also help to explain a product, it’s word of mouth that greatly helps a discovery-led platform like Snapdeal, he added.

    Will visitors make a great deal out of Snapdeal's  broadbasing strategy?-

  • Togglehead launches an in-house production division, Togglehead Studios

    Togglehead launches an in-house production division, Togglehead Studios

    National: Scaling new heights, Togglehead, a leading independent digital agency in Mumbai recently announced the launch of an in-house production division, Togglehead Studios.

    Commenting on the development, Akshay Popawala, Co-founder and Director of Digital Communication/Strategy, Togglehead says, “Since inception, we’ve always gone the extra mile towards ensuring a creative and integrated digital solution to our brands. The launch of a production team stems from this endeavor. We now have a robust team on board to design story-driven messages that deliver a multi-sensory experience.”

    “From a business stand-point, this recent addition in our team definitely opens the door to numerous unexplored avenues for us, especially now with the increasing significance of video marketing,” adds Aatef Bham, Co-founder and Director of Business Development, Togglehead.

    To introduce the team behind the scenes, Prashant Gaikwad is now at the forefront of the department as an Executive Creative Director. His stints across some of the leading agencies have earned him a remarkable experience of 13 years with brands like Maruti, Hindustan Unilever, Tanishq, Idea Cellular, Tata Group, and many more.

    Sharing his views on the newly formed team, Prashant says, “Our team has had a great start with work that has not only been appreciated by our brands but has also been recognized in the industry. A recent example of this would be #ThankYouBhaiya, a film conceptualized and produced for Gits Foods that encapsulates the essence of Raksha Bandhan and Independence Day. We look forward to maintaining and building on this standard in the future as well.”

  • Anil Uniyal quits CNBC TV18

    Anil Uniyal quits CNBC TV18

    MUMBAI: The CEO of CNBC TV 18 and CNBC Awaaz, Anil Uniyal has resigned. Uniyal will serve his last day as the head of the two business channels.He was elevated as the CEO for the two business channels in October 2010.

    Uniyal was responsible for the strategic, financial and operational management of the business news network.With over a decade of experience in sales and sales strategy, Uniyal has no plans of joining any other group as of now. Uniyal was hesitant to reveal the reason behind his resignation.

    Confirming the news, Uniyal says, “Yes, the rumours are true. I will serve my last day today at CNBC. I have no plans on my mind of what I am going to do next.”

  • Anil Uniyal quits CNBC TV18

    Anil Uniyal quits CNBC TV18

    MUMBAI: The CEO of CNBC TV 18 and CNBC Awaaz, Anil Uniyal has resigned. Uniyal will serve his last day as the head of the two business channels.He was elevated as the CEO for the two business channels in October 2010.

    Uniyal was responsible for the strategic, financial and operational management of the business news network.With over a decade of experience in sales and sales strategy, Uniyal has no plans of joining any other group as of now. Uniyal was hesitant to reveal the reason behind his resignation.

    Confirming the news, Uniyal says, “Yes, the rumours are true. I will serve my last day today at CNBC. I have no plans on my mind of what I am going to do next.”