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Tag: TBWA

  • TBWA India is Cigna TTK Health Insurance’s creative agency

    TBWA India is Cigna TTK Health Insurance’s creative agency

    MUMBAI: TBWA India has been appointed by Cigna TTK Health Insurance – a joint venture between US health service giant Cigna Corporation and Indian conglomerate TTK Group – as its creative agency.

    TBWA India group CEO Shiv Sethuraman said: “This is a very significant win for us because Cigna TTK represents the coming together of two very prestigious and successful names. Equally, the health insurance category is a challenging and fast growing category where Disruptive thinking will be necessary to carve a place for Cigna TTK. We look forward to building the brand in India”.

    On zeroing in on the agency, Cigna TTK Health Insurance chief marketing officer Gaurav Rajput said: “We were impressed with TBWA’s strategic thought and insightful creative work during the pitch. We’re confident that Cigna’s global expertise in health services along with the trust and credibility of the TTK group will help us create a compelling brand proposition. We look forward to partnering with TBWA in Cigna TTK’s brand journey in India.”

    Cigna operates internationally in 30 countries and jurisdictions with more than 80 million customer relationships worldwide.TTK functions across India with a reputation built across eight decades for quality consumer products and services, the three letters in ‘TTK’ represents the corporate philosophy of the group – trust, transparency and knowledge.
     

  • TBWAIndia names R. Venkatraman ‘Venky’ as creative director

    TBWAIndia names R. Venkatraman ‘Venky’ as creative director

    MUMBAI: TBWA India has got on board R. Venkatraman (Venky) as creative director. In his new position, Venky will join the creative team in Mumbai, reporting to TBWA India chief creative officer Parixit Bhattacharya.

    With eight years experience in advertising, Venky has worked at Grey Worldwide, Creativeland Asia and BBH India. His brand experience includes Appy Fizz, Mango Frooti, LMN, Johnnie Walker, Red Bull, Kinetic Honda, Café Coffee Day, Gili Jewellery, Movies Now, Vaseline Men and Google.

    In recent years, Venky’s work was shortlisted at Cannes Lions and has won metal at ADFEST, Spikes Asia and GOAFEST. He also holds the accolade of Business World voting him as one of the ‘Top 5 Young Advertising Professionals’ in India.

    Commenting on the appointment, Bhattacharya said, “Venky has a stellar work ethic and a very matured head on his young shoulders. I am hoping that our rich roster of clients will nourish him with new opportunities to create an enviable body of work. Needless to say, by having him around, the laughter index of the agency will rise significantly too.”

    “My quest for work-type fun brings me to TBWA and I am very, very excited to be here,” Venky added. “Now it’s all about turning that excitement into work that will make a difference to the brands we nurture here.”

  • TBWAIndia names R. Venkatraman “Venky” as creative director

    TBWAIndia names R. Venkatraman “Venky” as creative director

    MUMBAI: TBWA India has got on board R. Venkatraman (Venky) as creative director. In his new position, Venky will join the creative team in Mumbai, reporting to TBWA India chief creative officer Parixit Bhattacharya.

    With eight years experience in advertising, Venky has worked at Grey Worldwide, Creativeland Asia and BBH India. His brand experience includes Appy Fizz, Mango Frooti, LMN, Johnnie Walker, Red Bull, Kinetic Honda, Café Coffee Day, Gili Jewellery, Movies Now, Vaseline Men and Google.

    In recent years, Venky’s work was shortlisted at Cannes Lions and has won metal at ADFEST, Spikes Asia and GOAFEST. He also holds the accolade of Business World voting him as one of the ‘Top 5 Young Advertising Professionals’ in India.

    Commenting on the appointment, Bhattacharya said, “Venky has a stellar work ethic and a very matured head on his young shoulders. I am hoping that our rich roster of clients will nourish him with new opportunities to create an enviable body of work. Needless to say, by having him around, the laughter index of the agency will rise significantly too.”

    “My quest for work-type fun brings me to TBWA and I am very, very excited to be here,” Venky added. “Now it’s all about turning that excitement into work that will make a difference to the brands we nurture here.”

  • Close Arvind Sharma steps down from Leo Burnett, Saurabh Varma to take chargea

    Close Arvind Sharma steps down from Leo Burnett, Saurabh Varma to take chargea

    MUMBAI: Tom Bernardin, Chairman and CEO, Leo Burnett Worldwide announced today the new leadership of the India operations. Chairman and CEO of Indian subcontinent Arvind Sharma will be leaving the agency to pursue other business interests outside the industry after a successful stint of 30 years.

    The currently regional chief strategy officer of Leo Burnett Asia Pacific Saurabh Varma has now been appointed as the CEO Leo Burnett Group India.

    The appointment will be effective from 1November, 2013. In his new role as CEO for the India operations across Mumbai, New Delhi and Bangalore, Varma will report directly to Leo Burnett Asia Pacific President Jarek Ziebinski.

    As chief strategy officer of Leo Burnett Asia Pacific, Varma oversees all heads of strategy and planning directors in the region. His role also sees him playing a key role in the management of regional and global accounts. A post graduate in Communications from Mudra Institute of Communications Ahmedabad (MICA), Varma has 16 years of experience in the business. He has spent seven years with Leo Burnett based at Singapore. Some of the brands he has worked on include Indian Oil, Lakme (Unilever), Vicks (P&G), NIVEA, Fosters, Philips, HP, Blackberry, Samsung, Friesland Campina Asia Pacific (Dutch Lady/ Foremost/ Frisian Flag), MCYS and UOB Bank.

    Varma has spent the first nine years of his career in advertising in India. He began his career with DDB India and within four years of being in the business, he was made head of account management at TBWA India. In the last three years, Varma has won more than 50 awards including the Effie Gold, the Appies Gold, the Grand Prix for Direct Marketing, the most effective media campaign at Hall of Fame, 2 Gold Lions at Cannes, the Grand Prix at the ADFEST, the Viewers’ Choice Award (Mediacorp) and many more. In 2010, Varma was awarded the ‘Strategic Planner of the Year’ at the Hall of Fame Awards.

    His strength lies in being able to bring life into a strategic process, unearthing societal contexts and creating out of the box briefs.

    Commenting on his new role, Varma said, “India is home to me. This new role is coming full circle to where it all began. Over the years, I have always kept a keen eye on the developments in India and in some ways, I felt like I have never left. I look forward to coming back with a fresh perspective gained from my time away and bring the best learnings of Leo Burnett network to India. Being a part of the regional team for Asia Pacific has given me a unique perspective and experience of diverse markets across the region and I look forward to bringing this understanding to my new role. Together with the management team, most of whom I already know and have the privilege of working with, we will be focused on driving a positive change for the agency to take it to the next level.”

    Varma’s strength lies in being able to bring life into a strategic process, unearthing societal contexts and creating out of the box briefs

    Bernardin, who is in Mumbai today with the regional management team for the announcement said, “We would like to take this opportunity to express our deep gratitude and appreciation to Arvind Sharma. He has worked tirelessly over the past 30 years to build Leo Burnett into one of India’s leading creative agencies and laid down a solid foundation for the agency to progress to the next level. During his tenure, Arvind built a stellar client base that includes blue chip multinational and local clients and nurtured some of the brightest stars within the Indian advertising industry today. Though he remains available for his advice and counsel, we bid farewell to Arvind today, in his official capacity, with our very best wishes and as a dear friend.”

    Ziebinski added, “I’d like to thank Arvind for his contribution to our success and close collaboration over the past four years since I arrived in the region. I wish Arvind nothing but the best for his new future.”

    While bidding adieu, Sharma had some fond memories, as he said, “I had a very long and fruitful run as the leader of Leo Burnett in India Subcontinent. As I approached the company-defined age of 58, I would like to start something totally new. I look back at my 30 years at the agency and 21 years of leading it with a great deal of satisfaction.”

    The agency was awarded Global Agency of the Year by Leo Burnett Worldwide for 2003 and 2008. In partnerships with its clients, the agency has been recognised creatively across leading award shows globally including Cannes, Clios, D&AD, One Show and London International Awards. Work produced by Leo Burnett India has also run in multiple countries worldwide. Last year, the agency successfully completed the acquisition of digital agency, Indigo Consulting and integrated it into the Leo Burnett Group.

    Continued Bernardin, “We are fortunate to have a strong management team on ground in India and equally fortunate in having the bench strength in the region in naming Saurabh to this role. Saurabh’s talent and track record is well-recognised within the network. His combined experience and knowledge of having worked across creative, media and digital agencies is invaluable as we look to elevate the agency to its next stage of development in India, a key market for the network globally. He will have the full support of the global and regional management in his new role.”

  • Who wants to be an entrepreneur?

    Who wants to be an entrepreneur?

    MUMBAI: If you think you’ve got an idea worth a million bucks, here’s something that might just help you make it a reality.

    ‘Built from Scratch’, founder and CEO Magnon/TBWA Vineet Bajpai’s second book, serves as a guide for aspiring entrepreneurs – handholding them through various steps and tactics of building a business ground-up.

    There’s a message in the title itself for budding businessmen/women: Pick up basic tools and start building a company with whatever little you have. At the end of the day, every organisation is created out of one dominant ingredient – the human will.

    Asked what made him pen the tome, Bajpai says: “The thought of writing the book came to my mind many years ago when I used to teach at MBA institutions as guest faculty. During my interactions with management students, I discovered that almost every one of them secretly nurtured the dream of becoming an entrepreneur and building his/her company. However, most were clueless on how to actually start their entrepreneurial journey.”

    “More importantly, there existed a deeply entrenched belief that a business can be started only with large financial investment. Being a first-generation entrepreneur myself, who started with a few thousand rupees in my pocket, I felt compelled to offer a helping hand to perhaps millions of such people who dream of building businesses and companies, but have no practical guidance for the same. I also noticed that there were no books written by Indian authors that offered detailed and street-smart advice on enterprise building. It was then that I decided to write my second book.”

    With a million self-help books on the market already, why would readers pick up one more such book? “The most important differentiator is that I am preaching only what I have practiced,” says Bajpai, recalling how he started Magnon/TBWA and Magnon E-Graphics with the rupee equivalent of just $300.

    The most important differentiator is that I am preaching only what I have practiced says Vineet Bajpai

    “Today, these are multi-million dollar global companies. So very few authors would have the real and ‘battle-field’ experience that I carry; secondly, the book is as much a motivational read as it is a management work. It speaks to the reader about his/her fears and dreams, his/her mental-barriers and his/her ambitions. The combination of a self-help approach with hard-core management content makes the book quite an intellectual asset for any aspiring entrepreneur,” he shoots.

    The book busts quite a few myths associated with career management as seen through the eyes of the Indian middle class.

    “It tells the reader that he can do it too! And then it educates the reader about various aspects of starting up businesses – the idea generation, market research, environment scanning, revenue model, finance raising options, go-to-market strategies, the common pitfalls, first year of survival and a lot more. It is quite a hard-hitting and real handbook for aspiring entrepreneurs,” defends Bajpai.

    The book is inclusive of everyone who nurtures business ambitions, even say the aunty next door who cooks great south Indian food and could open a catering venture. “Entrepreneurship is not a restricted zone, and anyone and everyone can dream of being a successful entrepreneur. So the book aims to reach out to the student community, to working professionals, corporate executives and almost anyone who is planning to start his or her own venture,” says Bajpai.

    What lies at the heart of the book is Bajpai’s own experience of founding and building his companies. “Readers will see that while I lead global companies today, I started in a tiny shed with rented computers, a tin roof and at times, even swept the floor of my first office! They will discover how a company where buying even a water cooler was a major financial decision at one time, transformed into one of Asia’s largest digital agencies. It is a fantastic yet true story that the readers will love,” says he.

    Moral of the story is if you don’t hail from a business family, aren’t a Harvard dropout and don’t have a globe-changing innovation, you can still dream of making it large, with a little help from Bajpai’s book, published by Jaico and available for just Rs 299.

  • Contract appoints Mayur Hola as ECD

    Contract appoints Mayur Hola as ECD

    MUMBAI: Mayur Hola has joined Contract India as executive creative director, based in Delhi.

     

    Prior to this, Mayur was with McCann on some of the most talked about and award winning campaigns like Pan Vilas’ ‘Shauq Badi Cheez Hai’ and the Nescafe – Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy work, for which his team won an integrated ABBY and the marketing campaign of the year at the CMO Asia awards.

     

     “Mayur is a fantastic new addition to our rapidly growing Delhi branch, and he will lead the creative charge of that office from here on. In the last few years, his work on brands like Nescafe, Dish TV, and Chevrolet, has been noticed, applauded and awarded. Plus he is a fabulous team-builder, so I am positive that with him on board, Contract, Delhi is going to be a revved up, happy place”, said Contract’s NCD Ashish Chakravarthy on the appointment.

     

    This would be Mayur’s second stint at Contract. He started his career in advertising with McCann as a writer, where he spent close to seven years over three stints. At McCann he launched the life insurance brand PNB MetLife with its ‘Be Double Sure’ work, conceived the madness of Dish TV’s ‘Dish Sawaar Hai’ campaign and carried forward the power brand Chevy Cruze for GM in addition to the most awarded Nescafé campaign.

     

    Over the course of his career, Mayur has worked with TBWA where he headed the Delhi office, Grey and Contract.

  • BBH India bags creative duties of DSP BlackRock Mutual Fund

    BBH India bags creative duties of DSP BlackRock Mutual Fund

    MUMBAI: BBH India has been appointed as creative partner by DSP BlackRock Mutual Fund. The agency won the business after a multi-agency pitch process which included the likes of Ogilvy, JWT, McCann, TBWA, Publicis and Saints & Warriors.

    On choosing BBH India, DSP BlackRock Mutual Fund executive vice president and marketing head Aditi Kothari said, “We believe that marketing can no longer remain a support function in the financial services world. It can truly bring differentiation and deliver business impact in the new world, if done the right way. BlackRock had recognised this last year and hence, brought in a strong focus to build the brand globally. Our pitch process was tough, since we knew that our new creative agency will play an important role in laying down the foundation of a strong communication strategy. We are confident of achieving our objectives with our new partner BBH India.”

    The agency will be in charge of developing the brand architecture and brand positioning for the company. It will also create engagement modules across traditional and new age platforms with focus on consumer as well as distributor.

    Commenting on the win, BBH CEO and managing partner Subhash Kamath, said, “In today‘s economic situation, proper investment planning is becoming crucial for everyone and we are looking forward to partnering DSP BlackRock in meeting these challenges.”

    DSP BlackRock Mutual Fund has investment products such as equity schemes, hybrid schemes, fixed income schemes, funds of funds schemes and fixed maturity plans for investors. BBH India manages a portfolio of diverse clients and brands that include Unilever, Marico, Diageo, Skoda, Red Bull, Acer, Movies Now and World Gold Council, among others.

    BBH head planning Sanjay Sharma added, “Financial services communication is a sea of sameness. Despite a challenging regulatory framework, we feel there is a definite opportunity to introduce new ideas, new conversations that capture people’s imagination, and make them see the category differently. We are delighted to partner DSP BlackRock.”

  • DDB Mudra West strengthens Creative Team

    DDB Mudra West strengthens Creative Team

    MUMBAI: DDB Mudra West appoints Satyajeet Kadam and Shagun Seda as creative directors, DDB Mudra Mumbai. The creative duo will be based out of Mumbai and will work under the guidance of DDB Mudra Group chairman & CCO Sonal Dabral.

    Both, Shagun and Satyajeet join DDB Mudra West from TBWA.

    Satyajeet‘s (popularly known as Satya) last stint at TBWA was as associate creative director on Nissan, Standard Chartered Bank, FA, Pril, Marvel and Lavie. With over 10 years of experience, Satya has worked with well-known agencies including Lowe and Ogilvy & Mather and worked on popular brands including Taj Mahal Tea, Amaron batteries, Bru, Godrej Properties, Lifebouy and Tata Tea among others.

    Shagun, with 10 years of experience, has worked on brands including Nissan, Standard Chartered Bank, Fadeos and talcs, Pril, Lavie, Nivea, Visa, Makers – by Raymond, Principal Retirement Advisors, Angel Broking, Adidas, Samsonite and American Tourister among others in TBWA and ICICI Prudential Life Insurance and The Oberoi Hotel among others in a brief stint at Lowe.

    On further strengthening the creative team, Sonal Dabral said, “I‘m very excited about Shagun and Satyajeet joining the DDB Mudra family. A hugely talented team, they are both modern day storytellers with big brand experience and excellent work that transcends mediums. l look forward to some path breaking work from this energetic and passionate team across all the important brands they will lead here.”

    DDB Mudra Group West president Rajiv Sabnis said, “Satya and Shagunas a creative team are keen to make a significant difference to the agency and the brands that they will be leading. They bring a certain zest and enthusiasm to the workplace that will be infectious. They are very talented and curious people, exactly what we were looking for in DDB Mudra. The DDB philosophy of “talent without tantrums” rings true when you meet these excitable creative directors. We welcome them on board and wish them success in the agency.”

    On joining DDB Mudra Mumbai, Satya, said, “I have learnt more about advertising from the people I‘ve worked with, than the brands I‘ve worked on. And I have been fortunate to work with some wonderful and talented people – Abhijit Karandikar, Sagar Mahabaleshwarkar, Amer Jaleel and Rahul Sengupta to name a few. DDB Mudra gave me the opportunity to work closely with Sonal Dabral, who is an institution in himself. Together with him, my team and our set of brands, I look forward to a great innings at DDB Mudra.”

    Adding to this, Shagun said, “After spending a little under a decade in TBWA, which has been my kindergarten, school and university in advertising, it was time to leave home, to try something new. It is difficult not to get attracted by the canvas, brands, work and culture of DDB Mudra. And most importantly, it is very difficult to not admire Sonal. Whether you‘re gaping in awe at his body of work or chatting with him over a cup of tea. I am really excited about the role I am undertaking at DDB Mudra and look forward to doing some great work here.”

  • MAGNONTBWA beefs up senior team

    MUMBAI: Post its acquisition by Omnicom’s TBWA, MAGNONTBWA has strengthened its digital capabilities with three senior level appointments in web/mobile technology, social media as well as client development functions.

    The appointments come as the agency’s preparations to strengthen its presence in the capital and also penetrate tier two cities in North India.

    The agency has got on board KN Ajit Narayan as group director, social media marketing, Paurush Pandit as group director, web/mobile technology and Alok Garg, associate vice president, client development for MAGNONTBWA.

    Garg comes with over 16 years of strong experience in client acquisition and managing key customer relationships. His digital experience is rich and vivid and he has led business teams at independent digital agencies in the past. He will be spearheading the client acquisition team for MAGNONTBWA in the Delhi NCR region. He will also be responsible for setting up MAGNONTBWA offices in key northern Indian cities like Lucknow and Chandigarh, and drive MAGNONTBWA’s penetration in tier two Indian cities.

    Narayan moves in from Interactive Avenues, where he was managing social media offerings for a range of clients. He has worked with several leading as well as startup organizations and has experience in new media marketing including online reputation management (ORM), social media marketing (SMM), SEO, content management and user acquisition. Apart from managing the group profile, he will also actively coordinate on account management for SMO services, social media consulting and campaign execution.

    Pandit is a technology evangelist with over 10 years of experience in both start-ups as well as large organisations. In the past he has worked in with Makemytrip.com and Yatra.com. He specialises in web user interface design, development, optimization, usability and web marketing. At MAGNONTBWA, he will be operating at the group level and will be responsible for driving technology excellence on both web and mobile platforms, across the board.

    MAGNONTBWA and MAGNON E-GRAPHICS founder and group CEO Vineet Bajpai said, “At MAGNONTBWA, people have always been central to strategy. As digital media evolves, agencies and marketers will need to find new innovative approaches to connect brands and consumers. The team expansion at Magnon is in sync with the current and potential opportunities and challenges. MAGNONTBWA stands committed to offering best-in-class interactive media solutions to our clients.”

    These hirings have been carried out for both MAGNONTBWA as well as MAGNON E-GRAPHICS, the agency’s international digital delivery arm.

  • Nissan appoints TBWA for the return of Datsun

    MUMBAI: Nissan Motor Company has appointed TBWA as the global marketing agency for Datsun after a closely fought pitch. The appointment comes close on the heels of the announcement of the return of automobile brand Datsun.

    Global creative and strategic direction will be led by a combination of resources from TBWAHakuhodo and TBWALondon, supported by individual markets. The agency was appointed on the strength of the innovative ‘Riser’ brand platform developed for Datsun.

    Datsun is an automobile marque. The name was created in 1931 by the DAT Motorcar for a new car model, spelling it as “Datson” to indicate its smaller size when compared to the existing, larger DAT car. In 1934, after Nissan Motor took control of DAT Motorcar, the last syllable of Datson was changed to “sun”, because “son” also means “loss” in Japanese, and also to honour the sun depicted in the national flag, hence the name “Datsun”. Then later on in March 1986 Nissan phased out the Datsun brand. It is ow announcing the will revive the brand for use in Indonesia, India and Russia.

    Using this platform, TBWA will be responsible for developing the Datsun communications strategy, its global launch and local market activation.

    Datsun is due to launch in 2014, with initial focus on India, Russia and Indonesia, providing local products under a global brand to the young middle class in high-growth markets.

    Local TBWA offices will be responsible for delivering campaigns in their home countries – TBWAMoscow, TBWAMumbai, and TBWA and HAKUHODO Jakarta.

    TBWA Worldwide president and CEO Tom Carroll said, “We are honoured and delighted to be leading the Datsun launch. We are mobilising our key rising markets’ expertise and resources around the world to ensure that we have our very best people working on Datsun.”

    Datsun Business Unit corporate vice president Vincent Cobee added, “We are bringing the Datsun brand back, to provide a new experience to up-and-coming customers in high-growth markets. We are pleased to have TBWAWorldwide join us for the successful launch of this great Brand.”