ITV

Tag: Universal McCann

  • Aditi Guha joins Prime Video as head of programming & content insights

    Aditi Guha joins Prime Video as head of programming & content insights

    MUMBAI: Amazon Prime Video has roped in media veteran Aditi Guha as head of programming & content insights for Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios India. She joined the content giant in May 2025 and made the announcement today on Linkedin. 

    With over two decades of experience across media planning, consumer insight, content strategy and product monetisation, Guha is set to shape the streamer’s data-led storytelling and business decisions.

    Prior to this, Guha served as senior product researcher at Netflix APAC, where she led consumer insight across South Korea, Japan, India, Australia, and Southeast Asia, focusing on partnerships, churn, retention and commerce growth. Before that, she held multiple leadership roles at The Walt Disney Co in Singapore, launching Disney+ in Southeast Asia and building audience strategies across studios, media networks and licensing verticals.

    Her career began in media planning at Universal McCann and WPP, before she made her mark at Viacom18’s MTV Insight Studio and ABP News. Guha is an alumna of Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication and has earned certifications from NUS Business School, IdeoU, and General Assembly in analytics and design thinking.

    With content wars heating up in the Indian OTT space, her appointment signals Amazon’s continued push to double down on data-fuelled programming decisions, local insights and international storytelling chops.

  • Coca-Cola India appoints Asha Sekhar as VP & chief digital officer

    Coca-Cola India appoints Asha Sekhar as VP & chief digital officer

    MUMBAI: Coca-Cola India, on Monday, announced the appointment of Asha Sekhar as its vice president and chief digital officer, India and South West Asia.
    Prior to this, she worked for over a decade with WPP, Universal McCann, Madison and Mudra, managing media businesses for leading brands. She has developed multi-level engagement with all key segments of the dynamic media landscape ranging from technology platforms to content distributors.
    Announcing the elevation, Coca-Cola president India and South West Asia T Krishnakumar said, “Digitalisation is disrupting all industries and redefining the ways companies connect, engage, communicate and do business. Asha’s expertise in delivering consumer-focused digital experience will help in our journey towards becoming more relevant and future ready.”
    Sekhar will report to Krishnakumar. In her previous role, as director – media, Coca-Cola India & South West Asia, she was pivotal in setting up a separate media function to efficiently leverage marketing efforts in an increasingly complex media landscape.
    In this newly created leadership role, which focuses on the company’s journey towards digital transformation, Asha will build foundations necessary for business growth, drive opportunities and strengthen Coca-Cola India’s digital ecosystem. In addition to her new responsibilities, Asha will continue to lead the media and allied marketing functions.
    “This new addition to the leadership team of Coca-Cola in India is designed to address developing business needs and reinforces our commitment towards investing in diversity and talent development,” he added.
    As a core part of the marketing function, Asha has been a significant change agent for driving media strategy. Some of her significant achievements include, the inception and later scale-up of Samvaad, an in-house digital experience center for Coca-Cola in India, that delivers consumer centricity for Coca-Cola’s brands, company and customers. She has also delivered some ‘industry-first’ pioneering projects and driven strategic media partnerships.

  • Motivator appoints Upali Nag as National Head-Insights and Innovation

    Motivator appoints Upali Nag as National Head-Insights and Innovation

    MUMBAI: Motivator, a GroupM agency, has appointed Upali Nag as National Head – Insights and Innovation. Upali will work out of the agency’s Bangalore office and will report to V.Narayanan, Chief Growth Officer, Motivator. Her role will involve providing strategic business solutions and data-driven insights to Motivator’s growing client base besides building the business and project consulting practice.

    Speaking on the new addition to the team,Motivator MD Rabe Iyer said, “In the last couple of years, we have been fast tracking our journey to build a strong client business performance framework and product. Upali has fantastic experience to build sustainable strategies to deliver to broader client conversations. Upali will distinctly add value to nailing the clients’ central challenges in the context of marketing and manageable interventions. She will partner with Motivator, GroupM and WPP units to build a strategic framework to address the same. Her ability to identify and use the right lens in addressing client business issues will further fuel our performance centricity.”

    On her new assignment, Nag added, “I am extremely excited and happy to join Motivator- India. GroupM has always been ahead of the industry in terms of its vision and commitment towards building knowledge and people assets which are geared for the future. This, combined with the fact that most of the Motivator clients are intrinsically Indian clients, makes the journey even more interesting and exciting. This is my second stint at GroupM, and in many ways, feels no less than a homecoming.”

    An alumnus of MICA Ahmedabad, Upali brings to Motivator a rich experience of 18 years in media strategy, planning and development of business solutions. She started her career with the then known, Initiative Media, Lintas and since then has been associated with companies like Universal McCann, Starcom Mediavest Group, Yahoo and GroupM. Some of the brands she has worked on include TVS, Tata Tea, Himalaya Wellness, Wipro Consumer Care and SAB Miller among others.

    Upali Nag also has substantial experience in setting up organization teams, processes and in strategic consulting. Following her business consulting practice, she has successfully driven projects on Consumer Understanding, Business Development, CRM, Business Analytics, Data Solutions and Identifying Performance Metrics.

  • Motivator appoints Upali Nag as National Head-Insights and Innovation

    Motivator appoints Upali Nag as National Head-Insights and Innovation

    MUMBAI: Motivator, a GroupM agency, has appointed Upali Nag as National Head – Insights and Innovation. Upali will work out of the agency’s Bangalore office and will report to V.Narayanan, Chief Growth Officer, Motivator. Her role will involve providing strategic business solutions and data-driven insights to Motivator’s growing client base besides building the business and project consulting practice.

    Speaking on the new addition to the team,Motivator MD Rabe Iyer said, “In the last couple of years, we have been fast tracking our journey to build a strong client business performance framework and product. Upali has fantastic experience to build sustainable strategies to deliver to broader client conversations. Upali will distinctly add value to nailing the clients’ central challenges in the context of marketing and manageable interventions. She will partner with Motivator, GroupM and WPP units to build a strategic framework to address the same. Her ability to identify and use the right lens in addressing client business issues will further fuel our performance centricity.”

    On her new assignment, Nag added, “I am extremely excited and happy to join Motivator- India. GroupM has always been ahead of the industry in terms of its vision and commitment towards building knowledge and people assets which are geared for the future. This, combined with the fact that most of the Motivator clients are intrinsically Indian clients, makes the journey even more interesting and exciting. This is my second stint at GroupM, and in many ways, feels no less than a homecoming.”

    An alumnus of MICA Ahmedabad, Upali brings to Motivator a rich experience of 18 years in media strategy, planning and development of business solutions. She started her career with the then known, Initiative Media, Lintas and since then has been associated with companies like Universal McCann, Starcom Mediavest Group, Yahoo and GroupM. Some of the brands she has worked on include TVS, Tata Tea, Himalaya Wellness, Wipro Consumer Care and SAB Miller among others.

    Upali Nag also has substantial experience in setting up organization teams, processes and in strategic consulting. Following her business consulting practice, she has successfully driven projects on Consumer Understanding, Business Development, CRM, Business Analytics, Data Solutions and Identifying Performance Metrics.

  • Starcom MediaVest Group appoints Hanley King as chairman, SMG India

    Starcom MediaVest Group appoints Hanley King as chairman, SMG India

    MUMBAI: Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) has roped in Hanley King as chairman, SMG India. King will report to global operations president John Sheehy and will be based in SMG’s Mumbai office.  As chairman, SMG India, King will be focused on key client relationships, new business and commercial operations for the agency. SMG India CEO Malli CR and SMG Convonix CEO Vishal Sampat will dually report to King and will continue to lead daily operations for their respective organisations. 

     

    “Hanley is a consummate professional with a proven track record of delivering results across our globally networked clients,” said Sheehy. “Our recent acquisition of Convonix and our robust digital and analytics practice prove that our operations in India are among our most future-focused.  I look to Hanley to work hand in hand with Malli and Vishal to continue to build upon our momentum in India.”

     

    King was most recently SMG Global Client Lead for APAC, based in Singapore. In this role he managed multifaceted SMG client teams for Samsung, Mars Wrigley, Kellogg’s, Novartis and Bank of America and others across the APAC region. Prior to joining SMG, King was CEE President for Universal McCann, where he was responsible for 22 markets across the Central European region with 500 plus staff and billings of close to $1 billion. Prior to this role, he was UM CEO, Czech Republic, and previous to this he spent seven years working for media independents and full service communications agencies in his native New Zealand. In his career Hanley has worked on many global accounts in Asia, Europe or New Zealand spanning FMCG, Auto, Financial, Breweries and Telcos.

     

    “India is a fascinating, fast-paced and constantly evolving market,” King said. “And that’s why it’s such an honor to be joining SMG India and working with Malli and Vishal – a team that is so relentlessly focused on the future.”

     

    SMG India is leading the industry with its robust digital and analytics practice, as well as it best-in-class consumer insights work led by its Human Experience Strategist Network. SMG India’s client list includes Dabur, Axis Bank, Aircel and Ranbaxy In 2013, PublicisGroupe acquired Convonix, which aligned with SMG India. Founded in 2003, Convonix today employs more than 400 digital marketing specialists, making it the largest digital agency in India, serving such clients domestically as well as internationally as Tata Motors, Reliance Industries, Budweiser, Taj Hotels, DBS, Mahindra Holidays, Tata Global Beverages among others.

  • Airtel’s Arun Sharma joins IPG Mediabrands

    Airtel’s Arun Sharma joins IPG Mediabrands

    MUMBAI: IPG Mediabrands has roped in Arun Sharma from Bharti Airtel south Asia. He will be joining in as vice president and will be part of the agency’s Delhi team.

     

    In Airtel, Sharma was heading the media division as vice-president, marketing and head, media.

     

    Sharma has over 17 years of experience of which 10 years were with Airtel. In the telecom company, he was responsible for the brand’s media strategy, planning, buying, deployment, ROI measurement, research and execution of marketing budget. He also led various key developments of the telecom brand including the launch of Airtel’s new brand identity in late 2010.

     

    Before Airtel, he has worked with leading media agencies and handled a number of brands such as Coke, Nestle, Gillette, J&J and GSK. He has earlier also worked with Universal McCann, which is part of IPG Mediabrands.

  • Yatra.com awards media mandate to ZenithOptimedia

    Yatra.com awards media mandate to ZenithOptimedia

    MUMBAI: ZenithOptimedia has won the media duties for online travel company Yatra.com and will handle all media planning and buying duties for it.

    Yatra.com said its marketing spends are in the region of Rs 300 million.

    The win was the result of a multi-agency pitch held in Gurgaon. The other media agencies that participated in the pitch include Madison, Maxus and Universal McCann.

    The media account was handled earlier by Motivator.

  • ‘The only thing that supercedes creativity is accountability’ : Laurence Boschetto – DraftFCB president & COO

    ‘The only thing that supercedes creativity is accountability’ : Laurence Boschetto – DraftFCB president & COO

    It was in June that media conglomerate Interpublic combined its Draft and Foote Cone & Belding (FCB) units around the world to create a channel-neutral agency model DraftFCB. Heading DraftFCB as its president-COO is Laurence Boschetto, previously president-COO of Draft.

     

    Hardly has Boschetto had time to gather his breath on the ramifications of the new entity has come an even more radical announcement. Which is that Interpublic is reorganizing its media operations with Initiative becoming aligned within DraftFCB and Universal McCann coming under McCann Worldgroup.

     

    The reorganisation came just ahead of news that the newly integrated DraftFCB has been awarded the account of retail behemoth Walmart worth an estimated $570 million. That the monster win came on top of new business that DraftFCB had won from Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and Atari has been more than a validation for Boschetto and the team at DraftFCB.

     

    In conversation with Indiantelevision.com, Boschetto, who over the last three weeks “has been on the road to every single region introducing them to the new model”, throws some light on just what’s happening at DraftFCB, as too the vision thing with IPG.

     

    Excerpts:

    Is it fair to say that IPG’s reorganization of its media operations represents the most significant example of support for those against the unbundling of media that we have witnessed over the last 20 years or so? And extending that posit, can we then argue that making media and creative interdependent is the best way forward?

    Over the last decade we stripped everything out of an agency, we have taken strategic planning, we stripped away media and now they have basically become interchangeable parts, the ‘value has been devalued.’ So what we are doing right now is we look at the client, we look at the demands and pressures that they have, we look at the environment that their end user works in and we say ‘how do we change the game.’

     

    This might look like the old model but it’s packaged in the new model formulation, an offering of complete integration of products and services but not doing it syllogistically under the model.

     

    What we are saying is that there is one management team, there’s one P&L and the palette consists of all the different skill sets, so the clients don’t have to manage all those relationships and the agency can come back with a business solution orientation based on the real business issues rather than the disciplines that they are confident in.

     

    Today we often hear clients say, ‘I want channel agnosticism and discipline neutrality.’ Yet there isn’t really any channel agnosticism. We didn’t build organizations in the industry that way, we have people that are proficient in strategic planning, in branding, in advertising, in PR and in retail. Now they are asking for renaissance marketing communications people, that’s what this whole model is about, it’s about building another class of business builders in the marketing communication field.

    The new media strategy represents the third major organizational change Interpublic has instituted this year. What is the broad direction that IPG is taking with all this?

    When you take a look at the advertising industry, you cannot ignore client structuring and their constituent parts because this tends to have a ‘domino effect’. The environment that the customer lives in has radically changed, technology has changed they way that they live and breathe, how they interact and connect with each other, this has created one basic phenomena ‘immediacy’.

     

    Technology has changed the way we work and engage. This has put tremendous pressure on the CMOs, as they also live in an environment and at a time when their CEOs are demanding performance in their books. It is estimated that every CMO has a life expectancy of roughly 24 months. However, if they have to produce they will have to figure out how to navigate through a company, what the alliances are, who their end user is and quarter after quarter their performance based on real business metrics will determine what their life expectancy will be.
    ‘Over the last decade we stripped everything out of an agency, we have taken strategic planning, we stripped away media and now they have basically become interchangeable parts, the ‘value has been devalued’ ‘

    If you say that a CMO has an average 24 month life cycle, what happens if he continues to deliver what the client demands?

    As defined, stage I is to develop a way of operating to deliver that media and channel neutrality and agnosticism and that’s by bringing together not just one person to lead the business but all the discipline leaders at a round table, to form a team for the client.

    Now, if one client is more strategic in nature then they may have a strategic person in the key position, while someone else who is more data driven might have the data person heading it, but the way we think through the issues are holistic. The goal is that over time we are not expecting that someone who is highly proficient in strategic planning and database modeling to be interchangeable. But the person who heads up strategy must be able to think more holistically, so that when they come to a business situation they determine what’s right for the client.

    But will these individuals continue to function within their respective units?

    The goal is to make sure that the purity and the authority of every discipline still resides in an agency so that we never lose that foothold. In the process of giving clients that ‘channel agnosticism’, the days of only the account person holding that relationship, we are saying that before we get there we need to have a team consisting of media, strategic planning, account services and a creative database all sitting at the table and having an equal voice in determining how to solve a business issue.