Naidu & Panjabi, a boutique creative agency was launched in Mumbai recently. With clients ranging from personal care to hospitality and e-commerce, the agency is helmed by Keshav Naidu and Kahini Panjabi. Keshav was voted by Clio as one of the Top 12 Global Creative Directors under 30 and Kahini is a second generation art director who grew up literally in the creative department at Lowe Lintas.
Within a few days of inception, they bagged the account for the recently funded, beauty & wellness booking app ‘Ziffi’. A first outing for the agency, the Ziffi ad film also marks the directorial debut of Kunaal Roy Kapur who was also present at the launch party.
Keshav NaiduKahini Panjabi
Talking about their first client and their agency, Keshav Naidu said – “Naidu & Panjabi was born out of a dire need to harness our creative restlessness. Traditional advertising and creativity needs to be challenged as the world gets smaller by the day. With Naidu & Panjabi we hope to create the perfect conditions for path-breaking, creative collaborations. Ziffi is the kind of new digital service that we don’t realize we need, until we use it. Once you’re hooked, you wonder how you ever managed without it. The real challenge however, is to get people to try something like this. How do you get people to try something they don’t consciously need?â€
Kahini Panjabi, describes how they didn’t want to make something that would look like an ad. “We didn’t set out to make an ad film. We wanted to make a funny video that young, urban India would enjoy as entertainment. And somewhere along the way we bumped into Kunaal Roy Kapur who totally gets this demographic.â€
Dentsu Aegis Network announced the launch of AMNET in India. AMNET is the state-of-the-art global trading desk in response to the technology driven revolution in digital media buying. This will transform the way digital investments are made in India. AMNET’s services will be exclusively available for the benefit of Dentsu Aegis Network clients.
As part of its offerings, AMNET will fuse the best demand-side platform (DSP) technology to buy highly targeted audience-specific digital media across display, mobile and video.
Ashish Bhasin
AMNET will provide real-time insights through digital technology and big data gathering to help understand the consumers’ on-line behaviour. Digital footprints allow the right ads to be delivered to the right people, at the right time. Before the launch of AMNET, it was not possible to do that in India at a very large scale when compared to world standards.
Said Ashish Bhasin, Chairman and CEO South Asia, Dentsu Aegis Network, “This is a very exciting investment that we are making for the benefit of our clients. For the first time in India, Dentsu Aegis Network clients will exclusively have access to programmatic buying at this scale and with such levels of sophistication. As a leading player in digital, with market-leading agencies like iProspect, Isobar, Dentsu Webchutney and WATConsult in our group, we wanted our clients to get the best of global standards in this important area; hence, the decision to bring AMNET to India.â€
Sumit Aggarwal
Industry veteran Sumit Aggarwal will be leading this effort as the Country Head for AMNET India, reporting to Ashish Bhasin. He comes with 17 years of experience across M&E and the Telecom industry. Sumit was earlier serving as VP monetisation for multi screen advertising platform at Reliance Jio and prior to that has led Search, Display Ad Sales and Ad Product teams at Yahoo! India.
Further, Salil Shanker will now handle the operational aspects of AMNET India as Business Head and will be based out of Dentsu Aegis Network’s Gurgaon office.
We all know the Pied Piper story, don’t we? Let’s look at one of the Wikipedia descriptors: “In 1284, while the town of Hamelin was suffering from a rat infestation, a Piper dressed in colourful red clothing appeared, claiming to be a rat-catcher. He promised the Mayor a solution to their problem with the rats. The Mayor in turn promised to pay him for the removal of the rats. The Piper accepted, and played his pipe to lure the rats into the Weser River, where all but one drowned. Despite the Piper’s success, the Mayor reneged on his promise and refused to pay him the full sum. The Piper left the town angrily, vowing to return later to take revenge. On Saint John and Paul’s Day, while the Hamelinites were in Church, the Piper returned, dressed in green, like a hunter, playing his pipe, and in so doing attracting the town’s children. One hundred and thirty children followed him out of town… “
Now read this other story, circa 2014-15. There was the boss of an ad agency. His name: Pratap. He was the promised the top job of the agency (called DDB Mudra?). When he didn’t get it, he quit and decided to set up his own shop and lure a host of employees. Do we call him the Pied Piper of DDB Mudra?
So wassup at one of the hottest advertising agencies in the country? Is MudraMax, the division handling the media buying and planning, outdoor (OOH), experiential and retail businesses facing extreme heat? Although there are no official numbers available, some senior DDB Mudra (DDBM) staff currently in and outside of the system suggest that around 50 percent of the total DDBM revenues would come from MudraMax clients.
Madhukar Kamath
In many ways what’s being played out now was expected to happen ever since former Chief Operating Officer of the group Pratap Bose put in his papers last year after CEO and MD Madhukar Kamath was given an extension of four years. He was clearly miffed at losing out. “Everyone knows I was looking at the Top Job. There were promises made. I am not the kind of guy who will wait for four years,†he told MxMIndia then.
Now, after having stitched up his funding and with some prized clients in the kitty, Bose has gone on the offensive. Though a confidante insists it’s not a case of revenge or showing DDBM the finger. “It was better for him to exit than bicker. If he doesn’t call people whom he trusts to his own venture, who will he get? There was a non-compete clause till the end of the year and that allowed him enough time to read, attend to chores he never did when he was working, look at Advertising Club work and travel.†Plus some brilliant wildlife photography, we may add.
Mandeep Malhotra
Although the parent Ominicom-owned DDB Mudra Group agency was quick to restructure operations after the exit of Mandeep Malhotra, President, DDB MudraMax on Monday, the damage was done. Malhotra was reportedly on a holiday last week, and his quitting was sudden.
A townhall was conducted on the MudraMax floor of the agency’s headquarters in North Central Mumbai where Kamath reportedly said: “Twenty will go, 20 new will come, I’m not bothered.†Kamath later hinted at activities hampering the interests of the organisation happening on the floor. “We clear don’t want that to happen,†he said.
When asked whether it was true that MudraMax may be merged with OMD, as it was rumoured, he scoffed at the suggestion. “No way,†he exclaimed.
Meanwhile, Malhotra is expected to join Bose as Managing Partner in his proposed venture. It is learnt many others from within the DDB Mudra fold and outside of it will join in.
And at MudraMax, Executive Directors Sathyamurthy Namakkal and Aneil ‘Andy’ Deepak were handed additional charge of the outdoor and experiential businesses respectively and TracyLocke head of business and operations Sameer Mehta will now report directly to Kamath.
Kamath also told MxMIndia that it was business as usual and rubbished rumours that employees were asked to sign affidavits to pledge their continuance or leave the organisation. While MxMIndia hasn’t been able to verify claims from either side, at least one of the employees who has moved out very emphatically said that they were shown the ‘sign or else’ undertakings.
Meanwhile, Kamath says just 15 staffers have quit, though one of the employees who has quit said the number will be in the range of 25. All the exiting employees are likely to join Bose in his new venture. Another 30-odd are rumoured to be hopping over in a month’s time and a few others from other agencies will also join in.
Kamath on his part isn’t fazed by Bose’s proposed venture. “We’ve had many people who have turned entrepreneurs after leaving Mudra… We wish them well,†he said, without taking Bose’s name.
Although Bose was unavailable for comment, he is said to be establishing an agency network with equity investments in various communication companies. He is said to have locked in a string of clients, some of them from DDBM. The first of his ventures is expected to be afloat around mid-June 2015. That’s a little over a month away.
While a senior marketer dubbed this the biggest ever churn in the ad agency business in the last decade, Kamath said it would be incorrect to term it an exodus from his agency. Over a hundred fresh recruits are likely to join the group over the next few months, he said.
So what’s next? It will all settle down soon. DDB Mudra has weathered several storms. It can do that again. It’s just won the Aircel account and Madhukar Kamath says more are expected. As for Pratap Bose, we all know that he’s a go-getter and has a fine bunch of people he can rally around. May both co-exist and thrive.
And the Pied Piper? Ah, well. This is no fairy tale that you’re reading. Let’s hope they all live happily ever after.
Advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy’s (W+K) India office is headed for a shake-up as its top two executives, Mohit Dhar Jayal and V Sunil, are set to move on “partially†from the agency to start a new venture of their own. “We will move on only partially and be directors at W+K,†said Jayal, who has been managing director at W+K Delhi.
Jayal and Sunil, currently executive creative director at W+K Delhi, have already started the process of transition to shift focus to their new initiative that “will not be related to advertising and communicationsâ€.
Sunil will also become a director with W+K when the new leadership team arrives. The agency is looking to bring in some global talents for leadership roles, which is expected to take place in about a month, Jayal said.
“The new structure will require us to oversee the businesses that we have helped grow and some of the new business too, although we won’t be involved in the day-to-day operations of handling accounts,†Jayal said. “We will be like the old uncles hanging around in the building.â€
Some senior industry sources alleged that Jayal and Sunil decided to move on due to growing differences with the agency’s head office in Portland.
Jayal dismissed any such speculation. “For the record there cannot be anyone we respect more than our cousins in Portland. Dan is like a sage and Kennedy a fine man; I would love to be led by him,†he said. “In fact even in our new venture W+K will be partners with us, so our relationship will be like a double-decker thing.â€
Media agency major GroupM has announced the expanding of its sports and entertainment offering under a new global agency brand, ESP.
ESP will be made up of two separate businesses: ESP Properties and ESP Brands. Both businesses will be part of WPP’s media investment management company GroupM, but remain independent of its media-buying operations.
ESP Properties will be formed through new hires, the integration of existing GroupM business units including leading sponsorship agency IEG, and the acquisition of data-driven sports marketing agency Two Circles. It will collaborate with specialists from the WPP network to deliver a full range of marketing services. It will also work with GroupM Entertainment on new programming concepts and, where mutually beneficial, provide direct finance for new projects.
ESP Properties will launch with over 150 staff in hubs across New York, Chicago, London, Singapore and Mumbai, plus additional teams in Los Angeles, Sao Paulo and Dubai amongst others. It launches with a roster of globally recognised clients including the All Blacks, Cleveland Cavaliers, Valencia CF, England and Wales Cricket Board, Pele, and City Football Group.
Said Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP, in a statement: “There is significant and growing demand on the part of clients to invest more in content and sports but few in our industry have had a serious response to this. Our new ESP Properties will bring creative power and commercial insight to rightsholders for the first time, providing unmatched opportunities to better tailor their offerings to the needs of today’s brand sponsors. ESP will also work hand in hand with our recent investment in Bruin Sports to provide our clients with access to many high-value media and sponsorship opportunities.â€
GroupM is also expanding its support for brands to plan, negotiate and activate sports and entertainment partnerships by growing the specialist teams in its individual media agencies. These specialist teams will be underpinned in key regions by the second business within ESP, ESP Brands. ESP Brands will be an evolution of the former partnerships consultancy GroupM ESP.
Dominic Proctor, Chairman of ESP and President of GroupM Global, added: “The global launch of ESP Properties brings leading commercial and creative capabilities to some of the world’s most celebrated names across sports and entertainment. Sport is a driving force in media and we want to serve the market better by assisting rightsholders in optimizing their properties and creating more winning partnerships with leading brands. At the same time we will ensure we work more efficiently on behalf of brands by providing even more resources for the specialist sports and entertainment practices that are embedded in our GroupM agencies, underpinned by a central team in key regions, ESP Brands.â€
The new ESP Properties will be led by John Kristick, Global CEO of GroupM ESP since 2011. Kristick is a senior sports marketing executive with nearly two decades of international experience, including being appointed Managing Director for the USA Bid Committee to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, and previously working for more than ten years in Europe serving as an Executive Director for Infront Sports & Media from its inception. The business will be led regionally by Jonathan Hill (EMEA), Laren Ukman (North America) and JinWei Toh (APAC). ESP Brands will be managed regionally in North America by Bryce Townsend and through the individual GroupM agencies in other regions.
John Kristick, CEO of ESP Properties, said: “ESP Properties’ offering is truly unique in meeting the changing needs of the world’s leading federations, events, leagues, teams and other rightsholders. We have brought together a range of experts from across GroupM, such as IEG with over three decades of experience in sponsorship consulting, and our new partners Two Circles who have been leading the way in data-driven sports marketing. By combining this strategic expertise with unmatched understanding of how to navigate potential brand partnerships, we can uncover new revenue opportunities for rightsholders worldwide.â€
The launch is part of WPP’s commitment to content, demonstrated by its investments in MediaPro, VICE, Indigenous Media, FullScreen, MRC, and, most recently, Bruin Sports Capital.
Said George Pyne, founder of Bruin Sports Capital:  “ESP Properties provides rightsholders around the world with a very powerful combination of strategic services and sales expertise. The ability to access the group’s unmatched global resources and corporate client base will be very helpful as we create value for the relevant businesses Bruin operates. We also anticipate collaborating with ESP Properties to jointly deploy capital and create new businesses as opportunities arise.â€
Turtle Limited launched #SAVELITTLESHELLY campaign to support its on-going efforts to conserve the endangered species of Turtles. This year, Turtle Limited has taken the campaign to a new height by not just celebrating the day, but the entire month announcing World Turtle Month Initiative and introducing little Shelly, the animated character through their newly launched #SAVELITTLESHELLY campaign.
#SAVELITTLESHELLY is launched as a hashtag in social media as the story of Shelly, a baby turtle with a cute shell, making her journey from the nest to the sea, braving all dangers that come in the way. A unique animated social initiative, it is a 2 minute YouTube film broken down into four stages. At the end of each stage, viewers are asked to help Shelly complete the next leg of her journey by likes. Every new stage of the film was released only after a certain number of likes at the end of the previous stage. Curious viewers, eager to see Shelly’s journey, and gradually four stages of the film made it to the YouTube. Finally, on World Turtle Day, people were able to see the entire film and take pride in helping Shelly find her way and live on.
Speaking on this campaign, Arjun Mukherjee, Creative Art Director, JWT, said “The entire idea was to raise awareness of the plight of the Turtles who are facing extinction in an interesting an engaging manner. So we wanted to give the people at large a hands on opportunity to save a turtle. The month long initiative saw the creation of a cute virtual turtle who can move a step forward towards survival only when one donates. While the actual donations went towards the conservation of Turtles and their environment, thousands of people logged in everyday to watch the journey of Shelly the Turtle and helped spread the wordâ€.
World Turtle Day, which was on 23rd of May is dedicated to the salvation of these marvellous creatures who have inhabited this planet for the last 200 million years. As they play a very crucial role in maintaining the ecological balance, we need to nurture them since the time the eggs are hatched till the turtles find their way to the sea.
To build buzz around #SAVELITTLESHELLY campaign, the social media was flooded with interesting posts, ads and every Turtle shop in the country was speckled with posters that talked about the drive and the cause. Store merchandise were designed around Shelly and distributed to customers, who spread the word and drove the initiative both on social media platform and the personal front.
Commenting on this initiative, Shitanshu Jhunjhunwala, Director, Turtle Limited said, “Turtles have been around for 200 million years, yet they are rapidly disappearing as a result of smuggling, the exotic food industry, habitat destruction, global warming and the cruel pet trade. Keeping in mind this sad state of turtle globally, we thought of launching a month long campaign instead of celebrating a single day to raise awareness to save turtles.â€
The 120 Media Collective announced two senior appointments, Shilpa Ambre, as Chief Financial Officer of the company and Vishal Nongbet as Senior Vice President & Business Head of their recently launched brand, Sooperfly – a joint venture with UK’s Diagonal View, dedicated to the empowerment of Asia’s digital video ecosystem. Both Ambre and Nongbet will be based in Mumbai and will report to Roopak Saluja- Founder & CEO, The 120 Media Collective.
While Shilpa will be responsible for all Finance, Legal Affairs and Investor Relations of The 120 Media Collective and its sub brands – Jack in the Box Worldwide, Sniper, Bang Bang Films and Sooperfly, Vishal will be entrusted with building the Sooperfly team and business and running day to day operations including content, distribution and monetization across APAC.
Vishal Nongbet
A reputed corporate finance professional, Shilpa comes from Komli Media, bringing in multi industry experience of 17 years in Digital Media, Information Technology Enables Services (ITES) Auditing and Financial Services. Shilpa’s expertise lies in Fund Raising & IPO listing, Mergers and acquisition, Business Modeling & Financial Planning , ERP Implementation, to cite a few. Shilpa has also worked with Hexaware Technologies for close to seven years. Her professional knowledge extends across US, UK and South East Asian compliance, accounting and tax regulations.
Vishal, with diverse experience across the media industry of more than 15 years, has held several leadership positions at The Times Group, Mahindra & Mahindra, Webaroo, Kodak India in the past. Prior to joining Sooperfly, Vishal was heading the India business for InMobi.
“The company has undergone a metamorphosis of sorts over the past three years, from being a combined entity of a production company and a social media agency to one that is pushing the boundaries and blurring the lines between communications, entertainment and technology. As we embark on an ambitious growth plan over the next 36 months, bolstering our leadership team with top talent is essential. Keeping the company adequately funded and observing the highest standards of compliance and governance will be key and having someone of Shilpa’s experience and capability overseeing things is of paramount importanceâ€, said, Roopak Saluja, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, The 120 Media Collective.
“While the last two decades have been all about the democratisation of content, there has never been a better time than now for advertisers to engage their audiences via owned rather than paid or earned media. Sooperfly will be looking at harnessing the immense talent in the space, building content brands direct to audiences, and finding that sweet spot between content creators and advertisersâ€, said, Vishal Nongbet, Senior Vice President & Business Head, Sooperfly (a part of The 120 Media Collective).
Additionally, Chahna Rupani, Senior Producer, Bang Bang Films has been promoted to Executive Producer, Sniper, and will primarily be responsible for driving revenues and growth and also ensuring excellence and efficiencies for both commercials and content production and Sanket Kunde has been appointed Group Head of Production.
Shilpa and Vishal join The 120 Media Collective at an exciting time, as the company transforms into an end-to-end multi-platform content player that creates, produces, distributes, monetizes, creates engagement around and promotes the content that it produces. While The 120 Media Collective continues to build on its distinct offering of high-end film production capabilities and best-in-class digital marketing resources under one roof, it has strengthened its unique position with the recently launched brands, Sniper, aimed at redefining commercials and content productions and Sooperfly, dedicated to empowering video. With new appointments and recent promotions, the Management Committee of the company comprises Roopak Saluja – Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Heather Gupta- Chief Talent Officer, Shilpa Ambre – Chief Financial Officer, Abhishek Razdan – Executive Vice President & Business Head, Jack in the Box Worldwide, Vishal Nongbet – Senior Vice President & Business Head, Sooperfly, Chahna Rupani- Executive Producer, Sniper and Sanket Kunde – Senior Vice President & Group Head of Production, and will be instrumental in key decision-making and giving the company strategic direction.
Global media & communication planning firm Maxus has further strengthened its top management appointing Anil Sathiraju as General Manager, Maxus South 2.
Maxus South has been growing rapidly and handles some of the most prestigious clients of the region. Anil Sathiraju will report in to Sanchayeeta Verma- Managing Partner, Maxus South India & South Asia. With Anil coming on board, Maxus consolidates the senior management strength in the South, along with Kishankumar Shyamalan as GM South 1.
Kartik Sharma
Kartik Sharma, Managing Director, Maxus South Asia said “Our South operations have been the trail blazers in many areas for Maxus and we are looking forward to scale new heights. Anil is an important and strategic addition keeping this in mind.”
Commenting on the new appointment Sanchayeeta Verma- Managing Partner, South India & South Asia, Maxus said, “The media landscape is possibly at its most dynamic state today. It’s a time of rapid and big changes. Not only do we have to stay on top of this and ensure that we incorporate the new state of things in the way we do the communication planning for our brands, we also have to ensure executional excellence so that strategy translates to reality. On top of it in today’s uncertain economic conditions, our media monies have to result into tangible business results for our brands. All of this means, more engagement & more speed at the senior management level. This prompted us to create two distinct SBUs within Maxus South and bring in the best people to man them, i.e, Anil & Kishan. Anil typifies Maxus PACE and we are delighted to have him on board.â€
In his earlier role Anil was Associate VP & Head South, Mudra Max Pvt. Ltd. With over 19 years of experience he has handled many of the top clients in South India some of which are the TTK Prestige, Cycle Agarbathies, Tata Gold Plus, Eenadu Group, Ashok Leyland, Wipro Consumer Care, Sobha Developers, Wildcraft, Jyothy Laboratories, Beauty Cosmetics (now CavinKare).
ZenithOptimedia’s Performics announced setting up a full-fledged digital media technology Centre of Excellence, a first of its kind in India, out of their Bangalore office. This will provide capabilities on real time segmentation and insights, services across marketing automation, attribution, data modeling, content and commerce. The centre will specifically cater to the Indian sub-continent.
Comments Tanmay Mohanty, MD Performics, India “This centre is set up to provide solutions for comprehensive and integrated marketing, that will enable marketers to measure, personalize, and optimize marketing campaigns and digital experiences across screens and platforms. As you would know, globally Publicis has partnered with Adobe for these ‘Always On Solutions’ that will power insights and data fuelled planning globally for Publicis. The preferred partnership between Performics India and Adobe is already gaining traction with customers such as Airtel and Tata AIG already migrating to Adobe Marketing Cloud. Many other organizations are showing similar interest.â€
Anupriya Acharya
Anupriya Acharya, Group CEO ZenithOptimedia group, India elaborates, “This is something that we have been working on for some time and in our assessment, the time is ripe to set up a centre like this. Online video is seeing explosive growth thanks to the explosion of mobile video consumption and the spread of internet-connected devices like desktop computers, tablets and television screens. All key social media platforms are developing their video products; and more online video is being sold by programmatic buying, providing advertisers with more control and better value. We find that currently a lot of clients, especially in the e-commerce and mobile segment have to work with media technology companies that are outside of India and have a hard time getting the time and attention they require. Inside India we will be testing multiple technologies against client requirements. Both our teams and clients are excited about it.â€
Kulmeet Bawa, Director – Enterprise, South Asia, Adobe says, “Top brands around the world across industry verticals use Adobe Marketing Cloud to reach and engage customers, and our partnerships go a long way in making this possible. We congratulate ZenithOptimedia’s Performics on the establishment of their first centre of excellence for media technologies in India and are certain that customers in India will benefit immensely from this set up.â€
Leo Burnett announced the elevation of Samir Gangahar as President of North India. In his new role, Samir will be responsible to lead Leo Group’s operations in North India. Apart from content, digital and experiential, Samir’s new focus will be to grow other specialisations including shopper, retail and ecommerce.
Saurabh Varma, CEO, Leo Burnett Group India said, “Under Samir, Leo Burnett, Delhi has transformed into a fully integrated operation. He has been instrumental in creating a culture of collaboration within the agency where a group of specialists work together to solve a client problem. Samir has helped strengthen Leo Burnett Delhi’s digital operation and I’m delighted to state that it has now become a technology/digital hub for many of our key clients. The activation business has grown tremendously in the last one year and going forward Samir’s role will be to build on that momentum. He will help us build new specialisations as part of his mandate. These include shopper, retail and rural.â€
Saurabh Varma
Samir says, “In my new role I look forward to working closely with Saurabh in growing Leo Burnett India on the back of a “renewed thrust for integration. In line with our Human Kind philosophy, we will intensify our focus on finding and solving our clients’ problems and partnering them in the journey of brand building and business growth.†Samir joined Leo Burnett as Executive Director in August 2007 after a 17-year stint with JWT, where he was Vice President and Director, Client Servicing.
Cheil India has appointed Sonal Narain as Chief Strategy Officer. Sonal Narain will be based in the firm’s Gurgaon office, the regional headquarters for South-West Asia.
Sonal, who currently serves as Head of Planning at Ogilvy Singapore and is also Head of Ogilvy Change (the firm’s Behavioural Sciences practice) is someone who is ‘obsessed by effectiveness in communication’.
At Ogilvy, she has been driving an organisation-wide agenda for effectiveness that has resulted in over 20 wins at all major awards at local, regional and international shows. She was also awarded Planner of the Year 2014 in Singapore.
She has worked on brands such as The Economist, Milo, Kimberly Clarke, SoyJoy, Kotex, Huggies, Economic Development Board of Singapore, and the Singapore Sports Council.
Shiv Sethuraman
Remarking on the appointment, Shiv Sethuraman, Group President of Cheil South-West Asia said: “Sonal understands the intersection between media, technology and popular culture and has done impressive work in areas far beyond the limits of conventional advertising. That is what makes her the perfect choice to lead Cheil India’s Planning and Strategy function. We’re aiming to transition into an agency that is ahead of the curve and Sonal will be a big part of that. She understands technology but at the core, it’s her understanding of human behaviour and her focus on effectiveness that set her apart.â€
DDB Mudra West has recently won the creative mandate for Margo (beauty soap) following a multi-agency pitch.
In India, Neem and skin care have gone hand in hand for generations. If there’s one brand that is the very essence of Neem, that’s Margo. The legendary 95-year old brand has stood the test of time.
Margo has revamped itself to appeal to the preferences and aspirations of India’s dynamic youth while retaining its core Neem benefits.
Over the years, the brand has expanded the product range to include the Margo Glycerine soap and Margo Face wash offering a larger portfolio of Neem based products for skin.
Quoting on the appointment of the agency, M.R Jyothy, Executive Director, Jyothy Laboratories said, “The brief was to bring in a fresh perspective to communicate the core benefits of Neem leading to brand trials amongst non-users. DDB Mudra’s creative strategy appealed the most as it was a logical build up to the last brand campaign. The creative routes were fresh and in sync with what we believe our TG will relate to. We hope that DDB Mudra’s talent pool and experience in diverse categories will help us meet our marketing goals.â€
Rajiv Sabnis
Quoting on the account win, Rajiv Sabnis, President, DDB Mudra West said, “Margo is the original Neem soap. The brand has some strong loyalists but we need to broad-base the loyal franchise to younger audiences and pan-India. The need is to make the power of Neem relevant to a larger set of young adults who know of the efficacy of Neem, but haven’t experienced it yet through Margo. In a day and age when young people want to experience the world up close, Margo is just the right partner to ensure that you are ready to face the world. The communication is true to this insight and should connect well with young Indians. We look forward to further building this brand with the team at Jyothy.â€
Naidu & Panjabi, a boutique creative agency was launched in Mumbai recently. With clients ranging from personal care to hospitality and e-commerce, the agency is helmed by Keshav Naidu and Kahini Panjabi. Keshav was voted by Clio as one of the Top 12 Global Creative Directors under 30 and Kahini is a second generation art director who grew up literally in the creative department at Lowe Lintas.
Industry veteran Sumit Aggarwal will be leading this effort as the Country Head for AMNET India, reporting to Ashish Bhasin. He comes with 17 years of experience across M&E and the Telecom industry. Sumit was earlier serving as VP monetisation for multi screen advertising platform at Reliance Jio and prior to that has led Search, Display Ad Sales and Ad Product teams at Yahoo! India.
