Motivator has appointed Vijayant Dhaka as National Head of Digital Trading. His role will involve streamlining digital channel planning strategies and integrating new trading platforms and practices, besides leading the trading desk for clients.
Dhaka joins Motivator from Ignitee Digital which is now a part of New Digital, Singapore, where he was involved in driving business growth by tapping into performance media clients. He has also been an early stage team member at Octane, and founding team member at Policybazaar. At Policy Bazaar, he set up a customer facing team while at Octane, he was the business head and drove international expansion into South East Asia, Middle East & South Africa.
Commenting on his new role, Dhaka said, “With ever growing digital and mobile penetration in India, we are up for challenging yet exciting times ahead, next 3-5 years will revolutionize the media industry. Motivator thinks alike and is well poised to move at a faster pace than the industry, with investments in right technologies and people. I’m looking forward to this journey.â€
V.Narayanan
Dhaka will be based out of Gurgaon and will report into V.Narayanan, Chief Growth Officer.
Speaking on this development, V.Narayanan said, “Motivator has restructured its digital offering to put new media at the centre of the agency’s offering. Vijayant’s appointment is part of Motivator’s plan to accelerate & enhance the value through better trading and partnership practices. He would play a pivotal role in driving digital efficiencies by cloning best in class processes of GroupM and forging new partnerships that transcends our innovative digital offering to our clients.â€
Given the technological metamorphosis that out-of-home (OOH) is currently witnessing, it has emerged as one of the fastest growing segments in the Marketing Communications industry.
This is good news for the industry and also for the young job seeking community, for which, the sector has opened up lucrative career opportunities. Consequently, with much room to maneuver for ambitious youngsters, Dentsu Aegis Network and Northpoint have announced the launch of the ‘Post Graduate Program in Out Of Home Advertising (The PGP-OOHA) program. The PGP-OOHA program is being conducted by Northpoint Centre of Learning, a Management Resource Development Centre, located in Khandala, in collaboration with the leading out-of-home agencies – Posterscope India and Milestone Brandcom.
Designed to develop future managers, the Out of Home Advertising course is a 6-month fast-track post graduate career program. It is designed to give a thorough working knowledge of Out of Home Advertising & Communications including retail, rural and experiential and how they are all inter-related. The course comprises modules, research projects and workshops followed by an internship with Posterscope and Milestone Brandcom. A strong emphasis will be laid on student performance evaluation through projects and practical assignments and research done by the students. While the entire semester will provide a comprehensive perspective of Out Of Home Advertising and communications, the latter part will be project-based with hands-on production and execution experiences.
As part of the program, professionals from the industry will join senior executives from Posterscope and Milestone Brandcom to deliver the course to the students. This certificate program will run over six months and will include 90 days of campus study and 90 days of field and in-company internships.
Prem Mehta
Prem Mehta, Chairman, Northpoint Centre of Learning said, “The launch of this program is another step in keeping with Northpoint’s mission to prepare young graduates for careers in specialized areas of business. Once again, Northpoint has tied up with the leaders in the OOH industry to ensure relevance of training content, training by industry professionals and substantial field and on-job internships to prepare job-ready managers.â€
Ashish Bhasin
Talking about the career prospects, Ashish Bhasin, Chairman & CEO South Asia Dentsu Aegis Network, Chairman Posterscope and psLive – Asia Pacific said, “Today, Dentsu Aegis Network is amongst the fastest growing communications groups in India and understand the need of trained talent that the industry currently needs. Therefore, we are committed to developing professional talent for the industry as a partner on this program.†Dentsu Aegis Network will consider all successful candidates for final placement.
India’s performance at the Cannes Lions this year left much to be desired. Being dubbed the worst ever – with just 13 metals in our kitty – the dismal showing has sparked debates about whether the advertising industry really has quality talent, or should we not make too much of deal of events like the Lions? Three creative gurus weigh in what might have gone wrong and whether we should care at all.
Bobby Pawar
Director and Chief Creative Officer – South Asia, Publicis Worldwide
Frankly Cannes doesn’t matter. Not to our creativity. Certainly not to our business. Why? Our clients don’t care much about it. Our consumers, not at all. So the question is why we should we give a rat’s derriere? Why are we acting like our momma died and beating our chests in loud mourning? Cannes is a pissing contest and we pissed shorter. Today’s India doesn’t like that. And we shouldn’t. Many have argued that our limp performance was because our work isn’t creative enough. Maybe. But I venture we stepped onto the field pads, gloves and carrying a bat, when the world was playing soccer. The game has changed. If you take a look at our entries, I’ll smack my face with a cold pomfret if most of them weren’t in print, outdoor, design and craft. Old world categories, where the old world still plays a stronger game. (Don’t think so? How many Grand Prix’s has India won in them? There.)
Now, should we change because we want to win awards? That’d be stupid. But the reality is we must, before clients and consumers force us to. If that means we win big at Cannes, great. If not, so be it.
Prathap Suthan
Managing Partner and Chief Creative Officer at Bang In The Middle
There are a couple of reasons why I think we fell short. And I don’t think it an upsetting issue. There are things that we need to consider. The winning countries and the entries operate in spaces that are perhaps very difficult for us to match. The markets require a whole new wedge to drive noticeability, and at least for regular mainstream work, we operate below par. Those are media media-saturated markets, and more importantly creative saturated audiences. It’s a norm for them to do work and expect work that breaks a whole lot of glass ceilings. Our markets and audiences are still tottering around the mofussil of average communication. We don’t need to be creative for the sake of creative. No one has the extra moolah to ply and try to see if completely lateral ideas deliver market efficiency. We are still dealing with entertaining narratives and well crafted advertising pieces. Besides, the tech quotient at play is very far ahead in those competitive markets. There are specialised shops that drive tech ideas and integrate them backwards into communication and creative ideas. It’s a whole new dynamic and our industry infrastructure is not equipped to think or even deliver those solutions or ideas. This gulch is only going to widen. I would rather we focus on what we know best, and work in areas that we can hone to surpass existing levels. And thankfully, there are a lot of categories where we can truly dominate. We need to look our strengths and desist from getting into waters that we can’t cross. It is also important to calibrate the calibre of creative buyers. Truly how of our clients at the senior senior-most levels will push agencies to break every mould. And honestly how many them really know how to evaluate ideas and open up budgets for the greater glory of creative at global festivals?
Abhijit Avasthi
Founder, Sideways (ex-NCD, Ogilvy)
I believe India’s showing at Cannes this year is a temporary blip in a long good run. It is also a reflection and a consequence of a few issues, which can be debated. In certain categories like print/design/promo/digital etc our work is not as cutting edge as the rest of the world. On the one hand, we can try and push that, but then it cannot be at the expense of compromising on its relevance to our markets. That’s a double-edged sword. When it comes to categories like film and radio, where I believe our best work is done, we do have an unfortunate handicap – a lack of awareness and appreciation of our culture, language, social structures and such. No matter how well somebody translates these, the magic of the nuances is lost on the international jurors. As a parallel example, imagine somebody trying to explain the impact of ‘Kitney aadmi they?’ to a film jury? On paper it sounds like the most pedestrian dialogue ever written. There is no way on earth any jury will consider that dialogue a masterpiece. C’est la vie. Our celebrities are not known, our relationships are different…just too many such gaps.
So the way I look at it…if a piece of work wins at Cannes it is surely world class but if it doesn’t…that does not mean it is not. So we should not get overly dejected by this year’s show.
Let’s all just focus on doing exceptional, original work for the man on the street in India.
Media research company Rentrak has entered into an alliance with WPP’s cinema advertising unit, Interactive Television (ITV), to try and overcome a roadblock it has hit in India over collecting box-office data.
The company is unable to collect data from PVR and Inox, two of the biggest local cinema chains. PVR, which has a nearly 70% market share, wants Rentrak to pay a fee to get access to its theatres, while Inox will sign up only if PVR does so too, said top sources at GroupM, WPP’s media-buying group.
Rentrak has a tie-up with GroupM and its agencies in the US. The box-office data will be useful for advertisers while considering displaying ads in movie halls. So far only two cinema chains, Carnival and Cinepolis, have inked deals to share box-office data with Rentrak in India.
Rentrak hopes its association with ITV, which buys space for ads in theatre screens on behalf of companies, will help it overcome the hurdle. It believes with the pact, which is in exchange of exclusive data, it will get access to movie producers and advertisers, who can, in turn, help it in convincing PVR and Inox to come onboard.
“ITV is supporting Rentrak in getting access to cinema owners across the country. For cinema advertising to become bigger and take its rightful place in the media mix, it needs to become more accountable and measurable,” said Ajay Mehta, chief executive of ITV. “Box-office data will give advertisers clear measures and ways to calculate the RoI (return on investment).”
Rentrak tracks box-office information from more than 1.25 lakh cinemas in 40 countries. The company directly collects and compiles box-office data on real-time at the theatre and gives it to stakeholders after further processing. “Through us distributors not only will get access to box-office data, it will help in better release planning, programming, determining release windows, and also understand audience preferences,” said Rajkumar Akella, managing director of Rentrak India, while confirming the alliance with ITV.
According to ITV, India needs a scientific methodology to measure box-office data as cinema advertising — ads played inside cineplexes and multiplexes — accounts for more than Rs 400 crore in annual revenue and has grown at about 15% annually in the past three years.
“We expect it to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 20% over the next three years,” said ITV’s Mehta.
Vizeum India has roped in Shripad Kulkarni as the Managing Director. Shripad will report to Ashish Bhasin, Chairman & CEO Dentsu Aegis Network, South Asia and will join the Dentsu Aegis Network India Executive Council.
Meanwhile, S.Yesudas will now focus on content and analytics, something that he is extremely passionate about, while continuing to report to Ashish Bhasin.
S Yesudas
With more than 25 years of experience across various media specializations, Shripad has worked in agencies such as Carat, Contract, Clarion and O&M. Prior to joining Vizeum, Shripad was CEO – Allied Media, a Percept Group company. Shripad, who serves on the Board of MRUC, was the founding CEO of Allied Media. An MBA from JBIMS, Shripad also holds a Master’s Degree in Statistics and a Diploma in Operations Research. He is also a well-known trainer and ran a media school prior to joining Allied Media.
Ashish Bhasin
Commenting on the appointment, Ashish Bhasin, Chairman & CEO Dentsu Aegis Network said, “I am very pleased to welcome Shripad as the MD of Vizeum India. With the wealth of experience that he brings in and the thorough knowledge of the business that he has, I am sure Vizeum India will touch new heights under his leadership.â€
“I also want to thank Yesudas for the great job that he has done in helping start Vizeum operations in India from the scratch and bringing the agency to the level, at which it is today. I have no doubts that he will equally excel in the new opportunities. Shripad now has a great platform to take Vizeum India to the next orbit because our ambitions for Vizeum India are tremendous,†he added.
Ad network DGM India signaled a business and organizational reinvention with the unveiling of its new brand identity, underscored by a new logo that signifies growth, network, vibrancy and a strong desire to redefine the boundaries of digital advertising.
DGM India is part of SVG Media, the largest Indian digital media network. SVG media has consolidated the India business of 3 companies – DGM, Tyroo & Network Play into a single unit – DGM. The new brand identity also reflects this consolidation.
DGM India said that it has organized its business into five distinct business verticals, each of which is focusing on cutting-edge innovation strategy for growth. The CPL (cost per lead) vertical caters to the offline businesses and it integrates call center and CRM support with online advertising to deliver hot leads to advertisers. The GoVentures unit has a very sharp focus on giving advertising options to advertisers operating in the newly developing on-demand hyper local services by helping clients source leads through various DGM-owned B2C marketplaces. DGM’s other business verticals are CPS (Cost Per Sale), Display and DTH advertising. The company is also offering videos and content for brand advertisers as part of its Display vertical offerings.
Anurag Gupta
Anurag Gupta, Founder & MD, DGM India said, “Today’s launch of our new brand identity marks the beginning of the next phase of our journey. With digital advertising as our DNA, we are today ready to push the innovation frontier as we seek to redefine its boundaries whilst operating profitably at a very large scale.â€
Manish Vij
Manish Vij, Founder & CEO, SVG Media said, “We see exciting times ahead as we have recently concluded the consolidation of our ad-network business. DGM India’s new brand identity signals our intent to creating and delivering true innovations that will help marketers generate significantly higher ROI on their digital marketing efforts.â€
Close on the heels of the announcement of Nikhil Shahane as Vice President – Mobile and International Business and Mahesh Patil as Chief Technology Officer comes another significant appointment that of Navin Kansal as National Creative Director. The move marks an important phase in the digital agency’s journey of growth where the endeavour is to ensure seamless integration of creativity and technology.
RajDeepak Das
Welcoming Navin on board, RajDeepak Das, Chief Creative Officer, Leo Burnett India, said, “Navin is a creative genius when it comes to digital and he happens to join us at a right time when we are looking to fast-track Indigo’s growth as a full-service digital agency and a technology hub for clients. Navin’s experience of creating exemplary work on many brands reflects his ability to make an idea look great across digital platforms. His passion for innovation will drive the change brands need, thus helping to take the quality of our offering notches higher!â€
Harshad Hardikar
Harshad Hardikar, COO, Indigo Consulting, added, “Navin and I have worked together in the past and I am fully convinced about his great ability to think big brand ideas that can create magic for brands, using digital media. This is the most critical position we were waiting to fill-in for some time. I’m sure that Navin’s creative acumen coupled with his leadership skills will take Indigo’s creative reputation to new heights.â€
As a brand, Havells Wires has always stood out in the way it communicates its core message to its audience. Taking its credo of ‘Wires that don’t catch fire’ further, Havells Wires has unveiled a new campaign that depicts an emotional bond between a father and daughter. As it has done with its past campaigns, the brand has leaned on an emotional tale to lend across its message to the general populace. The strategy being that a functional benefit such as a fire-proof wire when shown through an emotional angle makes the communication seem more relatable and believable.
The campaign is live on digital platforms and will be on-air across major television channels soon.
Explaining the rationale behind the new film, Vijay Narayanan, VP-Marketing, Havells India Limited said: “The objective was to reinforce the product proposition of ‘flame-retardant wires’ by means of a powerful emotional story which connects with the consumers.â€
Conceptualized by Lowe Lintas Delhi, the commercial has been shot in the picturesque state of Kashmir. The story is set on a cold, winter morning at Dal Lake, Kashmir. A daughter, who must have risen early to prepare lunch for her hardworking father rows a boat across the lake to deliver food in a tiffin box. By the time she reaches, the food is almost cold. Fearing that the food will become inedible once it’s cold, she urges her father to eat immediately. But her father bogged down by work, shirks her away. Undeterred the girl continues urging her father, but then she eventually gives up and leaves. But before leaving she uses Havells wires as an apparatus to heat the food.
Amer Jaleel
Sharing his thoughts on the creative approach behind the film, Amer Jaleel, National Creative Director, Lowe Lintas + Partners said, “We consider each category piece on Havells as a mother brand piece. Although this is about a specific benefit of wires it feeds into the Havells brand. These days some brands are also channels. What will emerge from Havells is something that people are looking forward to. In that light we wanted the wires work to add to the emotional equity on Havells. We try to be simple and real and somewhere we wanted the brand to be viewed as being a part of lives in every part of the country. Set in Kashmir, the little story echoes every girl’s feelings for her Dad.â€
The two are a study in contrasts. One, flamboyant, aggressive, very media-friendly, and the other a hardnosed planner, huge believer in research and statistics and understated.
S Yesudas, the marathon-runner and stylish outgoing CEO of Vizeum, is known to be among the most press-friendly media agency captains. The joke is that news on his account wins hit the media even before people in his organisation get to know about it. So even though it will never be known on how the news leaked to e4m, Bhasin, who was leaving for New Delhi on Wednesday evening, was reportedly livid.
Vizeum may have been winning accounts at steady intervals, but Bhasin and the Vizeum worldwide bosses wanted the agency to take a different course. And being an old Carat Chief Operating Officer (Carat is Dentsu Aegis’s flagship media arm), Shripad Kulkarni, who was looking to exit Percept Allied Media, was a natural choice for the India office of the London-headquartered agency. While Yesudas was offered special projects to look at content and analytics, it was clear that he was evaluating options outside the group, including investors if he doesn’t find the right suitor.
Kulkarni requested that he doesn’t want to be drawn into any conversation on the transition. “The sheer dynamism of Vizeum as a brand excites me,” said Kulkarni.
Both Kulkarni and Yesudas will report to Bhasin. Yesudas spoke to MxMIndia and indicated that he is considering options outside the group too. His Facebook post though said it all: “Friends, It has been an incredible 6 years with Vizeum India, starting the company from scratch with a laptop and 100 business cards, without any global clients or automatic alignments, we managed to carve out a niche for ourselves. ”
And it added: “After two decades of media planning and buying which included setting up successful/ profitable businesses both in India and overseas, all those organisations going on to winning many awards and accolades, helping move many brands up the ladder and touching the lives of many a talents, I thought it was time for me to jump and develop my wings on the way, on two areas which I feel will hold immense potential for the future of brand-consumer connect, CONTENT and ANALYTICS. For those closer to the media business, SoV in my definition is Share of Vision and SoE is Share of Empathy, the former being brand to consumer and later the other way. Wish me all the best and watch this space for more action.”
Kulkarni meanwhile has his work cut out for him. Vizeum may be doing well international as per RECMA ratings, but in India the qualitative assessement is in the negative. Â With more than 30 years of experience across various media specialisations, Kulkarni was until last week, CEO of Percept Allied Media which he founded in 2006. An MBA from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute, Mumbai, Kulkarni has worked in agencies like Contract, Clarion, Ogilvy and his own entrepreneurial venture called M:ideas. He serves on the Board of media research body MRUC.
Commenting on the appointment, Bhasin said: “With the wealth of experience that Shripad brings in and the thorough knowledge of the business that he has, I am sure Vizeum India will touch new heights under his leadership.”  Some of the clients that Vizeum handles in India include BMW, Lotus Herbals, TI Cycles, MTV, Hindware, Jet Airways, Allied Blenders and Distillers, Luxor and the recently won HDFC Bank  amongst others.
A creative veteran with close to 15 years of experience, Rajesh Gola has joined DDB Mudra North as Senior Creative Director. Based out of the agency’s Gurgaon office, Rajesh would be reporting to SambitMohanty, Creative Head, DDB Mudra North.
A former Senior Creative Director with JWT Delhi, Rajesh has been associated with agencies like Grey Worldwide, FCB Ulka and Saatchi & Saatchi in his career span till date. His stints at these agencies gave him an opportunity to work with diverse international, national brands from mandates like telecom, healthcare, clothing, insurance, consumer electronics and pharmaceuticals amongst others.
Some of the cream brands that he has worked on include names like Airtel, VLCC, Monte Carlo, Max Bupa, Dabur Gulabari, Dabur Red Toothpaste, Hitachi, Mother Dairy, Bata, PVR Cinemas, Akai, Sansui, ABN Amro Credit Card, KFC, Bausch & Lomb, HCL, Baygon, Indian Airlines, Apollo Tyres, ONGC etc.
Sambit Mohanty
Sambit Mohanty, Creative Head, DDB Mudra North said, “Rajesh is a great addition to our creative repertory. Experience apart, he brings a rare sense of maturity and responsibility that is hard to find these days. Add to that a killer sense of wit and you know that with this guy around, there’ll never be a dull moment!”
Pernod Ricard India has appointed Lowe Lintas Delhi as its brand communication partner. The agency was shortlisted after a multi-agency pitch. Lowe Lintas Delhi will be the second agency which will work on the wide portfolio of brands in a dual agency format.
As the creative partner, the agency would be handling the mandate of some of the leading brands marketed by Pernod Ricard India including Absolut, Blenders Pride, Nine Hills among others.
Sharing his views on appointing the agency, Sumeet Lamba, Executive Director Business Development, Pernod Ricard India, said, “We are delighted to be associated with Lowe Lintas Delhi who will partner us in our journey ahead for some of our core brands. The team showcased their ability to think in a very non-linear way and that’s what made the selection decision easy for us, we look forward to harnessing Lowe Lintas’ expertise to make sure the team delivers some amazing work.â€
Naveen Gaur
Commenting on the win, Naveen Gaur, President, Lowe Lintas Delhi said, “It’s a very exciting and challenging category but the more thrilling part is working with Pernod Ricard India. They have a bouquet of some iconic brands like Absolut and Blenders Pride and our task will be to take the brands further in a very unique and a disruptive way. We are really looking forward to our association with Pernod Ricard India to create some outstanding and out-of-the-box work.â€
Grey India has announced the appointment of Sandipan Bhattacharyya as its Chief Creative Officer effective August 1, 2015.
He will oversee the Mumbai, Gurgaon (New Delhi NCR) and Bengaluru offices across all platforms including advertising, digital and below the line. He will be based in Mumbai, reporting to Sunil Lulla, Chairman and Managing Director of Grey Group India.
Bhattacharyya returns to Grey from BBDO where he spent close to eight years partnering Josy Paul in setting up the agency in India and shaping its creative reputation. He was Executive Creative Director and was pushing the creative mandate on several global clients like PepsiCo, General Electric, Hewlett Packard, Aviva Life Insurance, P&G Gillette and Wrigley. In a career spanning over 16 years, his previous stints include Saatchi & Saatchi, Enterprise Nexus and a long run at GREY group as the Creative Director of Grey’s Mumbai office.
Sunil Lulla
“We are delighted to welcome Sandipan back. In an ever changing world, now Grey’s capabilities will be significantly enhanced with Sandipan’s leadership†said Lulla
.
Commenting on his move, Bhattacharyya said, “What’s interesting in today’s ad landscape is what I call freestyling. No rules, no limits, just format-defying, medium-bending work. Gun shops that spring a surprise moral dilemma, car companies promoting bodypaint and a ridiculously simple Superbowl 2
interception that makes everyone spending millions on a 30†spot, seem like an idiot – that’s freestyling. And guess what, it’s all happening at Grey.!â€
Bobby Pawar
Prathap Suthan
Abhijit Avasthi
Ad network DGM India signaled a business and organizational reinvention with the unveiling of its new brand identity, underscored by a new logo that signifies growth, network, vibrancy and a strong desire to redefine the boundaries of digital advertising.
