MxMIndia

Category: Ad Agencies

  • Dutt joins FCB Ulka from Sapient Nitro where he worked as Head of Creative – Delhi

    FCB Ulka appoints Surjo Dutt as NCD

    By A Correspondent

     

    Surjo Dutt

    FCB Ulka has appointed Surjo Dutt as National Creative Director. Dutt joins FCB Ulka from Sapient Nitro where he worked as Head of Creative – Delhi.

     

    Surjo played a key role in the most successful year for Sapient Nitro’s advertising business since its’ inception in India, notes a communiqué, adding: “The Delhi office won marquee creative projects for brands like Nestle, British Airways and Philips during his 15-month stint.”

     

     

    Swati Bhattacharya

    Speaking on Surjo’s new role at FCB Ulka, Swati Bhattacharya, CCO, FCB Ulka said, “I remember the first time we heard the line ‘cheetah bhi peeta hai’ in JWT. We all knew the new kid on the Pepsi floor was special. Surjo’s omnivorous talent comes with an infectious energy and passion that not just creates great creative work but also strong creative teams. I am absolutely excited to have him partner me in building a bright creative future for FCB India.”

     

    Commenting on Surjo’s appointment, Nitin Karkare CEO, FCB Ulka said, “Surjo is a powerhouse of talent. The sheer energy that he brings to every assignment makes him a delight to work with. He is a great people’s person and his teams are always ready to give their best for him. He is a fantastic addition to our creative leadership team and I am sure our clients will benefit from his work”.

     

    Nitin Karkare

    Speaking on his new role at FCB Ulka, Dutt said, “FCB Ulka is an agency I have always admired for not just its work but also its core values and culture. And now with true gamechangers like Rohit and Swati coming in, it’s a wonderful time to be in this agency.I am thrilled to be a part of the team and will do everything I can to write my bit of the success story that is sure to be written.

     

  • Edelweiss was announced as the Principal Sponsor of the Indian Olympic team in April this year

    Edelweiss unveils ‪#‎iAmTeamIndia campaign to support Indian Olympic team

    By A Correspondent

     

    Edelweiss Group has launched a campaign to garner support for the Indian team going to Rio Olympics. Edelweiss launched a foot-tapping anthem inspiring people to support the Indian team and has also released an e-book which tells the Indian team to ‘Go fearless, entire India is with you’. This book was handed over to IOA chairman, N Ramachandran and IOA general secretary, Rajeev Mehta by Rashesh Shah, Chairman, Edelweiss Group at the official send-off held in Delhi earlier this month. The #iAmTeamIndia anthem was also released at this ceremony.

     

    Edelweiss was announced as the Principal Sponsor of the Indian Olympic team in April this year. In addition to the sponsorship, Edelweiss offered a life insurance cover of Rs 1 crore each to every athlete representing India at Rio Olympics. This insurance cover was provided by Edelweiss Tokio life insurance, the life insurance joint venture between Edelweiss Group and Tokio Marine Holdings of Japan.

     

    In keeping with its philosophy of offering need based solutions, Edelweiss has made this anthem keeping in mind the needs of athletes – protection and support. Edelweiss believes that while it has taken the first step towards protection with sponsorship and insurance cover, it is the support for the athletes that is needed the most. Through this anthem, Edelweiss is garnering the support for the Indian team, which is the largest Indian contingent ever to go for the Olympic Games.

     

    Conceptualized by Scarecrow communications, the anthem is catchy and fast paced and aims to build excitement about India’s medal hope at the Olympics this time. The vibrant video highlights that the team of over 120 athletes is backed by cheers and support of a nation that is over a billion strong. Edelweiss is using 360-degree communication, from Television to Digital, Print, Outdoor, Radio and Cinema to make the anthem popular and take it to the masses.

     

    The E-book was given to the Indian team to convey the message that the entire country is standing behind them, cheering them as they go and participate in the largest sporting event. The E-book is a compilation of pictures collected from across the country through the fully integrated campaign which included print, outdoors, on-ground events, digital medium and internal events to invite people of India to come forward and support the team by sharing, liking, uploading pics holding the #iAmTeamIndia placard and till date has garnered over 3 lakh pictures and over 1.5 million interactions, shares and comments. The campaign also managed to garner support from current Olympians like Saina Nehwal, Tintu Luka, Saardar Singh, Gagan Narang, Abhinav Bindra, with past Olympians like Geet Sethi, Prakash Padukone with celebs like Shilpa Shetty, Madhavan, etc.

     

    “Through #iAmTeamIndia anthem and the E book, we at Edelweiss have taken our association with Indian Olympic team to the next level. The main objective is to attract the interest of as many people as possible towards Olympics. This campaign is a beautiful way to motivate and promote the Indian contingent at the Olympics. It will re-energise the spirits of not only the Indian team but also the Indian audience who is going to watch it. In fact, our hashtag #iAmTeamIndia was trending at No. 1 on Twitter. Through this anthem and E book, we really wish the Indian team well for Rio Olympics which starts from August 5 and pray that they bring as many gold and silver medals possible,” said Shabnam Panjwani, CMO, Edelweiss Group.

     

    Explaining the campaign further, Raghu Bhat, Founder Director, Scarecrow Communications said that, “Indian sport needs all the support it can get. Through this film, Edelweiss exhorts Indians to stand behind the national team. Our brief to the film maker (Naren Multani) and the music composers (Rohan & Vinayak) was to create a contemporary rendition of ‘veer ras’. The final result has scale, visual drama and emotion. Something we are proud of.”

     

  • TravelTriangle is an online travel planning portal with a network of more than 600 travel agents located in India and abroad

    Lowe Lintas Delhi appointed creative agency for TravelTriangle

    By A Correspondent

     

    Sankalp Agarwal

    TravelTriangle, a leading online holiday marketplace has appointed Lowe Lintas Delhi to handle its creative duties. A host of agencies competed for the account but Lowe Lintas Delhi was shortlisted for its clear understanding of the brief and suggesting a plan that resonated with what the brand had in mind for the Indian market.

     

    ​Commenting on the appointment, Sankalp Agarwal, CEO & Co-founder, TravelTriangle said, “TravelTriangle is built on a unique business model and communications is strategic to our category. With Lowe Lintas as our creative partner, we hope to make definite strides towards improving our brand offering in the market.”

     

    Naveen Gaur

    ​On the new business win, Naveen Gaur, President, Lowe Lintas Delhi said, “Indians are now holidaying and traveling more often both domestic and internationally as well. Amidst the presence of local travel agents and variety of online travel portals catering to travelers, we saw the uniqueness of TravelTriangle – a product which makes for a seamless and pleasurable holiday planning and booking experience which Indians will really value. We are excited to leverage this innovative product and build a strong consumer brand which challenges the status quo in the category.”

     

    ​TravelTriangle is an online travel planning portal with a network of more than 600 travel agents located in India and abroad. Based out of Noida with a team of 300 people, the company is the brainchild of three IIT alumni – Sankalp Agarwal, Sanchit Garg and Prabhat Gupta. ​As the name suggests, it’s an eco-system play of three constituents: travelers, travel agents, and an efficient marketplace. The USP of the platform is in its personalized approach, customer oriented product and reliable fulfillment. Operating in 60+ destinations, TravelTriangle has served over half a million travelers till date.

     

    ​This win marks another one for Lowe Lintas Delhi that has been seeing steady business growth over past few months. A few brands that Lowe Lintas Delhi handles include Vivo, Google, HouseFull, Youtube, Olx, Pepmelt, Revital, Zopper etc.

     

     

    About Lowe Lintas:

    Lowe Lintas is a creative agency offering from MullenLowe Lintas Group, India. Headquartered in Mumbai, it has a strong presence throughout India with offices in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, New Delhi (NCR) and Pune. Lowe Lintas lends its branding and creative expertise to a host of clients in India and the Asia Pacific including HUL (for which the agency handles 21 brands), Axis Bank, Britannia, Dabur, Flipkart, FreeCharge, Google, Idea Cellular, MRF, OLX, Tanishq among others.

     

    MullenLowe Lintas Group is one of the largest country operations of the MullenLowe Group (part of the Interpublic Group of Companies (NYSE: IPG). It has operating divisions in advertising (Lowe Lintas, Mullen Lintas), design (dCell), PR (GolinOpinion), brand consulting (LinConsult), experiential marketing & activation (LinEngage), video content (LinProductions) and digital marketing (LinTeractive) that manage 300+ clients. With a talent pool of over 900 people across 7 cities in India, MullenLowe Lintas Group currently manages more brands amongst the Top 10, Top 20, Top 50 and Top 100 of AC Nielsen-Brand Equity’s India’s Most Trusted Brands (2013 and 2014), than any other agency in India. In February 2015, MullenLowe Lintas Group was ranked the No. 1 creative agency in the world in effectiveness by the World Advertising and Research Council’s report, WARC 100. Recently, the group was declared the Effie Agency of the Year for 2015 in India.

     

    To know more about MullenLowe Lintas Group, visit us at www.mullenlowelintas.in or follow MullenLowe Lintas Group on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or YouTube

     

    For further information, please contact:

    GolinOpinion                                                        MullenLowe Lintas Group

    Aparna Mehrotra                                                Johnson Napier

    +91 9969623947                                                  +91 9892981600

    aparna.mehrotra@golinopinion.in                  johnson.napier@mullenlowelintas.in

     

  • Exclusive to MxM: Shekar Swamy on industry veteran Srinivasan (Sundar) Swamy who will be recognised by the AAAI with its highest accolade this evening

    So my brother gets the AAAI Lifetime Achievement Award

     

    By Shekar Swamy

     

    Sundar told me about it casually, like he usually does. He could well have been telling me “I am going to get a cup of coffee”. I accepted the news casually, mumbling something like “Good, congratulations”. I can’t recall if I shook his hand. No theatrics from either side. Both of us were there when our father accepted the same award 22 years ago. May be both of us knew this was going to happen.

     

    Enough will be said and written about his various activities in the industry, so I am not going there. In my mind, no one else deserves it more. He has been tireless, period. The only thing about this news was that I didn’t hear about it from the driver, who somehow always seems to know more about Sundar’s whereabouts, and happenings relating to him, than I do.

     

    Our growing up years in Chennai were pretty unremarkable and middle-class to the core. Busy father. Housewife mother. Grandmother and an aunt always at home. Six siblings, who as I think about it, were all pretty well-behaved, perhaps even boring. Lots of cousins and family around. Home was a place to be shared. The front door was hardly ever shut, except at night. One day in the ’70s there was a lot of hushed talk. My father and his elder brother, and the wives, were in a huddle. I later learnt that my dad had quit his job, which was his life. He was to do something on his own. The import of it hardly made a dent to my teenage senses. Over the next few months, lots of people kept coming and going. There was a sense of urgency and preparation. The puja happened, and R K Swamy opened shop in his brother’s house, I suspect because he could delay rents as much as he wanted.

     

    A vintage pic of the Swamy brothers: Shekar (left) with Srinivasan Swamy

    The rest of it was a whirl. So many people working so hard to meet so many unreasonable deadlines. Sundar finished his MBA, and went into the business, five years after it started. Comments were heard. “He is looking after his father’s business” was a common refrain, like he was literally sitting in the shop. Little did people know.

     

    R K SWAMY the agency was never meant to be another shop. The DNA from ever was to build a lasting institution. The ambition stretched beyond the Chennai roots, which in itself was unusual. In this, Sundar played a strong role, running around from city to city, often trailing behind Mr Swamy. As one of our colleagues put it, if Mr Swamy was the Account Director, then Sundar was the Account Supervisor carrying artworks around. Clients always came first, people always had to be respected and family interests came thereafter.

     

    BBDO joined hands in the mid-80s. We kept building the core advertising business. We recast the Research activity. We created a Television programming game. We expanded into diversified marketing services. We pioneered the Analytics and Customer Marketing space, embracing marketing technology. We ventured to build a US presence, on our own.

     

    All of this underpins Sundar’s ability to take that risk, and continue with the DNA of building the institution. He is a serial entrepreneur – no angel investor or VC here – on his own dime. He has been in the lead, helping fashion the foremost Indian-owned and controlled advertising and marketing services group, by itself a serious contribution to the industry.

     

    Sundar no doubt grew up in the business. But his participation stretches way beyond to very many social causes. He gives, more than he takes, again and again and again. There is a lesson there, somewhere. Perhaps awards come when one does this without nary a thought.

     

    Shekar Swamy is Group CEO, R K SWAMY HANSA

     

  • Ashish Bhasin, Chairman & CEO South Asia CEO – South Asia, Dentsu Aegis Network (Aegis Media India Pvt Ltd), was elected Vice-President of the Association

    Nakul Chopra elected President of AAAI

    By A Correspondent

     

    Nakul Chopra

    Nakul Chopra, CEO – South Asia, Publicis Communications India Pvt Ltd, was elected President of Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) for the year 2016-2017 at its Annual General Body Meeting held recently.

     

    Ashish Bhasin, Chairman & CEO South Asia CEO – South Asia, Dentsu Aegis Network (Aegis Media India Pvt Ltd), was elected Vice-President of the Association.

     

    Other members of the Executive Committee include CVL Srinivas from Group M Media India Pvt Ltd, Ganesh Baliga from Fifth Estate Communications Pvt Ltd, Kunal Lalani from Crayons Advertising Ltd, Pranav Premnarayen from Prem Associates Advertising & Marketing, Rana Barua from Contract Advertising, Srinivasan K Swamy from R K SWAMY BBDO, T Gangadhar from Mediaedge:Cia India and Vivek Srivastava from Innocean Worldwide Communication Pvt Ltd.

     

    Immediate Past President, Dr M G Parameswaran will be the ex-officio member of the new AAAI Executive Committee.

     

  • Srinivasan K Swamy was presented the AAAI Lifetime Achievement Award on Friday in the presence of industry captains

    ‘Taking the leap of faith’ with Sundar Swamy

     

    There was no suspense on the announcement as Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) had sent us a communique on the recipient for this year’s AAAI Lifetime Achievement Award. The award is the highest honour given to an individual in India for his/her outstanding contribution to the advertising industry. The award was instituted in 1988 by AAAI, and there have been 23 recipients for the award so far.

     

    Srinivasan K Swamy, popularly known as Sundar Swamy, was recognised by the AAAI with the award. Friday, July 29 was a beautiful evening not only because someone was being recognised for his hard work and contribution to the industry but for the immense respect he has earned from each and every person present at the Imperial hall in St Regis Hotel, Mumbai.

     

     

    The Sundar Swamy we know:

    Pradeep Guha, Managing Director, 9X Media: Firstly, he is a friend. Like Ramesh said, even I have come to know him recently but my relationship with him grew very fast because we have done a lot of things together, particularly in the IAA. Having seen him work at very close quarters, I have no doubt that he is a worthy achiever of not only this award but many more awards to come.

     

    Dr Bhaskar Das, President, Zee Unimedia: I still believe it is too early for Mr Swamy to get lifetime achievement because he is still so active. But I think let us not go literally by the terminology. Definitely he deserves it because he has contributed and has been still contributing to the marketing and advertising fraternity apart from the heritage of his father. He has been running his agency plus doing a human service to the industry. Very affable and endearing personality, I think he deserves it. He is a fantastic person. An integrating personality in an otherwise divided industry.

     

    Monica Tata, Media and Entertainment Consultant, Secretary, IAA (India): There are not enough words in the dictionary to describe Mr Sundar Swamy. I have interacted with him ever since I got involved with IAA. It is because of him I have been able to understand a lot about my capabilities to do a lot of things. He has this knack of bringing out the best and sometimes the worst in you. I cannot thank him enough for giving me the opportunity to be a part of his team. He is an incredible human being and leader, he knows how to get things done and he does it in his inimitable style. So, I have huge high regards and respect for him. I am also known to be the one who messes up his name every time I make a public announcement about him. He is a fabulous human being and I think it is a fantastic sort of achievement but it is so deserving, so my full heartfelt congratulations to him and his achievement today.

     

    “I am a great believer of fate. What is destined for one will happen. But that didn’t stop me in taking on many challenges. I am confident by nature, sometimes foolishly if I may add, but my life has been all about ‘leap of faith’. Every task I have taken on, I try to do full justice. My personal benchmark is to do better than all my predecessors and I have unfailingly delivered on this, to the best of my knowledge,” said Swamy, an AAAI Executive Committee member since 1998 in his acceptance speech.

     

    The evening started with AAAI Secretary General Sudesh Kapoor inviting the man of the evening Sundar Swamy, former President  and now the ex-officio member  of AAAI M.G. Parameswaran, the new President  of AAAI and CEO, South Asia, Publicis Communications India Pvt Ltd Nakul Chopra, AshishBhasin, Chairman and CEO, South Asia, Dentsu Aegis Network and also the newly elected Vice President of AAAI and Sridhar Ramasubramanian, Chief Operating Officer, GroupM and also an executive committee member of the AAAI  to the stage to start the evening for which everyone had gathered for. The loudest cheers though were reserved when Srinivasan Swamy’s wife Sudha Swamy.

     

    While introduced the norms of the AAAI Lifetime Achievement Award, Parameswaran said: “It was literally a unanimous decision that award this year should go to Srinivasan K Swamy or Sundar as we know him as,” he said. While introducing the successful and illustrious achievements of Swamy, Parameswaran joked how Swamy would insist on being called ‘Anna’ since he was six months elder to him.

     

    Ramesh Narayan, founder of Canco Advertising Pvt. Ltd, a dear friend of Swamy and a former AAAI Lifetime Award winner, described how a half-hour meeting between the two transitioned in Swamy creating a permanent place in Narayan’s heart. “All I will say is leading professionals in our industry have to learn from Sundar Swamy on how to be able to run an agency as well as give back so much time and energy to our industry. Anyone who says he has not got the time to give back to our industry has to learn from him,” said Narayan.  At the conclusion of his speech, Narayan shared an anecdote that during an IAA event an academic pointed at Swamy and asked him do you know who he is? An amused Narayan wanted to know the answer. “This man smiles and says Kabaali Da! (the famous dialogue from Rajnikanth’s latest movie). And that I think says everything,” smiled Narayan.

     

    Narayan in his speech applauded Sudha Swamy, because according to him she deserves all the appreciation as “it cannot be easy being his (Swamy’s) wife”. Later, speaking to us about her husband, she said, “It is pretty amazing that sitting at Chennai, he is able to do so much more in Mumbai, since he has to keep traveling back and forth. He sits in Chennai and family is in Chennai, it is a lot of travelling which means he has to do a lot of planning in terms of time, meetings etc. He has this ability to laugh and he has never ever used foul language in his life, which is something that I have not seen in too many people. He is there for all the activities or to take up all the responsibilities but somewhere I would have liked him to be more around the family and the children but you cannot have the cake as well as eat it.” In his acceptance speech, Swamy described his wife as a ‘very bright lady’ and thanked her for selflessly giving up things to look after their family.

     

    Carrying forward the Rajnikanth joke, Bhasin, before reading the citation, said, “Rajnikanth checks with Sundar when he is having an IIA function before releasing his films.” Chopra presented the citation to Swamy. “I have never worked with him in a job but I worked with him extensively at the association. And I think there is not another person right now in the industry who has been as active at the industry level as him, whether it is the AAAI, IIA etc. How he finds the time, energy and the push to do all that is incredible and I cannot think of anybody who deserves this award more than him,” said Chopra.

     

    In his acceptance speech Swamy said his father R K Swamy, a legend in the advertising industry was the ‘coolest boss’ he had. He spoke about spearheading the Goafest, which is seen by the industry experts as an impossible job made possible by Swamy. Even though he was happy receiving the award, his concluding remarks were, “Let me warn you, this lifetime achievement award does not mean retirement for me. I am not going anywhere yet because I have a long journey ahead.”

     

  • Arnab Ray, leads the creative members as Group Creative Director; Akshaye Madhok heads Business Growth for both the functions; Nandita D’costa is Business Head, Design; Avneet J is Business Head, B2B/Enterprise; and Kiran B.S. is the Technology Director

    Happy expands leadership team across centres

    By A Correspondent

     

    Happy Creative Services has strengthened its Design and B2B/Enterprise division to offer a complete suite of services to their clients. This includes brand identity and logo creation, packaging, environmental graphics, UI/UX Design, interactive product design and a range of B2B offline and digital solutions with a keen understanding of enterprise marketing.

     

    Arnab Ray, leads the creative members as Group Creative Director; Akshaye Madhok heads Business Growth for both the functions; Nandita D’costa is Business Head, Design; Avneet J is Business Head, B2B/Enterprise; and Kiran B.S. is the Technology Director.

     

    The 25+ member team is replete with a Creative Director for B2B, senior and junior designers who specialise in graphic design, UI/UX, environment and space design; writers who specialise in design writing and copywriting; programmers as well as a dedicated brand strategist.

     

    “Since inception, Happy has always had a strong Design team, and has won many awards for Design work. Today with the evolving market and fragmented media scenario, Design & Digital, with a strong technology component, are being leveraged to find solutions for brands, internal communication, BTL and B2B. Communication and engagement is being done through good design thinking and compelling content. To keep pace with these changes we have now created an exclusive, super talented team of top notch industry professionals to tackle design, digital and B2B. From UI/UX to Augmented Reality and VR, Apps to Games, groovy product design to cool packaging, corporate identity to quirky videos, we deliver the entire spectrum,” says Praveen Das, Chief Creative Officer and Co-founder, Happy.

     

    “Everything is melting in the advertising and design space today. Lines are blurring each day. In this scenario, its imperative that we have internal specialists to be able to meet clients’ needs and more importantly maintain consistent quality of output. There is no other way to build a solid brand today. It has always been a constant effort for us to build Happy as a medium agnostic agency with the ability to deliver hybrid services to clients. This is just one step closer to make that happen better for us,” says Kartik Iyer, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder, Happy.

     

    Arnab Ray was previously Creative Lead at Brand Union (Bangalore), Ogilvy, Rediffusion Y&R, JWT and ITSA Brand Innovation. With a body of work that spans across a decade and several design awards to his name—One Show, Kyoorius, Abby’s—Ray has a proven track record and humble, calm demeanour to go with it.

     

    Having been with Happy for over 16 months, in his new role Akshaye Madhok marries his decade long expertise in technology development with brand development.

     

    Armed with over 14 years of Marketing and Corporate Selling experience, Nandita D’costa, has recently moved back to India. Prior to Happy, Nandita was an Associate Account Director at Nebula, Dubai where she managed Nestle Purina, BlackBerry, Microsoft Gulf, Estee Lauder, Glaxo Smithkline, HTC and L’Oreal.

     

    Before joining Happy, Avneet J. was the client services director at Access Leo Burnett, Kenya. Where he was handling key clients such as Orange Telkom, Samsung East Africa, L’Oreal, Guinness, StarTimes, Africa Internet Group. A self starter and former entrepreneur, Avneet packs 14 years of client servicing and business experience.

     

    Kiran B.S. comes from a strong technology background. Having worked at Ogilvy, Pixel Mavericks and Geek, Kiran specialises in manifesting creative ideas into digital reality.

     

  • Dentsu Communications will now be known as Dentsu India, Dentsu Marcom will be Dentsu One and Dentsu Creative Impact will be known as Dentsu Impact. Taproot Dentsu and Dentsu Webchutney remain unchanged

    Dentsu Aegis announces rebranding of creative agencies. Taproot & Webchutney unchanged

    By A Correspondent

     

    Transformation appears to be in the air at Dentsu Aegis Network’s Dentsu Branded Agencies. In a move to help clients better leverage the capabilities of a global network, Dentsu Aegis Network has realigned agencies across several countries under three groupings.

     

    Consequently, Dentsu Communications will now be known as Dentsu India, Dentsu Marcom will be Dentsu One and Dentsu Creative Impact will be known as Dentsu Impact. Taproot Dentsu and Dentsu Webchutney remain unchanged.

     

    Ashish Bhasin

    Said Ashish Bhasin, Chairman and CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network, India & South Asia: “This new nomenclature is a first step towards expanding and reinforcing the global and regional services we provide our clients in India. It will help us serve our global clients better as well as acquire more new business.”

     

    Commenting further, Bhasin said, “We are consolidating our capabilities under a global agency network, with a uniform identity across markets, in order to strengthen the coordination across our network and expand the high quality service we consistently provide. The most important ingredient in creating innovation in an ever-changing environment is collaboration. This realignment will fuel, just that in newer, more efficient ways. This will help us further accelerate the tremendous success that Dentsu Branded Agencies have experienced in India over the last year, including the spectacular performance at Goafest awards and in the area of new business.”

     

    However, while some names may change, but leadership or teams at the individual units stay unchanged. Simi Sabhaney will continue as CEO and Vipul Thakkar as NCD of Dentsu India, Harjot Narang as President and Titus Upputuru as NCD of Dentsu One, and Amit Wadhwa as President and Soumitra Karnik as NCD of Dentsu Impact. Meanwhile, Narayan Devanathan continues as the Group Executive and Strategy Officer of Dentsu Branded Agencies, India.

     

  • DDB MudraMax – Media will also proactively identify & assess new media opportunities for the brand

    DDB MudraMax wins the media duties of itel Mobile

    By A Correspondent

     

    Following a multi-agency pitch, DDB MudraMax has bagged the media duties of Hong Kong-based itel Mobile. Established in 2007, this hi-tech innovative brand comes from the house of Transsion Holdings Conglomerate, which is a major player in mobile handsets worldwide.

     

    Having established its presence in 40 countries across the globe, itel Mobile has recently entered the lucrative Indian market with the intent to deliver value-driven offerings for the Indian consumer. Keeping in line with the highly competitive Indian market requirement, DDB MudraMax – Media would partner with itel Mobile to address the brand’s requirement of holistic media strategy, reflective of key metrics, in order to fulfil the brand’s aspirations in the country. Additionally, DDB MudraMax – Media will proactively identify & assess new media opportunities for the brand.

     

    Quoting on the association, Sudhir Kumar, CEO, itel Mobile India, said, “We launched itel in India as a mobility-based connectivity solutions provider that could help eliminate the technological disparity existing between the urban and the rural geographies. The response that our products have received from the Indian consumer so far has been highly encouraging. We are looking to build on our impressive initial showing and firmly establish itel as a brand that provides highly relevant, value-plus offerings to aspiring Indian mobile phone owners.”

     

    “itel has marked its grand India entry by selling over 14 lacs handsets in just a couple of months. We believe with this association, we will be able to further penetrate and scale brand’s presence and image across India,” he added.

     

    Gaurav Tikoo, Chief Marketing Officer, itel India added, “Given how vital India is to our long-term global strategy, we wanted to leverage traditional and new-age media channels to increase the awareness of our value-driven offerings within the country’s consumer base. Partnering with a proven indigenous player such as DDB MudraMax will allow us to further our brand proposition as the leading provider of high quality feature and smart phones. We are looking forward to the association, and are confident that it will help us drive adoption for our best-in-class mobility-based communication solutions.”

     

    Commenting on the new win, Tarun Nigam, EVP, DDB MudraMax-Media, said “It is a proud moment for us to handle such a big mobile brand. The mobile space is an extremely competitive space and we look forward to offer integrated and innovative media solutions for the brand, and grow with the client as they grow their business.”

     

  • During the buying phase, Tata Value Homes empowered the country and instilled a strong sense of pride and confidence through their key message

    Tata Value Homes and Saatchi & Saatchi unveils latest digital initiative

    By A Correspondent

     

    Tata Value Homes in association with Digital L& K | Saatchi & Saatchi have unveiled another interesting project. They have managed to get the nation to go on a home-owning spree instead of merely getting them to buy homes online.

     

    Tata Value Homes was offering consumers 2BHKs by paying just Rs. 6.9 Lakhs, and they could pay the remaining amount when they move in or after 2 years (whichever is earlier).  Apart from the exceptional pricing, what made this proposition so unique was that prospective buyers could book a home online at just Rs. 30,000 during the offer period, 12th – 14th July.

     

    While the offer was lucrative in itself, it needed strong insight to become a nation-wide phenomenon. Digital L&K | Saatchi & Saatchi peeked into the consumer’s pain points and zeroed in on the one question they had on their minds – “When will it be my time to own a home?”

     

    They created a series of teaser videos that illustrated this problem. These slice of life moments reflected the angst of every Indian home-buyer and acted as the perfect trigger for Tata Value Homes’ proposition, and ended by comforting them that it was now finally their #TimeToOwn.

     

    Commenting on this digital campaign, Anil K Nair, CEO & Managing Partner,  Digital Law & K | Saatchi & Saatchi, said, “These questions aren’t just made up for a campaign. At some point or the other, you and I end up pondering on this inevitable question. Emerging from real life examples, like every Tata Value Homes campaign, even this one is driven by customers. And the numbers back it.”

     

    During the buying phase, Tata Value Homes empowered the country and instilled a strong sense of pride and confidence through their key message: “Aapka apna ghar, aaj se, abhi se”, making it one of their most successful campaigns ever.

     

    Further commenting on the campaign, Charles Victor, National Creative Director, Digital Law & Kenneth | Saatchi & Saatchi, said, “Sometimes advertising just needs to be real and address a sore point in consumers’ lives. All we really needed to tell them was that we understand what they’re going through and we have something that’s going to take care of this growing worry.”

     

    Speaking about the digital film, Pawan Sarda, Marketing Head, Tata Value Homes said, “The team has always gone back to its customers and created value propositions which drive demand. Digital has been our source to not only recruit NRIs and Tier 2 among others but also to sell homes online. With the company’s endeavour to empower every Indian to own a home, Tata Value Homes along with Digital Law & Kenneth | Saatchi & Saatchi and media agency FCB Ulka ideated and conceptualized a PAN India campaign ‘National Home Owning Day’ an unparalled offering that will fulfil one of the most revered dreams of many Indians to own their home. We would love to continue and create many such value driven campaigns in future with Digital Law & Kenneth | Saatchi & Saatchi.”

     

  • Winning the account entailed extensive research and multiple levels of strategic and creative strength presentations

    IBD bags integrated communications mandate for Morisons Baby Dreams

    By A Correspondent

     

    IBD has won the integrated communications mandate for Morisons Baby Dreams, a brand of JL Morison (India) Ltd. The announcement came post a multi-agency pitch which saw IBD emerge victorious due to their strategic and creative prowess.

     

    JL Morison has been dedicated towards building sustainable brands in the Baby Care, Personal Care and Healthcare segments for over 80 years. Morisons Baby Dreams, the baby care segment of JL Morison, serves the needs of babies between 0-2 years of age.

     

    Winning the account entailed extensive research and multiple levels of strategic and creative strength presentations. The multi-agency pitch demanded a deep knowledge on the baby care segment and an understanding of the behavior and aspirations of millennial mothers. The ability of IBD to convert this comprehension into superior creative work granted the upper hand amongst all the other agencies presenting their case. IBD won the entire 360-degree integrated communications mandate of Morisons Baby Dreams, including the digital portfolio.

     

    Said Sakshi Mody, Promoter Director, JL Morison, “We were looking for an agency which could build a unified identity for our baby care brand across all mediums and make it one of the most desired brands in its category. IBD’s brand development approach has been spot on and we are sure the campaign they are working on for us will be a winner!”

     

    Commenting on this account win, Rahul Gupta, Managing Director, IBD said “The Morisons Baby Dreams win is important to us in many ways; it showcases our depth of knowledge and creative strength of presenting outstanding work across diversified product categories. We are very excited to have won this mandate and are looking forward to rolling out some really exciting work on the brand.”

     

    IBD is one of the few advertising agencies in India, which can boast of having a hugely diversified brand portfolio consisting of brands from industries spanning Fashion, Consumer Electronics, Baby Care, Hospitality, Personal care and Spices.

     

  • Rahul Gupta, CEO of the Percept arm, speaks on the winning the big Reliance account

    It’s Only IBD for Only Vimal

     

    For a generation that grew up in the early years of television advertising, Only Vimal is a campaign that’s etched deep in memory.  While India was always known for its textiles industry, it was Only Vimal – created by Reliance Group founder Dhirubhai Ambani – that became its most iconic brand.

     

    Last week we reported that IBD, a Percept company, had bagged the strategic and creative mandate for ‘Only Vimal’. And, the road to the finish line was not at all easy. IBD was in the race with some of the biggest names in the industry.

     

    “In the final round, we were fighting with RK Swamy. For a very long time, it had handled the biggest textile brand Raymonds and obviously would have been the prime contender to handled this account too. For us, to be able to upstage them and win this brand was a matter of great pride and satisfaction. I believe, the strategy and all was very bang-on but our edge was the differentiated positioning we talked about, the technological positioning and the creative execution we brought in to place. That is where things went in our favour,” said Rahul Gupta, Managing Director, IBD.

     

    The rechristened Vimal – ‘Only Vimal’,  was one of the first textile brands to make a massive consumer impact pan-India. A Mukesh Ambani-promoted Reliance Industries’ (Reliance) textile division, Only Vimal is also one of the first major retail chain of stores to be set up across the country. IBD will be responsible for repositioning and revitalising the brand image.

     

    One of the most important things while preparing a pitch is the brief that is given to an agency by a client. Speaking to us on the brief, Gupta said, “The whole essence of Vimal was that- it was one of the most prized brands once upon a time. Over a period of time, Reliance moved on to bigger and better things and different areas of business. So, to a certain extent the textile division of Reliance Industries’ was kind-of put on the backburner. But it continued to do decent business for a period of time.”

     

    “Obviously, it lost the lustre of a brand it was in the 80s. So, very clearly, the task in hand was to re-stage this brand and make it relevant for the new India, for the younger India. The young India does not know the value of the Vimal brand. Our task is to re-stage the brand, so that today it is seen as a premium brand. The youth of today should understand the iconic status of this brand.” Gupta added.

     

    MxMIndia previewed the television campaign which will be launched today (Aug 16). In the commercial, the focus has been given more on the fabric and the qualities of the clothing material. But since the brand’s target is the youth of India, why shoot the film in a foreign location? “We did a lot of research and psychographic studies and we realised that the youth of today though rooted in India have a very global aspiration. Today’s market is all about the youth. We wanted to focus on the youth and the youth of today is all about action. Yes, there aesthetic and creative reasons why it is important to shoot the film in an international setting. It allows you a nice backdrop; ultimately it is a fashion brand and aesthetics, style etc. do play a big role in communicating the style quotient of the brand. But apart from that it is also to give a global value to this brand,” explained Gupta.

     

    When it comes to fashion brands, more often than not we see the clichéd concept of how wearing the brand can make one a winner or achieve the impossible in life. “Everybody followed conventional wisdom in terms of advertising where you talked more about achievement or being good-looking, it was all focused on personality. It was us who took these fabrics and decided to position the brand of fabrics as a brand which offers technologically superior fabrics that will aide people in their lives, especially the man of action. The youth of today is on-the-go and need something which will help them. It was time for change and today everything has changed. If Vimal needs to come back and become a market leader, it needs to have its own voice,” said the Gupta.

     

    On the marketing front, a 360-degree strategy has been agreed upon but is there any special plan was the most used and enquired about platform ‘Digital’? “We already are working very extensively on social media platform. We have taken a lot inventory on YouTube, so we are doing all those standard digital efforts as it is. But we are also planning a lot of engagement activities which you will see and is very effective in getting across this new position and new fabrics to work on innovative little digital program,” added Gupta.