Skills and talent development major NIIT has commissioned Mirum to implement its marketing automation solutions from the Salesforce Marketing Cloud suite.
Said Hareesh Tibrewala, Joint CEO, Mirum India: “NIIT is a leader in skill development space and it is a great experience to work with them. Mirum has been one of the early providers of marketing automation services in India and is now a Salesforce go-to-partner for marketing cloud implementations. We have brought to the table our eight years of experience, to provide a seamless marketing automation solution for NIIT.”
Ad agency Bang In The Middle has announced a strategic alliance with Mumbai-based music agency Songfest India. The offering is in response to the growing need of brands to reach out to consumers via digital platforms such as TikTok, Helo, Instagram and YouTube, especially in wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Said Naresh Gupta, co-founder and chief strategy officer of Bang In The Middle: “We’ve always believed in evolution and advising our clients on the latest in brand building. In the post Covid-era, brands shall gravitate even more towards digital content to connect with their consumers. The association with Songfest shall enable us to provide a new array of music based offerings to new and existing clients and shall enable them to reach out to newer audiences across different digital platforms.”
Added Prathap Suthan, co-founder and chief creative officer, Bang In The Middle: “It is the age of co-creation. Our aim is to collaborate and create innovative music IPs that are not only highly engaging but also seamlessly allow a brand to convey its message to the viewer. Songfest India is a team of young and bright individuals and we’ve been impressed by their ideas and work ethic.”
Said Gaurav Dagaonkar, co-founder and chief executive officer, Songfest India: “We’re excited about this alliance as it shall allow us to leverage Bang In The Middle’s proven expertise in creative storytelling, building brands and crafting hugely successful and memorable campaigns to create strong concepts. Prathap and Naresh are industry stalwarts who keep inspiring us and we look forward to creating some magic together.”
The two agencies have worked on an ad hoc basis before and shall continue servicing their respective clients independently, while developing new ideas for potential clients together. “Work has already begun on a TikTok based campaign for a brand, as well as a series of shot-from-home music videos for another,” added Meghna Mittal, co-founder and chief marketing officer at Songfest India.
DAN India’s data sciences division has launched ‘Dentsu Play’, billed as the world’s first gaming DSP for programmatic advertising across APAC.
Gautam Mehra
Commenting on the launch, Gautam Mehra, CEO, DAN Programmatic & Chief Data Officer, DAN – South Asia said: “With the growing frictionless payment facilities, mobile phone prices, data rates and promotion of localized content, there has been a surge in the gaming ecosystem within the country that has only propelled further in the lockdown era. The increasing demand from clients to understand more about these audiences to build strong consumer-brand relationships has been a long-standing pain point. The absence of a single ecosystem to understand and buy these audiences in a seamless manner has been a key challenge for advertisers that we are now able to resolve with Dentsu Play. Dentsu Play will overlay complex machine learning algorithms to better segment audiences and identify opportunities that yield maximum value for brands as well as gaming partners integrated with the ecosystem. It will also be capable of serving completely playable ads that have known to have high engagement rates and are a capability of only a handful of DSPs that exist today. Dentsu Play will bring to the forefront better control over performance and insights, whilst ensuring the best of technology deployed to ensure brand safety and transparency.”
Sunil Naryani
Added Sunil Naryani, Vice President Commercials & Partnerships, Amplifi, Dentsu Aegis Network Asia Pacific: “The pace at which gaming and e-sports in the Asia Pacific region is growing is absolutely phenomenal. New startups are mushrooming the space every month. The industry has already attracted some of the biggest names in the global ecosystem such as Youzu, Nazara, Unity Tencent and Alibaba investing in it and has over 500 game development companies actively invested. Forging a unique and one of a kind partnership with Unity Technologies, Dentsu Play will expand the network’s capabilities in programmatic gaming with the ability to deploy engaging creatives at scale across the APAC region.”
The next time you are on the beaches of Bali, don’t be surprised if you run into good ol’ media boss from India, Satyajit Sen. Havas Group Indonesia has announced his appointment as CEO of Havas Media CEO. Sen takes charge of a position left vacant after the exit of Anwesh Bose in November last year. His mandate is to accelerate Havas Media Indonesia’s journey of transformation and exponential growth with a focus on collaboration, new business and building and leading a team. He will report to Vishnu Mohan, Chairman & CEO Havas Group, SEA, India and North Asia. Sen’s appointment is effective immediately and he is based in Jakarta.
Sen joins Havas Indonesia from Samsung India where he led the media management function from 2014. Prior to the South Korean giant, Sen was CEO of Zenith Optimedia in India.
Commenting on the appointment, Mohan said: “Satyajit’s proven expertise in delivering value across the spectrum of media services encompassing digital, content and data coupled with extremely strong leadership skills will build on what we have already achieved in Indonesia, which has a strong portfolio of media clients like Indofood, Grab, and Godrej and take Havas Indonesia forward in its next phase of growth and expansion. His experience encompassing both brand and agency will be huge advantage in a critical market like Indonesia. I am delighted to welcome Satyajit to the Havas family and I am confident that he will propel Havas Indonesia in its next phase of evolution.”
Added Sen: “This is an interesting opportunity in changing and challenging times. Havas has been a pioneer in integration with its Village model of organisational structure and this multi-dimensional approach to marketing and advertising is exactly what clients are looking for. I am extremely excited to be a part of Havas Group’s futuristic agency model and looking forward to working with the team to start a new chapter for Havas Media in Indonesia.”
Bali, by the way, isn’t exactly close to Jakarta. It’s around 17 hours away by road given the 1154 km distance. That’s a little less than a couple of hours by air.
WatConsult, has bagged the integrated e-commerce mandate for Meyer Vitabiotics. For the record, Meyer Vitabiotics is a part of UK’s No. 1 Vitamin Company Vitabiotics, headquartered in London.
As per the mandate, ecommencify, the agency’s e-commerce division will focus on scaling Wellman, the internationally acclaimed multi-vitamin and mineral brand marketed by Meyer Vitabiotics in India, across various marketplaces including Amazon and Flipkart. Last year, Virat Kohli was appointed its brand ambassador.
Uma Kalekar
Said Uma Kalekar, Director, Meyer Vitabiotics: “Our parent company, Vitabiotics is UK’s No.1 Vitamin Company and has been a pioneer in providing targeted nutrition across the life stage of an individual. Brands like Wellman, Wellwoman, Perfectil, Menopace, Pregnacare, Immunace etc. are all UK’s No. 1 Supplements in their respective categories. Our company is known for innovation and our brands have been awarded with the prestigious Queen’s Award for Innovation.”
Heeru Dingra
Commenting on the win, Heeru Dingra, CEO, WATConsult: “Vitabiotics has numerous differentiated brands in its fold providing targeted supplementation, which indeed has a huge potential on the e-commerce platforms. And, with the health and nutrition market growing exponentially year on year, it will be our endeavour to help the brand amplify its presence in the Indian market. Our goal would be to help the brand resonate with the Indian audience, enabling it to make its presence felt in a substantial way. With such a highly influential youth icon, Virat Kohli on board, we are excited about the prospects of this partnership.”
Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN has promoted Rajni Menon to Head of Solutions Development and Chief Strategy Officer for DAN Solutions India. Prior to this, Rajni was CEO for Carat India, the flagship media agency from the house of DAN India.
In her new role, Rajni will lead the development of solutions, strategy, and research for the recently launched DAN Solutions India and report to its CEO, Narayan Devanathan.
Narayan Devanathan
Commenting on the appointment, Devanathan said: “Strategy is the art of unlocking value through problem-solving without giving primacy to the form the solution takes. As someone who has been doing that throughout her career, Rajni is a natural when it comes to helping deliver the promise of DAN Solutions. As we see a new confluence in marketing today, beyond just the re-integration of creative and media offerings, Rajni’s stock-in-trade, along with her untiring energy, vast experience, and intuitive grasp of what moves business, make the idea of a solutions-orientation practicable and credible. I’m thrilled to have Rajni join DAN Solutions, and look forward to us partnering clients and colleagues to greater success.”
Elaborating on her role, Menon said: “Connecting the brand and the consumer is what really excites me. Therefore, with this opportunity, it seems like my playing field has exploded. The prospect of working closely with an extremely gifted talent pool at DAN in co-creating brand and consumer connections and experiences is what I am really looking forward to.”
Essilor has partnered with iProspect India, the digital agency from Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN), to launch the #SeeGoodDoGood campaign.
Executed by iProspect India, #SeeGoodDoGood is an initiative by the brand to support the livelihoods of the sales staff at optical stores. The agency’ is assisting Essilor to disseminate the brand’s first-of-its-kind initiative in the optical industry across India, digitally. It is pertinent to note here that the agency’s Bengaluru office assisted to churn out supportive communication pieces for the campaign.
Talking about the initiative, Krishna Kumar Revanur, Branch Head – South, iProspect India said: “Digital medium is helping brands to communicate during such difficult times. We are happy to partner with Essilor on their latest campaign.”
Added Maarten Geraets, CEO – South Asia, Essilor: “By leveraging the digital medium, we want to reach out to the ones affected by the pandemic and help as many as possible. #SeeGoodDoGood campaign is one of our several initiatives that is meant to support our partners in trade to relaunch themselves post the Covid-19 crisis. The campaign will help the stores revive and support their staff as we drive more footfalls to the store. We are all together in our efforts to fight the current crisis and everyone – brand or an individual – need to help and support each other.”
L&K Saatchi & Saatchi India has announced the beefing up of its core planning team across its offices in India. The agency has roped in Anuraag Shrivastav as Vice President – Planning, North. He will be based out of New Delhi and report to Snehasis Bose, Executive Director, L&K Saatchi & Saatchi India. The agency has also appointed Shalaka Pradhan as Brand Strategy Director. She will be based out of Bengaluru and also report to Snehasis Bose.
While Shrivastav joins L&K Saatchi & Saatchi from FCB Ulka where he was Senior Brand Planning Director, Pradhan moves from group firm Publicis India where she was Brand Director – Strategy.
Said Bose on the appointments: “Truth is I have been trying to work with Anuraag since 2015. His experience and freshness + understanding of culture and brands + can-do attitude = the strategic-superpowers our clients need and want!! Am really happy that our stars finally aligned!!! Shalaka with her consistent curiosity, her asking of ‘what if?’ is a great fit with the spirit that drives the L&K Saatchi & Saatchi strategic approach. Combined with her solid experience, I believe she will bring the just-right fillip to the Planning team and our clients.”
Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN) has now entrusted Soumitra Karnik, currently Chief Creative officer (CCO) at Dentsu Impact and Mcgarrybowen India, with the additional charge of CCO, Dentsu India. He will assume this role for Dentsu India, the full-service agency headquartered in Bengaluru, with immediate effect, and will report into Agnello Dias, Creative Chairman, DAN India. Under the expanded mandate, Karnik will lead Dentsu India’s creative output nationally and will be responsible for maintaining and amplifying a robust client-agency relationship for the agency across its offices in Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai and Kochi.
Agnello Dias
Speaking on the appointment, Dias said: “I have known Soumitra for many years now and he is the sort of guy you could go to war with. Nothing fazes him. I have seen him take on the most absurd challenges with a happy fascination at having found a new puzzle to solve. He has that most rare of attributes in a creative person – his creative stamina, and I am sure he will go on to do more than justice to his new extended role.”
Elaborating on his new role, Karnik added: “Keeping the big-sounding designations aside, I am the same hungry and relentless creative person that I have always been. Lately, I find a lot of people from the industry complain about the prevalent diminishing standards and mediocrity everywhere; and while I am certainly not going to deny this, I also believe that the only way out of it is to roll up our sleeves, put our heads down, and get to work. That is exactly what we did when we were giving shape to Dentsu Impact a few years back. We won a lot of good clients and did a lot of good work which won us a battery of awards nationally and internationally. I am fortunate to have worked very closely with some great clients and some amazingly talented team members. Without the support of both, consistently producing good work is just not possible. With the mandate and the freedom to build a strong creative culture at Dentsu India, what I now have is an incredibly exciting challenge and an opportunity – all rolled into one,” he added.
Narayan Devanathan
Said Narayan Devanathan, Chairperson, Creative Line of Business for DAN India: “Soumitra and I have been partners in crime for close to 9 years now, and I couldn’t be happier to have him now also lead the creative mandate at Dentsu India. Over the years, Dentsu India has grown to be one of the most stable partners any client could ask for. With this solid foundation, I’m sure Soumitra will help the agency scale new heights with a creativity-first approach.”
RECMA, the independent research firm that evaluates media agencies, has ranked Dentsu X as India’s # 1 in the ‘new business and client portfolio growth’ category. This is the third consecutive year when Dentsu X India has bagged the top slot.
Said Divya Karani, CEO, Dentsu X India: “The increasing number of discerning marketers, recognizing the difference dX delivers in this accelerated changing and challenging market, is a huge validation of our design. It is simple. We know where you want to go, and we do so with ambition, agility, and flexibility. Again, and again and then again. The recognition of our trajectory by RECMA, now for the third consecutive year, is very pleasing.”
Mcgarrybowen India, the creative agency from the house of Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN), which was earlier called Happy Mcgarrybowen has named Nishi Kant as its new President.
Prior to this, Kant was EVP and Branch Head, Dentsu Webchutney, Delhi and Mumbai. In his new role, he will spearhead the agency across its three offices in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. He will continue to report into Sidharth Rao, Chairman, Mcgarrybowen India & Dentsu Webchutney.
Sidharth Rao
Commenting on the elevation, Rao said: “In my 15 years of work experience with Nishi, I have seen him grow into a business leader par excellence from a mighty creative resource. He has successfully led Dentsu Webchutney’s offices in Delhi and Mumbai. Mcgarrybowen holds a great legacy globally and I welcome him to instil his values and lead the team, nationally. I firmly believe his insights will enhance the company’s brand value and empower potential growth.”
Nishi Kant
Added Kant: “I am honoured and energised by the opportunity to assume the leadership of Mcgarrybowen India in the midst of these challenging times. I have deep respect for all the work that has taken place to transform Mcgarrybowen as a global creative powerhouse. I am looking forward to working with our talented team and group leaders over the coming years to create a truly integrated agency. Together, we will capture the next wave of growth for Mcgarrybowen India by remaining laser-focused on serving our clients, crafting efficient creative work and providing best career experiences to our people.”
Omnicom Media Group (OMG) has been named media agency network-of-record for global software corporation SAP.. The decision follows an extensive review in which OMG presented North Star, a customised media unit that will draw talent, tools and technology from the entire Omnicom Media Group network as a solution to continue the acceleration of SAP’s unified customer and brand experience. SAP’s media business has been with OMG’s PHD Worldwide since 2015.
Said SAP Global Chief Marketing Officer Alicia Tillman in a communique: “We are confident that Omnicom Media Group’s strategic capabilities, best-in-class tools and diverse, data-led approach will help SAP continue to grow our brand value, modernize our marketing capabilities to deliver innovative experiences most meaningful to our customers and the broader markets we serve,” adding: “Since 2016, we have grown our brand value over $18B and this new agency partnership will support our vision of executing in a more innovative, agile, flexible and efficient way for the continued benefit of our customers, stakeholders and for SAP’s global ecosystem.”
Added OMD Worldwide CEO Florian Adamski: “This is a transformative moment for SAP, requiring a transformative approach. With North Star we’re expanding the foundation built by PHD over the past five years to create a re-envisioned solution: a totally connected, cross-agency operational network that enables a global vision for media while maintaining local specificity and execution; delivers a seamless experience across media and creative; and assures data flexibility and transparency – all of which are integral to a SAP’s growth strategy and long-term vision.”
The current PHD team will continue to support SAP through the transition period, which should be complete by end of year 2020.
Essilor has partnered with iProspect India, the digital agency from Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN), to launch the #SeeGoodDoGood campaign.
