MxMIndia

Category: Ad Agencies

  • Will contribute to the e-commerce enterprise’s expansion plans

    Dentsu X wins mandate for MyGlamm

    By Our Staff

     

    Dentsu X, the media agency from the house of Dentsu India, has won the integrated media mandate for MyGlamm, beauty product company. As per the mandate, Dentsu X by designing and deploying an omnichannel media strategy.

     

    Apratim Majumder
    Apratim Majumder

    Commenting on the win, Apratim Majumder, Chief Marketing Officer, MyGlamm said: “Dentsu X was highly recommended to us, and to our delight, in a very short period, we have discovered exactly why! Their strategic thinking, experience, speed-to-market products, and efficiencies have completely impressed us. Partnering with them on our go-to-market strategy is reassuring, given their data-driven clear-thinking and inventive approach in meeting consumer and company goals.”

     

    Divya Karani
    Divya Karani

    Added Divya Karani, CEO, Dentsu Media South Asia and CEO, Dentsu X India: “We obsess over driving value and delivering the committed outcomes to all our clients’ businesses. Recognition and acknowledgement for our services are invaluable! We are delighted to partner with MyGlamm and move from pillar to strength.”

     

  • Anubhav Sonthalia gets additional role as CEO

    Dentsu India restructures its CXM business

    By Our Staff

     

    Following the restructure of its creative and media businesses in India, Dentsu has now announced the launch of a unified Merkle-led CXM proposition in the market. The announcement brings together Data Transformation, Digital Transformation, and CX Consulting into one unit to create the most specialised CX practice in India under brand Merkle.

     

    Part of the network’s global organisational redesign, the Dentsu India CXM business will now house the agencies – Sokrati, Fractal Ink Design Studio and Merkle B2B, under one umbrella. Anubhav Sonthalia will lead Dentsu CXM in India as its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in addition to serving his current role as CEO, Sokrati. He will continue to report into Anand Bhadkamkar, CEO, Dentsu India, and Z Shen, CEO, dentsu CXM, APAC.

     

    Anand Bhadkamkar
    Anand Bhadkamkar

    Speaking on the launch, Bhadkamkar said: “Keeping up with our #onedentsu strategy, the new CXM business will help us move closer towards our growth journey. CXM is growing rapidly, and it is soon expected to become 35% of our overall business in India. By 2025, we project that this growing field will have a 50% contribution to our business. With this new CXM line of business, our clients will see a host of benefits as it will be a one-stop solution for all their CXM needs. I have complete faith in Anubhav’s leadership and in CXM to create numerous opportunities for clients as well as for the network.”

     

    Anubhav Sonthalia
    Anubhav Sonthalia

    Commenting on his new role, Sonthalia added: “I am looking forward to leading dentsu India CXM and to develop newer strategies to up our customer experience game. We aim to provide world-class services to our clients and prioritise data-driven experiences and personalisation of the entire end-to-end customer experience. Our key focus will be to create a holistic view for the clients, and a focused strategy for delivering personalised experiences that they demand.”

     

  • This is wef September 1

    Naveen Gaur is now Group COO – Growth & Innovation at MLLG

    By Our Staff

     

    Naveen Gaur
    Naveen Gaur

    MullenLowe Lintas Group has elevated Naveen Gaur to Group COO – Growth and Innovation. This is wef September 1.

     

    The mandate will be to strengthen the areas of marketing services that agencies within the group offer – such as PR, digital, content creation and production, experiential, design, analytics and martech. In addition to this, he will also lead the marketing, reputation and the strategic growth initiatives for the group. He was until recently Deputy CEO of Lowe Lintas.

     

    Amer Jaleel

    Said Amer Jaleel – Group CCO and Chairman, MullenLowe Lintas Group: “I’ve worked with Naveen as a partner for over 10 eventful years. He stands firmly proud of owning the intersection on brand and business. And would be fearless in pointing out the lack of either in a piece of work he would be judging. And that shows his innate understanding of both. Naveen remains oddly unserious despite having seen through hundreds of crises. He switches seamlessly and this quality is what Lintas wants to capitalise on to ride into its most transformative phase ever. Naveen will help broaden the scope of what it means to be a brand in the new age.”

     

    Virat Tandon
    Virat Tandon

    Commenting on the elevation, Virat Tandon, Group CEO, MullenLowe Lintas Group said: “We are living in very exciting times as we see shifts in the entire marketing landscape. This presents us with a great opportunity to extend our services across the spectrum of creative solutions eco-system. Naveen is a stalwart in the advertising business and is an entrepreneur at heart. There can be no one better to lead the agencies in developing and growing this eco-system. We will be looking at serving our existing clients better by using our “Hyperbundled” creative solutions process to bring all the specialist services around the client goals. At the same time, this eco-system will also develop their own independent clients and growth agenda. I am very excited to see Naveen take up this role.”

     

    Talking about the elevation, Gaur said: “Growth and value creation drive me. I am honored that the Group has entrusted me with this role and responsibility to make some bold moves and create future leading offerings and take the Group to the next level. I am looking forward to doing new things that will make me sleepless again.”

     

  • As Digital Growth Officer and CEO, iProspect India

    Dentsu onboards Vinod Thadani

    By Our Staff

     

    Dentsu International, strengthening its leadership roster, has added Vinod Thadani as Chief Digital Growth Officer for India. Thadani will also be taking on the additional role of Chief Executive Officer, iProspect India. He will report to Divya Karani, CEO-Media, South Asia. Until earlier this year, Thadani was Chief Digital Officer with Mindshare South Asia.

     

    Divya Karani
    Divya Karani

    Speaking on the development, Karani said: “Vinod is a strategic addition to our future-forward business design. His values and commitment to innovation resonate with all that Dentsu stands for. I am fully confident his exceptional and in-depth mastery of digital will help our clients’ business scale new frontiers.”

     

    Vinod Thadani
    Vinod Thadani

    Added Thadani: “I am excited to become an integral part of this network and look forward to the journey ahead. My contribution in dual capacities will be an opportunity to offer excellence and best-in-class services to all our clients specially in the space of Digital – Performance, Data Driven Marketing, Ecommerce, Marketing Effectiveness & Creative. There is scale, specialization & integration at the core of our offerings & through this journey, my goal is to pursue growth for our clients and the network.”

     

  • Rohit Ohri, Chairman and CEO, FCB Group India in a video interview with Pradyuman Maheshwari

    The Road to Being Killer-Diller

     

    By Our Staff

     

    Some five-and-a-half years back, when he had just taken charge as CEO of the FCB Group in India, our editor-in-chief Pradyuman Maheshwari  had asked Rohit Ohri about a general perception of FCB Ulka/India being an efficient, successful but a fuddy-duddy agency. We followed it with a similar question to Global CEO Carter Murray a few months later on the sidelines of Goafest.

     

    As he tells us in this interview, Messrs Murray and Ohri took this comment rather seriously and were determined to purge this perception. Fast and furiously. Which they did. From being considered a servicing- and planning-centric network, creative has gotten centerstage, which is what creative agencies are meant to be.

     

    After having asked this horribly rude question in 2016, Pradyuman Maheshwari interviews Rohit Ohri, Chairman and CEO, FCB Group India, on the road from to being a, as Ohri calls it, a killer-diller agency. It’s a looooong, 54-minuter, so bring along that cup of chai. Or coffee, if you are a trueblue adperson.

     

    Watch. Enjoy. Like.

     

  • To drive marketing and communications function of the Group

    Havas appoints Pritha Dasgupta as CMO

    By Our Staff

     

    Havas Group India has announced the appointment of Pritha Dasgupta as Chief Marketing Officer, effective immediately. She will be based in Mumbai and report to Rana Barua, Group CEO, Havas Group India. Dasgupta, who was earlier with IPG Mediabrands, takes the place of Priyanka Mehra, who moved out of Havas last month as Chief Marketing Officer.

     

    Commenting on Pritha’s appointment, Rana Barua, Group CEO, Havas Group India, said: “Havas Group has rapidly grown, both in size and in stature, in the last few years. With over 10 companies, 1000+ people, we have extremely ambitious plans of further expansion, acquisitions and creating a meaningful difference in the overall Indian media and advertising ecosystem. As a Group CMO, her vast experience and in-depth knowledge of the media ecosystem will prove to be invaluable to our network. She is a highly accomplished journalist and a professional with effective leadership and people skills. We are all thrilled to have her on board and look forward to a totally new way of marketing and communication in today’s times.”

     

    Added Dasgupta: “It’s hard to define the dynamic transformation the advertising and the marketing industry has gone through in the last decade, especially in the space of martech. This led to a huge transformation in the way networks built their communications strategies.”

     

  • Forecasts 50% consumers likely to increase festive spends in 2021

    MMA, GroupM & Amazon advertising launch festive season playbook

    By Our Staff

     

    MMA, GroupM and Amazon Advertising have launched the ‘Decoding Consumer behavior and Winning the 2021 Festive Season Playbook, a handbook for marketers on expected consumer sentiment along with recommended strategies for Diwali this year.

     

    Said Tushar Vyas, President – Growth and Transformation, GroupM South Asia: “Digital influence in consumer journeys has increased significantly while the e-commerce adoption has accelerated in last 18 months. Hence, Digital is no more a support media platform but is core to media plans.  Ecommerce platforms offer brands the opportunity to hand-hold consumers across the purchase funnel by not only aiding in active/passive brand discovery but also in closing the loop by measuring performance objectively. This playbook contains several key insights and is a must-read for any marketer who is planning for the festive season.”

     

    Added Vijay Iyer, Director-Ad Sales, Amazon Advertising India: “Digital is a part of our lives now like never before and the influence is only increasing. Ecommerce portals act as gateways to this world that we are so quickly embracing and are playing a crucial role in brand and product discovery. For marketers, this presents an unprecedented opportunity – to be able to identify and leverage customer intent at an unprecedented scale. This playbook will help brands in not only sharpening their online strategy, but will redefine how they measure and drive business outcomes.”

     

    Moneka Khurana, Country Head, MMA India commented: “MMA is proud to have co-authored the white paper in collaboration with GroupM and Amazon Advertising to provide the much needed insights and guidance for the upcoming festive season for the ecosystem helping brands navigate the challenging times and drive optimal visibility and performance . 76%of marketers mentioned they will be allocating more spends for digital as compared to last year. Hence it’s key to understand omnichannel users better in the changing times as we continue to drive the narrative of shaping the future of marketing.”

     

  • Shah will continue to report into Heeru Dingra, the newly appointed CEO of Isobar

    Sahil Shah is now Managing Partner @ WatConsult

    By Our Staff

     

    WatConsult, the digital agency from the Isobar India group, has elevated Sahil Shah, erstwhile Chief Business Officer (CBO), to the role of Managing Partner.

     

    In his new role, Shah will continue to report into Heeru Dingra, CEO, Isobar India group, and will spearhead the agency operations. He will also be responsible for bringing in new business for the agency.

     

    Sahil Shah
    Sahil Shah

    Speaking on his new role, Sahil Shah, Managing Partner, WatConsult said: “After spending a decade and more in building this agency, my heart fills with pride as I watch it grow stronger each day. The digital landscape has certainly evolved and the teams at WatConsult have kept pace with this change by delivering some path-breaking campaigns. As we move towards our next phase of growth as a network, my team and I look forward to taking on this new journey with power and gusto.”

     

    Heeru Dingra
    Heeru Dingra

    Commenting on Shah’s elevation, Dingra said, “Sahil is one of our strongest assets. His expertise in managing clients and the team is commendable. A great team leader, Sahil, along with the talented workforce at WATConsult, will continue to bring in new creativity to ensure persistent growth of clients. Together, and as a network, we are ready to explore a new pathway to our future.”

     

  • Garg has been COO for five years

    Roopam Garg is CEO, Dentsu X India. No Divya Karani hasn’t gone anywhere

    By Our Staff

     

    We may be sounding cheeky with our headline, but that was the first impulse reacton to the subject when the release hit our inboxes today. Not without reason, as the India offices of Dentsu India have seen some significant changes in the recent past.  Deep cleaning, if one could call it.

     

    Well, so, yes, Karani is very much around of course. But the agency has now announced that Roopam Garg, COO of Dentsu X (dX) India, will be its all-new CEO. Garg has been COO for five years.

     

    Garg will continue to report into Karani, who is currently CEO, Media – South Asia but is being tipped to assume a more dominant group responsibility.

     

    Commenting on the elevation, Karani said, “We are living in exciting times, with many new progress prospects ahead of us. Dentsu X currently holds an enviable position in the industry. I’m confident that under Roopam’s leadership and his intuitive ability to assemble highly motivated teams, the best days are yet to come.”

     

    Elaborating on his role, Garg added, “Dentsu X’s stature and growth is a result of our data-driven design, our commitment to deliver ‘experience beyond exposure’, and our deep client-agency partnership in effecting business outcomes. Along with our team, I look forward to accelerating our growth momentum.”

     

    Dentsu X, like parent Dentsu, lowercases the ‘d’, but as a policy, MxM doesn’t do it if it’s the first alphabet in the word/name. For not just Dentsu, for other brands/organisations as well. Like the u in UdChalo.

     

  • Agency aims to create all-new behaviour around good financial habits through digital content

    Webchutney wins Uni Cards mandate

    By Our Staff

     

    Dentsu Webchutney, Dentsu India’s digital creative agency, has won the digital mandate for the new age fintech brand, Uni Cards.

     

    Gautam Reghunath
    Gautam Reghunath

    Commenting on the win, Gautam Reghunath, CEO, Dentsu Webchutney said: “We are in the era of fintech, which has proven to be the great equalizer in a short time. India has millions and millions of credit-eligible consumers waiting for unique, tailored financial solutions. Uni Cards is leading innovation here, and along with them, we are on a quest to redefine how credit is consumed in India.”

     

    Nitin Gupta
    Nitin Gupta

    Added Nitin Gupta, Founder & CEO, Uni Cards: “Uni is set to disrupt the credit industry by innovating and making extremely customer-centric products.  As a creative agency is known to successfully mold brands with iconic ideas, it was a no-brainer to partner with the best in business. It is the beginning of a long and exciting road for us at Uni Cards, and we are glad to partner with a team that has a nuanced understanding of the category that can lead us into long-term success.”

     

    Sidharth Rao
    Sidharth Rao

    Said Sidharth Rao, CEO, DentsuMB Group India commented, “This is an exciting win for all of DentsuMB Group. We want to bring the best creative minds from across Dentsu and Webchutney to create memorable work in this very interesting category. Our teams have only just begun working together with Uni Cards and we can already feel their incredible passion for innovating for India and building products that will boost the country’s credit industry.”

     

  • INCA's India Influencer Marketing Report

    Influencer marketing will be INR 900cr: GroupM Study

    By Our Staff

     

    INCA, GroupM’s brand-safe influencer and content marketing solution unit, announced the release of The India Influencer Marketing Report last weekend. The report looks at all aspects of the industry including trends and the impact of regulation.

     

    Prasanth Kumar

    Commenting on the report, Prasanth Kumar, CEO – GroupM South Asia said: “Over the last few years, brands have shown significant interest in influencer marketing. The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of influencer marketing by brands making it an integral part of the brand marketing strategy and is now an important part of our media mix recommendation to brands. The key factor that has got brands interested is the bond of trust and authenticity that influencers share with their audiences, thus helping brands associate with an influencer to leverage the same. This report is our effort to help marketers understand various aspects of influencer marketing in the country. Consumer behaviour is changing at a fast pace, and we want to empower marketers with the knowledge that can help them.”

     

    Ashwin Padmanabhan
    Ashwin Padmanabhan

    Added Ashwin Padmanabhan, President – Partnerships and Trading of GroupM India: “Influencer marketing industry is at a point of inflexion and can take off, subject to the industry initiating to measure, quantify and make investments in influencer marketing accountable. The ‘India Influencer Marketing Report’ is GroupM and INCA’s attempt to do the same. Not only have we tried to quantify the industry, but we have also attempted to define and standardize the various formats and industry terms. We hope this report will catalyse the industry and ensure the power of influencers is harnessed effectively!”

     

  • Will be responsible for building the business

    Dentsu promotes Rahul Vengalil to Managing Partner, Isobar

    By Our Staff

     

    Isobar, the creative experience agency from Dentsu India, has promoted Rahul Vengalil to the role of Managing Partner. Vengalil will report into Heeru Dingra, CEO, Isobar India group and will be responsible for building the business with creative and experience as the key focus for future growth.

     

    Heeru Dingra
    Heeru Dingra

    Speaking on the appointment, Dingra said: “The solutions we offer are led by talents who possess extraordinary skillsets. Rahul is one of our finest resources with key domain expertise and with the thrill to set up new standards each time. His strategic-led, client-centric approach is in sync with our offerings. We are certain that he will accelerate Isobar’s growth trajectory for India.”

     

    Rahul Vengalil
    Rahul Vengalil

    Commenting on his elevation, Vengalil added: “I am extremely excited to begin this fresh chapter at Isobar India. My experience with Isobar has transformed my journey; and now is the time to set up new benchmarks. We have an awesome team of innovative and creative folks who are aligned with Isobar’s global vision of transforming into the most creative experience agency, worldwide. With our ‘Invent Make Change’ agenda, we are committed to being instrumental in creating an experience economy within India.”