MxMIndia

Category: Ad Agencies

  • The multi-agency pitch included GroupM, Madison, Aegis and IPL.

    Havas to handle media duties for Voltas

    By A Correspondent

     

    Voltas has entrusted its media planning and buying responsibilities to the newly rebranded Havas Media, with digital at the core, in a multi-agency pitch including GroupM, Madison, Aegis and IPG.

     

    Speaking on the appointment, Pradeep Bakshi, Chief Operating Officer, UBBG, Voltas, said, “We are happy to announce that Havas Media has been appointed as our Media Agency for our Room AC and other Unitary Products business. During the multi-agency pitch we were impressed by their capability to look beyond seasonality and traditional media. Their understanding of the category from a regional perspective was also very accurate. We look forward to working closely with them in our next phase of growth in the coming years.”

     

    Anita Nayyar

    “We are delighted to have Voltas as a part of our portfolio yet once again. It was a very tough but a ‘well-organized’ pitch with practically all the leading agencies in the fray. I am delighted that we have been able to demonstrate our capabilities through our insights and category understanding. I believe our extremely focused and well integrated effort made us win the business. While it is a great brand to be associated with, more importantly, they are a wonderful client to work with. This prestigious win is yet another very important milestone in Havas Media India’s ambitious growth plans,” said Anita Nayyar, CEO Havas Media, India and South Asia.

     

  • DDB Health & Lifestyle along with NFDC has launched ‘Mitti’, an anthem for the National Population Register

    DDB, NFDC go back to roots for govt film

    By A Correspondent

     

    DDB Health & Lifestyle along with the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC), a Government of India enterprise, has launched the ‘Mitti’ anthem for The National Population Register, on behalf of the Office of the Registrar General, India.

     

    Brief: Make people aware about NPR, its importance and process through which every resident of India feels motivated to get his/her identity validated.

     

    Objective: Create awareness about the National Population Register. Establish the relevance of participating in the National Population Register amongst the residents of the country.

     

    Challenge: India is a population of over 1.2 billion hailing from 28 states and 7 union territories. Our various cultures, traditions and languages make us different from each other in more ways than one. This makes communication a challenging task. This challenge was further magnified for the National Population Register where the aim was to create a single register that amassed information about all the residents of the second most populous country in the world – India.

     

    Brand Idea: My Identity, My Pride

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”220″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtEUIvs3Q_8[/youtube]

    Creative thought: The need was to identify a common sentiment, a sentiment that would inspire all equally to become a part of the National Population Register. A sentiment that would bind us all like leaves, branches and fruits of a tree. We found the answer in our root – our Mitti (soil).

     

    The Mitti film is a call to individuals to embrace their identity stemming from the soil. It is a call to unite and participate with pride in the nation’s attempt to create a single register about all the residents of India – the National Population Register.

     

    The film does this by capturing people from various walks of life in various moods. The highlights of the film include Mitti reaching out to people, people’s celebration of patriotism and a cultural extravaganza that serves as an ultimate visual feast. All this weaved together by a symphony of melodies from different regions that takes the viewer to an emotional high of “Mitti se hi shaan, Mitti se hi pehchaan!”

     

    “We have been commissioned by the Ministry to spearhead this campaign, where DDB Mudra has handled the creative execution in close association with NFDC. Managing the campaign on behalf of NPR is a step forward in NFDC’s endeavor to function as a 360 degrees agency for government clients”, said Nina Lath Gupta, Managing Director and Producer, NFDC (National Film Development Corporation).

     

    Soumitra Sen

    Soumitra Sen, President, DDB Health & Lifestyle, said, “Advertising professionals often have to wait a lifetime to get an opportunity to work on a campaign that will shape behavior and impact humankind for generations to come. The DDB Mudra Group feels proud of the opportunity to work with the GOI project, the National Population Register closely with NFDC. This has resulted in the first creative communication capsule based on the theme of the umbilical cord like relationship that we all have subliminally with our soil. We are working on the next phases of the campaign to motivate all Indian residents to register.”

     

     

    Credits

    Chairman & CCO – Sonal Dabral

    President – Soumitra Sen

    Office Head – Urvashi Guha

    Account Management – Durba Gogia, Subhendu Kumar

    Account Planning – Jeffrey Jose

    Group Creative Director – Ravinder Siwach

    Creative Director – Saritha Shivshankar, Partha Majee

    Director – Lloyd Baptista, 7 Films

     

  • Draftfcb Ulka has announced the appointment of Trishay Kotwal as Creative Director

    Draftfcb Ulka appoints Trishay Kotwal as CD

    By A Correspondent

     

    Draftfcb Ulka has announced the appointment of Trishay Kotwal as Creative Director.

     

    Mr Kotwal started off at Grey Worldwide as a trainee after completing his post-graduation in Mass Communication from The Delhi School of Communication. In a career spanning a decade he has worked in Delhi and Mumbai, with Enterprise Nexus, Alok Nanda and Company, Rediffusion Y & R and McCann Erickson; he has worked on leading flagship accounts such as Arrow, Taj Hotels, L’Oreal Paris, Marico and General Motors.

     

    Mr Kotwal said, “I am excited to work on Draftfcb Ulka’s portfolio of clients. It’s a very interesting mix and both Kartik and Chax are people I’ve wanted to work with for a while now. I look forward to some great opportunities here.”

     

    Commenting on the appointment, Kartik Smetacek, Group Creative Director, Draftfcb Ulka said, “Trishay is a very talented writer and a valuable addition to the team. He will be handling an important set of accounts, and we look forward to some great work from him.”

     

  • The agency has devised a crowdsourcing campaign using Shah Rukh Khan, where existing owners and prospective buyers of the i10 can write a script for the next i10 TVC

    Crowdsourcing is Innocean’s theme for Hyundai i10

    By A Correspondent

     

    With growing competitiveness and a need to refresh the communication for Hyundai i10 Hyundai mandated its agency Innocean Worldwide India to conceptualize a new campaign for the brand in line with its dominant presence in the compact segment. For 2013, Innocean thought about energizing the entire targeted base with a bait to get them thinking about the car. Not only was the intent about creating an energy field around the brand Hyundai i10 but also to make the entire universe of prospective car buyers a part of the communication engagement. The agency has devised the a crowd sourcing campaign using Shah Rukh Khan, where all prospective buyers of i10 and its existing owners get to write a script for the next i10 TVC. If selected the contestant gets to act with SRK in the TVC for i10.

     

    Saurabh Dasgupta ECD at Innocean Worldwide India said, “The challenge for us lay in the defining the contours of this campaign to elicit a high level of response and stay true to the brand values of Hyundai i10. Yet at the heart of it all the communication intent is simple: imbibe the brand’s virtues, craft a script and full your acting dreams with SRK!”

     

    The TVC in the first phase of the campaign has an agitated SRK asking the fumbling director for his lines and then turning to the audience asking them to write in with their scripts. This campaign utilises the digital platform extensively to close the participation loop. In the words of B Sridhar Group Director, Media & Digital Services at Innocean, “The campaign has given us a rather good sized canvas to draw a digitally integrated communication effort that’s all pervasive.” A micro-site enables all participants to upload their scripts as text, video or even audio files. There is the regular snail mail too. A single response number with ‘missed call’ facility enables an IVR driven interaction wherein the scripts can be recorded by the contestants.

     

    “It’s a rather exciting idea we have thought of and it’s a composite one which looks at all aspects of communication and engagement touchpoints,” said Vivek Srivastava, Jt MD of Innocean. “The integration of diverse media apertures is one of the strengths of this endeavour and showcases our team’s technological capabilities alongside the dexterity with the advertising craft,” he added.

     

    The campaign in this phase will run for six weeks seeking the consumers’ participation and thereafter return with the crowd-sourced id featuring the Hyundai i10, SRK and the winner.

     

  • The campaign consisting of 5 TVCs will be broadcast for six weeks

    Dentsu creates madness for Chingles

    By A Correspondent

     

    DS Group has marked its entry into the Rs 1,600 cr gum category with ‘Chingles’ mini-gums. Launched under its flagship brand ‘Pass Pass’, Chingles is positioned as an antidote to the seriousness of adult life.

     

    The campaign ‘Aaj Lee Kya’, conceived by Dentsu Marcom, is a call to the audience to break the monotony of their daily rut and infuse a little laughter and light heartedness in their lives with some harmless pranks on friends, family and colleagues. The tagline also works as a reminder to use the brand almost on a daily basis. In the communication the product can be seen as a prank enabler.

     

    The communication is presented in a series of TV commercials. The first one introduces the ‘Lee’ family. A crazy household with triplet brothers, who are always busy taking each other’s case through harmless tricks and gags. Their names, UngLee, KhujLee and GoogLee, each represent an expression commonly used to refer to taking someone’s trip.

     

    The five TVCs are anecdotes of the three brothers playing pranks on each other. Another character that’s a part of this crazy set-up is JuLee, the neighbourhood damsel and the object of desire for all the three brothers. Apart from pulling pranks on each other, the three brothers are constantly trying to oust one another to get JuLee’s attention and to destroy the chances of the other if any.

     

    The commercials are fast paced to almost give a Charlie Chaplinish feel; the retro execution, unique outfits and voices and innocently hilarious plots add to the frenzy of the films and make the campaign more memorable.

     

    The Lee brothers return with yet another hilarious prank of theirs. This time the brothers KhujLee and GoogLee depict the proverb ‘Idle mind is a devil’s workshop’ in their classic style. The film opens on an ordinary day in the Lee household with UngLee lazing around with a book in his hands. But the peace doesn’t last long, as KhujLee and GoogLee exploit sibling rivalry to trick UngLee.

     

    Credits:

    Campaign elements: TVC/ Print/ Digital/ Cinema/ Outdoor

    Client: Dharampal Satyapal Ltd

    Creative Agency: Dentsu Marcom Pvt Ltd

    Account management: Sunita Prakash, Dhruv Lavania

    Planning: Narayan Devanathan, Rabia Sooch

    National Creative Director: Titus Upputuru

    Creative Director: Abhinav Karwal

    Art Director: Sumit Vashisht

    Copywriter: Titus Upputuru, Anish Nath, Kapil Rana

    Director (of the film): Amit Sharma

    Production House: Chrome Films

     

  • Bodhisatwa Dasgupta, Associate Creative Director, Grey Worldwide aspires to bring long copy back in fashion. Of course, where required

    Longhand 2.0: Getting better, and longer

    By Ananya Saha

     

    When short and crisp are the buzzwords, when Twitter creates buzz with 140 characters, not many seem enthused to write long copy. Especially long ad copy. Even when required. Thus was born Longhand. The Longhand competition was a much cherished advertising affair last year. For the uninitiated, the competition, brainchild of Bodhisatwa Dasgupta, Associate Creative Director, Grey Worldwide, celebrates the love for long copy ads. The participants write long copy on 4-5 briefs. A few deadline extensions and many entries later, well-known names from advertising industry judge the copies. Names such as Indra Sinha, Neil French, Swapan Seth, Emmanuel Upputuru, Satbir Singh, Ashish Chakravarty, and Nima DT Namchu judged last year’s competition and Sir Martin Sorrell endorsed the initiative.

     

    Differentiating this year’s competition from the last year, Mr Dasgupta said, “The first year only had judges from the creative field. This year, we have two judges representing the clients’ side as well, Rahul Kansal, Executive President, BCCL and Mohit Hira from JWT who is Sr VP and Regional Business Director – Airtel. The client judges have a role to play too in the resurrection of long copy ads.” Apart from the client judges, there will be known names such as Prasoon Joshi, Executive Chairman & CEO of McCann Erickson Worldgroup India; Agnello Dias who co-founded Taproot and David Shanks – a copy-based Creative Director who runs his own one-man company called Clear Brand Essence from London.

     

    Neil French, former WPP Worldwide Creative Director and founder of World Press Awards, and Luke Sullivan who is now chair of the advertising department at the Savannah College of Art and Design, will act as the Jury Presidents. Guest Judges Ed McCabe, Tony Brignull will give conclusive comments on 10-15 shortlisted entries. For the record, at the D&AD 50th anniversary, advertising legend Tony Brignull was accredited Most Awarded Copywrite with three Black Pencils and 17 Yellow Pencils over 35 years. He currently works freelance. Mr. McCabe is the youngest copywriter to be a part of the One Club Creative Hall of Fame, featuring the likes of David Ogilvy and Leo Burnett. He also co-founded Scali, McCabe, Sloves.

     

    Getting the big guns of advertising to be judges at Longhand must have been a tough job. “Not actually,” said Mr Dasgupta, adding, “You know, big people have big hearts.” Well, the big-hearted judges won’t be soft on the entries though. While last year winners received ‘Sorry for the Lobsters’, a book written by Neil French signed by the Worldwide Chief Creative Officer of O&M and Chairman of its Worldwide Creative Council, Tham Khai Meng, Mr Dasgupta prefers to keep 2.0 awards under wraps for now.

     

    The 2.0 version has a new website (www.longhandawards.com), even as it gains momentum solely through the Facebook page (www.facebook.com/Longhand2 and the Mr Dasgupta-led long copy ad reservoir: www.facebook.com/putheadlinehere). This year, apart from Mr Dasgupta, is his art partner Dushyant Chopra. Mr Chopra is the man behind the logo and all the communication that’s released and Kolkata-based Adhiraj Mukherji designed and developed the Longhand 2.0 website. Much like last time, all judging will be done online, with no jury-meets to discuss the shortlists.

     

    The free-to-enter contest opened on January 15 and the deadline has already been extended to March 15 from the earlier March 1, given the huge interest it is generating in the ad industry. The international participation is also expected to rise, given the page views from UK, US, Singapore, Portugal and Netherlands, among many others, concluded Mr Dasgupta.

     

  • Creative wiz team Ian Shepherd and Richard 'Goz' Gostelow have joined the Asia Pacific senior leadership team of Digitas and Razorfish Asia Pacific networks as regional executive creative directors, based in the Hong Kong office of Digitas and Razorfish

    Ian and Goz to lead Digitas and Razorfish APAC as ECDs

    By A Correspondent

     

    Internationally known, multi award-winning creative team Ian Shepherd and Richard ‘Goz’ Gostelow have joined the Asia Pacific senior leadership team of Digitas and Razorfish Asia Pacific networks as regional executive creative directors.

     

    Mr Shepherd and Mr Gostelow will be responsible for guiding the creative efforts of the Digitas and Razorfish teams across the region, while personally leading the creative direction of global brands including: Intel, Delta, Lenovo, Moet Hennessy Asia Pacific and DHL as well as new business acquisitions.

     

    Celebrating the appointment, Vincent Digonnet, President Asia Pacific said, “The Digitas and Razorfish international hub in Hong Kong is growing robustly as our global client roster expands. Ian and Goz’s appointment as Regional Executive Creative Directors, based in Hong Kong, delivers our clients first hand exposure to two world-class brand stewards with a track record of delivering powerfully effective campaigns that have evolved global businesses. We are very proud to have this long-standing creative partnership lead our already established creative teams.”

     

    Mr Shepherd and Mr Gostelow joined forces as a creative team over 20 years ago and have since worked together to create world famous work for world famous brands, including Coca Cola, VW, Nestle, Unilever, Panasonic, Bacardi, Philips, Durex, Peugeot, and most recently Asus.  They have been awarded by The Cannes International Advertising Festival, Mobius, Effie Worldwide, and Marketing Magazine in APAC among others. In a joint statement they said, “During 2011-12 we got a real taste for working in the region getting to know some forward thinking brands and extremely creative people. So when Erik asked us to join his team at Digitas/Razorfish in Hong Kong it was probably one the quickest and easiest decisions we ever had to make.”

     

    They will report to Erik Hermanson, Senior Vice President Global Accounts, and be based in the Hong Kong office of Digitas and Razorfish.

     

  • Adworld veterans Lynn de Souza and Meenakshi Menon have come together to launch a new company called Social Access

    Lynn de Souza & Meenakshi Menon launch Social Access

    By A Correspondent

     

    Lynn de Souza
    Meenakshi Menon

    With decades of experience in the industry, Lynn de Souza and Meenakshi Menon have come together to launch a new company called Social Access.

     

    The company will use strategic communication and creative ideas to re-orient society towards the social sector by building channels among the four key players – NGOs, Corporates, government bodies and the society.

     

    The venture, applauded by counterparts from the industry and others, was announced by Ms de Souza on February 5 on her Facebook page. The movement as described by them is open to everyone and anyone can join it. “We’ll soon have an event to formerly announce the launch as well as to discuss the core idea and plan behind it,” said Ms de Souza.

     

    Lynn de Souza had quit Lintas Media Group as Chairman and CEO last year. Meenakshi Menon is the founder and chairperson of Spatial Access.

     

  • Advertising industry veteran Gopi Kukde has been felicitated by the Maharashtra government for his outstanding contribution in the field of advertising

    Gopi Kukde feted by Maharashtra govt

    By A Correspondent

     

    Advertising industry veteran Gopi Kukde has been felicitated by the Maharashtra government for his outstanding contribution in the field of advertising.

     

    Minister of Higher and Technical Education Rajesh Tope presented the award, which is given at a ceremony along with prizes for the government’s annual state-level art competition.

     

    Mr Kukde, best known in recent times for creating and developing the ‘Onida Devil’, has had an illustrious career in advertising, including the foundation of Advertising Avenues, and a long association with the Communication Arts Guild.

     

  • Draftfcb Ulka has created a new campaign for Tata Motors which has unveiled the Vista D90, positioned as a hatchback that is designed to thrill

    Draftfcb Ulka creates new campaign for Tata’s Vista D90

    By A Correspondent

     

    Draftfcb Ulka has created a new campaign for Tata Motors which has unveiled the Vista D90, positioned as a hatchback that is designed to thrill.

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”220″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKqqGHXXj8A[/youtube]

    The TVC shows two Vista D90s driving alongside each other with parasailers, attached to the rear of the car, being lifted in the air as the cars catch speed. The analogy highlights the Vista D90’s powerful 90 PS engine and its claim of being ‘designed to thrill’.

     

    On the rationale behind the campaign, Kartik Smetacek, Group Creative Director, Draftfcb Ulka, said, “The commercial is essentially a demonstration: Of power, of thrill, of the adventurous, adrenaline-fuelled lifestyle that defines the new Tata Motors.”

     

    Amit Sagar, Head, Vista Product Group, said, “The Vista D90 comes as a refreshing option for the thrill-seeking youth of today. The car redefines the category with over a dozen first in class attributes.”

     

    Kartik Smetacek

    Ranging from popular television channels, to print and online, the 360-degree campaign would maximise the experience of the new Vista D90 at various touch points.

     

    Credits:

    Client: Tata Motors

    Agency: Draftfcb Ulka

    National Creative Director: K S Chakravarthy

    Group Creative Director: Kartik Smetacek

    Creative Director: Devendra Mankame

    Creative Team: Donovan D’Souza, Mayuresh Wagle, Tushar Sawant, Roshan Pawaskar, Varsha Kahridaha

    Vice President: Kulvinder Ahluwalia

    Client Servicing: Kailash Kondath, Nisha Philip, Manan Valia

    Planning: Sunil Shetty, Mayur Kaku

    Films: Alpa Jobalia, Vikas Malhotra

    Production House: Chrome Pictures

    Director: Amit Sharma

     

  • Moneycontrol.com recently launched its Budget 2013 campaign "Budget Moves, Chidambaram Style", which shows the finance minister grooving to some unique dance moves

    Moneycontrol.com does a song-and-dance around Budget

    By A Correspondent

     

    Moneycontrol.com recently launched its Budget 2013 campaign “Budget Moves, Chidambaram Style”, which shows the finance minister grooving to some unique dance moves.

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”220″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDm-leYuiAI[/youtube]

     

     

    The latest commercial shows a number of quirky moves that include Kainchi Cut and Bull Walk as part of the Minister’s repertoire of dance steps. The idea for this campaign was an extension of the campaign proposition from last year’s “Rock the Sabha” which had key politicians like P Chidambaram, M Karunanidhi, Mamata Banerjee and the then Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, playing guitars and jiving to the beats of rock music.

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”220″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5sFpHoBsBw[/youtube]

     

     

    The set of four entertaining films bring a dash of irreverence to the serious brand and add the right amount of masala to the Budget 2013 coverage of moneycontrol.com. Budget 2013 on moneycontrol.com is a complete package which, apart from streaming the FM’s speech live, also includes interactive elements like poll, debates, slideshows, online chats, live blogging and videos.

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”220″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShLyPCWR0HQ[/youtube]

     

     

    Speaking about the campaign, Rajan Srinivasan, Marketing Head, Web18, said, “The fact that the biggest and the best coverage of the Budget happens on moneycontrol.com is not news. But the fact that we have made it interactive to ensure that that we get a new generation of users interested in the Budget was something that we wanted to communicate with this campaign and I think that objective has been achieved. The look is fresh and edgy and will definitely strike a chord with the audience.”

     

    Kaushik Roy, Senior Creative Director, Contract Advertising said, “Inspired by last year’s success, we decided to push the creative further this time, to be more entertaining and in-your-face. So this time around, it’s all about dance. We’re excited and eager to see how this campaign does in the marketplace.”

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”220″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37G0a3lyhbE[/youtube]
  • The Advertising Club in association with the Times group, official representative of Cannes in India, will screen the Cannes showreel on February 11 at the Mayfair Rooms, Worli, at 5.30 pm

    Ad Club to screen Cannes showreel in Mumbai today

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Advertising Club in association with the Times group, official representative of Cannes in India, will screen the Cannes showreel on February 11 at the Mayfair Rooms, Worli, at 5.30 pm.

     

    The screening will last for two hours. Beer and snacks will be served during the course of the screening. Those interested may contact the Ad Club secretariat on 23810213 / 23894091 for donor passes.