An innovative content integration initiative for PassPass has won Adsyndicate Services Pvt. Ltd. the prestigious DAC Award 2015 – Excellence in Advertising, for Outstanding Usage of Media, at an annual event organised by the Delhi Advertising Club. PassPass is a branded mouth freshener from the confectionary basket of the DS Group.
In what was a unique and extremely relevant positioning for the brand, the PassPass brand slug was inserted on the front page of Hindustan Times, capturing a handshaking image of Indian PM Narendra Modi and Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif. The visit of Sharif, during PM Narendra Modi’s swearing-in, was a historical moment for both countries. The brand captured the milestone event with the innovative use of the PassPass slug, “Raho Hamesha PassPassâ€.
Speaking on the award, CK Sharma, Business Head- Mouth Freshener said, “We are delighted that PassPass innovative content has been felicitated. Our brand proposition revolves around togetherness and harmony and this is exactly what the ad placement expressed. Visible ad placements in the story about US President Barack Obama’s visit to India as the Republic Day Chief Guest and the 6th BRICS summit amongst many others have also evoked interest earlier.â€
Reliance Entertainment Digital, comprising World Wide Open, Zapak, BigFlix and Reliance Games, is partnering with Personagraph to drive more value for advertisers by utilizing mobile specific segments, both from the brand and brand performance perspective. The company’s three large publishers i.e. Reliance Games, Zapak, and BigFlix, will be utilizing Personagraph’s Privacy Compliant SDK toolkit for monetization, using its predictive audience segments product line.
One of the key benefits of Personagraph is that publishers own their data and that it is completely transparent and privacy compliant. The partnership would mean greater opportunity in an ecosystem that is capable of leveraging user insights to drive higher relevance, context and personalization in mobile, both at the publisher and advertiser end, while using a single data source.
WWO and Personagraph are partnering to bring a Data/Audience driven Private Marketplace (PMP) specifically targeting Mobile Developers in India. A private marketplace is an exchange derivative that is selective about how and what inventory is brought in to the platform, and similarly which marketers are being provided access to brands transparently with audience attached to every impression. The Private Marketplace will be open for Mobile Developers with clear instructions on ad viewability, sizing, brand transparency, etc. while marketers will be allowed buy in to the inventory via guaranteed and non-guaranteed means.
By using the Personagraph technology and with WWO demand already built in to the marketplace, the Mobile Development community can access growing and consistent revenue for advertising monetization now and going forward as we bring more publisher side partners and marketers to the platform.
Baggit has launched its new brand campaign titled ‘Play The Life Game!’ The campaign reinforces the ‘freedom of expression’ brand voice that represents Baggit. It will also be the anthem that forms the basis of all advertising and design work on the brand.
Baggit has developed an ardent set of followers across different age groups in India. Keeping this in mind, the 2015 Spring/Summer Collection is available in Baggit’s exclusive brand outlets and large format multi-brand stores across India, as well as leading on-line fashion sites.
Commenting on the campaign launch, Vicky Ahuja, Director Sales & Marketing, Baggit, said, “Baggit has always been associated with independent and strong personas. It’s time that we push the envelope further. We must explore more! We must be more! Each facet of you deserves to be nurtured and celebrated and through our campaign we want our customers to dig deep and rediscover their forgotten sides.â€
Baggit’s creative agency Point of View Brandcom quoted, “When Baggit came to us for their annual campaign, and we really saw it as an exercise in crafting a ‘voice’ for a fashion brand. It is one thing to evolve a creative voice for a brand but quite another task to ensure that the creative expressions remain true to this voice. We wanted to break away from the ‘pretty picture’ approach that we’ve observed across categories within the fashion segment. It is not about being different for the sake of being different as much as it is about finding a relevant connection for Baggit in the life of its audience. Our campaign ‘Play The Life Game’ is an effort in this direction.â€
It would be wrong to single out any single IAA Leadership Award winner. All them are super-achievers. Along with a host of top marketers (see list below), Bennett, Coleman and Company Limited managing director Vineet Jain and India Today group Chairman and Editor-in-Chief were among the top mediapersons presented with the IAA honours. Arundhati Bhattacharya of the State Bank of India was CEO of the Year. And CVL Srinivas and Prasoon Joshi from adland were Media Agency Head and Creative Agency Head respectively. Leading mediaperson and director of the Eenadu Group I Venkat was awarded the prestigious Hall of Fame by the India Chapter of the International Advertising Association (IAA).
Mr Venkat and several other leading media, advertising and marketing leaders were presented awards at the third annual IAA Leadership Awards in Mumbai. The event, presided by Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha, saw leading lights of the fraternity in attendance. The awards presented were:
Sanjay Tripathi (HDFC Life):
Marketing is very important in this field. It is not like other industries where the product changes every year. We sell the same product for 20-25 years. We need to understand the needs of our customers and cater to them. When a customer buys an insurance policy, he/she looks at all aspects, not just the price. They need to be able to trust us for a long time period and we can instill this trust through our marketing and service. We need to maintain our efficiency through the years.
Darshan Patel (Vini Products)
Marketing is a key thing, and we need to differentiate from what others are doing and if you do the right thing, you are going to be successful in this field. First of all, my products were different from what other companies were offering, and I kept investing in my brands, and I advertise how my brands were very consumer-oriented and it was accepted.
Debarata Mukherjee (Coca-Cola)
It is competitive from the outside, but if you look at the industry from the inside, the per capita consumption is very low, so the real need is to grow the market. The percapitas in India are 15, 16, compared to global averages of 95, 96. We are competition-aware, but not competition-focused. It is good to be aware of what others are doing, but I think collectively we have the mantle of growing the industry. If you look at the water space, it is all unbranded, but you’ve got the Kinley commercial which is about trust in every drop, creating a brand in a category with so much competition. So I think the task is to make sure that we have sustainable, profitable, competitive advantage by building brands through marketing. While competition is important, all of us have accountability on the mantle to grow the business together.
See,. a job for a marketer in India is difficult, because you cannot have the same language to communicate with the entire demographic of the country. We have a large geographical spread and different languages, and at the same time we do not have a so-called national language. Every region has so-called likes and dislikes, so this becomes a real challenge for any marketer in India to have a common linkage and to be able to connect the dots between various regions, to arrive at one communication for the brand.
We take regular feedback from our regional teams who are sitting in the market and try to find a connection to bring them together on a particular point. Then somebody at the corporate level takes a decision so that we are at the pulse of the market.
Amarjit Singh Batra (OLX)
India is a market where internet penetration is very, very low. Now it is a bit better than what it was a few years back. Still I think we are about 20-30 percent of the market which is very low compared to a 1.2 billion population. What marketing allows you to do is to reach people beyond people who are on the internet. I’m talking about offline marketing here. It helps with the battle of the minds as well as the battle of the market share, because it allows you to reach out to everybody, and those people will also be on the internet sometime. So as an internet brand I think it’s important to also look at offline marketing as a tool, and I think most of us are doing it today.
One way we did that is via marketing to create awareness of the brand. We have also taught people as to how to go about using OLX. Our marketing campaigns have also got education about how to use our brand. One more thing is that we have realised that India is not going to be on PC, so we have developed our brand for mobile and we also used marketing communication to tell people that you can use your mobile to access OLX. With that we were able to move the market faster than what it was.
Congratulating winners, Mr Sinha said, “Politics is like marketing in many ways. In my experience I have learnt that Indian consumers are a very different lot, very different from consumers internationally. They are emotional, relational and definitely need value for money – paisa vasool is a must. So when we are speaking to the Indian consumers as marketers, much as we in politics do, we need to keep these aspects in mind.â€
Speaking on the occasion, Srinivasan K Swamy, President of IAA’s India Chapter said, “This is only the third year of the IAA Leadership Awards and it has already established itself as an industry standard. I would like to thank for the support I received from Raj Nayak for putting steam behind an award that the industry looks forward to.â€
Speaking about the initiative, Raj Nayak, CEO, COLORS said, “IAA is undoubtedly the best platform in the industry bringing together creative minds, and the IAA Leadership Awards celebrates the leaders who empower like-minded individuals to push their boundaries with great campaigns and hard work. Associating with the event is an absolute honour and we would like to extend our heartiest congratulations to the winners for their contribution towards the development of the industry. We look forward to further our association with IAA and continue to applaud the efforts put in by professionals on this national platform.â€
Also speaking on the occasion were Sudhanshu Vats, Group CEO, Viacom18 and Kaushik Roy, President – Brand Strategy & Marketing Communication, Reliance Industries Limited. Network18 Group CEO AP Parigi joined Messrs Swamy, Roy and Nayak in the presentation of a memento to the minister.
Kyoorius, in association with D&AD, announced that the 2015 Kyoorius Advertising & Digital Awards jury sessions will be open to the public. Kyoorius will offer jury tours from 29th April to 1st May, and creative professionals also have the opportunity to interact and learn from the jury members, through a series of Kyoorius FYIdays which will also be held over the three days.
The 2015 Kyoorius Advertising & Digital Awards jury sessions will take place from 29th April until 2nd May at Indian School of Design & Innovation at Lower Parel in Mumbai. Unlike other awards shows, all jury members gather in Mumbai to review, discuss and recognize the best work entered over an intensive session. Last year, Kyoorius opened its doors to professionals, media and the community at large to observe jury members debate over entries as well as peruse some of the most cutting edge work in advertising and digital produced. This year, they have continued the tradition once again and made the sessions more interactive through the Kyoorius FYIdays.
Jury tours will be offered at 10am, 2.30pm and 5.30pm on 29th April, 30th April and 1st May. Kyoorius FYIdays are led by specialist speakers on a defined subject as a series of seminars, workshops or training sessions. With a limited attendance of 80 people — Kyoorius FYIday becomes a perfect platform to interact more directly with the speaker, industry leaders, and peers.
There will be five FYIday sessions, the schedule is as follows:
29th April Day1
9 – 945am: Tim Doherty – Chief Creative Officer, Isobar China
6 – 645pm: Tim Malbon – Co-Founder, Made By Many
Rajesh Kejriwal, Founder CEO of Kyoorius, said, “Kyoorius and D&AD are committed to providing the Indian creative community a completely neutral and transparent platform. These tours allow anyone to observe exactly what happens at the Kyoorius Awards jury sessions and be a part of the action.
At the same time, we strive to create opportunities to inform and stimulate local talent. This year we’ve introduced a series of FYIdays conducted by our Advertising & Digital Awards jury members – a chance to meet and interact with some of the most respected creative minds in the world. These sessions are completely free to attend and I encourage everyone to sign up.â€
It’s a question which everyone in the industry has been asking him and each other since October 2014 when the name of a new Global CEO of Maxus was announced.
When we asked him then with the lyrics of a classic Bollywood song: Yeh kya hua, kaise hua, kyun huaaa, he replied in an equally filmi style: Main toh chala jidhar challe rasta – only in this case I have an idea of what the manzil is.
The ‘manzil’ clearly is the global headquarters of Madison World in North Mumbai.
We’re referring to the man you see in the picture: Vikram Sakhuja, inarguably one of the most powerful and well-known media agency professionals in the country today.
He joins Madison Media as an equity partner. A short statement we received from the office Madison World Chairman and Managing Director Sam Balsara announced: “Madison World is delighted to announce that Vikram Sakhuja is set to join the Madison Media Group including OOH as Partner and Group CEO. Vikram will be responsible for the Media and OOH business of Madison World and will work closely with Sam Balsara.â€
This has indeed been a coup of sorts. As a senior industryperson who has known both Balsara and Sakhuja from close quarters said: “Sam is one of the smartest and shrewdest mediaperson in the country. And he has proven that yet again by getting Vikram on board.â€
The move also silences naysayers that Sam Balsara would do well to sell his stake in Madison World to a worthy international conglomerate. Perhaps he still will, the senior industryperson we spoke to earlier told us. “This may well be a way of saying that, yes, we are privately held company, but are professionally run.â€
An alumnus of IIT Delhi and IIM Calcutta, Mr Sakhuja has over 28 years of experience across the media and marketing landscape. He has worked with Proctor & Gamble, Coca-Cola, Star India and of course GroupM where he headed South Asia operations as CEO and later Global CEO of Maxus.
Said Mr Balsara in a statement: “I am delighted to have Vikram come on board and partner us in Madison. I know Vikram as a true blue professional, over the last 20 years, first as a client, then a media partner and finally as a formidable competitor. I am confident that he will be able to contribute significantly to our clients’ business growth and success, by providing the right strategic direction, given his vast and rich experienceâ€.
Added Mr Sakhuja in the same statement:  “I am truly excited at the prospect of returning home to India and in an entrepreneurial capacity. It is also a privilege to now partner a person who initiated me into media in my Client days. Media has never been more exciting, and I look forward to further strengthening an already iconic Agency brand.â€
Gautam Kiyawat
Meanwhile, Gautam Kiyawat, current Madison Media Group CEO has decided to relocate to Singapore for personal reasons. Balsara said the following on his movement: “I would like to place on record Gautam’s substantial contribution to Madison Media in the three years that he has been with us, especially in the area of growing our people and working as a team. I thank Gautam for his contribution and wish him all the best in his future endeavoursâ€.
It’ll be interesting to see how Sakhuja as head of Madison Media takes on former employer GroupM and friend Shash Sinha IPG Mediabrands, both of who are formidable competitors. As followers of the space, we couldn’t have asked for any better.
MakeMyTrip has awarded its creative mandate to Publicis Communications. The pitching process included a total of 9 agencies including O&M, JWT, Lowe, Leo Burnett, Contract, Dentsu, Enormous and FCB (incumbent) had been part of the process.
Welcoming Publicis on board, Saujanya Shrivastava, Chief Marketing Officer of MakeMyTrip said, “We are delighted to partner with Publicis to take the brand agenda forward and unlock growth opportunities in the online travel category. I am confident that Publicis, with the planning and creative horsepower it possesses will deliver on this exciting mandate. We look forward to the association which will kick-start with our new brand campaign to be launched shortly.â€
Hemant Misra
Hemant Misra, CEO Publicis Capital added, “We unlocked some very interesting spaces that helped us win the pitch. This is one of those rare instances where the pitch work is also the final creative. The team at MMT has infectious passion that seems to have caught my entire team. We are looking forward to the travel aheadâ€
As Parle Agro introduced a new visual identity for Frooti, it vested the responsibility with Posterscope India for its Out-of-Home communication.
As Frooti is moving away from its traditional image, the idea was to showcase the new drink in a fresh, exciting and playful manner. It had to appear distinguished in a cluttered advertising landscape with its contemporary new look and a bold logo design.
The task put forth by the Parle Agro Team to Posterscope India was to create a buzz about the brand’s new look and leave a lasting impression on the consumer’s mind such that it would support and boost its on-ground visibility.
Posterscope conceptualised and created an outdoor implementation strategy. It delivered month-long visibility to the brand across 100+ markets pan India to address the objective of establishing Frooti as a leader and the voice of authority in its category. The campaign was not just high impact, juxtaposed against sustained visibility, but also exhibited high cost efficiency.
Speaking about the campaign, Nadia Chauhan, JMD and CMO, Parle Agro said, “We are employing a differentiated marketing strategy with the entire brand revamp and new positioning for Frooti. With our new campaign, we want to make the brand relevant and appealing to consumers across generations and build higher aspirational values around it.â€
Haresh Nayak
Commenting on the association, Haresh Nayak, Regional Director, Posterscope APAC said, “We are glad to be associated with the brand-revamping exercise of Frooti ensuring the creating of high impact visibility with the wide spread outdoor campaign. â€
Dr Prannoy Roy, Executive Co-Chairman of NDTV Group, has been awarded the Mumbai Press Club RedInk Award 2015 for Lifetime Achievement for Excellence in Journalism for his consistent and pioneering contribution to news television in India. Dr Roy will be honoured for his service to journalism at a glittering ceremony on Thursday, 30th April in Mumbai at the Jamshed Bhaba Auditorium, NCPA, by Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis.
Dr Roy along with his wife and journalist Radhika Roy in 1988, were the first to set up a television news production company called New Delhi Television, now called NDTV. In later years, Dr Roy made a mark for his incisive and pioneering coverage of election news and changed the way people consumed TV news with his ground-breaking programmes such as ‘The News Tonight’ and ‘The World This Week’. After years of producing the news for Star News, Dr Roy launched his own broadcasting network with NDTV 24X7, NDTV India and other channels in 2003.
Dr Prannoy Roy was chosen for the RedInk Lifetime Achievement Award from a shortlist of senior editors by a survey among 200 journalists all over India, and a final consideration by the Managing Committee of the Mumbai Press Club. RedInk Lifetime Achievement award winners in previous years include the late Vinod Mehta, Kuldip Nayar, N Ram, and Mrinal Pande.
Judging for the RedInk Awards, which includes as many as 10 categories have just been completed, and as many as 24 journalists who have produced outstanding and impactful stories in calendar 2014 will also receive awards along with Dr Prannoy Roy on 30 April at the NCPA. The judging process proved to be a herculean task with over 800 entries in the print/online category and nearly 250 stories from television journalists. Each of the categories 10 categories had a dedicated jury of senior persons with domain knowledge assigned to judge the entries. A special curator was also assigned to sift the large number of entries in each section and guide the judges.
The judging process brought in well-known names such as Harsh Mariwala, chairman of Marico, for the Business category, Dr Kiran Shaw Mazumdar, chairperson of Biocon, for the Health & Wellness category, Justice Kode and former Mumbai Police commissioner M.N. Singh for the crime category and Sudanshu Vats, CEO of Viacom18 for the ‘Entertainment & Lifestyle’ stories.
Star India is the Presenting Partner for the Mumbai Press Club RedInk Awards for Excellence in Journalism 2015. Some of the awards partners includes Aditya Birla Group, Yes Bank, Indiabulls Housing, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Zee Entertainment, Eros International, SevenHills Hospitals and JSW Steel.
Effie Worldwide has announced the most effective marketers, brands, agency holding groups, agency networks, agency offices and independent agencies in Asia Pacific according to results of the 2015 Effie Effectiveness Index.
Now in its fifth year, the Effie Index recognizes the architects of the most effective marketing communications ideas from around the world, determined by their success in more than forty national & regional Effie Award competitions.
Companies ranked highest in Asia Pacific in 2015 include Unilever (marketer) and Coca- Cola (brand), WPP (agency holding group), Ogilvy & Mather (agency network), Lowe Lintas Mumbai (individual agency office) and New Zealand’s Barnes, Catmur & Friends (independent agency).
“Effie Worldwide’s annual Effie Index recognizes the exceptional ideas that delivered results and made a difference for businesses globally. The Index is distinctively comprehensive in that it shines a light on the incredible ideas that worked around the globe, from local to international campaigns, and from both multi-nationals and independent brands. This year’s honorees have set the bar higher for the industry and proven that great creative combined with thoughtful strategy equates to successful marketing initiatives,†said Carolyn Everson, Chair of the Board of Directors, Effie Worldwide and Vice President, Global Marketing Solutions, Facebook.
Highlights from this year’s Asia Pacific rankings include Unilever topping the marketer ranking for the second year in a row. The Coca-Cola Company moves up one spot to second, while Mondelēz International rounds out the top three. Coca-Cola is the top ranking brand, followed by Baidu and McDonald’s respectively. WPP Group unseats Omnicom Group as Asia Pacific’s most effective holding company in 2015. Omnicom falls to second with Interpublic (IPG) retaining its third place position. Ogilvy & Mather topped Asia Pacific’s most effective agency network ranking, with BBDO Worldwide dropping one spot to second. Lowe & Partners retains its third place ranking in the region.
Lowe Lintas (Mumbai) topped the Asia-Pacific individual agency office rankings for the second year in a row. Barnes, Catmur & Friends retained its spot as the most effective independent agency for the third year in a row.
“The Effie Effectiveness Index is the world’s most prestigious ranking of effective marketing, and five years of data allows for a bigger picture to compare and contrast the trends in marketing,†said Neal Davies, President and CEO of Effie Worldwide. “What’s more, by having access to the cases that led to success in the Effie Index, marketers can study best in class examples of effective marketing from around the globe.”
The 2015 global Effie Effectiveness Index is compiled from 3,136 finalists and winning entries from worldwide Effie Award competitions between January 1, 2014 and December 31, 2014. This is the first time that the Effie Index rankings are calculated using a January-December qualifying period, which will provide marketers with a better understanding of their success over a single calendar year. Previous rankings were tabulated over a June to June eligibility time period.
Tejali Shete and Ajay Menon have joined DDB Mudra South & East as Senior Creative Directors, based out of the agency’s Bengaluru office.
With over a decade of experience in the creative communications industry, Tejali joins DDB Mudra from Grey Worldwide and a short stint at Leo Burnett, Kuala Lumpur. Tejali has worked with leading advertising agencies including Contract, Lowe Lintas, Ogilvy & Mather, Creativeland Asia, and Percept/H. She’s worked on an array of world-renowned brands including Coca-Cola regional, Samsung regional, Pantene, AmbiPur, Wella, Downy, Godrej Cinthol, Godrej Aer, Godrej Expert Hair Color, Asian Paints, Samsonite, HSBC, Tata Indicom and Photon, Louis Phillip, Vladivar Vodka, Johnson’s Baby, Femina, Ceat, and Brooke Bond Red Label to name a few.
Ajay Menon joins DDB Mudra from JWT Chennai where he was Senior Creative Director & AVP. With over 16 years of experience, Ajay has worked on MRF, Blackberry smartphones, Cinthol, Godrej, TI Cycles, Indian Terrain, HP, Fiat, Mitsubishi, Sun Direct, Univercell, Mico Bosch, Lacto Calamine, and Piramal Healthcare. He has worked at Orchard in Mumbai, JWT in Chennai, and Saatchi in Bengaluru.
Ranji Cherian
On the new appointments Ranji Cherian, President, DDB Mudra South & East, quoted, “”I am delighted to have Tejali Shete & Ajay Menon join our team at DDB Mudra South and East. They come in with solid experience and strong body of work to showcase. They are extremely talented and nice to work with and fit into our DDB culture that prioritizes creativity & humanity. I am confident that their contribution will take our agency to greater heights.”
Mumbai based PR agency, Think Ink Communications has won the PR mandate for online clothing brand Vox Pop Clothing adding to its cache of leading clientele including Ronnie Screwvala, Zindagi, Shashi Sumeet Productions, Park Hyatt Goa Resort & Spa, Culture Machine, Swades Foundation amongst others.
Vox Pop Clothing founded by Siddharth Taparia is a collage of unique expressions, designed for people who can speak their mind and wear their attitude. It is the official merchandise partner for some of the most loved and iconic brands like Marvel, Walt Disney including Superman, Batman, Game of Thrones, Dexter and Star Trek amongst others.
“We are delighted to partner with a dynamic brand like Vox Pop Clothing. This win helps us reinforce our credibility as the preferred communications partners focused on creating customer delight. For Vox Pop, we aim to take its stories to consumers and media, making it standout as the preferred fashion destination for self-definitionâ€, said Radhika Nihalani, Co-Founder – Think Ink Communications.
An innovative content integration initiative for PassPass has won Adsyndicate Services Pvt. Ltd. the prestigious DAC Award 2015 – Excellence in Advertising, for Outstanding Usage of Media, at an annual event organised by the Delhi Advertising Club. PassPass is a branded mouth freshener from the confectionary basket of the DS Group.
Baggit has launched its new brand campaign titled ‘Play The Life Game!’ The campaign reinforces the ‘freedom of expression’ brand voice that represents Baggit. It will also be the anthem that forms the basis of all advertising and design work on the brand.
Effie Worldwide has announced the most effective marketers, brands, agency holding groups, agency networks, agency offices and independent agencies in Asia Pacific according to results of the 2015 Effie Effectiveness Index.
