Vizeum India has roped in Shripad Kulkarni as the Managing Director. Shripad will report to Ashish Bhasin, Chairman & CEO Dentsu Aegis Network, South Asia and will join the Dentsu Aegis Network India Executive Council.
Meanwhile, S.Yesudas will now focus on content and analytics, something that he is extremely passionate about, while continuing to report to Ashish Bhasin.
S Yesudas
With more than 25 years of experience across various media specializations, Shripad has worked in agencies such as Carat, Contract, Clarion and O&M. Prior to joining Vizeum, Shripad was CEO – Allied Media, a Percept Group company. Shripad, who serves on the Board of MRUC, was the founding CEO of Allied Media. An MBA from JBIMS, Shripad also holds a Master’s Degree in Statistics and a Diploma in Operations Research. He is also a well-known trainer and ran a media school prior to joining Allied Media.
Ashish Bhasin
Commenting on the appointment, Ashish Bhasin, Chairman & CEO Dentsu Aegis Network said, “I am very pleased to welcome Shripad as the MD of Vizeum India. With the wealth of experience that he brings in and the thorough knowledge of the business that he has, I am sure Vizeum India will touch new heights under his leadership.â€
“I also want to thank Yesudas for the great job that he has done in helping start Vizeum operations in India from the scratch and bringing the agency to the level, at which it is today. I have no doubts that he will equally excel in the new opportunities. Shripad now has a great platform to take Vizeum India to the next orbit because our ambitions for Vizeum India are tremendous,†he added.
Ad network DGM India signaled a business and organizational reinvention with the unveiling of its new brand identity, underscored by a new logo that signifies growth, network, vibrancy and a strong desire to redefine the boundaries of digital advertising.
DGM India is part of SVG Media, the largest Indian digital media network. SVG media has consolidated the India business of 3 companies – DGM, Tyroo & Network Play into a single unit – DGM. The new brand identity also reflects this consolidation.
DGM India said that it has organized its business into five distinct business verticals, each of which is focusing on cutting-edge innovation strategy for growth. The CPL (cost per lead) vertical caters to the offline businesses and it integrates call center and CRM support with online advertising to deliver hot leads to advertisers. The GoVentures unit has a very sharp focus on giving advertising options to advertisers operating in the newly developing on-demand hyper local services by helping clients source leads through various DGM-owned B2C marketplaces. DGM’s other business verticals are CPS (Cost Per Sale), Display and DTH advertising. The company is also offering videos and content for brand advertisers as part of its Display vertical offerings.
Anurag Gupta
Anurag Gupta, Founder & MD, DGM India said, “Today’s launch of our new brand identity marks the beginning of the next phase of our journey. With digital advertising as our DNA, we are today ready to push the innovation frontier as we seek to redefine its boundaries whilst operating profitably at a very large scale.â€
Manish Vij
Manish Vij, Founder & CEO, SVG Media said, “We see exciting times ahead as we have recently concluded the consolidation of our ad-network business. DGM India’s new brand identity signals our intent to creating and delivering true innovations that will help marketers generate significantly higher ROI on their digital marketing efforts.â€
Close on the heels of the announcement of Nikhil Shahane as Vice President – Mobile and International Business and Mahesh Patil as Chief Technology Officer comes another significant appointment that of Navin Kansal as National Creative Director. The move marks an important phase in the digital agency’s journey of growth where the endeavour is to ensure seamless integration of creativity and technology.
RajDeepak Das
Welcoming Navin on board, RajDeepak Das, Chief Creative Officer, Leo Burnett India, said, “Navin is a creative genius when it comes to digital and he happens to join us at a right time when we are looking to fast-track Indigo’s growth as a full-service digital agency and a technology hub for clients. Navin’s experience of creating exemplary work on many brands reflects his ability to make an idea look great across digital platforms. His passion for innovation will drive the change brands need, thus helping to take the quality of our offering notches higher!â€
Harshad Hardikar
Harshad Hardikar, COO, Indigo Consulting, added, “Navin and I have worked together in the past and I am fully convinced about his great ability to think big brand ideas that can create magic for brands, using digital media. This is the most critical position we were waiting to fill-in for some time. I’m sure that Navin’s creative acumen coupled with his leadership skills will take Indigo’s creative reputation to new heights.â€
As a brand, Havells Wires has always stood out in the way it communicates its core message to its audience. Taking its credo of ‘Wires that don’t catch fire’ further, Havells Wires has unveiled a new campaign that depicts an emotional bond between a father and daughter. As it has done with its past campaigns, the brand has leaned on an emotional tale to lend across its message to the general populace. The strategy being that a functional benefit such as a fire-proof wire when shown through an emotional angle makes the communication seem more relatable and believable.
The campaign is live on digital platforms and will be on-air across major television channels soon.
Explaining the rationale behind the new film, Vijay Narayanan, VP-Marketing, Havells India Limited said: “The objective was to reinforce the product proposition of ‘flame-retardant wires’ by means of a powerful emotional story which connects with the consumers.â€
Conceptualized by Lowe Lintas Delhi, the commercial has been shot in the picturesque state of Kashmir. The story is set on a cold, winter morning at Dal Lake, Kashmir. A daughter, who must have risen early to prepare lunch for her hardworking father rows a boat across the lake to deliver food in a tiffin box. By the time she reaches, the food is almost cold. Fearing that the food will become inedible once it’s cold, she urges her father to eat immediately. But her father bogged down by work, shirks her away. Undeterred the girl continues urging her father, but then she eventually gives up and leaves. But before leaving she uses Havells wires as an apparatus to heat the food.
Amer Jaleel
Sharing his thoughts on the creative approach behind the film, Amer Jaleel, National Creative Director, Lowe Lintas + Partners said, “We consider each category piece on Havells as a mother brand piece. Although this is about a specific benefit of wires it feeds into the Havells brand. These days some brands are also channels. What will emerge from Havells is something that people are looking forward to. In that light we wanted the wires work to add to the emotional equity on Havells. We try to be simple and real and somewhere we wanted the brand to be viewed as being a part of lives in every part of the country. Set in Kashmir, the little story echoes every girl’s feelings for her Dad.â€
Close on the heels of winning the Sansui business, Contract Advertising has bagged the creative mandate for Kelvinator. An iconic brand in the home appliances category, Kelvinator has recently completed its 100 years of global presence.
Commenting on the win, Ayesha Ghosh, General Manager, Contract Advertising said, “Having been an iconic brand, our aim is to make the brand more relevant to the current younger audience, keeping the brand’s essence intact.â€
The brand through multiple campaigns has established its proposition as the coolest one and has eventually become synonymous with it. The task for Contract will be to rejuvenate the brand in the prevailing hyper-competitive marketplace.
Acknowledging the account movement, Mr. Harish Marathe, Marketing Head Kelvinator, said, “In Contract, we see an amazing partnership that enables us to fulfil our brand objective. Their work and approach gives us the confidence to realise the set goals for both our refrigerator and washing machine range.â€
The two are a study in contrasts. One, flamboyant, aggressive, very media-friendly, and the other a hardnosed planner, huge believer in research and statistics and understated.
S Yesudas, the marathon-runner and stylish outgoing CEO of Vizeum, is known to be among the most press-friendly media agency captains. The joke is that news on his account wins hit the media even before people in his organisation get to know about it. So even though it will never be known on how the news leaked to e4m, Bhasin, who was leaving for New Delhi on Wednesday evening, was reportedly livid.
Vizeum may have been winning accounts at steady intervals, but Bhasin and the Vizeum worldwide bosses wanted the agency to take a different course. And being an old Carat Chief Operating Officer (Carat is Dentsu Aegis’s flagship media arm), Shripad Kulkarni, who was looking to exit Percept Allied Media, was a natural choice for the India office of the London-headquartered agency. While Yesudas was offered special projects to look at content and analytics, it was clear that he was evaluating options outside the group, including investors if he doesn’t find the right suitor.
Kulkarni requested that he doesn’t want to be drawn into any conversation on the transition. “The sheer dynamism of Vizeum as a brand excites me,” said Kulkarni.
Both Kulkarni and Yesudas will report to Bhasin. Yesudas spoke to MxMIndia and indicated that he is considering options outside the group too. His Facebook post though said it all: “Friends, It has been an incredible 6 years with Vizeum India, starting the company from scratch with a laptop and 100 business cards, without any global clients or automatic alignments, we managed to carve out a niche for ourselves. ”
And it added: “After two decades of media planning and buying which included setting up successful/ profitable businesses both in India and overseas, all those organisations going on to winning many awards and accolades, helping move many brands up the ladder and touching the lives of many a talents, I thought it was time for me to jump and develop my wings on the way, on two areas which I feel will hold immense potential for the future of brand-consumer connect, CONTENT and ANALYTICS. For those closer to the media business, SoV in my definition is Share of Vision and SoE is Share of Empathy, the former being brand to consumer and later the other way. Wish me all the best and watch this space for more action.”
Kulkarni meanwhile has his work cut out for him. Vizeum may be doing well international as per RECMA ratings, but in India the qualitative assessement is in the negative. Â With more than 30 years of experience across various media specialisations, Kulkarni was until last week, CEO of Percept Allied Media which he founded in 2006. An MBA from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute, Mumbai, Kulkarni has worked in agencies like Contract, Clarion, Ogilvy and his own entrepreneurial venture called M:ideas. He serves on the Board of media research body MRUC.
Commenting on the appointment, Bhasin said: “With the wealth of experience that Shripad brings in and the thorough knowledge of the business that he has, I am sure Vizeum India will touch new heights under his leadership.”  Some of the clients that Vizeum handles in India include BMW, Lotus Herbals, TI Cycles, MTV, Hindware, Jet Airways, Allied Blenders and Distillers, Luxor and the recently won HDFC Bank  amongst others.
After the successful rollout of successful initiative M-Pesa, which is a mobile money transfer service from Vodafone that allows millions of migrants in big cities like Mumbai to transfer money conveniently to their families back home through the mobile, Vodafone has now launched a campaign to educate women who receive their money from their husbands or sons on self-defense. The tool used is an Umbrella which has self-defense pictures painted on it as most of these women are not educated and hence cannot read or write.
Like Urmila Devi, a lady in interiors of Jaunpur district in UP-East who regularly receives money from her husband who works in a factory in Mumbai through Vodafone M-Pesa. When she visited her nearest M-Pesa agent for cashing-out the money her husband had sent, she was also gifted the Self-defense Umbrella which she can use as a tool for safety while traveling long distances and also learn self-defense techniques through the pictures on the umbrella.
200 such umbrellas were distributed to women in the Azamgar and Jaunpur districts of UPE. Vodafone M-Pesa plans to scale this to other states in the future such as Bihar, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab and others.
A creative veteran with close to 15 years of experience, Rajesh Gola has joined DDB Mudra North as Senior Creative Director. Based out of the agency’s Gurgaon office, Rajesh would be reporting to SambitMohanty, Creative Head, DDB Mudra North.
A former Senior Creative Director with JWT Delhi, Rajesh has been associated with agencies like Grey Worldwide, FCB Ulka and Saatchi & Saatchi in his career span till date. His stints at these agencies gave him an opportunity to work with diverse international, national brands from mandates like telecom, healthcare, clothing, insurance, consumer electronics and pharmaceuticals amongst others.
Some of the cream brands that he has worked on include names like Airtel, VLCC, Monte Carlo, Max Bupa, Dabur Gulabari, Dabur Red Toothpaste, Hitachi, Mother Dairy, Bata, PVR Cinemas, Akai, Sansui, ABN Amro Credit Card, KFC, Bausch & Lomb, HCL, Baygon, Indian Airlines, Apollo Tyres, ONGC etc.
Sambit Mohanty
Sambit Mohanty, Creative Head, DDB Mudra North said, “Rajesh is a great addition to our creative repertory. Experience apart, he brings a rare sense of maturity and responsibility that is hard to find these days. Add to that a killer sense of wit and you know that with this guy around, there’ll never be a dull moment!”
A bikini-clad girl dancing under a waterfall in the middle of a secluded, lush green valley, frolicking to a catchy tune would surely evoke nostalgia for most folks, except maybe those born in the 21st century.
Now, Hindustan Unilever has gone down memory lane to choose one of the hottest Indian ads ever to relaunch its soap brand Liril – more than a decade after it went off-air but perhaps, never forgotten. The Liril girl is back!
“These are the roots of Liril. They don’t change. And what we’re doing is paying homage to the Liril that we all know, bringing alive the very same elements that have been part of our popular culture through time,” said George Koshy, general manager for personal wash category at HUL.
The marble green soap brand made waves 40 years ago when model and Air India air-hostess Karen Lunel wore a swimsuit and danced under a cascade to the catchy jingle.
“It is an iconic ad in Indian memory and even newer people are interested in history if there is a back story as interesting as that of Liril. In a low-involvement category like soaps, Liril will stand out and surely gain share now,” said Alpana Parida, president at brand consultancy firm DY Works.
After 1985, the brand was defined by models Pooja Batra, Preity Zinta and Deepika Padukone — each seen playing in the water and swimming under the waterfall. But they were merely shadows of the original ad.
Also, it wasn’t the same after the 90s, when the lemon product was diluted with variants such as orange and icy blue, followed by a name change to Liril 2000 a decade ago.
So what does Alyque Padamsee, former CEO of Lintas and the creator of the ‘Liril girl’ have to say about the modern rendition of the ad?
“I feel vindicated because there are some appeals that are timeless. Freshness in a tropical country has an eternal appeal which is now being revived,” said Padamsee, adding that Liril promised a few minutes of freedom from the daily grind of the Indian housewife.
The new campaign, featuring Brazilian model Anabelle and created by Lowe, was launched on social media last week.
“‘Must have taken a lot of guts to go back’, was one particular response and that sums up our approach – stick to the core,” said Koshy.
While the image of the lime and lemony zest soap brand and its ad may not have faded away, its market share did — falling from a high of over 14 per cent three decades ago to less than 2 per cent now — in the Rs 16,000-crore soap category.
Scarecrow Communications, Mumbai has been appointed as the Creative Agency of Varuna Pumps, an 80-year-old hand blower brand.
With over eight decades of experience, Varuna Pumps has a strong domestic presence with fully equipped 17 branches nationwide, 1500+ dealers and sub-dealers. Today, Varuna Pumps is the market leader in Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal and Eastern India.
On Scarecrow’s appointment, Varun Gajjar, Director – Marketing, Varuna Pumps, said: “We are providing pumping solutions mainly for domestic and agriculture segment. Both these customers have different buying patterns, different needs and different characteristics. Team Scarecrow has demonstrated really strong strategy, creative and content capabilities that will help our growing brand to grow.”
Said Manish Bhatt, Founder Director, Scarecrow Communications:  “Developing communication for such a fundamental-level product and a pioneering brand with 80 years of legacy is a great opportunity for Scarecrow, especially when we are working with the visionary, Gajjar family, at a personal level.”
Added Amitabh Sreedharan, Associate Vice President, Account Management:Â “Working with Varuna Pumps at this point, when the ‘branded pump’ category in India is evolving and seeing consistent growth, gives us an opportunity to create insightful communication.”
Pernod Ricard India has appointed Lowe Lintas Delhi as its brand communication partner. The agency was shortlisted after a multi-agency pitch. Lowe Lintas Delhi will be the second agency which will work on the wide portfolio of brands in a dual agency format.
As the creative partner, the agency would be handling the mandate of some of the leading brands marketed by Pernod Ricard India including Absolut, Blenders Pride, Nine Hills among others.
Sharing his views on appointing the agency, Sumeet Lamba, Executive Director Business Development, Pernod Ricard India, said, “We are delighted to be associated with Lowe Lintas Delhi who will partner us in our journey ahead for some of our core brands. The team showcased their ability to think in a very non-linear way and that’s what made the selection decision easy for us, we look forward to harnessing Lowe Lintas’ expertise to make sure the team delivers some amazing work.â€
Naveen Gaur
Commenting on the win, Naveen Gaur, President, Lowe Lintas Delhi said, “It’s a very exciting and challenging category but the more thrilling part is working with Pernod Ricard India. They have a bouquet of some iconic brands like Absolut and Blenders Pride and our task will be to take the brands further in a very unique and a disruptive way. We are really looking forward to our association with Pernod Ricard India to create some outstanding and out-of-the-box work.â€
Grey India has announced the appointment of Sandipan Bhattacharyya as its Chief Creative Officer effective August 1, 2015.
He will oversee the Mumbai, Gurgaon (New Delhi NCR) and Bengaluru offices across all platforms including advertising, digital and below the line. He will be based in Mumbai, reporting to Sunil Lulla, Chairman and Managing Director of Grey Group India.
Bhattacharyya returns to Grey from BBDO where he spent close to eight years partnering Josy Paul in setting up the agency in India and shaping its creative reputation. He was Executive Creative Director and was pushing the creative mandate on several global clients like PepsiCo, General Electric, Hewlett Packard, Aviva Life Insurance, P&G Gillette and Wrigley. In a career spanning over 16 years, his previous stints include Saatchi & Saatchi, Enterprise Nexus and a long run at GREY group as the Creative Director of Grey’s Mumbai office.
Sunil Lulla
“We are delighted to welcome Sandipan back. In an ever changing world, now Grey’s capabilities will be significantly enhanced with Sandipan’s leadership†said Lulla
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Commenting on his move, Bhattacharyya said, “What’s interesting in today’s ad landscape is what I call freestyling. No rules, no limits, just format-defying, medium-bending work. Gun shops that spring a surprise moral dilemma, car companies promoting bodypaint and a ridiculously simple Superbowl 2
interception that makes everyone spending millions on a 30†spot, seem like an idiot – that’s freestyling. And guess what, it’s all happening at Grey.!â€
Ad network DGM India signaled a business and organizational reinvention with the unveiling of its new brand identity, underscored by a new logo that signifies growth, network, vibrancy and a strong desire to redefine the boundaries of digital advertising.
