Usha International, leading consumer durables company, has set up an in-house advertising company called Goldilocks India Pvt Ltd (Goldilocks). It has been set up to initially take care of all the creative mandates of the different business verticals within the company. This will be a 100 per cent subsidiary of Usha International Limited. Goldilocks will provide better focus and timeline adherence to the advertising, marketing and brand communication of the company.
Usha International is looking to hire senior personnel with relevant advertising industry background to head Goldilocks and is open to giving stake to the person coming on board. The individual will be responsible for overall creative inputs, strategic thinking and providing business solutions to the company.
Anju Munjal, Vice President, Usha International, said “The setup of an in house agency is aimed to provide better focus and timeline adherence to the advertising, marketing and brand communication of the company. In the initial days Goldilocks will be working on creative mandates within the company. We are looking to hire a senior resource from within the industry who will be responsible for overall creative and strategic inputs to the companyâ€.
Goldilocks will function as an independent company like any other conventional advertising agency.
Advertising Agencies Association India (AAAI), has launched a specialized course in Advertising Copywriting, online. In keeping with the objectives of AAAI, the course is aimed at identifying, nurturing, and providing high quality creative talent to member agencies.
The course has been developed by Omnivore Academy, AAAI’s Knowledge Partner, and is backed by experienced faculty who are not only acclaimed and much-awarded Creative Directors, with an enviable portfolio of successful campaigns under their belt, but are excellent teachers too, a rare combination.
The duration of the course is 3 months, and will be conducted entirely online. The course can be accessed by a student anywhere, anytime, as long as he/she has internet connectivity. The curriculum has been developed keeping in mind the specific needs of the advertising industry – so it covers everything a copywriter would need to know and work on in an agency – from understanding the brief, to generating ideas, writing headlines, body copy, slogans/taglines, writing scripts for TV and Radio, developing campaigns for Digital Media, etc.
The course consists of 18 modules, 20 exercises and will take around 3 hours of course-work every week during the 12 week / 3 month program.
Dr M G Parameswaran
Speaking on this initiative, Dr M G Parameswaran, President, AAAI, said, “At AAAI training and development is a key part of our agenda and we are rolling out a series of initiatives under the banner ‘AAAI PROWESS’. The online copywriting course with knowledge partner Omnivore Academy is the first under this new banner. Since the course is run under the aegis of AAAI, we have powerful resources at work here – the Panel of Advisors comprise highly respected people from the advertising industry. We are delighted to have Omnivore Academy as our Knowledge Partners as they bring on substantive and enriched learning into their unique curriculum.
“We want to give talented young people from all over the country an opportunity to excel in a creative career,†he said, “So we’re offering 50% Scholarship to candidates who pass the AdCAT (Advertising Creative Aptitude Test), and successfully complete the course.â€
He continued, “We want the course to be a complete ‘incubation’ process’ – from finding talented young people, to nurturing them, and finally giving them hands-on, practical experience. So we’re also endeavoring to offer a 2-month internship with member agencies. And if she/he proves to be good, the agency may offer a job, too!â€
Rajan Nair
Adman Rajan Nair, Course Director, Omnivore Academy and visiting faculty at MICA, said: “We are looking forward to commencing the course soon and are confident it would develop a great pipeline of copywriting talent for the industryâ€.
The course will start on 1 Sept, 2015, with the first batch of 30 students.
Havas Media announced the win of the Integrated Media mandate of ClubMyCab in a multi-agency pitch. The account will be handled from the New Delhi office.
ClubMyCab is a ride sharing app that makes ride sharing safe and fun. The biggest obstacle to ride sharing taking off in a big way in India is that people don’t feel safe sharing a cab or car with strangers. ClubMyCab believes that sharing works best with people you trust – friends, colleagues and neighbours – not with strangers.
ClubMyCab allows one to create these trusted “clubs†of known people who travel the same routes as you and start sharing with them. Examples of clubs could be – your home to office, home to airport, office to airport, etc. – essentially routes that someone travels on frequently. ClubMyCab helps you reclaim 3-4 hours of your life everyday by travelling in comfort and being able to catch up on many other things – chatting with friends, reading a book or just grabbing a nap.
Pratul Chopra
Speaking on the appointment Pratul Chopra, Founder-CEO, ClubMyCab, said, “Ride sharing is still a nascent concept in India and requires building customer awareness towards the benefits. We are therefore partnering with Havas Media to take this message to our customers. We believe Havas Media’s vast experience and established infrastructure in customer communication design and delivery will be of immense value to ClubMyCab.â€
Anita Nayyar
Anita Nayyar, CEO, Havas Media Group-India and South Asia said, “ClubMyCab is an innovative concept and very necessary in the daily lives of Indians. Comfort, affordability and above all safety are the key drivers in travel today and ClubMyCab offers these. More so travelling in a more social environment helps beat the traffic grind and also allows for a happier disposition and hence higher productivity. We look forward to partner with the team as they scale in India.â€
Digital marketing agency- FoxyMoron has opened up a new office in Bangalore. With its strong presence in Mumbai and Gurgaon, FoxyMoron is putting up a good growth and has now flagged off a new branch in the IT hub of India. The Bangalore office will offer a robust suite of digital marketing services to meet the needs of this evolving market.
Founded in 2008, FoxyMoron set-up its first office in Mumbai and extended its footprints to Gurgaon in 2013. With a talent pool of over 250 people across both the offices, the agency has created many award winning digital campaigns including Garnier Men’s Power Light a Village, Maybelline New York India’s Baby Lips, Femina’s Made By You Issue, Castrol Activ’s Cling On To The Cup to name a few.
Suveer Bajaj, Co-founder & Director, Media Operations said, “With a thriving industry scenario as well as advancing media and technology in Bangalore, it was a logical step for us to open an office here. We have been serving a couple of Bangalore based clients out of our Mumbai office and felt that the city can open up many more doors for us. With a gamut of exciting opportunities that Bangalore offers, we’re looking forward to expanding our client base here and at the same time building our own capabilities. We’ve also started putting together a robust team in place and have set the ball rolling.â€
SAB Miller is one of the key Bangalore based accounts that has been with FoxyMoron for about 4 years now and is being handled by the Mumbai office. The agency also caters to an esteemed set of clients including Asian Paints India, the L’Oreal India Group (L’Oreal Professionnel, Maybelline New York, Garnier, L’Oreal Paris, Kerastase, Vichy), Castrol India, Zee Cinema, &TV, Micromax Yu, Red FM, Jim Beam India, World Wide Media Group (Includes Femina, BBC Good Homes and BBC Knowledge) among many others.
Multiple leagues, many controversies. But nothing seems to dent the popularity of cricket in the country. As fans throng the stadia and the TRPs go through the roof, clearly this is still the most lucrative sport for brands to invest in. Here are the reasons why:
1. Popular by far: Cricket is the most popular sport in India and is an integral part of Indian sports culture. With the help of cricket, brands are able to reach out to a wide range of audiences. Consistently investing in cricket helps a brand build a strong bond with its target group. Despite the recent controversies surrounding cricket, the popularity of the sport has not diminished.
2. Wide reach: Cricket is a powerful platform for brands to promote their new campaigns, and also for new brands trying to establish themselves in the market. The sport’s ability to generate extensive reach makes it an attractive option for brands, and thereby helps them in jump-starting awareness in a very short span of time
3. Mainstream media option: Out of 365 days in a year, cricket is played for over 200 days (including one-day tournaments, test and T20 matches). With cricket becoming part of a multi-screen world — digital streaming, TV channel apps and such — the popularity, affinity and resonance with the sport is still on the rise. These days, marketers and agencies alike, evaluate cricket regularly as part of mainstream media options and it is no longer seen as a one-off event.
4. Proven ROI: Return-on-investment studies conducted by our agency clearly proves that the power of cricket in impacting business goals for various categories is very high. It not only helps in growing business, but also helps brands which are investing in cricket in defending themselves from competitive brands and media activity which otherwise would have adversely impacted business goals.
5. Media amplifier: The strength of cricket is its ability to act as a great media multiplier. Research has proven that conversations and recall for brands engaged on the cricketing platform is high. The uplift in key brand measures as a result of investing in cricket, is also significant. For new brands, it also helps to build and maintain brand salience for many weeks — even after the end of cricketing matches/tournaments.
6. Integrations: Cricket gives opportunities to brands to integrate their messaging beyond plain sponsorships and logo placements. Brands which have strategically used both on-air and on-ground assets, tend to generate higher than normal returns on their media investment.
Kartik Sharma is Managing Director of Maxus, South Asia. This article first appeared in ‘dna of brands’ dated August 3, 2015
Social networking site Facebook is looking to tap the rising enthusiasm in India for online shopping by launching a shopping festival named Tied Together on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan. The plan involves setting up a website in association with media agency conglomerate GroupM between August 12 and August 29, the day of the festival.
Media agencies said Facebook’s pitch note said brands can “unlock the power of social media that can reach 10 crore potential customers through this event.” Facebook’s role will be to use its subscriber base and social networking platform to drive traffic to the shopping site.
Participating companies will have to pay a fee that will be shared by Facebook, GroupM and other media agencies. Facebook, which has 11.2 crore users in India, is said to be looking for a title sponsor at an asking rate of Rs 3 crore and a principal sponsor at a similar rate besides associate sponsors for Rs 1.5 crore each.
Facebook and GroupM didn’t respond to emailed queries.
“Online shopping festivals have become a popular trend in India, especially with the rise in the number of ecommerce companies, which are driving the growth of online shopping in the country,” a media planner said. “Facebook should be viewed as another media vehicle which has a huge database that can be utilised for commercial purposes.”
Last October, Google held a shopping festival in association with GroupM and Amazon called the Grand Diwali Mela. A year before that, Google launched the Great Online Shopping Festival. Earlier this year, Google held the Great Indian Travel Festival (GITF) in association with media agency conglomerate IPG Mediabrands. In July, Magicbricks joined hands with GroupM and Google to launch a property festival that will be called the Great Online Home Festival. “Companies like Amazon, Flipkart and other ecommerce companies can host an online festival on their own website. But companies like Google and Facebook need to create a new one to host a shopping festival. The idea is to create online intellectual properties (IP) and to make them annual events,” said another media planner.
Companies like Google and Facebook charge advertisers on a “per click” basis that ranges between 50 paise to Rs 100 and Rs 2 to Rs 20, respectively, “depending on the customer-targeting options that they choose,” said the planner. They will charge a fee for sponsoring these festivals on their website. “For media agencies that associate with such events there are no immediate financial returns and it is a long-term plan,” he said.
HDFC Life has launched a new brand campaign on their latest product offering ‘HDFC Life Cancer Care’ which touches upon the importance of being financially prepared and continue to live and fight with pride should Cancer ever strike. The ad gives out the message that to win the cancer battle, it takes more than just emotional strength. It needs financial preparedness too. Celebrity and cancer survivor Lisa Ray endorses the cause by telling her story of how she survived cancer and the lessons she learnt along the way.
Sanjay Tripathy, Senior EVP, Marketing, Products, Digital and E-commerce, HDFC Life, commented on the launch, “Much is said about cancer these days, but the conversations are mostly around physical and mental strength to fight against the disease. We believe that a person should be mentally strong without doubt but he or she needs to be financially prepared as well. Cancer treatment can cost anything between Rs. 3-25 lacs and we need to realize that the financial aspect of the fight is the only thing one can have a control on. Our new campaign emphasizes on the fact that being financially prepared is now easy with HDFC Life Cancer Care and if the need does arise, it will allow you to fight with dignity. For the very first time we have used a celebrity to communicate our message as she personifies the journey of a cancer survivor and offers real life testimonial. With her positive attitude and self belief, Lisa Ray embodies the brand philosophy of Sar Utha ke Jiyo. She takes us through her journey and experience in getting over Cancer, and her understanding of the importance of financial preparation in this situation. In this ad, we have thrown light on the utmost important factor of the Cancer struggle – the financial one.â€
Raj Deepak Das, Chief Creative Officer, Leo Burnett, added, “When one talks about fighting cancer, you hear about the emotional and physical struggle and how being mentally strong helps. But, one rarely talks about the financial struggle. In a situation where there is lack of money to undergo cancer treatment, the pain and the emotional trauma is much bigger. The idea was to reflect this thought by engaging with consumers on an emotional platform. Real life stories inspire us. We therefore decided to feature Lisa Ray and underline the importance of money in fighting the life threatening disease. She is a perfect fit as her positive attitude and self-belief resonates well with the brand philosophy of Sar Utha Ke Jiyo.â€
Apart from television, this film will be supported by other media such as print, OOH, cinema and digital, which will have significant focus. #RayOfHope will be used to run a social media engagement campaign.
Shavon Barua, former president of Havas Worldwide, is joining Omnicom media group agency PHD in the newly-created role of managing partner. Barua will work closely with Jyoti Bansal, managing director, PHD India. With two decades of experience in creative agencies, this is the first time she will explore her opportunities at a media agency.
One of her key responsibilities will be managing the entire digital mandate of Hindustan Unilever. Last year, PHD picked up the coveted gold at the Cannes Lion festival for its HUL campaign, Kan Khajura Teshan, the on-demand entertainment channel on mobile phones.
“Shavon’s leadership experience with a creative communication agency will be a great addition in strengthening our product,†said Jasmin Sohrabji, chief executive officer, Omnicom Media Group, India and South East Asia.
Barua started her career with SSC&B Lintas in 1995 as account director. She moved to Rediffusion Y&R in 2000 as client servicing director and in 2004 joined Ambience Publicis as associate vice-president. In 2007, she moved to JWT as executive business director and in 2009 shifted to Euro RSCG as director. She joined Havas in 2010
What’s one awards nite where many of the Big Pros of the A&M-land assembled and, no, it wasn’t the Abby, the Effies, the Emvies or Kyoorius? We’re talking of names like Piyush Pandey, D Shivakumar, Madhukar Kamath, Nagesh Alai, KV Sridhar, Bobby Pawar, Manish Bhatt, Damodar Mall, Tarun Katial and many, many others?  It was the DMA Asia Echo Awards, held last Friday (Aug 6) in Mumbai.
Fast Facts:
Entries from 542 participants, 75 agencies, 175 Brands
Entries from 8 countries – India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Phillipines, China, Japan, Thailand.
Awards presented:
4 Overall
1 Best of Show
1 Diamond
142 Metals
29 Golds
26 Leaders
Unilever was adjudged Client of the Year, while OgilvyOne Worldwide was Agency of the Year. Ogilvy & Mather was Network of the Year and WPP the Holding Company of the Year. The Best of Show for Creativity was awarded to Visa India for Visa Sarees and the Diamond for Effectiveness was taken away by OgilvyOne Worldwide Philipines.
The International Echo Awards are the most prestigious awards in the data-driven marketing and advertising world. This year, DMAi, the Indian association which has been in existence since 1992, was accepted entries from across 17 countries in Asia for both the awards – the 2015 DMA Asia Echo Awards and The DMA International Echo Awards 2015.
Underscoring the importance of the Echo awards, Rakhshin Patel, Managing Director, Pi Communications & Grand Jury Chairperson, said: “For an athlete, the Olympics are the ultimate stage. Data-driven marketers share the same feeling about the Echo programme. There is indeed no bigger stage to showcase ideas and work that have yielded measurable, tangible, real results.â€
There were 15 Effectiveness categories and 3 Creative Effectiveness categories each headed by a biggie – Piyush Pandey, D Shivakumar, Madhukar Kamath, Geetu Verma, Nagesh Alai, Jasmin Sohrabji, Anupriya Acharya, Agnello Dias, Pratap Bose, Bobby Pawar, KV Sridhar, Tarun Katial, Manish Bhatt, Nishi Vasudeva, Damodar Mall, Susana Tsui, Anant Rangaswami  and Rajesh Kumar.
Said Vatsal Asher, CEO & Shelly Singh, COO, DMAi: “We are honoured to be hosting and managing the Asia Echo Awards. Campaigns got judged with the best in the Region. We had a fantastic panel of Jury Presidents and 194 online judges this year. We hope to see an increase the list of Asian winners at the International Echo 2015 awards in the US where all Asian winners will fasttrack to Round 2.â€
As an apex, not for profit DMAi, since 1992, brings about collective action for advancing & protecting responsible Data Driven Marketing and Advertising. The DMAi is run on a day-to-day basis by Vatsal Asher (CEO) and Shelly Singh (COO) and the awards have been championed by Rakshin Patel (Grand Jury Chairperson) and Ajay Chandwani, (Chairman Emeritus).
LIQVD ASIA announced the setting up of its office at Gurgaon in Delhi NCR and the appointment of Saurabh Gupta as the Business Head for the operations.
Saurabh is entrusted with the responsibility to provide holistic digital solutions for all clients of LIQVD ASIA in the region. In his recent past, he was in charge of the digital wing of Allied Media Corp and brings with him a sizeable experience in digital media operations.
Arnab Mitra
Arnab Mitra, Managing Director, LIQVD ASIA said: “We’re thrilled to welcome Saurabh on board. Saurabh’s immense experience in the space and progressive approach to innovate aligns perfectly with our business plans. We are sure he is the right person for our commitments to our clients in the region.â€
An MBA in Marketing and 12 years of substantial experience of working at well-known firms like Wipro, Lakshya Consulting, Games2win India Pvt Ltd, Zapak Digital Entertainment Ltd (part of Reliance ADA Group) & Allied Media Corp, Gupta has been highly acclaimed for his work. His expertise lies in digital media brand solutions, online and mobile gaming, VAS, digital activation and online publishing.
As Asia’s first experiential marketing entity, LIQVD ASIA started operations in 2013. Its clients include Celkon Mobiles, Axis Bank, Benetton, Divine Solitaire, Sennheiser, Legrand, Glanbia plc and Adidas Originals.
Global communications consultancy firm Maxus in collaboration with Platinum Guild India has created an exclusive microsite – www.oureverlastinglove.in wherein couples can create a personalized video of the special moments of togetherness that make their journey extraordinary.
Couples around the world like to share manifestations of their journey together on various social media platforms. On the basis of this understanding and building on this innate desire, Maxus presents couples with a platform where they can curate their most rejoiced memories and bring to life their special moments.
“Our social timelines have become a destination that stores a lot of our memories. We found an innovative way of allowing people to use the content on their timeline to express their feelings to their partner and loved ones. Our Everlasting Love, is a way for everyone to look back on their special memories and celebrate their Platinum Day of Love, through a heartfelt visual representation of their unique love story,†said Vishal Jacob, National Director – Digital, Maxus India.
Speaking about the initiative Vaishali Banerjee, Managing Director, Platinum Guild India said, “Today Platinum is an expression of love, intimacy and commitment between young couples.  Platinum Day of Love is about discovering true love and celebrating it with precious platinum. Building on the back of this campaign we wanted to give young couples the opportunity to celebrate not just their Platinum Day of Love but their entire journey of togetherness through a video. We feel social media is a perfect platform to interact with couples and their friends and encourage them to share their stories of everlasting loveâ€.
Once a user logins to the website and signs in via Facebook or email, all the images of the person and their partner are collated together to create a video montage. A feature to upload additional images is also available. Each of these videos can be shared on Facebook and Twitter and can be viewed by their friends and loved ones.
Mullen Lintas, the recently launched creative agency of Mullen Lowe Lintas Group, has appointed its senior management team across cities.
Amer Jaleel
Announcing the new team, Amer Jaleel, Chairman and CCO – Mullen Lintas noted, “I’m thrilled with the all-star-lineup that Mullen Lintas has been able to assemble in such a short time. With this kind of firepower at the start, this team has the weight-class to rival the biggest and the best. I look forward to cutting our teeth into briefs, and creating some great work together.â€
Ekta Relan
Ekta Relan has been appointed Senior VP & Planning Head – National Brands. Based in Mumbai, Ekta’s mandate would include leading the strategic planning function across offices and brands for the agency.
Ekta has spent more than 15 years in the insights and ideas business. Prior to Mullen Lintas, she was with Sapient Nitro Singapore for about 2 years, Unilever (India & Singapore) for 7 years and Lowe Lintas for 5 years. During her career, she has handled a rich portfolio of brands like Fair & Lovely, Pepsodent, Clear, Moet, Lux, Paddle Pop, Health Promotion Board Singapore, Continental foods, MetLife and Eu Yan Sang.
Garima Khandelwal
Leading the Creative Art function for Mullen Lintas would be Garima Khandelwal who has been appointed Executive Creative Director. Garima would be based in Mumbai and would drive the creative function on core brands for the agency.
In her last role, Garima was the Group Creative Director at Lowe Lintas where she worked for 5 years lending her creative expertise to a diverse client set across product categories. She has spent a total of 15 years in advertising and began her career with Ogilvy in Delhi. From there she briefly migrated to Prague where she worked for Leagas Delaney, on the Skoda account for the European market. Some of the clients that she has been associated with include Suzlon Pals, Tata Tea (Kala Teeka), Axe (Boat Party), Liva, etc.
Syed Amjad Ali
The business mandate for the Delhi office would be led by Syed Amjad Ali, who has been appointed Executive Director. Amjad moves into this role from Lowe Lintas Delhi, where he spent 20 years in multiple business leadership roles managing large client portfolios across product categories.
Amjad has led the business mandate for a host of clients including Maruti Suzuki, Olx, Havells, Micromax, Hero Motors, Dabur, Expedia, LG Electronics, Greenply, Woodland, ABP etc. Under his leadership, brands have benefited through highly effective advertising and won many effectiveness awards.
Ayyappan Raj
The business mandate in Mumbai would be led by Ayyappan Raj who assumes the role of Executive Vice President. With this new role, Ayyappan moves to Mumbai from Bangalore, where he was heading a unit for Lowe Lintas.
Ayyappan has spent the last eighteen years in advertising handling business for Chennai and Bangalore markets across a host of agencies including Ogilvy, Lowe Lintas and McCann Erickson. With the ability to break down any complex problem to the simplest solution possible, Ayyappan has offered effective solutions to a host of clients spanning different industries like Automobiles, Personal Care, Food & Beverages, Telecom, Insurance and Technology. Few prominent clients that Ayyappan has worked on include Saint-Gobain, Vodafone, TVS Motors, Britannia, MetLife, Tata Tea, ITC Foods etc.
Kishore Subramanian
The Bangalore business for Mullen Lintas will be driven by Kishore Subramanian who assumes the role of Executive Vice President. In his last role, he was Head of Karishma Lintas in Bangalore.
Kishore is a finance professional who accidentally walked into advertising about 19 years ago. After learning the ropes in Grey, he moved on to Lowe Lintas where over a period of twelve years across Mumbai and Bangalore, he worked on exciting brands like Sonata, Tanishq, Fastrack, Kissan, and Britannia both as an account person and a strategic planner. He followed it with a short crash course in Japanese work ethic, cars (Toyota) and culture at Dentsu where he headed the Bangalore operations. From there he moved to JWT, in a strategic planning role, and worked across both the Delhi & Mumbai offices on the GSK and Godrej business.
Welcoming the new team on board, Virat Tandon, CEO – Mullen Lintas said, “This is a dream team to start off with. Between them, they have shaped the biggest and the best brands in the country and internationally. With this formidable team, we offer clients, caliber that is second to none. We can’t wait to get going and showcase our prowess as the new creative startup to watch out for.â€
