MxMIndia

Category: ADVERTISING

  • Gaurav brings more than 20 years of HR leadership experience to Millward Brown

    Gaurav Hirey appointed Chief HR Officer for Africa, Middle East and APAC region at Millward Brown

    By A Correspondent

     

    Millward Brown, a world leader in brand, digital and communication research announced the appointment of Gaurav Hirey as Chief Human Resource Officer for its Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific region.

     

    Gaurav brings more than 20 years of HR leadership experience to Millward Brown. Previously, he spent seven years with WPP’s GroupM, most recently as Executive Board member and Chief Talent Officer, South Asia. Before that, Gaurav was regional Chief Talent Officer for Maxus Asia Pacific and, earlier, Head of Human Resource for GroupM South Asia.

     

    Gaurav is credited with establishing a thriving value-added HR function at GroupM South Asia and has helped drive various path breaking talent initiatives which earned GroupM India the titles of the “Dream Employer in Media” and the “Best Employer Brand in the Media and Entertainment Industry” in India. He was also a part of the core team which created the Maxus PACE behaviours that have now been adopted globally by Maxus. Gaurav was awarded the HR Leadership and HR Achiever of the Year award at the World HRD Congress this year in February 2015.

     

    Adrian Gonzalez, CEO of Millward Brown Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific, said, “I am delighted to be working with Gaurav. He has a superb talent leadership pedigree with WPP and will add greatly to our development as we support our clients through a period of immense change.”

     

    Gaurav Hirey

    Commenting on his appointment, Gaurav said, “These are interesting transformational times for the brand and communications industry. I am honoured to join a hugely credible organisation with an equally inspiring and passionate leadership team. I look forward to working with Millward Brown to help add value to our clients and employees.”

     

    Gaurav is passionate about helping children and was the chief sponsor for GroupM India’s corporate responsibility initiative, Lighting the Sparks. The program provides education, health facilities and support to the economically challenged children in the country. Lighting the Sparks has touched more than 10,000 children in India over the past six years and is now part of WPP’s CSR initiative and will continue helping children in need.

     

    Gaurav’s appointment commences on 1st November and he will be based in Singapore.

     

  • During his tenure as Group CEO in India, Joe has led the agency to huge success within India, across the APAC region and on a global stage

    Mullen Lowe Lintas India’s Joseph George takes on additional South & Southeast Asia duties

    By A Correspondent

     

    Lowe veteran, Joseph (Joe) George, currently Group CEO of the Mullen Lowe Lintas Group in India, adds South & Southeast Asia responsibilities to his current remit. The appointment is effective immediately, and Joe will report to Alex Leikikh, Global CEO, Mullen Lowe Group.

     

    Joe has been with the Lowe network for 24 years – joining Lintas Mumbai in 1991 and spending the next 15 years between the Mumbai and Bangalore offices. Joe took over as the head of the Unilever business in 2006, and successfully led the growth of that business and a few specialist marketing services divisions until his appointment as Deputy CEO in June 2010, and subsequently as CEO in January 2011.

     

    During his tenure as Group CEO in India, Joe has led the agency to huge success within India, across the APAC region and on a global stage. On marketing effectiveness, Mullen Lowe Lintas Group has won over 50 major awards in the last year alone, including being ranked the Most Effective Agency in India and APAC according to the Effie Effectiveness Index 2015, named APAC Agency of the Year at AMES and Tambuli Awards, and winning India’s only Creative Effectiveness Grand Prix at Spikes Asia.

     

    Alex Leikikh, Global CEO, Mullen Lowe Group, commented on the appointment: “Joe is exactly the leader we need as part of our hugely dynamic Asia operation – he is a seasoned professional with a proven track record of growth. A key component of his role will focus on tapping into the resources of the robust India operation that he has built up in order to develop our hyperbundled offering across the Southeast Asia markets.”

     

    Joe added: “I’m absolutely thrilled by the challenge of taking on an additional leadership role within the APAC region for the Mullen Lowe Group. Having worked within the network for over two decades, I clearly love the spirit: distinctive, entrepreneurial, collaborative and creative.”

     

  • More on the five special prize-winning strategies at last week's Warc Asian Strategy Awards

    No ‘ullu banaoing’, only strategy

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    It’s been India Shining on the strategy front in Asia. Last week, Mullen Lowe Lintas India had a great showing at the recent Warc Prize for Asian Strategy awards. While it picked up the 2015 Grand Prix, the grand prize and a Gold for its Idea Cellular campaign, ‘No Ullu Banoing’, it also got the Local Hero Special Award and a Silver for its Havells’ campaign, ‘A Woman is not a Home Appliance’, and a Bronze for Tata Tea’s ‘From Packaged Good to Packaging Good’.

     

    The Warc Prize celebrates the best in strategic marketing in Asia, and entries are judged on the quality of strategic thinking and the results they deliver. The Grand Prix comes with a cash prize of $5,000.

     

    More than 135 campaigns from across the region entered this year’s competition, with half of the 39 shortlisted entries coming from India. They were judged by a panel of senior marketers and agency-side strategy experts, chaired by BV Pradeep, Unilever’s global vice-president of consumer and market insight.

     

    Apart from the Mullen Lowe Lintas Group, BBDO India also picked up the Asia First Special Award and a Gold for its ‘Touch the Pickle’ spot for Whisper and McCann Worldgroup got a Silver for its Government of India campaign relating to Voluntary Compliance Encouragement Scheme, entitled ‘A Crash Course in Recovering Taxes from Stubborn Defaulters’.

     

    “Idea Cellular’s campaign was outstanding because it was based on a powerful and universal cultural insight that worked across the whole of India, across urban and rural populations and across socio-economic classes,” Pradeep said in a statement. “The strategy expanded the market, strengthened brand equity and drove growth of sales revenues. To achieve all three deliverables with one campaign was really amazing.”  Other than the five special cash awards, 17 campaigns from across the region picked up gold, silver and bronze awards at the prize event held in Mumbai, at an evening hosted by DDB Mudra Group.

     

    Idea Cellular: The ‘fool-proof’ internet service

    (Mullen Lowe Lintas Group India / Aditya Birla Group / India)

    Grand Prix

     

    This case study shows how Idea, an Indian telecom company, made the mobile Internet more popular with a humorous campaign.

    • The mobile internet category in India faces the barriers of price and relevance, with many telecoms attempting to increase usage through discount trial packs, but many users still not seeing mobile data as relevant to their lives.
    • The campaign strategy tapped into the unsavoury, seamier side of the country, where being economical with the truth in order to scam others is popular.
    • Hence the creative execution suggested that using the mobile Internet made people less likely to be ‘made a fool of’.
    • The campaign used TV, print, radio and out of home ads, along with social media.
    • Then the rate of growth of data subscribers for Idea was nearly twice the rate of growth of data subscribers for Airtel, a rival telecom

     

    Government of People’s Republic of Bangladesh: Anti-urinal campaign ‘language matters’

    (Grey Advertising Bangladesh / Ministry of Religious Affairs Bangladesh / Bangladesh)

    Market Pioneer Special Award

     

    This case study discusses a campaign from the Bangladeshi government that tackled the problem of public urination by encouraging behavioural change.

    • The challenge was that 20% of the residents of Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital city, are pedestrian commuters, with many of the men urinating on the way to and from work.
    • The campaign strategy was based on a cultural insight: as people in the Muslim majority nation respected ‘holy’ things the anti-urinal messages, previously written in Bangla, were replaced with Arabic messages with directions to the nearest mosque and public toilet.
    • The campaign purely relied on the outdoor signs and did not use TV or print, however it was covered by both online and print newspapers, earning free PR.
    • Utilisation of public toilets in mosques rose by 50% during the campaign period.

     

    Visa: Get Lost Challenge

    (BBDO China; Proximity China; OMD China / Visa China / China)

    Research Excellence Special Award

     

    This case study describes how Visa China appealed to the new generation of Chinese travellers to encourage the use of its credit cards on their trips abroad.

    • Visa faced an uphill struggle, because China UnionPay, the Chinese government-owned payment system, holds 80% market share of outbound transactions by Chinese tourists.
    • First, Visa identified a new target group of travellers who, while abroad, preferred to explore less obvious landmarks away from the big Chinese tourist groups.
    • Then, with its ‘Get Lost Challenge’, the credit card issuer encouraged them to take more chances, but with a Visa card in their pocket.
    • Visa used video, print and online media to spread the message and drive consumers to its website.
    • The Visa Get Lost Challenge reached 9 million people, or about 10% of Chinese overseas travellers, becoming Visa’s most successful China campaign ever.

     

    MasterCard: The Priceless Engine

    (TBWA\Digital Arts Network, Carat / MasterCard / Singapore)

    Channel Thinking Special Award

     

    This case study describes how MasterCard, the second largest credit card brand, launched a marketing platform that generated business from social media in Asia Pacific.

    • MasterCard is considered the second largest credit card brand in Asia Pacific after Visa, but Visa outspends MasterCard four-to-one on marketing.
    • MasterCard launched The Priceless Engine: an innovative marketing platform that turns big data into usable data, and provides its partners with deeper insights, allowing them to deliver the right offers and messages to the right people at the right time.
    • The Priceless Engine powered MasterCard’s ‘New Year’s Eve’ campaign, featuring Hugh Jackman, across six markets; it encouraged people to share who they would want to spend their New Year’s Eve with and why, providing MasterCard with valuable data and insights.
    • This campaign resulted in never-before-seen business results for MasterCard, turning social media into an actual business-generating channel.

     

    Havells: A woman is not a home appliance

    (Mullen Lowe Lintas Group India / Havells India / India)

    Local Hero Special Award

     

    This case study describes how Havells, one of India’s most respected electrical products companies, launched and executed a communications campaign aimed at Indian (female) homemakers in order to increase consideration and raise sales of its home appliances.

    • The task was made difficult by the buyers’ set shopping habits: buy a reputed brand, and preferably the one they already had a good experience with.
    • In order to break into this market, Havells, a newcomer, ran a campaign on TV and online that broke away with an image of a woman tied to her kitchen and her home appliances so she could take better care of her husband.
    • Havells unequivocally said “the woman is not an appliance” and it will foremost “respect the woman”.
    • The company managed to hit all its objectives, including increased consideration scores and a +150% sales increase six months after the launch of the campaign.

     

    Content strategy summaries source: Warc.com

     

  • BBDO India CEO Ajai Jhala on how the best technology brands create stories that are salient and simple

    3 reasons Tech Brands should keep it Simple

     

    By Ajai Jhala

     

    Albert Einstein famously said that the wire telegraph ‘is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles’. Radio operates in exactly the same way: You send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat.

    A memorable and simple story by one of the greatest scientists of all time, explains a technology of an earlier time. Today, so many decades later, there are still compelling reasons for technology brands to keep the message simple when communicating on TV. This has to do with three primary things – the nature of TV, the nature of people and the nature of brands.

    1. A plug-in drug

    TV is essentially a low-involvement medium which is best for story showing. That is why it has often been referred to as a ‘plug-in drug’. Television is about lean-back entertainment and works really well when information is delivered emotionally, and the absorption of it is implicit rather than explicit. The beauty is that emotions are so important for our survival and well-being, that they work best when we are in a low-involvement mode.

    2. Irrational rationalisers

    People are fundamentally emotional beings. We are not so much rational but rationalisers. We have been referred to as cognitive misers. Processing information is very exhausting and consumes a lot of our energy. That is why humans are hardwired for storytelling and not for data retention. We love to hear stories, not a recitation of a laundry list of specifications and features.

    3. Nature of Brands

    Brands are like leaky buckets, constantly having to recruit more people than they lose. Most consumers are promiscuous and are always shifting between a shortlist of brands. As heretical as it sounds, recent research demonstrates conclusively that differentiation matters less than standing out in a compelling way. Therefore, brands have to create salience in a manner that can incite feelings by owning a simple and powerful theme that is constantly refreshed with new TVCs.

    These three reasons, based on the nature of the medium, people and their relationship with brands, is why the best technology brands create stories that are salient and simple. The next time someone is crafting a TVC for a technology brand, it might be worth reflecting on something else Einstein said: “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler”.

     

    Ajai Jhala is CEO at BBDO India

    This article first appeared in dna of brands dated November 2, 2015

     

  • Within two months of launch, the app has already gathered over 2 million users and continues to grow rapidly

    Mindshare bags the media mandate for Byju’s Classes

    By A Correspondent

     

    Mindshare has been appointed the media partner for Byju’s – The Learning App. This account will be handled out of the Mumbai office.

     

    Byju’s – is India’s largest education technology company and a subsidiary brand of Think and Learn Pvt. Ltd. It was founded by Byju Raveendran and is backed by Sequoia Capital and Dr. Ranjan Pai and T.V. Mohandas Pai of Manipal Group. Byju’s – The Learning app is disrupting the way millions of students learn across School Education and Test Prep. Within two months of launch, the app has already gathered over 2 million users and continues to grow rapidly.

     

    Prasanth Kumar

    Commenting on the win, Prasanth Kumar, CEO, Mindshare South Asia said, “We are extremely glad to associate with Byju’s Classes. With the growth seen in the digital industry, we are channelizing our services and talent towards frameworks and tools that include adaptive and real- time marketing, giving our clients the edge in an ever-evolving media market.”

     

    Byju Raveendran, Founder CEO said, “Mindshare demonstrated their ability to transform consumer understanding in to a strategic vision for the brand and bringing it alive through their original thinking framework. This partnership with Mindshare will definitely be a positive one and we look forward to building Think and Learn as the largest online education institution”.

     

  • HolidayIQ is India's largest travel community and holidays recommendation engine powered by user-generated content

    HolidayIQ appoints Happy Creative its creative partner

    By A Correspondent

     

    Bangalore based Happy Creative Services has notched up the communication mandate for online travel community HolidayIQ.

     

    This win comes close to the agency’s recent announcements of winning the creative and digital mandates for hyper local discovery platform LookUp.to and the amusement park brand Wonder la.

     

    HolidayIQ is India’s largest travel community and holidays recommendation engine powered by user-generated content. Travel information is generated through varied forms of content including reviews, photographs, videos and interactive travel forums, connecting travellers to each other and to hoteliers, tour operators and online travel agents.

     

    Diptakirti Chaudhuri

    Commenting on the creative partnership, Diptakirti Chaudhuri, CMO at HolidayIQ said, “Holidays are a happy – pun intended – experience and HolidayIQ is in the business of making them perfect. We plan to communicate our offering – holiday reviews, information and options – to a large number of Indian travellers and be the first stop in their holiday planning. We are looking forward to working with Happy Creative Services, a creative powerhouse known for their stellar creds in building digital brands.”

     

    Kartik Iyer

    On the association with HoiidayIQ, Kartik Iyer, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer said, “Creating a category is always fun and exciting. HolidayIQ has been in this business, that too ahead of its time in India. Now it’s our job to take the magic of the brand to its consumers. The travel and holiday category is growing year on year, pushing the importance of holidaying for every kind of consumer. Unearthing the little joys of all trips, no matter how big or small, is at the core of it all. We look forward to creating some great work on the brand.”

     

    Praveen Das

    On adding the HolidayIQ brand to their portfolio, Praveen Das, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer, said, “As an integrated agency, we understand business objectives and match it with creative output across media. We have a young team with a proven record of building technology brands. We are excited to partner with Holiday IQ and create clutter breaking communication that not only resonates with viewers but inspires them to go on a holiday.”

     

  • His primary mandate will be to step up the creative standard of the agency that handles the account of South Korean conglomerate Samsung, one of the biggest advertisers in India

    Sagar Mahabaleshwarkar to join Cheil as creative head

    By Pritha Mitra Dasgupta

     

    Sagar Mahabaleshwarkar, Singapore-based executive creative director of network startup Bates CHI & Partners, is returning to India as chief creative officer of advertising agency Cheil.

     

    His primary mandate will be to step up the creative standard of the agency that handles the account of South Korean conglomerate Samsung, one of the biggest advertisers in India.

     

    Mahabaleshwarkar, who will join the agency on December 1, will report to Shiv Sethuraman, group president of Cheil South-West Asia and will be based out of Delhi. “I always wanted to spend a year or so in the region to get the new experience before moving on from Bates,” said Mahabaleshwarkar, the former chief creative officer of Bates India. He relocated to Singapore about 10 months ago and took over the regional role which entailed looking at the creative work of Bates in China, Myanmar, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia.

     

    “Your mind opens in a different way when you work at the regional level. Each market is different and has separate challenges,” said Mahabaleshwarkar, who created the ad campaign for Tata Safari during his stint with Ogilvy & Mather.

     

    Mahabaleshwarkar started his career as a designer with Design Core India in 1990. In 1992 he joined O&M as senior group creative director. After a 15-year long stint he moved to Rediffusion Y&R in 2007 and joined Bates in 2010. He has won several awards including Cannes Lions (Gold, Silver & Bronze), One Show, Clio, D&AD, Abbys, Effies and the Yahoo Big Idea Chair.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2015, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

    Licensed to republish

     

  • The move will redefine the company's brand purpose in line with its ambition and in keeping with changing market landscape and incredible opportunities in its field of operation

    Leo Burnett partners Sterlite Technologies

    By A Correspondent

     

    Sterlite Technologies Limited, a leading provider of solutions for high speed data and power transmission networks, has announced its association with Leo Burnett India to redefine the company’s brand purpose in line with its ambition and in keeping with changing market landscape and incredible opportunities in its field of operation.

     

    Sterlite Technologies recently completed the 100 per cent acquisition of Elitecore Technologies, a global telecom software product company in a bid to widen its telecom portfolio of offering to global customers. The company is enriching its solution offerings along with increasing its global presence at a quick pace and the need to communicate what it stands for is of vital importance.

     

    Commenting on the decision to partner Leo Burnett India, Dr Anand Agarwal, Chief Executive Officer, Sterlite Technologies, said, “In line with our current organizational demerger, we wish to redefine our core purpose and communicate clearly what we do, and how we make a difference in the life of every one who is connected to us. It is with this belief we have appointed Leo Burnett, which has a rich history of defining the purpose for many great brands and helping them grow in complex business scenarios. They will help us re-define and disseminate our purpose amongst our employees and other stakeholders, thus laying a robust foundation for future growth.”

     

    Saurabh Varma, Chief Executive Officer, Leo Burnett India, added, “We are witnessing a tremendous change on a global and socioeconomic landscape, thanks to the evolution of Internet and a greater degree of connectivity. The services provided by Sterlite are at the very core of this spurt, impacting positively at micro and macro levels. It is very exciting to partner a company that is playing a key role in the changing dynamics of technology in our lives. We will deploy our HumanKind tools to re-define Sterlite’s human purpose and help create a sustainable brand identity amongst the company’s stake holders. We hope our rich experience in this field will eventually prove to be of great value to the organisation.”

     

  • He will be bringing in fresh perspectives for the agency in areas such as content, social, experiential, and overall creative output

    BC Web Wise appoints Alabhya Vaibhav as Creative Director

    By A Correspondent

     

    BC Web Wise, the full-service digital agency, has appointed Alabhya Vaibhav as Creative Director, based out of Mumbai. The agency is strengthening its teams in Mumbai and Delhi by bringing new talent on board to reinforce its core offerings in digital marketing and creative content.

     

    Alabhya’s primary role will be to bring his traditional agency learnings on board and work together with the creative team at BC Web Wise to think bigger, think new and up the creative quotient. He will be bringing in fresh perspectives for the agency in areas such as content, social, experiential, and overall creative output.

     

    Commenting on the appointment, Chaaya Baaradhwaaj, Founder-MD, BC Web Wise said, “Digital is not a niche medium anymore and there are clients who are doing exclusive digital advertising today. Adding to this is that we are delivering a lot of broadcast and video content for clients. Alabhya has the perfect mix of creativity and strategic outlook that aligns with our focus.”

     

    Mangesh Bhayde, Creative Director – Art, BC Web Wise said, “Alabhya brings extensive mainstream experience to the table. He’ll have a huge impact on driving excellence and diversity of our output.”

     

    Speaking about his new role, Alabhya commented, “Digital has always inspired me. This is a great opportunity to bring my passion to a medium that thrives on innovation and interactivity. Digital is more important today than ever, and I hope I can use my experience to help the team meet the raging demand for creativity and content day in and day out.”

     

    Alabhya’s portfolio spans creative work for clients like Vodafone, Samsung Mobiles, Honda, Gujarat Tourism, and Indian Airlines. He is armed with 13 years of experience and his past stints include Ushak Kaal Communications where he started his career, and later jaunts at R K Swamy BBDO, DDB Mudra, Dentsu Marcom, and Cheil Worldwide. He moves to BC Web Wise from Ogilvy & Mather where he was Associate Creative Director.

     

  • Singapore based Crayon Data joins Mindshare and industry leaders GroupM, Kantar, WPP Data Alliance and Jivox to create revolutionary, real-time marketing solutions

    Mindshare chooses Crayon Data to unveil FAST

    By A Correspondent

     

    In 2014, Crayon Data, one of the most innovative big data start-ups in the world, entered into a partnership with Mindshare to develop real time targeting solutions. Mindshare and Crayon brought together formidable synergies. They incorporated Crayon’s SimplerChoicesTM platform and algorithm based ad-targeting and personalization capabilities and Mindshare’s marketing ability, to form a single proposition to clients. The vision was to work together to build new products effectively integrating Mindshare’s digital assets and data into Crayon’s SimplerChoicesTM platform to build innovative products.

     

    Last week, this partnership bore fruit with the launch of FAST (Future Adaptive Specialist Team) Services - a unique solution suite, which aims to provide data led adaptive marketing services to brands. This suite will help brands make sense of the deluge of data that is engulfing marketing communications.

     

    “Marketers are drowning in data, struggling with how to best exploit it, to connect with consumers in mutually desirable ways,” said Gowthaman Ragothaman, Chief Operating Officer, Mindshare Asia Pacific.

     

    An enterprise’s internal data is not sufficient to understand how consumers’ tastes are evolving and what is relevant at the moment. Crayon Data’s proprietary platform, SimplerChoicesTM, harnesses the power of big data and uses complex machine-learning techniques, to apply cognitive thinking algorithms to collected data. This provides a lethal storehouse of information and insights for FAST.

     

    The launch of FAST in Singapore, is a response to the growing demand in emerging markets for data-led marketing initiatives.

     

    Suresh Shankar, founder of Crayon Data, said, “Media, analytics and behaviour is all going digital, and choices are proliferating, in every aspect of our life from media to daily decisions. Combining Mindshare’s proprietary data and research with Crayon’s data collection and analytical capability means even greater adaptive solutions for marketers. With Crayon, FAST has the ability to build real-time profiles and personalised engagement solutions for enterprises to offer to their consumers. There’s a data storm coming. FAST is every marketer’s bunker to weather it.”

     

    FAST’s solutions currently target five vertical market segments: consumer packaged goods (CPG), banking, consumer healthcare, telecommunications and automotive.

     

  • Global unit to help clients capitalize on opportunities as digital transforms commerce

    Mindshare rolls out Shop+

    By A Correspondent

     

    Mindshare has rolled out Shop+, a unit dedicated to helping clients leverage real time data to apply adaptive marketing techniques to both in-store and online shopping.

     

    Shop+ covers all forms of commerce, from exploring beacons in physical stores to the latest adaptive pricing and promotion technologies being used by online retailers.

     

    Joe Migliozzi, MD, Mindshare North America, is global lead for Shop+ with support from Emma-Jane Steele and Charlotte Day-Lewin in the worldwide team based in London and Narayan Ivaturi in APAC. Combined the global Shop+ team is 12 people strong.

     

    Shop+ launches with the following partnerships, with more to be added in the coming months:

    • Checkout 51, a mobile coupon app for shoppers
    • InMarket, the world’s largest beacon proximity, location intelligence and mobile shopper marketing platform, reaching over 36MM beacon-enabled app users per month in every major U.S. retail location.
    • Footmarks, a leading enterprise awareness (beacons) platform provider

     

    Norm Johnston, Chief Digital and Strategy Officer, Mindshare Worldwide, said: “We are at the beginning of a third wave in digital marketing, with exponential growth in new data sources and technology, which is why we recently launched Life+ to help brands explore their role in the emerging Internet of Things. These same dramatic changes are happening in retail, and we intend to help our clients be at the forefront of digital and data innovation in both offline and online shopping.”

     

    Joe Migliozzi, Shop+ Leader at Mindshare said: “Digital technology continues to dramatically change retail, from online to mobile to in-store. Despite all these separate evolving channels, the consumer doesn’t see a distinction between online and offline shopping. It is one experience and brands must integrate all brand and shopper media across all channels to communicate a strong and consistent message from awareness all the way to conversion.”

     

  • He would oversee creative strategy and design for brands

    LinTeractive appoints Parag Shahane as Unit Creative Director

    By A Correspondent

     

    LinTeractive, the digital arm of the Mullen Lowe Lintas Group India, has announced the appointment of Parag Shahane as Unit Creative Director. Parag has joined the team effective October 2015 and will report into Vikas Mehta, Group CMO | President, Group Marketing Services.

     

    At LinTeractive, Parag’s remit would be to provide creative answers to clients who are seeking cutting-edge digital solutions for their brands. He would oversee creative strategy and design for brands.

     

    LinTeractive has been witnessing promising growth in recent months with a host of clients making a beeline to lap up digital solutions being offered by the firm. With more than 25 clients in its fold including heavyweights like Woodland, Dr Agarwal’s Eye Hospital, Godrej, Karvy, Dabur etc LinTeractive is looked upon as a preferred agency for brands that’re looking for fresh and innovative online & offline ideas to achieve their stated objective.

     

    Welcoming Parag onboard the team, Vikas Mehta said: “Since its reboot last year, LinTeractive has seen growth on all fronts – business, brands and clients. To sustain this momentum, it’s imperative for us to keep adding more fire-power to our digital ambitions. We’re thrilled to welcome Parag on board. His upbringing in Lintas, coupled with his more recent successes in other digital companies will come in handy towards fulfilling our objective of mainlining digital.”

     

    A former Lowe Lintas hand, Parag joins LinTeractive from Pinstorm where he held the post of VP – Creative. Prior to Pinstorm, Parag has played senior roles in agencies like Y&R, Mudra, JWT Colombo and FCB Ulka.

     

    Commenting on his appointment, Parag said, “Lowe Lintas is not just an advertising agency, it is looked upon as an institute of communication in this country. As a proud product of this institute, I am honoured to be a part of LinTeractive. Of late, digital has been adding new dimensions and has been at the forefront of creating new eco-systems for brands. Building great brands and creating more meaningful conversations around the brand, through new-age media and technology will be our mantra. In the constantly changing dynamic world of digital, the focus will be on smartly dividing challenge and opportunity to create magic around brands.”

     

    In his entire career span, Parag has been instrumental in providing creative throughput and strategy to more than 50 brands across the sectors of FMCG, Automobiles, Media, Hotels & hospitality, Banking & Insurance, Fashion, Entertainment, Pharmaceutical etc.

     

    Parag’s immense talent has resulted in him bagging a host of creative & effectiveness awards, both in India and overseas.