MxMIndia

Category: ADVERTISING

  • MAAS Xtend would offer advertisers a simple 5-step process to configure and manage their campaigns

    Affle launches mobile advertising Self Serve platform – ‘MAAS Xtend’

    By A Correspondent

     

    Affle announced the global launch of its mobile advertising Self Serve platform titled ‘MAAS Xtend’. Mobile Advertising platforms have traditionally been offering managed services targeting large enterprises. However, with the rapid growth in the Mobile App economy a completely new category of advertisers have emerged who would much rather work with Self Serve platforms on which they can manage and be in full control of their campaigns. MAAS Xtendwhich is an extension of Affle’s Mobile Audience As a Service (MAAS) platform, would thus cater to this market and offer advertisers complete automation and optimization controls to maximize ROI on their mobile spends.

     

    With several top programmatic and direct supply sources already integrated, MAAS Xtend would offer advertisers a simple 5-step process to configure and manage their campaigns. Campaign managers can thus set up and manage global campaigns with precise targeting & defined KPI metrics in a matter of a fewminutes on this platform. MAAS Xtend would soon also integrate with other MAAS platform modules like OptiSense6 and AffleAttribution SDK to offer an integrated automated suite to manage all mobile advertising procurement, attribution and ROI optimizations.

     

    Commenting on this launch, Anuj Khanna Sohum, Founder, CEO and Chairman, Affle said “Affle has always been in the forefront for developing a mobile market ecosystem that fosters greater transparency, control and optimization opportunities for marketers. We launched our OptiSense 6 platform last month, which catered to the Enterprise users who would use our Managed Services offerings. The current launch of MAAS Xtend is targeted to App marketers who well understand the nuances of the mobile eco-system and prefer to manage their campaigns over an integrated Self Serve platform like ours. We are looking forward to MAAS Xtend getting massive adoption amongst App marketers in India and across the world.  We have today rolled out an Invite Only program for this platform and intend to make it available to all our partners by early next year.”

     

    The MAAS Xtend launch is part of Affle’s overall strategy of redefining the mobile media business to move towards greater software automation with audience intelligence being at the core, which drives ROI for campaigns across all supply sources through a unified integrated platform.

     

  • Maulshree would be reporting to Rabe Iyer, MD, Motivator

    Motivator appoints Maulshree Joshi as NCD

    By A Correspondent

     

    Motivator has appointed Maulshree Joshi as the National Creative Director. Maulshree has been with GroupM since Nov’07 and has had an exemplary journey, contributing to building the content practice agnostic of media.

     

    Maulshree would be reporting to Rabe Iyer, MD, Motivator. She will work closely with business teams and senior client leads.

     

    Speaking on the new development, Rabe Iyer, MD, Motivator said, “Maulshree comes in with a unique advantage of creative craft and a decade of experience, working with planners, traders, media owners, creative artists, directors, visualisers, digital communication planners, mobile specialists, CRM experts and expert data analytics personnel in the top agency network of India. Our endeavour is to consistently execute creatively, ideas for our brands on the back of our data centricity and globally backed grasp of the emerging digital world; Maulshree is best poised to contribute to it.”

     

    Motivator has been one of the fastest growing agency in India on the back of integrating multiple disciplines and practices. The agency’s current client base includes Havells, Honda Cars, Redington and Ingram, Himalaya Consumer Division, Ola Cabs, Essilor, Yamaha, LIC, Hungama.com, Bajaj Finserv, Kalyan Jewellers, Pepperfry.com and Hike Messenger.

     

  • The objective is to enhance brand relevance with the younger audience to be able to drive the next phase of growth for Celerio

    Dentsu creates new campaign for Maruti Suzuki Celerio

    By A Correspondent

     

    Taking cues from the brand positioning ‘Life takes a leap’, Maruti Suzuki Celerio has launched a new campaign ‘Aajkezamaneyki leap’ that celebrates the progressive mindset of the many owners of Celerio and highlights how Celerio is a progressive car.

     

    The objectiveisto enhance brand relevance with the younger audience to be able to drive the next phase of growth for Celerio.

     

    With a strong product connect and India’s first Auto Gear Shift, Maruti Suzuki Celerio has successfully met its brand promise of ‘Life takes a leap’. Moving forward, it becomes imperative to create brand differentiation and strengthen the brand connect. The approach was to revisit the positioning ‘Life takes a leap’ itself in order to explore different ways in which ‘progressive’ could be interpreted. Different aspects of progressiveness were explored to be able to identify progression which best describes a leap in mindset.

     

    The core idea behind the films was to communicate the brand message in a way that the audience could relate to.  Hence, the essence of all the three 30 second films is the same, and uses every day scenarios to establish the progressive mindset of the Celerio owner. In the Lesson film, it is the wife who is tutoring her husband on how to use the Auto Gear Shift. The Cricket film, a special film developed for the sports season showcases how a young girl defeats her twin brother in a game of cricket. The third film in the series has been developed especially for the Southern region and is built around an unusual family where the parents are seen partying till late while a young couple is waiting for them outside. All the films in the series help to establish the thought that Maruti Suzuki Celerio helps you take a modern day leap.

     

    R S Kalsi

    R S Kalsi, Executive Director, Marketing and Sales, Maruti Suzuki India said, “Celerio has been a game changer for Maruti Suzuki. With its unmatched style, best-in-class cabin space, exciting gizmos, best- in-class mileagecoupled with the revolutionary Auto Gear Shift,Celerio lives up to its brand promise of ‘Life takes a leap’ in the life of the consumer. From the first to launch the AGS (Automatic Gear Shift) andsuper-compact diesel engine technology in passenger cars, it has been creating a delight for the progressive Indian. With this we propose to strengthen brand Celerio’sconnect with younger audiences.”

     

    Sumitra Sengupta, Executive Creative Director:“We wanted our Celerio owners to exemplify real people taking small leaps in thought, action and tolerance every day and all that – in a light-hearted manner. That’s what the entire creative team set out to do and achieved it without being preachy!”

     

  • A survey by Breakthrough showed that 90 percent of women and girls have experienced sexual harassment once in their lifetime

    Breakthrough gets mothers to educate sons on evident social evil

    By A Correspondent

     

    Every woman deals with sexual harassment in varying degrees in her day to day life. A survey by Breakthrough showed that 90 percent of women and girls have experienced sexual harassment once in their lifetime.

     

    For the most part, young boys and men are unaware of what actually constitutes sexual harassment. Many of their actions that are ‘fun’ to them can actually be categorised as harassment.  Worse still, their actions are justified by friends, family and community with a dismissive statement – “boys will be boys”. This attitude had to change, if we had to root out this evil from Indian society.

     

    Zenobia Pithawalla – Executive Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather said: “The task at hand was to go beyond creating awareness. Society needed a solution. To talk to these young men, we decided to partner with the greatest influencers in their lives – their mothers. It was important for every son to realise even his mother is not spared. So we invited mothers to share their sexual harassment stories with their sons. In the hope that every son will do his bit to ensure what happened to his mother doesn’t happen to another woman.”

     

    Sonali Khan – Country Director, Breakthrough said: “When Zen and her team presented creative ideas this one stood out. Conversations about sexual harassment don’t happen within Indian families. I have a 19 year old son and I asked myself, ‘did I ever have such a conversation with him’? If a parent has such a conversation what will be the impact? Also do boys understand the incidences they call ‘small’ can gravely impact a girl’s life?  Changing the way you think about harassment is key. And this communication tries to do that. Nothing is trivial.”

     

  • Sikroria has been part of the core team that has helped shape BBDO India's philosophy of 'Create Acts and not Ads.'

    Rajesh Sikroria is BBDO President

    By A Correspondent

     

    BBDO India has promoted Rajesh Sikroria, formally EVP BBDO India to President BBDO India, effective immediately.

     

    Working alongside Josy Paul, BBDO India Chairman and CCO, and Ajai Jhala, BBDO India CEO, Sikroria has been part of the core team that has helped shape BBDO India’s philosophy of ‘Create Acts and not Ads.’

     

    Ajai Jhala, CEO BBDO India, said of Sikroria’s promotion: ” We built BBDO from scratch 7 years ago starting with 7 UP. Rajesh has grown from being the first employee to President of BBDO India by leading from the front and growing into one of the industry’s best all-rounders with an ability to move fluidly between business, strategy and creative. Josy Paul and I are delighted to have him as a partner as we continue to create big ideas for big brands on big themes like gender equality through the lens of social movements.”
    “Rajesh was with us when we set up BBDO India from the back seat of my car. He knows what it takes to create a culture that nurtures, grows and influences. He is a leader, builder and maker of better work. He is the best of the best.” says Josy Paul, Chairman & Chief Creative Officer, BBDO India, about Sikroria.

     

    Says Sikroria, President: “2015 has been a phenomenal year for us, we have set the bar really high. Going forward, the challenge is to outdo ourselves. In my new national role, I am looking forward to work with more brands and scaling newer heights with our mantra of creating acts not ads”.

     

  • STORM Regionalization Platform Wins 2015 Innovative Project Award

    Amagi bags ASBU BroadcastPro Middle East Award

    By A Correspondent

     

    Amagi has won the ASBU BroadcastPro Middle East 2015 Innovative Project Award for successfully monetizing NDTV’s global feeds. Amagi’s STORM regionalization platform enabled NDTV to regionalize advertisements in the Middle East without disrupting the existing workflow and satellite infrastructure or incurring significant CAPEX and OPEX. The award was presented to Amagi during a special ceremony held on November 10th at the ASBU BroadcastPro Summit in Dubai.

     

    “We are honored to receive this prestigious industry award,” said Srividhya Srinivasan, co-founder of Amagi. “Today’s TV networks need an efficient and cost-effective solution for content regionalization. The NDTV project is a great example of how broadcasters can monetize their channel on a global scale, without setting up a separate and expensive satellite feed.”

     

    This is the second industry award for Amagi’s STORM regionalization platform this year. STORM was also honoured with the IBC2015 Innovation Award in September for enabling Sundance Channel Global to deliver localized channels at a fraction of the cost of traditional broadcast models.

     

    As part of the STORM solution, Amagi inserts unique, invisible and inaudible watermarks on ads that need to be replaced in the Middle East. Using trickle satellite bandwidth, NDTV can deliver local replacement ads and the playlist on the common satellite feed. Installed at various headends in the region, Amagi’s STORM IRDs receive the common satellite feed, recognize the watermarked ads, and then replace them with the local ads as per the local playlist. Amagi’s innovative solution enables NDTV to regionalize ads in the Middle East without disturbing the existing workflow and satellite infrastructure.

     

  • Aims to give clients a high-powered 'One India' solution

    New leadership structure at Hill+Knowlton Strategies

    By A Correspondent

     

    Hill+Knowlton Strategies announced a new leadership structure in India that eliminates regional divisions, and gives clients a high-powered ‘One India’ solution.

     

    Radhika Shapoorjee, President South Asia will now be supported by Deepa Jayaraman as Chief Operating Officer; Carolina Bajaj as Chief Strategy Officer; and Sunil Raman as Managing Director, Public Affairs. All of the above bring unique individual skills that add up to give clients strategic thinking and execution capabilities unmatched in the industry.

     

    “The communications industry in India is experiencing  many of the fundamental changes that we are seeing globally, and Hill+Knowlton Strategies is well prepared for the changes that are happening in India,” said Radhika Shapoorjee, President, Hill+Knowlton Strategies, South Asia. “Clients want integrated solutions that are channel agnostic and focused on creativity, content and that deliver business impact. By moving away from the industry norm of geographically-limited responsibilities, we will optimise our resources and provide clients with the best solutions and people, irrespective of where they are located in the country.”

     

    Deepa Jayaraman has been promoted to Chief Operating Officer. She will now be responsible for the day-to-day management of client business across all Hill+Knowlton offices in India. She will focus to drive best practices in client servicing, help teams innovate to provide value for clients and will strive to create an organization that’s constantly learning, with a culture of high performance, and a deep commitment to quality. Deepa will be based in Bengaluru.

     

    As Chief Strategy Officer, Carolina Bajaj will be primarily responsible for leading the strategic change in the firm’s approach towards client servicing initiatives and new services as well as integration with practices. Carolina will be based in Mumbai.

     

    Sunil Raman will lead public policy. He is a highly experienced political journalist who has worked with BBC World Service and The Economic Times, and closely tracked and interpreted Indian Politics for 24 years. Today, more than ever clients are seeking counsel on the changing legislative process and policy making which impact their organisations. Sunil will be based in Gurgaon.

     

    Vinod Moorthy has moved on from Hill+Knowlton Strategies.

     

  • Chinese and Indian Millennials Believe Government and Businesses are key forces in addressing climate change

    Need for a new era of sustainable biz, notes MSLGroup study

    By A Correspondent

     

    The future of business and the future of sustainability are the two sides of the same coin, according to MSLGROUP’s latest People’s Insights report, A Chance for Change: The Tipping Point for Sustainable Business.

     

    Two weeks before world leaders convene at the United Nations climate change conference (COP21) in Paris, to negotiate an agreement on climate, MSLGROUP has spotlighted the voices of global leaders, Millennial change-makers and sustainability experts who are leading the momentum towards sustainable development and sustainable business.

     

    The report highlights key takeaways, through a series of expert-written opinion pieces.

    • Led by Millennials, people are demanding businesses take meaningful actions to address climate change. MSLGROUP’s global community of 250 Millennials* at BeTheChance.com, of which 90 of them are Millennials from China and India, share that they are frustrated, worried, and want immediate climate action. Similar to their global peers, both Chinese and Indian Millennials want to hear about greener products and expect businesses to collaborate with governments to address climate change. Interestingly, Chinese and Indian Millennials are different in one key way: Indian Millennials believe that the change starts with them personally, while Chinese millennials believe the change starts with the government.
    • With new global goals announced by the United Nations, business is expected to play a bigger role in sustainable development. Experts from the UN and Salterbaxter MSLGROUP view the seventeen new Sustainable Development Goals as an opportunity for business growth and global impact. Business will play an essential role in implementing the goals, especially as it relates to partnerships, innovation and investment.
    • Savvy businesses have already pivoted, raising the bar for others to transform and embrace disruption, innovation and new business models. MSLGROUP trend-watchers share examples of businesses that are already maximizing resources, creating positive handprints, collaborating across boundaries, changing people’s behavior and switching to clean energy. There is a race to the top that is widening the gap between businesses that already focus on sustainability and those that do not.
    • Climate change and sustainability are complex topics – businesses must make these easier to digest to successfully engage consumers and employees. Sustainability leaders at leading businesses and organizations share their approaches to sustainability and citizenship, with examples of their latest initiatives and their projections for the near future. Action on sustainability is essential to attracting and retaining top talent.
    • Human rights are a growing priority and responsibility for business, and a crucial part of the future of sustainability. Human rights experts and advocates highlight the growing pressure on businesses from the UN (and peers that are early adopters) to strengthen human rights policies and increase disclosure and assessments. Collaboration with human rights experts, and a proactive stance on newer human rights issues will help businesses achieve real impact.

     

    According to Pascal Beucler, SVP and Global Chief Strategy Officer, MSLGROUP, the shift to sustainable business is unstoppable: “Sustainability has become one of top-most priorities for businesses today. Businesses are now increasingly eager to find more ways to add value to their triple bottom line. One could say that there’s a collective desire to be socially and environmentally responsible in how businesses are conducted. Material sourcing and climate change realities are only pushing brands to introspect new ways to operate, and the upcoming COP21 Climate Change Conference in Paris is going to significantly accelerate the movement.”

     

    “Considering the fact that Millennials in both China and India have seen first hand the impact of human activity on their local environments, it is no surprise that they feel worried, anxious and sad about climate change. Millennials sense an urgent need to address the global issue, where Chinese and Indian businesses should seize the opportunity, engage concerned Millennials and involve them as active agents of change to make the difference that is desperately needed,” said Schubert Fernandes, Asia Practice Leader for Corporate & Brand Citizenship at MSLGROUP.

     

    The Tipping Point for Sustainable Business and BeTheChance.com are part of MSLGROUP’s global initiatives to give Millennials a voice on the issue of climate change. These efforts culminate at an event of the same name, Chance for Change, which takes place in Paris during COP21. The event will bring together business leaders and inspiring Millennials and will explore how the millennial generation can lead the response to climate change.

     

  • Vidur Patney appointed as National Director Experiential Marketing & Pooja Verma as Head of Maxus ESP

    Maxus makes key senior appointments

    By A Correspondent

     

    Maxus announced key appointments across its two specialist units. Vidur Patney joins in as the National Director Experiential Marketing and Pooja Verma as Head of Maxus ESP respectively.

     

    Vidur joins Maxus from Globox Media Private Limited. As a founder in a start-up of an Experiential Marketing company, he was responsible for the day to day running of the firm along with everything that went into building the business and developing new clients as well as executing projects. Some of his key achievements at Globox include, managing all TVS Racing initiatives for the last 2 years at the BIC, MMSC and the KMS racing tracks and conducting over 70 Apache Pro Performance Stunt Shows across India etc.

     

    In a career spanning eighteen years, Vidur has worked with leading agencies these being Dentsu Communications Private Limited, Encompass Events Private Limited, and 212 Traders etc. He has handled important and significant clients in all his earlier stints and brings to the table a proven ability to manage key account relationships and large-scale projects.

     

    For nearly a decade and a half, Pooja has been involved in building engagement as a part of content strategy through communication, branding, marketing and citizenship initiatives. She has worked for leading multi-nationals including Disney, BASF and Make-A-Wish Foundation. In her last role Pooja was Director of Marketing and Communication for Make-A-Wish based in Singapore. She also consulted independently for brands in India and overseas for their content marketing and multi-platform content needs. In her free time, Pooja also offers her content and marketing communication expertise pro-bono to non-profits.

     

    Kartik Sharma, Managing Director, Maxus South Asia said “The appointments of Vidur Patney and Pooja Verma reflect Maxus’ commitment to attracting the best and brightest talent to our agency. They both are reliable leaders with robust backgrounds in experiential marketing and content marketing respectively. Both of them will fit very well within our strongly established client-driven culture and marketing culture and we are sure they will achieve even higher success with Maxus.

     

    These appointments come in the wake of Maxus solidifying its position as an employer of choice and are a step towards becoming the leading marketing communication consultancy in the country.

     

  • Ramesh Narayan declared the chairman of AGC for Goafest 2016

    Ramesh Narayan to helm Abby Awards Governing Council for Goafest 2016

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Advertising Club and Advertising Agencies Association of India has announced the Awards Governing Council for Goafest 2016. Ad veteran and industry leader Ramesh Narayan, founder at Canco Advertising Pvt. Ltd. has been appointed theChairman of the AGC. The other members elected to the Council are:

     

    Chairman (CEO, Publicis South Asia & Vice President) of Goafest Organizing Committee – Nakul Chopra; President Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAA’s of I) & Advisor, FCB Ulka Advertising – Ambi M G Parameshwaran; Chairman and CEO at Dentsu Aegis Network – Ashish Bhasin; President, Sony Pictures Networks – Rohit Gupta; CEO at Group M, South Asia – CVL Srinivas; CEO at Mediabrands – Shashi Sinha; CEO at Percept H Pvt. Ltd. – Ajay Chandwani; National Head, Sales, English Cluster at Viacom18 – Namrata Tata; Chief Executive Officer at Contract Advertising – Rana Barua; Founding Partner and Chairman at The Social Street – Pratap Bose.

     

    Announcing the appointment, Raj Nayak, President of The Advertising Club said, “We are pleased to announce that Ramesh Narayan will be the Chairman of the Awards Governing Council of the Goafest. He brings his unique experience as one of the very few people who has been President of the Advertising Club and the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) to this post. He has also been Chairman of the Abby Awards Committee twice, and was the first Indian to judge the Effie Awards finals in New York. Ramesh is the only person to have been conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award by the AAAI and been inducted into the International Advertising Association’s Hall of Fame.” 

     

    Welcoming the announcement Ambi M G Parameshwaran – President, Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAA’s of I) said “Ad Club is a wonderful institution. I am delighted to hear about Ramesh Narayan’s appointment. With his unparalled understanding of India’s advertising scenario, and his years of valuable experience, Ramesh is sure to bring in a whole new perspective which will definitely drive the council to greater heights of success.”

     

    Nakul Chopra- Chairman of Goafest Organizing Committee, showed his excitement about the new appointment as well. “I’ve known Ramesh as a visionary leader who embraces change and is open to new ideas. I’m sure his appointment means an interesting phase for the Council is on the anvil.”

     

  • Unilever renews media relationship with Mindshare in India for non-digital duties, and with PHD for digital

    It’s Mindshare (& PHD) again for HUL!

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    Media agency Mindshare’s India operations will continue to handle the non-digital media duties for FMCG major Hindustan Unilever. The WPP agency has been appointed by Unilever in 60 markets in its global media agency review which it conducts periodically. Omnicom’s PHD will continue to oversee the digital spends for HUL in India.

     

    “We just celebrated 20 years of a great partnership. This news brings in a momentum to instill new thinking and adaptive way of engagement with consumers. We are completely poised to take on this challenge of discovering inventive ways of achieving key goals of Unilever,” said Prasanth Kumar, CEO, Mindshare South Asia.

     

    Added Amin Lakhani, Head, Mindshare Fulcrum South Asia, which oversees the HUL business: “We are delighted to continue our partnership with Unilever. As the team, we embark on creating futuristic marketing solutions for all the Unilever portfolio brands. Greater consumer engagement with content in a real time environment and bespoke integrated media planning will be our topmost priority. The team is excited to be the lead partner to Unilever in their next phase of growth.”

     

    Just last week, Mindshare celebrated 20 years of partnership handling the media duties of HUL in the presence of Sanjiv Mehta, Managing Director and CEO, HUL and Mindshare Global CEO Nick Emery. A communiqué from Mindshare on PR Newswire quotes Emery saying: “Unilever is not only one of the world’s largest advertisers, it is one of the most progressive. It is a great privilege and also a great reflection on our teams that we now work with Unilever in 60 markets across all continents.”

     

    Mindshare has been confirmed as Unilever’s media agency partner in Europe, North America, South East Asia, South Asia and Africa.  PHD and IPG agency Initiative will also execute media spends for Unilever in certain international markets. . It’s been mostly status quo for Unilever’s media mandates, except, as per an Ad Age report, that some European markets have moved from PHD to Mindshare and the all-important Australian market has moved from Mindshare to PHD. China, it may be noted, will be with PHD, as will be Taiwan, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Australia. Initiative will direct Unilever spends in Latin America and Greece.

     

    PHD officials were not available for comment.

     

    In Arrangement with MxMIndia.com

     

  • Pandey was COO of McCann Worldgroup India until recently

    Govind Pandey to join TBWA\India as CEO

    By A Correspondent

     

    Govind Pandey

    Govind Pandey, who was COO of McCann Worldgroup India until recently, will be the new CEO of TBWA\India.

     

    Pandey, who has had a 13-odd-year run at McCann was earlier with Ogilvy & Mather, JWT/Contract and Lowe after a PDGDM from IIM Bangalore.

     

    TBWA Group India has been helmed by Vineet Bajpai since early last year when Shiv Sethuraman quit the agency.

     

    Meanwhile, McCann is said to be making a senior hire to fill in the vacancy after Pandey has left.