Shemaroo Entertainment has appointed Rahul Mishra as General Manager Marketing. Rahul will be reporting to the company’s director, Hiren Gada and his role has been specially created to spearhead the brand in its current transitional phase.
Prior to Shemaroo, Rahul worked with BBC Global News where he was the Marketing Manager APACfor eight years and has also worked with IndiaCast and a start-up digital film studio CinePlay.
Commenting on the appointment, Hiren Gada, Director of Shemaroo said:“At Shemaroo we take pride in our people and consider them our biggest asset. We are pleased to welcome Rahul on board at this exciting juncture where we gearing up for innovative opportunities. We look forward to the positive impact of his leadership, dynamism and
proven abilities in scaling our brand in the industry.â€
Said Mishra on his new role: “Shemaroo is an iconic 55-year-old brand and I am extremely delighted to join the family. I am looking forward to working with the teams and leading the journey of making Shemaroo the most preferred brand in the media and entertainment space not only in India but also globally.â€
Britannia has announced the launch of a new campaign for its oldest brand, Bourbon. With an aim to refresh the brand, Britannia Bourbon’s latest campaign celebrates the true spirit of life-long best friends.
Said Ali Harris Shere, VP, Marketing, Britannia: “Through this new campaign, the brand wants to create a world of friendship that is real and unpretentious. Our target audience is not constrained by age, as this feeling of friendship cuts across all ages including adults for whom moments spent with their best friends is a pivot on which their life revolves. We want to find a place in each friends’ group and this campaign is our first salvo in that direction.â€
Added Dileep Ashoka, Executive Vice President and Head, McCann South: “Competition in the premium creams segment has intensified and Britannia aims to increase their market share in this category over the next few years. Our task was to create a strong consumption context for the brand Bourbon by re-defining the functional and emotional role of the brand in consumers’ life. This led to the campaign being based on a brand space of Bourbon Friends Forever, where Bourbon fuels real friendship moments.â€
Commenting on the creative thought behind the campaign, Puneet Kapoor, Executive Creative Director, McCann Bangalore said: “There are generations of kids that loved and grew up on the fulfilling snack of Britannia Bourbon. Those men and women have grown up to have children of their own. It’s amazing how, despite the explosion of choices, Britannia Bourbon is still much loved. A strong brand like this just needs a priming to be relevant to the generations coming in. Which is exactly what the ad does in an interesting way. Marrying the good old favourite fulfilling chocolate snack with the new age thought of BFF.”
The Digital Street, a Social Street Group Company, has named Praveen Raj as its Senior Creative Director. He will work closely with Prasanth Mohanachandran, Founding Partner & CEO, The Digital Street.
Before joining The Digital Street, Raj spent three years with Isobar heading the creative teams for West & South regions.
Speaking on the appointment, Mohanachandran said:“We are thrilled to have Praveen at the helm of our creative team. With his proven track record, he is right placed to lead the team to disrupt the digital world one infectious idea at a time.â€
Weber Shandwick has announced the appointment of Cyrus Jogina as the Head of Operations at Weber Shandwick India.
Jogina joins the firm with over 19 years of experience from varied industries including Travel & Tourism, Technology, and Corporate & Marketing Communications. Based in Gurgaon, a large part of his role will focus on building ideation platforms, client engagement as well as strengthening processes, systems and internal structure.
“It’s an exciting time for us in India and we couldn’t welcome Cyrus into the Weber Shandwick family at a better time,†said Valerie Pinto, CEO, Weber Shandwick India. “We continue to be committed to evolving our agency offering to solve a multitude of client challenges and are well on track to becoming one of the most creative and engaging firms in the country. Cyrus has an impressive track record of inspiring high performance people, teams and client programmes.â€
Publicis India has announced the appointment of Nikhil Kumar as Vice President. Based out of Mumbai, Kumar will focus on both organic and inorganic growth for the agency and will report to Paritosh Srivastava, COO, Publicis India.
Kumar joins Publics India from Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd. (BCCL) where he was Chief Manager at The Economic Times, looking after the brand performance and brand health of ET, while heading the Brand Equity product portfolio.
Paritosh Srivastava
Commenting on the appointment,  Srivastava said: “We are happy to have Nikhil Kumar on-board the agency. Nikhil has donned multiple hats and comes with rich experience of both sides across organizations. We’re confident that his vast exposure in the realm of Marketing & Advertising will play a distinctive role in offering meaningful solutions to clients and further strengthening the agency relations.â€
Expressing his thoughts on joining the agency,  Kumar said: “Publicis India has been in the news lately for putting out a plethora of good work and key people appointments. I was impressed by the vision and direction that Paritosh and team had for the future of the agency and how I would play a key role in shaping it. I’m excited to begin this new chapter and help achieve bigger milestones for the agency.â€
The fourth CII Marketing & Brand Conclave was held in Ahmedabad with marketers and brand leaders from across the industry verticals, discussing and sharing experiences on the nuances of new age communication, technology-enabled ‘TECHNO cating†across genres of product services.
Elaborating further, Piruz Khambatta, Deputy Chairman – CII Western Region and CMD, Rasna Pvt Ltd, said, “Brand extensions are flourishing for a number of reasons. More and more companies today, realize that one of their most valuable assets is the brand and not just their tangible assets and has a multiplier effect on your valuation. A strong brand commands loyalty, emotions, preference and associative powers, which are hard to duplicate by the competition. The brand is the USP for many products today.â€
In his inaugural comments, Sam Balsara, Managing Director, Madison World & Madison Communication, said:“A right story, right content, right medium, right partner, right category, right time, right pricing, and right controls makes a successful model. The opportunities in content marketing are limitless. We have only seen a trailer in India.’
Some of the keynote speakers included Kiran Khalap from Chlorophyll, Senjam Raj Sekhar from Flipkart, Jayen Mehta from Amul India, Anirudh Pandita from Pocket Aces, Devasis Chattopadyay from Adfactors, Amit Doshi from Divya Bhaskar, Siddharth Desmukh and Falguni Vasavada Oza from MICA, Glen Dsouza from MSLGroup and Chandan Nath from Ideas2Brands.
Global communications consulting firm Ruder Finn has won the communications mandate for Tata AIA, a jv of Tata Sons and AIA Group (AIA).
Commenting on the appointment of Ruder Finn, Vandana Kilam, VP- Corporate Communications, Tata AIA said:“The life insurance industry is at a transformational phase in India at the moment. Therefore, it is more important than ever for us to communicate clearly with the right message at the right time. For this, we need a strategic communication approach, creative ideas and a self-motivated team with a passion that resonates with our ideology. RF came out as the right partner for us and we are confident that with this partnership we will be able to build and communicate our vision to our stakeholders.â€
Commenting on this prestigious account win, Radha Roy, Country Head – India, Ruder Finn added: “We are excited to be the strategic partner for Tata AIA. This is a great opportunity for us to work with such an esteemed and reputed client and create clutter-breaking communications to deliver meaningful, measurable campaigns.â€
Advertising firm Iris has announced the launch of a new logo and brand proposition.
Said Ian Millner, Founder and CEO of Iris: “We asked ourselves, how can we be the most valued and valuable partners our clients can have? Networks are struggling to grow; consultancies are coming in, in-sourcing is growing… For the Forward is representative of our belief that in these unstable and disruptive times the last thing a client should do is play it safe. Our promise to clients is that we will move their business forward and navigate this new landscape. The ability to evolve and move forward is one necessary for survival – and it is something we share with the clients we work with.â€
Added Rajive Mathur, Business Head of Iris Delhi: “‘For the Forward’ further upholds our commitment to keep moving, to evolve every day, and to be able to meet the needs of our clients and create meaningful value for them. It epitomises the agility and ambition of iris Delhi.â€
Myntra has kicked off an integrated marketing campaign to underscore its service offerings, targeted essentially at uninitiated shoppers across the country with a special focus on non-metro cities and small towns.
Commenting on the campaign, Gunjan Soni, CMO, Myntra & Head- Jabong, said: “Non-metro cities are very important markets for Myntra as we see our next phase of growth coming from there. Our research shows that over 30 million SEC A internet users in non-metros do not shop online and as a market leader we have launched this campaign to drive adoption among them. We see about 25% of our daily acquisitions coming from this cohort and with this campaign we are looking at acquiring half a million new customers from this target group over the next three weeks.â€
Added Neeraj Kanitkar, Creative Director, Taproot Dentsu: “Myntra is undisputedly one of India’s most fashionable shopping outposts. Some shoppers though, especially from non-Metro cities, worry about the practicalities of the service features. Will my return be accepted? Will my return have to meet any requirements? When will I get a refund? And as a result simply stay away from shopping for fashion online. This campaign addresses these questions in a thoughtful, warm yet joyful manner. Which will hopefully get them to try Myntra, because once people try Myntra, they really do love it.â€
In its centennial year, Grey Group has joined forces with UNICEF to improve the lives of children around the world.
Speaking about this initiative, Arun Raman – National Planning Director, Grey Group India: “The power to shape the future of the world rests in the hands of the future citizens of our world. We believe, that society will not change unless parents, communities and society feel pride in the achievements of the girl child.â€
GREY India has launched an activation idea called ‘India ka Scoreboard’. Inspired by the game of cricket, this idea has been conceived as a showcase of achievements by the girls of India that makes her parents, her neighborhood, her society and her nation truly proud. Because, when one is proud of something we protect it even more.
Added Varun Goswami, Executive Creative Director at Grey: “India Ka Scoreboard has the potential to become the first, second and third umpire to girls performing across the country. Highlighting their achievements and success rates, applauding their stance in any situation and cheering their drive and perseverance.”
In a consolidation of its experiential marketing play, Publicis Communications has announced the merger of its in-house technology-enabled experiential arm, Solutions, with its brand activation and experiential shopper agency, Arc Worldwide. The merger is effective immediately.
The entire Solutions team and its roster of clients will now come under the Arc umbrella. The newly merged entity will be called Arc Worldwide, and will be headed by Vandana Verma, Executive Vice President and India Head at Arc.
The merged entity can now create deep impact in over 100 Indian towns and metros, further delivering on Arc’s ‘Irresistible Commerce’ philosophy, notes a communique.
Saurabh Varma
Speaking about the merger, Saurabh Varma, CEO, Publicis Communications India and Leo Burnett, South Asia said: “By merging the two entities, Arc can leverage their combined expertise in ways that are unprecedented for the industry. The merger of Solutions with Arc will create even more momentum for Arc’s trajectory in India. Arc has deep capabilities across the entire experience landscape. With Solutions, we will create meaningful value exchange straddling the entire shopping experience for greater impact on our clients’ businesses. The merger is in perfectly in line with our ‘Power of One’ strategy.â€
Vandana Verma
Speaking about her vision for Arc Worldwide, Vandana Verma, Executive Vice President and India Head, Arc Worldwide said: “Arc is focused on creating meaningful connected experiences. In India, Arc is a key platform within Publicis Communications. Solutions will add immense value to Arc through its expertise across technology-enabled solutions, paperless retail audits, merchandising and real time consumer feedback, among others. The merger will now help us lead experiential planning, data-driven shopper insights, and mobile-tracking and analytics-led initiatives designed to help our clients reach empowered consumers.â€
Virender Sharma
Added Virender Sharma, COO – Solutions: “Arc’s superb experiential and shopper marketing capabilities, combined with Solutions’ superior technology-led approach will prove valuable for clients in this market. The merger with Arc means unparalleled access to all clients in the Publicis Communications portfolio. I look forward to seamlessly integrating ideas and solutions that will grow our clients’ businesses. We are happy to see the coming together of Arc Worldwide and Solutions at our new Big Apple office in Gurugram.â€
Arc Worldwide is the shopper marketing agency within the Publicis Groupe and is headquartered in Chicago. It works with some of the brands including Procter & Gamble, MillerCoors, Intel, Bridgestone, Kraft-Heinz, Alcon, Coca-Cola and Walmart.
Dentsu Webchutney has roped in Dominic Braganza as Creative Director. He will be based out of Delhi and will report to Anil Kumar, EVP and Branch Head.
Sudesh SamariaDominic Braganza
Commenting on the appointment, Sudesh Samaria, Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer, Dentsu Webchutney, said: “Dominic brings with him tremendous energy and fresh perspective of a man with a definitive point of view on the role of digital in coming years. He is a well-rounded personality with experiences across disciplines and I’m sure this will help us make Webchutney’s core offerings more meaningful to our clients.â€
In its centennial year, Grey Group has joined forces with UNICEF to improve the lives of children around the world.
