MxMIndia

Category: ADVERTISING

  • Called 'The Ad Fellows Returnship', it is created in partnership with Indian Creative Women

    Dentsu Webchutney unfurls comeback offer for moms in advertising

    By Our Staff

     

    Dentsu Webchutney, the digital-led creative agency from Dentsu India, has launched a new talent development programme, The Ad Fellows Returnship. It is a 30-day back-to-work programme for moms created in partnership with Indian Creative Women, an independent forum working towards furthering diversity in creative teams across the Indian Advertising and Design Industry. For the record, the virtual learning programme will begin on July 1, 2021 and applications will be open from June 1, 2021 till June 10, 2021.

     

    Speaking on the programme, Dentsu Webchutney team said: “We believe in the power of perspectives to make ideas stronger. Diversity in talent will always lead to more diverse work and following up on our success in making advertising open for everyone from Gen Z, to internet obsessives, to people in other industries, we’re excited to take this next step and welcome moms to Dentsu Webchutney. The program has been chartered by a passionate woman-strong team that believes more mothers need to put their lived experiences on the table. We’ve certainly got a long way to go ourselves but we’re very proud to partner with Indian Creative Women and take this much overdue step forward.”

     

    Added the team of Indian Creative Women: “Women face several systemic and structural challenges that get in the way of them growing into senior leadership roles. Our industry isn’t doing enough to retain them, specifically mothers. A woman is still blamed if she quits the industry after becoming a mother. There’s simply no organizational support for her to succeed. Dentsu Webchutney’s The Ad Fellows Returnship is a small step in the right direction and should be a great example of what other agencies can follow. This program is hugely influenced by Harshada Thakurdesai, a creative mom and Group Creative Director from Team Indian Creative Women.”

     

  • Rajesh Ghatge takes on additional role of Chief Growth Officer

    Publicis Groupe launches PubHub

    By Our Staff

     

    Publicis Groupe launches PubHub, an ecosystem to create bespoke marketing transformation solutions at scale, through the integration of specialised capabilities across Data, Content, Technology, Production, and Commerce.

     

    Rajesh Ghatge
    Rajesh Ghatge

    PubHub will be led by Indigo Consulting CEO Rajesh Ghatge, who now additionally takes on the role of Chief Growth Officer, Publicis Groupe India. Ghatge is already leading the implementation of Global Hub for GSK.

     

    Ghatge has been with Publicis Group for close to four-and-a-half years and has close to three decades of experience across marketing and technology. Previously he has launched and built organisations in the space of travel, training and brand activation. Before joining Publicis, he also led a technology-enabled social enterprise which trained and certified school drop-outs to become certified elder care workers.

     

    Anupriya Acharya
    Anupriya Acharya

    Said Anupriya Acharya, South Asia CEO, Publicis Groupe: “Today, the demand for scaled marketing transformation solutions is growing exponentially- on the back of accelerated adoption of digital and tech. For Publicis Groupe, India has emerged as a massive capability centre for digital and tech-led deep expertise across contemporary and innovative marketing and business transformation solutions. Large mandates across global and national brands are being managed across the Groupe in India. The launch of PubHub is timely and apt. With an intrinsic model to scale fast,  it has been designed to be agile and responsive while leveraging our proficiency and vast experience across the creative, technology and media competencies.”

     

    Added Ghatge: “As a Client organisation, the choices of agency partners, consulting partners, tools and technologies are immense. These choices are giving rise to one big challenge – that of being able to weave together the right components of creative, data and technology to effectively win in the platform world. Moreover, reclaiming growth has become the number one priority for most enterprises in a dramatically changed world. In this added mandate, I am looking forward to leverage our diverse capabilities and experience to create repeatable and scalable solutions for our clients via PubHub, and fuel significant growth for them.”

     

  • With appointment of Avi Kumar as CMO

    Zee5’s Avi Kumar joins Join Ventures

    By Our Staff

     

    Avi Kumar
    Avi Kumar

    Join Ventures, a Direct to consumer (D2C) platform, has announced the appointment of Avi Kumar as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). He will lead global marketing for Join Ventures and its portfolio companies – IGP.com, IGP for Business and Interflora India. Kumar was until recently CMO, Zee5 and earlier spent many years with BigFM.

     

    Speaking on the announcement, Tarun Joshi, Founder Join Ventures, said: “Avi is a natural addition to our leadership team as he is a highly experienced, much-admired marketing leader with a proven track record of helping consumer companies build new disruptive categories and drive sustainable growth. In the past few years, Join Ventures has created the largest proprietary ecosystem in India comprising of technology, data and logistics, which are the essential pillars for the success of any D2C brand. Avi’s entrepreneurial mindset and vision will build on this foundation and help propel Join Ventures forward during our next phase of growth.”

     

    Added Kumar: “The internet ecosystem and evolving consumer needs have led to the emergence of direct-to-consumer (D2C) businesses as a strong value proposition.  Join Ventures with its amazing team, strong brand proposition, agile DNA, world-class tech and operational processes is at an inflexion point ready to take off and transform consumer experience and D2C landscape, and I am looking forward to being part of that growth trajectory.”

     

  • Ex Microsoft’s Rashmi Vikram to lead DEI strategy across Asia Pacific markets

    Dentsu welcomes Chief Equity Officer in APAC

    By Our Staff

     

    Rashmi Vikram
    Rashmi Vikram

    Dentsu International has announced the appointment of Chief Equity Officer in APAC, Rashmi Vikram.

     

    Vikram joins Dentsu from Microsoft, where she was Group Diversity and Inclusivity Practice Lead, responsible for delivering success by making inclusion a habit, with the aim of creating inclusive products and services for Microsoft’s customers. Prior to Microsoft, Vikram was Country Head for India at Community Business, an NGO that champions inclusive business practices in Asia. Her other roles have included Diversity & Inclusion Specialist at Thomson Reuters.

     

    Ashish Bhasin
    Ashish Bhasin

    Said Ashish Bhasin, CEO of Dentsu International Asia Pacific: “Dentsu’s strength lies in making a difference. To do that, we seek out diverse perspectives, celebrate difference and empower everyone to bring their most authentic self to work. We encourage our leaders to build diverse teams, teams with a healthy, vibrant culture. A culture that enables every employee to do great work, build a phenomenal career and know they belong. We are very excited to have Rashmi on board to champion diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and we look forward to working with her to chart meaningful progress for our businesses in APAC.”

     

    Added Vikram in a statement: “I am passionate about the work I do and am excited to be working with the global, regional and country teams at Dentsu to champion, reinforce and build an inclusive culture.”

     

  •  On wildlife trafficking and endangered species

    Ogilvy observes World Environment Day with two campaigns

    By Our Staff

     

    Ogilvy launched two digital campaigns for United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).  The two digital campaigns on Wildlife Trafficking were released on World Environment Day.

     

    Conceptualised by Ogilvy for UNEP in association with WCCB (Wildlife Crime Control Bureau), MoEFCC (Ministry of Environment Forest & Climate Change), and TRAFFIC, this campaign was released on World Environment Day, by Prakash Keshav Javadekar, Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Javadekar unveiled two campaigns titled, ‘Not Your Medicine’ & ‘#SadEmojis’.

    Said Sukesh Nayak, Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy India: “The first campaign #NotYourMedicine highlights the plight of trafficked wildlife species suffering in the name of fake remedies even today. The second one – #SadEmojis, is a digital campaign wherein we launch a new set of sad emojis of endangered species, through which we aim to spread awareness with every single social conversation.”

     

    Added Atul Bagai, Country Head, United Nations Environment Programme: “India Office, reiterated that “The COVID -19 pandemic has been a wake-up call to the human race to respect nature and to learn to coexist. Illegal wildlife trade is the fourth largest global crime. It is driven by demand for trophies, fashion accessories, exquisite cuisine, exotic pets and products based on cultural/ superstitious beliefs. One of the main reasons for illegal poaching and trade is their unsubstantiated use in traditional medicines. In building back better, we need to remember that these species, traded illegally for false remedies is one of the most serious threats to the existence of wildlife are- Not your medicine!”

     

  • As Head – Creator and Content Ecosystem

    Sunder Venketraman joins Josh

    By Our Staff

     

    Sunder Venketraman
    Sunder Venketraman

    DailyHunt and VerSe Innovation’s short video app Josh has announced the expansion of its leadership team with the appointment of Sunder Venketraman as Head – Creator and Content Ecosystem. He will be based in Mumbai and will be responsible for spearheading the short video ecosystem beyond mainstream content categories like dance, drama, comedy, and lip sync.

     

    Prior to his association with Josh, Venketraman was Head of Strategy, Monetisation and Revenue at Firework India.

     

    Welcoming Venketraman, Josh Founder Virendra Gupta and Co-founder Umang Bedi, said: “It gives us immense pleasure to welcome a seasoned professional like Sunder onboard. His achievements in the domain of entertainment and content ecosystem precede him, as he comes armed with a deep understanding of the short video ecosystem that we believe will create a lasting impact and will take Josh to greater heights. Sunder’s expertise in content strategy and business-oriented functions will fuel Josh’s vision of encouraging Bharat’s youth to create engaging content in local languages and will allow us to infuse multiple content categories into our app.”

     

    Added Venketraman:“I am excited to be a part of Josh which I believe is a perfect blend of international structuring and raw Indian spirit. I am truly enthralled by the Co-founders’ vision in building this app and look forward to weave in my ideas and experience to inspire the next wave of content creators for Bharat. I am thankful to Umang and Viru for this opportunity that sets me on yet another exciting journey to re-imagine the content landscape in India.”

     

  • These and more results emerge in a Search Advertising Playbook published by GroupM and Amazon Advertising

    62% of urban Indian Net users research for products online

     

    By Our Staff

     

    GroupM along with Amazon Advertising India, have launched a Search Advertising playbook titled ‘Decoding the shift in consumer behaviour to win on search’ with a report on search consumer journeys and how consumers are leveraging online platforms for not only buying products but also for holistic product research.

     

    Notes a communique: “Over the past year, consumer behaviour and purchase patterns have seen a drastic change. Urban consumers have started conducting their product research thoroughly before making any purchase online or offline. The playbook indicates that urban consumers are researching on at least two platforms before making up their mind while Amazon.in is has emerged as a preferred platform for product research. Around 62% of urban internet users research for products online, before making any online or offline purchase; 52% of urban internet users who research online, visit amazon.in to research products before making an online or offline purchase.”

     

    Online product research influences offline sales since 50% of offline shopping across categories involves prior online product research.

     

    A few takeaways from this playbook are:

    • Growth of digital for product research before making purchase decisions

    • in is emerging as one of the trusted brands for product research

    • 89% consumers discover new products and brands on in

    • 60% ads influenced purchase journeys are inspired by search ads

     

    Said Tushar Vyas, President – Growth and Transformation, GroupM South Asia: “The last year has seen a rapid shift in purchase decision making and channel preference for purchases with more consumers now researching and purchasing online. This trend is only accelerating with not only metro consumers but consumers from smaller cities and towns. Furthermore, the role of e-Commerce platforms in the purchase funnel is undergoing a change with more consumers relying on them from a product research point of view. With most of these behaviors set to only accelerate in the coming years, we at GroupM will continue to prioritize and focus on creating knowledge and bringing forth solutions to our clients to effectively navigate this ecosystem.”

     

    Added Vijay Iyer, Director-Ad Sales, Amazon Advertising India:“With the drastic increase in media consumption, online and eCommerce platforms have become the go-to destination for urban consumers to make a product and brand choice before making a purchase online or offline. The search environment provides brands the opportunity to reach ‘intent’ consumers and create awareness in the early phase of the purchase journey. Native search advertising formats aid in establishing a seamless connection with researching audiences. This playbook aims at helping brands understand the behavioral trends with respect to consumer demand and discusses recommended strategies to drive awareness and performance on amazon.in”

     

    The playbook can be downloaded here.

     

  • Will be driving and developing strategies for brands

    Dentsu India appoints Arti Singh to head Hyperspace

    By Our Staff

     

    Arti Singh
    Arti Singh

    Dentsu India has announced the appointment of Arti Singh as VP National for its shoppers’ marketing unit, Hyperspace. In her new role, Singh will be in charge of the shoppers’ marketing division that includes experiential, retail, cinema and mall business.

     

    For the record, this is Singh’s second innings with Dentsu India. Previously, she had been with the network for more than a decade and played a vital role in successfully delivering marketing experiential retail campaigns for brands.

     

    Speaking on her new role, Singh said: “It’s a great role, with enormous possibilities in my second innings. Hyperspace is a network that has established strong credentials in the space for over a decade now. I am excited about the endless opportunities and challenges this new role offers and I look forward to driving Hyperspace’s continued growth and ambition in India.”

     

    Haresh Nayak
    Haresh Nayak

    Commenting on the appointment, Haresh Nayak, COO, Dentsu International, Group MD, Posterscope SA, President, Posterscope APAC added: “Arti will be responsible for strengthening the shoppers’ marketing practices across all agencies of Dentsu India. Her presence and experience in the space will help us beef up our efforts in understanding the behaviour of shoppers. She brings immense value to the company’s capabilities. We are increasingly bringing on board senior talents in this space who can carry forward the learnings of seamlessly-integrated consumer and brand interaction in the new normal.”

     

  • Will be handling integrated creative duties for the company

    Enormous wins communications mandate of Workex

    By Our Staff

     

    Independent creative agency Enormous has bagged the communications mandate of Workex, a unified technology platform for hiring and managing Workforce for enterprises of various sizes, across sectors and every part of the country. As part of the mandate, Enormous will be handling integrated creative duties for Workex, to create a brand positioning.

     

    Said Nimish Sharma, Co- Founder and CEO, Workex: “We are excited at the possibilities emerging from our coming together with Enormous, in whom we have found an innovative, vibrant, extremely grounded creative agency.”

     

    Added Ashish Khazanchi, Managing Partner, Enormous: “We are ecstatic to have the opportunity to work with Workex, India’s leading Workforce, Hiring and Management platform. We’re excited to create ground-breaking work that adds value to the brand and helps to increase brand preference in India. Because of the current circumstances, the hiring and managing workforce in the industry is becoming increasingly competitive, and the future belongs to brands who stand out. And that is exactly what we intend to achieve for the brand Workex.”

     

  • If all members of the marketing team have taken their jabs, we’ll give a 50% discount on ads. If 3 of 6 have taken, it’s 25%. And so on…

    MxM Offer: 50% discount on ad hoc ads if marketing team is fully vaccinated

     

    By Your Team @ MxM

     

    Vaccination is key to curb the spread of Covid-19 as also reduce the risks that a virus attack could have on one. However, there are also many who are hesitant about taking a jab, and, sadly, there also exist several anti-vaxxers.

     

    In an effort to encourage and incentivise vaccination in the A&M and M&E sectors, MxMIndia will offer a special rate for advertising (on MxM) in the form of ad hoc mailers and site captures from June 11 to July 10, 2021.

     

    Here’s how: Just make a self-declaration of how many members of your marketing team have taken at least one jab. We don’t need proof… we trust you.

     

    If the team size is 8, and all 8 have taken at least one jab, we will offer a 50% discount on all ad hoc activity – mailers, site captures and banner ads. By ad hoc we mean advertising that is outside of annual deals or longish campaigns. If 90% of the staff have taken at least one jab, we’ll offer a 45% discount. And so on. If the team size is two, and only one colleague has taken a shot, we will offer a 25% cut.

     

    Is this a gimmick? It may seem like one, but it isn’t. We have been thinking about it for a while, and firmly believe that the solution to the current problem of the Covid-19 spread is masking, distancing, hygiene and vaccination. This is just a move to incentivise the vaccination process in organisations in a sector we are associated with.

     

    Over the years, MxMIndia has partnered the industry in various social causes. Whether it’s the flash floods in Kerala or free advertising to a television show that’s helped in the cause of cancer care. That’s how we are. That’s what we believe in. Business and revenues are important, but they aren’t our end-all.

     

    The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has been huge. Let’s all work together to ensure the world we live in is safer and better.

     

    If you or your organisation wish to use this opportunity, please feel free to write directly to Pradyuman Maheshwari at pradyumanm [at] mxmindia.com, Whatsapp him or call (98338 76278). Or please get someone in your team to do so. Also, please forward this message to all. Also, get other media platforms – including our rivals to do the same. We aren’t doing this to earn brownie points. We sincerely believe that every eligible Indian must be vaccinated.

  • Will support business growth and strengthen the brand narrative

    Pitchfork to partner Jaycee on comms

    By Our Staff

     

    Jaycee, the market leader in the processing, marketing and export of high-quality coal combustion products has appointed Pitchfork Partners Strategic Consulting LLP as its communication strategy advisor. Pitchfork Partners will drive communication for Jaycee, supporting business growth and strengthening the brand narrative.

     

    Said Rishit Dalal, Director, Jaycee: “India is the world’s second largest ash producer. With the government aiming to boost the domestic coal mining sector, and the fact that coal power will remain an integral part of our economy for the next two decades at least, it is an exciting phase for us and building our brand narrative will play a crucial role in business. That’s where Pitchfork Partners comes in. It has the credentials and track record to make our brand even more relevant to all stakeholders.”

     

    Added Jaideep Shergill, Co-founder, Pitchfork Partners: “We are delighted to partner with Jaycee. We understand the transformation and the repositioning taking place in the coal combustion products industry. It’s a privilege to partner with the leader in this sector and be part of its sustainable change journey in India.”

     

  • As Chief People Officer, South Asia

    GroupM appoints Madhvi Pahwa as CPO

    By Our Staff

     

    Madhvi Pahwa
    Madhvi Pahwa

    GroupM has appointed Madhvi Pahwa as its new Chief People Officer for South Asia. Pahwa, previously Chief People Officer Mindshare APAC, has been promoted into the role to lead the GroupM India talent team and develop GroupM’s talent proposition for the region. She will report to Prasanth Kumar, CEO, GroupM South Asia.

     

    Said Kumar: “Madhvi has a proven track record of delivering innovation and education that moves the dial for the business. She is the perfect choice to lead the GroupM South Asia talent team and to lead us into the next phase of our growth.” He added, “I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Rohit Suri for his commitment and efforts in helping build the talent team across South Asia. We greatly appreciate his contributions and wish him the best.”

     

    Added Pahwa: “Our employee promise has been to make Mindshare the place where you do your best work, and it has certainly been true for me. The people, priorities and culture just come together almost magically to bring out the best in you. I am grateful and proud to be part of the GroupM network that has given me growth opportunities across multiple agencies and geographic remits spanning global, regional and markets while supporting flexibility and personal priorities. I am super excited for the next chapter for GroupM India.”