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Tag: Alok Agrawal

  • After issuing a denial last week, Zee News CEO Alok Agrawal announced his move from Zee New to RIL via a tweet

    Alok Agrawal quits @ZeeNews to join @RIL

    By A Correspondent

     

    Alok Agrawal
    Alok Agrawal

    When we called Zee News CEO Alok Agrawal last week to confirm the news of his quitting, he denied it. But, of course, the fact that he wasn’t present at a conclave of group CEOs at Zee, was enough indicator that something was amiss. The Zee spokesperson too said she wasn’t aware of the development.

     

    Last weekend, the news was circulated internally at Zee and yesterday (Monday), Mr Agrawal confirmed the news via a tweet. “Delighted to share my move to Team #RIL. Thank you Team @ZeeNews,” he wrote.

     

    Zee Media Corp of which Zee News is a part is a successful news media firm and flagship channel Zee News channel is counted among the Top 5 Hindi news channels though the Top 3 slots are occupied by Aaj Tak, ABP News and India TV.

     

  • The brand promise of 'Stay One Step Ahead' (Raha Ek Paul Pudhe) from its existing position of 'One Step Ahead (Ek Paul Pudhe) was also unveiled

    Zee 24 Taas sports new look

    By A Correspondent

     

    After seven years of being on air, Zee Media Corp’s Marathi news channel Zee 24 Taas gave itself a facelift with a new tagline and logo.  The brand promise of ‘Stay One Step Ahead’ (Raha Ek Paul Pudhe) from its existing position of ‘One Step Ahead (Ek Paul Pudhe) was also unveiled.

     

    Speaking on the occasion, Alok Agrawal, Chief Executive Officer, Zee Media Corporation, said: “In keeping with our core philosophy to innovate to stay ahead, the new look of Zee 24 Taas is a step in the right direction. We are confident that the new identity will be applauded by the viewer which is rich in content and vibrant in look.”

     

    A 360-degree marketing campaign to promote and reinforce the rejuvenated programming and packaging along with anchor presentation and news delivery has been planned. “The need for this repositioning emerges from the fact that current generation is action oriented and Zee 24 Taas, as a responsible news channel, always takes care of viewer aspirations to stay relevant,” said Bhushan Khot, the channel’s Business Head. The brand film of the theme ‘Raha Ek Paul Pudhe’ will be launched on February 12 on the occasion of channel’s seventh anniversary.

     

    Added Editor-in-Chief Dr.Uday Nirgudkar says, “We are relaunching the channel to finetune ourself to reflect on the changing needs of viewers. We have always been viewer-focused and viewer-centric hence our new offering will be more qualitative and focused.”

     

  • Zee News Limited (ZNL) has announced that its CEO Barun Das has decided to move on after a successful 5-year stint, and is being replaced by Alok Agrawal

    Alok Agrawal replaces Barun Das as Zee News chief

    Alok Agrawal
    Alok Agrawal

    By A Correspondent

     

    Zee News Limited (ZNL) has announced that its CEO Barun Das has decided  to move on after a successful 5-year stint, and is being replaced by Alok Agrawal.

     

    Punit Goenka, Managing Director, Zee News Limited said, “Over the last five years Barun has contributed immensely to the growth of Zee News and taken the company to greater heights. We wish him the best for his future endeavour.”

     

    Speaking on Mr Agrawal’s appointment, Mr Goenka said, “We welcome Alok into the Zee News family. His rich experience in the media domain will help us take Zee News to the next level of growth.”

     

    Prior to joining Zee News Limited, Mr Agrawal worked with Cheil as Chief Operating Officer.

     

  • McCann's campaign for Western Union bagged India's first Gold as Leo Burnett and Cheil win Silvers and BBDO a Bronze

    1 Gold, 2 Silvers,1 Bronze on Day 3

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    “Of course, it feels awesome to win a Gold for something which we had put in a lot of hard work.” That’s Rahul Mathew, Executive Creative Director, McCann Worldgroup India, Mumbai. Mr Mathew and co-exec CD Akshay Kapnadak worked on the Outdoor Lions-winning campaign for Western Union Money Transfer. “It also reinforces the client’s trust on us and our work,” he said. McCann had produced a three-part campaign for Western Union

     

    McCann bagged India’s first Gold in Outdoor Lions for Western Union Money Transfer

     

    Indian entries won four metals on Day 3 of the Cannes Lions 2012. While McCann bagged India’s first Gold for Western Union Money Transfer in the Outdoor Lions, there were two silvers and one bronze in Media Lions. The sole shortlist from India in Creative Effectiveness did not win any metal and in the Mobile Category, there was no Indian shortlist.

     

    Leo Burnett snatched a Silver for Doorstep School in the Best Localised Campaign category
    Cheil won Silver for Samsung Printers in the Best Use of Integrated Media category
    BBDO won a Bronze Lion for its work on Gillette

    The Silver for Leo Burnett came in for Doorstep School for use of media in the Best Localised Campaign category.  Lead credits for the ad: K V Sridhar, National Creative Director, Nitesh Tiwari, Executive Creative Director, Vikram Pandey, Creative Director and Amit Thakur, Art Director.

     

    The other Silver for Cheil was for Samsung Printers for Best Use of Integrated Media. Lead credits for this: Varun Arora, Executive Creative Director,  Shiva Kumar and Dinkar Porwal, Creative Directors and Kamlesh Jangid and Shubhasis Bhatacharjee, Art Directors.

     

    Speaking on the win, Alok Agrawal, COO at Cheil Worldwide India, said, “The Minus One project for Samsung Printer has been winning awards and accolades at various international and Indian festival. So in a way, we knew that the work was a strong contender to be a winner. This is a fine example of a simple yet a powerful idea. One has seen various environment related communication but this is something which each one can practice by just reducing one point size when taking a printout thus reducing the usage of paper. Also the way the entire idea was approached and communicated was unique and caught up on the viral thus helping in winning the Media Lions.”

     

    The Bronze Lion has been won by BBDO for Gillette. The agency’s campaign titled ‘You Shave, I Shave’ . Lead Credits: Josy Paul, Chairman/Chief Creative Officer, Rajdeepak Das, Executive Creative Director, Sandeep Sawant/Josy Paul/Rajdeepak Das. Creative Director, Josy Paul/Yohan Daver/Riti Hamlai/Prakhar Deogirikar/Rajdeepak Das/Sandeep Sawan, Copywriters,  Rajdeepak Das/Sandeep Sawant/Ravi Shanker/Sagar Jadhav/Yohan Daver/Prakhar Deogi, Art Directors.

     

  • The agency has brought in Ravi Narain as Executive Creative Director, Sanjeev Hajela as Sr Vice President, BTL -South West Asian Markets, Vikram Bhardwaj as DGM-Interactive and Saswati Sinha as Head-Human Resources

    New appointments at Cheil SW Asia

    By A Correspondent

     

    Cheil Worldwide SW Asia is on a talent acquisition spree and has announced a series of new appointments across BTL, Creative, Digital, and HR.

     

    Ravi Narain
    Alok Agrawal
    Sanjeev Hajela
    Vikram Bhardwaj
    Saswati Sinha

    The agency has brought in Ravi Narain as Executive Creative Director, Sanjeev Hajela as Sr Vice President, BTL -South West Asian Markets, Vikram Bhardwaj as DGM-Interactive and Saswati Sinha as Head-Human Resources.

     

    Mr Narain joins from Emaar MGF where he was Vice President – Marketing & Design, while Mr Hajela is from DDB Mudra Group where he was President – Retail and Wayfinding business; Mr Bhardwaj moves from ThoughtBuzz India where he was Country Head and Ms Sinha from Evalueserve.

     

    Speaking on the appointments, Alok Agrawal, COO, Cheil WW, SW Asia said: “Cheil India is expanding at a rapid pace and as a fully integrated, one solution agency we offer a great opportunity for growth of talent. With Ravi, Sanjeev, Vikram on board we see more client successes and acquisitions coming our way. Saswati’s joining us also demonstrates the power of brand Cheil even for Human Resource management”.

     

    Mr Narain joins from Emaar MGF where he was Vice President – Marketing & Design. Mr Narain gained tremendous marketing and communications insights during his 5-year experience with Emaar MGF.  He believes that selling real estate after having spent over 17 years of experience in Marketing and Advertising was an immensely growing experience that added phenomenal dimension to his thinking.  As said by an industry veteran, life has come full circle for Narain.

     

    Mr Hajela, a marketing professional with almost two and a half decades of experience joins from from DDB Mudra Group where he was President – Retail and Wayfinding business.  A career that commenced with ITC (tobacco Division) has led Mr Hajela places. Over the years he has had the rare combination of having seen the industry as a client and having learnt materials and their impact on Trade marketing. In the last eleven years he worked in various positions including the Vice president and head of national Sales.

     

    Mr Bhardwaj moves to Cheil from ThoughtBuzz India, a premier Social Media Brand Monitoring Company where he was Country Head. Of late Mr Bhardwaj’s focus has been on making significant contributions to Online Marketing and offering strategies on – Social Media Management & Planning. As a strategic thinker, he enjoys wrapping his head around new media and future trends and opportunities.

     

    Ms Sinha, a veteran Human Resource professional, joins Cheil from Evalueserve. She started her career in the manufacturing industry and moved on to Advertising in 2006 as HR Director to Delhi JWT. Advertising gave the opportunity to hone her skills in managing people without letting go the bottom line. From 2008 till 2010 she went into a consultant mode and worked with different industries. However the lure of advertising proved stronger and she has returned this time albeit at Cheil.

     

  • Dutta will report to Alok Agrawal, Cheil Worldwide SW Asia.

    Cheil appoints Vivek Dutta as VP-Planning

    By A Correspondent

     

    Vivek Dutta joins Cheil as the Vice President-Planning after spending almost five years at Hakuhodo Percept where he was VP and National Planning Head. He has also worked for JWT in the past and in brand and marketing functions at Dainik Bhaskar, LNJ Bhilwara Group (Mayur Suitings) and Mahindra & Mahindra.

     

    Commenting on the development, Alok Agrawal, COO, Cheil Worldwide SW Asia, said: “Vivek has the right credentials to provide the required momentum in the planning function. His experience across diverse categories from automotive to consumer electronics; to health, lifestyle and sports; to social development, makes for the perfect choice of a seasoned partner for the Cheil India team.”

     

    Dutta has been in the industry for over a decade and a half and has had extended brand experience in the automotive sector having worked on the Maruti Suzuki range. He has also worked with Daikin, Carrier, Panasonic, Sharp, Toshiba, Sony and the like in both the HVAC and consumer electronics categories. Other career brands include Yakult, Hindware, Sukam Power Solutions, Unicharm, Citizen Watches, Top Ramen noodles, UNICEF, ILO, GAIL, Apollo Tyres, ESPN Star Sports among others.

     

    Confirming his appointment, Vivek Dutta said: “It’s a great time to be a part of Cheil. Contrary to popular belief Cheil is not just a Samsung agency. The intention here is to exponentially grow to be one of the top agencies in India. The fact that in the past few months Cheil has acquired a slew of varied business is a testimony for this. My intention is to be a part of this movement and provide momentum for growth.”

     

    Cheil India has been on an aggressive growth plan over the last 2 years, almost doubling its size its employee strength and billings. Significant expansion and growth has been seen particularly in BTL and Digital areas, making Cheil one of the largest fully integrated single agencies in India. Cheil set up the agency office in India in 2003 with just 12 team members and today has over 85 talented and passionate team members.

     

    Cheil Worldwide Inc is Korea’s largest and one of the world’s leading advertising groups. Established in 1973 with headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Cheil operates 49 offices in 27 countries with about 3,000 employees. Cheil offers a full portfolio of marketing communications services including advertising, PR, sports marketing, exhibition and display production, and production of large-scale performance events.

     

  • Nets the entire creative communication mandate, acquires the business in a multi-agency pitch

    Cheil Worldwide South West Asia bags Net4

    By A Correspondent

     

    Cheil Worldwide South West Asia has been awarded the complete creative mandate for Net4 India Ltd, India’s leading data centre, cloud hosting and network services provider, in a multi-agency, creative and digital communication pitch that encompassed strategy; creative and execution plan presentations.

     

    Confirming the news, Alok Agrawal, COO Cheil Worldwide SWAsia, said: “The win is yet another testimony to Cheil’s integrated expertise. We provided a 360-degree solution to the client’s brief. The challenge is to enhance awareness for Net4 and make it a top-of-mind choice in its fields of business. More than just advertising the brand requires active engagement with the consumers to get into their consideration set. At Cheil, we always lay emphasis on ideas that energise people into action. Net4 is one of the earliest Internet companies in India with a solid heritage and proven business models. Our solution focused on building a stronger brand franchise across all segments of a fully integrated communication plan to drive business to Net4.”

     

    Speaking on the appointment of Cheil WW SW Asia as Net4’s creative communication partner, Jasjit Singh Sawhney, Chairman & MD, Net4 said: “Net 4 is a leader in most of its areas of operations, especially Web Services to SMEs. It is the only fully integrated Internet Company providing solutions to businesses of all sizes, across a wide spectrum of technology services. We feel the market for our services is currently highly underpenetrated and is poised for explosive growth. To capitalize on this opportunity, we are embarking on an aggressive marketing plan and floated a brief to identify the right partner to build our brand and image. Cheil’s understanding, clear strategy and impactful creative for Net4 clearly demonstrated superior thinking. We are looking forward to our partnership with Cheil for driving business on the back of a solid brand” Cheil has already begun work with Net4 on its various projects.

     

    CheilIndia has been on an aggressive growth plan over the last two years, almost doubling its size in its employee strength and billings. Significant expansion and growth has been seen particularly in BTL and Digital areas, making Cheil one of the largest fully integrated single agencies inIndia. Cheil set up the agency office inIndia in 2003 with just 12 team members and today has over 85 talented and passionate team members with a never-say-die attitude. Cheil is a truly integrated agency executing some of the largest cross-functional integrated campaigns, providing 360°implementation across all facets of marketing services. Cheil Worldwide Inc isKorea’s largest and one of the world’s leading advertising groups.

     

    Net4 is India’s leading Data Centre, Cloud Hosting and Network Services Provider. It is a NSE & BSE listed business enterprise with consolidated revenues to the tune of R 304 Crores (2010-11). Net4 focuses on providing services to businesses (small, medium and large) and its offerings include Data Centre & Cloud Solutions, Web & Application Services and Network & Systems Headquartered in Noida, Net4 has a PAN India presence with offices in 11 major business cities & an ever-growing clientele which includes 850 Corporate Data Center Customers, 800 Internet Bandwidth customers, 2800 Business VoIP customers, 88,000 hosted websites, 1.2 million business e-mail accounts & over 350,000 registered domain names. Net4 is amongst the largest provider of hosted email, web hosting and domain name registration (www.net4.in) in the Asia-Pacific region.

     

  • The challenge is to build unique brand loyalty for Delhi Daredevils and make it a powerful fan motivator, says Alok Agrawal, COO Cheil WW SW Asia

    Cheil WW SW Asia pockets Delhi Daredevils

    By A Correspondent

     

    Following a multi-agency pitch, Cheil WW SW Asia has won the creative mandate for the GMR Sports-owned IPL team Delhi Daredevils. The pitch was for both creative and digital communication.

     

    Confirming the development, Alok Agrawal, COO Cheil WW SW Asia, said, “This is extremely exciting and passions are running high. Taking into account the rigorous pitch process and the competition, we are truly delighted. This win is also testimony to Cheil’s integrated expertise and its global sports marketing capabilities. The challenge is to build unique brand loyalty for Delhi Daredevils and make it a powerful fan motivator. Our approach centered around engaging the fan online and on ground. We truly understand that a brand like Delhi Daredevils is built with engagement and not advertising.”

     

    Speaking on the appointment of Cheil WW SW Asia as Delhi Daredevils’ creative communication partner, Amrit Mathur, Vice President – Head Operations, GMR Sports said: “Cheil’s understanding, strategy, ideas and passion for Delhi Daredevils clearly resonated the next-level thinking required for brand engagement and fan loyalty. We are looking forward to our partnership with Cheil and building our engagement with our fans in keeping with our overall strategy.”

  • Communication can include local flavouring but the core idea remains and finds cohesion when it comes to execution.

    The Anchor: 5 reasons it’s good to be part of an international agency network

    By Alok Agrawal

    #1 Global exposure: There is an opportunity to interact and learn from the various offices of the network spread across the world. Especially in the times we are operating in, it is imperative that we have knowledge of how markets are operating in different parts of the world, and a global network makes this possible.

    #2 One network one brand: With many international brands finding a foothold in India and and Indian brands going International, a network handling the brand helps in creating seamless communication across the world. While communication can include local flavouring, the core idea remains and finds cohesion when it comes to execution.

    #3 People experience: One gets to interact with people from various geographies and learn from them. There is an opportunity to exchange ideas which helps in coming out with better communication solutions.

    #4 New practices: As the business of advertising is undergoing transformation with changing times, being part of the network helps in anticipating those changes, learning from markets that have undergone such changes earlier or anticipate changes and be better equipped to meet those challenges.

    #5 New experience: Besides, it helps in giving an opportunity to travel across the various offices across the world and be part of new experiences.

     

    Alok Agrawal is the Chief Operating Officer of Cheil India/Southwest Asia Regional HQ.