Tag: Amer Jaleel

  • Lintas moves to swanky new office space in Mumbai’s BKC

    By A Correspondent

     

    MullenLowe Lintas Group has announced its relocation from Express Towers at Nariman Point to new business hub, Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC). The move is strategic to its singular market proposition of being a hyper-bundled advertising agency that offers all its services under one roof.

     

    Amer Jaleel

    Commenting about moving from a place that’s been an important part of Lintas, Amer Jaleel, Group CCO & Chairman, MullenLowe Lintas Group said: “As I stand in the new premises and watch the office come up around me I can’t help but think of how Lintas was said to be the only surviving SoBo agency for the 48 years that we belted out one strong ground-breaking campaign after another. Work that never even remotely looked SoBo! Well, we were, and we will continue to be MidInd, bang in the core of the consciousness of the country in our insights and our executions. We moved when we were ready with our new hyper-bundled agency offering and our central Mumbai office is also symbolic of how we intend to be with our clients and brands, tentacle-ing outwards in all directions from the centre! “.

     

    Virat Tandon

    Added Virat Tandon, Group CEO, MullenLowe Lintas Group: “Given the focus on providing our clients hyper-bundled solutions across creative, digital, PR, experiential and design, we saw a clear opportunity to bring all of our people spread across 4 different offices in Mumbai together under one roof. The new office space is purpose-designed, built to facilitate collaboration and houses multiple gather and huddle areas. We believe that moving to BKC will make us more accessible to both our employees and for our clients. BKC is a thriving and fast-growing hub for businesses, and it has powerful energy which makes it a truly inspiring place to work”. The agency will begin operations at its new office from July 1, 2019.

     

     

  • Lowe Lintas strengthens second leadership level with four new RCOs

    By A Correspondent

     

    Lowe Lintas has announced a new structure for the second level of creative leadership at the agency. The new RCO structure comes as a progression to the CCO announcements made earlier this year.

     

    As part of this move, three senior creative leaders Joy Mohanty, Amar Singh and Carlos Pereira, have been elevated to the post of RCO. Additionally, Kapil Mishra, a senior creative resource has been hired as the new RCO for its South office.

     

    Joy Mohanty,

    Joy Mohanty, who leads the creative function for the Delhi and Kolkata offices of Lowe Lintas, is now elevated to Regional Creative Officer. His mandate is to strengthen the agency’s creative standing in the designated regions. Joy will continue to handle creative duties for the North and Eastregional offices.

     

     

    Amar Singh

    Amar Singh has been elevated to Regional Creative Officer at Lowe Lintas. In his close to 16 years at Lowe, he has worked on brands such as Vim, Domex, Clinic Plus and Pureit. He will be based out of the agency’s Mumbai office.

     

     

     

    Carlos Pereria has now been elevated to Regional Creative Officer at Lowe Lintas. With just over a decade in Lowe Lintas, he has led several brands across the agency including Idea Cellular, Surf Excel, Vim, Wheel, Sunlight, Ultratech, Kara, etc. He will be based out of the agency’s Mumbai office.

     

     

    Kapil Mishra

    Appointed as Regional Creative Officer at Lowe Lintas, Kapil Mishra comes from Contract Advertising, where he led a host of brands under his creative leadership as the Creative Head for its Mumbai office working on brands like Asian Paints, Cadbury Celebrations, Edelweiss, UTI Mutual Fund, Sugarfree, HSBC, Halls, Choclairs, ITC Charmis, Docomo etc. Mishra will be based out of the agency’s Bengaluru office.

     

    Amer Jaleel

    Speaking about strengthening the second level of creative leadership at Lowe Lintas, Amer Jaleel, Group CCO & Chairman – MullenLowe Lintas Group said: “As a group we are instituting this new structure that will be the logical second level after CCO. At MLLG our RCOs will define leadership of a strong cluster of clients or brands that could be either geographical or not. Let’s just say RCOs are capable of leading a small agency by themselves. Lowe Lintas is an agency with a large portfolio of clients. When Virat and I took over the reins of the Group, putting the building blocks in place was our top priority. To deliver a powerful creative product, you not only need great creative leaders but also strong people under them to give shape to those great ideas. I see this quality in every RCO who can ably support Prateek and Sagar in their creative pursuits.”

     

  • Kyoorius announces jury for creative awards

    By A Correspondent

     

    The sixth annual Kyoorius Creative Awards has announced its jury chairpersons. These are: Agnello Dias (Chairman & Co-Founder, Dentsu Taproot & Creative Chairman, Dentsu Aegis Network India), Amer Jaleel (CCO & Chairman, MullenLowe Lintas Group), Anita Nayyar (CEO – India & SE Asia, Havas Media Group) and Valerie Madon (Chairwoman – Singapore & CCO, Havas Group SE Asia).

     

    Other jurors include Ajay Gahlaut (CCO, Publicis Worldwide India), Ajit Mohan (VP & MD – India, Facebook), Anusha Shetty (CEO, Autumn Worldwide), Arun Iyer (Founding Partner, Spring Marketing Group), Carlton D’Silva (CEO & CCO, Hungama Digital Services), Deepa Geethakrishnan (NCD – HUL, Lowe Lintas), Farrokh Madon (Chief Creative Partner, Walter Thompson Singapore), Joji Jacob (Co-Founder & Creative Partner, BLK J Singapore), Josy Paul (Chairman, BBDO India), Kainaz Karmakar (Group Creative Director, Ogilvy India), Marco Versolato (CCO, Wunderman Thompson Singapore), Partho Dasgupta (CEO, BARC India), RajDeepak Das (CCO – South Asia, Leo Burnett), Rochelle Chhaya (COO, OMD APAC), Rohit Raj (Co-Founder & CCO, The Glitch), Rodger Beekman (Chief Experience Officer, PwC), Satbir Singh (Founder & CCO, Thinkstr), Senthil Kumar (CCO, Wunderman Thompson India), Siddharth Banerjee (Director – Global Sales Organisation, Facebook India), Sidharth Rao (CEO & Co-Founder, Dentsu Webchutney), Sonal Dabral (CCO – SE Asia & Vice-Chairman, Ogilvy India), and Swati Bhattacharya (CCO, FCBUlka). More jurors will be added and announced soon, notes a communique.

     

    The 2019 Kyoorius Creative Awards invites entries from across India under the Kyoorius Advertising Awards, the Kyoorius Media Awards and the Kyoorius Digital Awards. Submissions for all entries close on May 3, 2019.

     

    Said Rajesh Kejriwal, Founder and CEO, Kyoorius: “The Kyoorius Creative Awards is the advertising industry’s most representative competition, attracting over 3,000 entries every year.  Our intent has always been to discover and unearth agencies, marketers, or creators, who set new benchmarks in creativity, with a special attention to cultural context.”  The awards are being conducted in ‘coordination’ with The One Club For Creativity (organisers of The One Show awards)

     

    This year, Kyoorius has introduced new disciplines including Experiential Marketing, Topical Advertising, Digital Video and Audio, Digital Video and Audio Craft, and Creative Use Of Data, while fine-tuning the existing advertising, media and digital categories.  Entrants can submit work by visiting http://awards.kyoorius.com.

     

    Judging will be held in Mumbai from May 16 to 18 May. The Kyoorius Creative Awards will be presented on Saturday, June 1, 2019 in Mumbai.

     

     

  • Lloyd unveils campaign featuring #DeepVeer

    By A Correspondent

     

    Lloyd Air Conditioner’s latest ad film – Khayal Rakhenge. Khush Rakhenge – highlights an enjoyable take on its innovative technology. The film targets the young Indians who aspire for a fuller life and value products with technology that helps them live this kind of life.

     

    The film conceptualised by Mullen Lintas features Bollywood couple Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh.

     

    Commenting on the thought behind the Campaign and Film, Amer Jaleel, Group CCO & Chairman – Mullen Lowe Lintas Group, said: “Lloyd is a new-age Indian brand and the most important aspect of the brand to influence when it came to us was its voice. We felt that consumer durable brands are not able to reflect the millennial-speak that is so important to make brands relatable in this category. If you hear people and the brand, speak like you, you stop and listen however much the clutter. We were helped by the chemistry between our stars which while being electric is thankfully so normal! The fact that they were coming together for a brand that was a first for them, their own excitement and enthusiasm at being captured and working together got added with the magic of our ‘Badhai Ho’ director Amit Sharma. All this made the atmosphere on the set so amazing that I think we just put a camera and it translated the reality on celluloid without any loss!”

     

    Added Amit Tiwari, Vice President Marketing, Havells India: “Lloyd is a crucial piece in our brand portfolio and we want to fuel this business as a strong engine for our growth. We felt the brand needed a fresh perspective and proposition at this stage in its journey and found the narrative shared by Mullen Lintas compelling.”

  • Mullen Lintas ropes in Azazul Haque, promotes Garima Khandelwal as new CCOs

    By A Correspondent

     

    Mullen Lintas has announced the new creative leadership at the agency. Azazul Haque (previously Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy South) and elevated Garima Khandelwal (previously Executive Creative Director, Mullen Lintas) are the new Chief Creative Officers. The announcement follows Vikas Mehta’s appointment as the agency’s Chief Executive Officer – hinting fundamental changes at the leadership level.

     

    Speaking about the development, Amer Jaleel, Group CCO and Chairman, MullenLowe Lintas Group said “Mullen Lintas is a very special agency to the group. It was handcrafted by a select bunch and managed to get into the top 10 among agencies on reputation probably faster than any agency in living memory. We took our time in figuring out the leadership and I have to laud our clients for exemplary conviction that they gave us this space and time. Garima Khandelwal and Azazul Haque are not just the best bets for the agency, they are the best bets for each other too. Gari is supremely artistically inclined and intuitive as a mind and Azaz is a fantastic articulator and craftsperson both of lofty truths and consumer language. Plus the two are among the coolest people in advertising. They are going to rocket our trail-blazing agency to stratospheric levels with dark shades firmly in place!” Both Haque and Khandelwal will be based out of the agency’s Mumbai office.

     

     

  • Mullen Lintas names Vikas Mehta CEO

    By A Correspondent

     

    Mullen Lintas has announced the appointment of Vikas Mehta as its CEO. Mehta takes on this role from Virat Tandon who was recently elevated to the position of Group CEO, MullenLowe Lintas Group. Speaking of the choice, Tandon said: “Mullen Lintas has very quickly earned the reputation of being a high achieving agency. There couldn’t be a better person than Vikas to lead the agency into its next phase of growth. He brings with him a hunger to build the agency of the future and has the skills needed to do so. His experience as an omni-channel practitioner will give an edge to the solutions that the agency develops. I am sure that under his leadership, Mullen Lintas will only up its challenger game”.

     

    Formed a little over three years ago, Mullen Lintas features amongst the top ten creative agencies in India with some iconic campaigns under its belt. The agency has partnered numerous brands on a client portfolio that includes like Bajaj Auto, Bajaj Corp., Dabur, Fossil, Gionee, Havells, Honda, Modern Foods, Motilal Oswal, Oppo, Pharmeasy, Quikr, SBI Life Insurance, Tata Cliq, Tata Tea, Too Yumm, Viacom 18, Vistara, Vivo and Voonik.

     

    Mehta’s last assignment was to set up the omni-channel creative agency, PointNine Lintas, which he ran as CEO until its merger with Lowe Lintas, announced last week.

     

    Vikas Mehta

    Commenting on the move, Mehta said: “Mullen Lintas has achieved in three years what most agencies would dream of in a decade. Its founding leaders – Amer, Virat and Shriram – have built an agency where the leadership pedigree of Lintas, meets the challenger mindset of MullenLowe Group. It’s a culture of creative excellence, that punches way above its weight. I am delighted at the opportunity to help author the next chapter in the agency’s evolution.”

     

    Amer Jaleel

    Speaking on Mehta’s appointment, Amer Jaleel, Group CCO and Chairman, MullenLowe Lintas Group added: “Mullen Lintas is a special agency. Handcrafted over the last three years, it needs nurturing and attention of a very different level to take it ahead from here. The agency has been the fastest to make it to the top 10 league in reputation ever and its ambition is to reach the 100-crore club too, faster than any other. In Vikas we found a partner to strengthen our already formidable team. Vikas brings so many colours to this role – he’s been a terrific believer and marketer of our name and fame, he’s shepherded PointNine Lintas back into the fold and he is probably visioning the future better than anyone in the industry. We are supremely fortunate to have him.” Mehta will operate out of the Mumbai office of Mullen Lintas, and the appointment is effective immediately.

     

     

  • Lowe Lintas announces merger with PointNine Lintas

    By A Correspondent

     

    Amer Jaleel & Virat Tandon

    MullenLowe Lintas Group has announced the merger of its omni-channel agency, PointNine Lintas, with its creative agency, Lowe Lintas.

     

    Said Virat Tandon, Group CEO, MullenLowe Lintas Group: “With PointNine Lintas, we’ve grown a new, future-facing strain and now it’s time to graft it into Lowe Lintas, which is already India’s best. Having seen the PointNine offering and skills develop very closely, and being familiar with the position that Lowe already commands, I am super excited about this move and am confident that this is a big leap forward for us. Our promise for clients with this merger is that in the increasingly fragmented and fast-evolving communications landscape, we will now be able to seamlessly extract more power from our big ideas. Lowe Lintas’ new Hyper-bundled offering means that our clients no longer have to settle for the fractured solutions of the past.”

     

    The services that Lowe Lintas will now offer includes digital marketing and transformation, public relations, reputation management, activation, experiential & shopper marketing, and media planning & buying. The PR, Media and Experiential divisions of the group, GolinOpinion, Lintas Mediahub and LinEngage respectively, would continue to offer their services to their clients, while collaborating with Lowe Lintas.

     

    Speaking about the merger, Amer Jaleel, Group CCO and Chairman, MullenLowe Lintas Group added: “We are looking at a future where a lot of very carefully designed and yet differing messages will aggregate to form a stereographic brand picture in the head. We see this emerging need as very challenging and exciting. Our omni-channel incubation PointNine Lintas is now fully ready and positioned to understand these complex brand needs and it’s time to unleash it across the breadth of our vast brand portfolio”.

     

    The merger is effective immediately and the leadership teams of both agencies are working on operationalising the merged structure.

     

     

  • Tata Tea Gold urges viewers to listen to their hearts, in latest ad film

    By A Correspondent

     

    Tata Tea Gold’s new campaign highlights the idea of ‘dil ko na kahoge to pachtaoge’. Adding on to the fervour of new beginnings and resolutions being made for a better year ahead, the ad film tugs at heartstrings reiterating the insight that ‘you often tend to regret, if you don’t listen to your heart’.

     

    Said Puneet Das, Marketing Head, Tata Global Beverages: “Both, desire and regret, are emotions which dwell in the heart. It’s the heart that wants, and when we don’t listen to our heart’s desire, we regret it. Almost all of us will have stories to tell when it comes to ‘regret’ and ‘not following our heart’. We have leveraged this basic human insight to take a refreshed look at our ‘Na kahoge toh pachhtaoge’ platform of Tata Tea Gold, and evolved it to create an emotional narrative around following your heart with this film “Dil Ko Na Kahoge To Pachhtaoge”. With a simple storyline the TVC addresses the perennial dilemma between the head and the heart that transcends the boundaries of age and time.”

     

    Added Amer Jaleel – Group Chairman and Chief Creative Officer, MullenLowe Lintas Group: “While this film shows a young woman struggling to listen to her heart about a career choice, it’s a film that speaks to so many of us. Replace career choice with relationship choices, life choices, or any other choice that each and every one of us has made, to only regret it later, and we have a film that speaks to each and every one of us. That is the beauty of this insight, and the film. Of particular importance, is the role of the mother. Like all mothers, the mother in the film also knows what her child wants, and knows that she will regret it if she doesn’t listen to her heart. Using a simple analogy of a cup of Tata Tea Gold, its tempting aroma and taste, she guides her daughter to listen to her heart, and not have any regrets.”

     

     

  • Lowe Lintas names Sagar Kapoor and Prateek Bhardwaj as CCOs

    By A Correspondent

     

    Sagar Kapoor
    Prateek Bhardwaj

    MullenLowe Lintas Group has announced the new creative leadership of its agency, Lowe Lintas. The agency has named Sagar Kapoor and Prateek Bhardwaj as its Chief Creative Officers (CCOs). These appointments mark the completion of the transition that started with the recent exit of Arun Iyer.  While Kapoor has been elevated from within the agency where he was Executive Director, based in Mumbai. Bharadwaj  moves from McCann Worldgroup where he was National Creative Director.

     

    In the new structure, Kapoor would oversee a part of the Mumbai office of Lowe Lintas, and all its offices in the South. Bharadwaj’s portfolio would include a part of the Mumbai office, and the agency’s offices in the North.

     

    Amer Jaleel

    According to a communique, Amer Jaleel, Chairman and CCO – MullenLowe Lintas Group, has handpicked the creative duo for these roles, in consultation with Arun Iyer. Speaking of the appointments, Jaleel said: “The task of choosing and appointing the creative leadership of Lowe Lintas is an incredibly enviable and unenviable position to be in! Taking over from the likes of Balki and Arun Iyer for one. And taking charge of the legacy and for the future of Lowe Lintas during these challenging and exciting times, too. But we have found the two most gifted and ideal individuals possible, what a great relief and what a sense of pride at this announcement!”

     

    Commenting on the new CCOs, Jaleel added: “We’ve seen the two CCO model work well in the past for the agency. The new generation of leaders taking over is the start of Lowe Lintas evolving its creative product, while being true to the Lintas soul.”

     

    The new appointments will be effective January 1, 2019. Both the new CCOs will operate out of the Mumbai offices of Lowe Lintas, reporting to Jaleel.

     

     

  • Mullen Lintas executes a warm campaign for Havells Home Appliances

    By A Correspondent

     

    In a new campaign conceived by Mullen Lintas, Havells has repositioned itself with a message: ‘Saath Ki Life, Sukoon Ki Life’ (meaning ‘living together, peacefully’).

     

    Said Amit Tiwari, Vice President, Marketing, Havells India: “The home appliance category has seen the entry of many new players as well as existing players ramp up their efforts to target consumers aggressively. In this competitive market scenario the need of the hour was to position the brand as an excellent solution provider, who not only provides great products but actually helps them with their household work. I believe the campaign captures the essence of Havells as a brand beautifully and will help consumers connect with the larger proposition of deeper into homes.”

     

    Commenting on the campaign, Amer Jaleel, Group Chairman and Chief Creative Officer, Mullen Lowe Lintas Group said: “Usually electronics and appliances brands are going for typical aspirational values. The family in the ad should look upmarket, the home needs to have a particular class to it, we need to up-pitch our brand in relation to the competition. Refreshingly Havells is anything but typical! We decided to be aspirational but emotionally. So the brand is now repped by a couple right at the beginning of their life together and Havells’ appliances form the basis of their home bond. Romance blooms by working together in a synced way is the theme of our Aadhaa-Aadhaa brand idea.”

     

     

  • Amer Jaleel & Virat Tandon to head MullenLowe Lintas Group. Arun iyer to exit

     

    By A Correspondent

    The winds of change are blowing. And given that the headquarters are near the near-seafront end of Mumbai’s Nariman Point, these winds have been blowing hard and fast.

     

    So we woke this morning to the Brand Equity story on the development at MullenLowe Lintas Group. That Amer Jaleel has been named Group Chairman and Chief Creative Officer. Partnering him, on business, will be Virat Tandon who’s being named Group CEO. In their new roles, the duo will lead the group mandate in India overseeing its three agencies; Lowe Lintas, Mullen Lintas and PointNine Lintas. And, most importantly, Arun Iyer – Chairman and CCO of Lowe, the older agency, has decided to move on.

     

    Given the Economic Times supplement’s deadlines, this was a carefully planned exclusive given by the agency network. And we rest our case whether the exclusive lolly was really worth it.

     

    Speaking of the new group leadership, Alex Leikikh – global CEO MullenLowe Group said: “A few years ago, we had asked Amer and Virat to start our second agency in India, Mullen Lintas, and they have built it into a top 10 agency in the country in just two years. Amer has been a creative leader of our group in India for a very long time now, and Virat embodies the entrepreneurial spirit of the MullenLowe Group, and as such I am delighted to have them steer our overall business in India to even greater success.”

     

    Interestingly, the communique received from the agency network is silent on the roles of Raj Gupta, CEO, Lowe Lintas, the flagship agency and Vikas Mehta, CEO, PointNine Lintas. Gupta was elevated in March 2017 along with Iyer and Mehta was appointed CEO in mid-2017 along with the agency’s formation. Mehta was also essaying the role of CMO of the group. While the appointments have the blessings of the global guard, it needs to be seen how the appointment of Tandon impacts that of Gupta and Mehta.

     

    Meanwhile, speaking of their new roles, Jaleel and Tandon said this in a communique: “We have a lot of strong assets in the group. Two top ten agencies, Lowe Lintas and Mullen Lintas; a very promising incubation, the Omni-channel agency PointNine Lintas; some of the industry’s best and brightest creative, strategy and business leaders; and last but not the least a culture that makes us stick together and tick. The future is looking different and exciting. There could be no better time for the group to embark on this journey. To stay at the top of its game, MullenLowe Lintas Group realizes the importance of investing in building a strong talent pool with new skills that are relevant in the digital and hyper-connected world. It’s becoming more challenging for brands to win in the marketplace as the consumer is evolving and most categories are being disrupted and transformed due to technology. Clients are looking for all the help they can get from their agencies to win in this new reality. We want to continue to be our clients’ biggest strength.”

     

    Iyer, who plans to start a venture of his own and will transition out of the agency over the next year, has along with the agency planned a twelve-month transition period, during which he will continue to work for some key clients and help with succession planning. This is what he has said:  “I have had the privilege of being part of an institution. I have spent a little over 15 years here. And it is home. Over the last few years, I have been passionate about start-ups and have played a role in developing some strong brands such as Byju’s, Freecharge and Grofers. Going forward, I am planning to work more closely within the start-up ecosystem.” Added Jaleel: “Arun and I have been brothers-in-arms for over eight years now. We’ve been shouldering the equity and reputation of Lintas together and that gives you a sort of a feeling of being in the same womb! Arun has, over the last three years, taken the spirit that Balki infused in Lowe Lintas to a different zone and moulded the agency in his own way. A large part of my job for MullenLowe Lintas Group will be to take that imprint forward.”

     

    The last bit in the communique is critical: “Jaleel and Tandon’s appointments take place with immediate effect. They are working on plans to transform MullenLowe Lintas Group in a few critical areas to remain the key agency partner for clients.”

     

    Ah. Sorry, we aren’t Brand Equity, but this last line can be interpreted variously. Or perhaps not. We are journalists. We don’t have to necessarily do creative thinking. Tandon is a great guy, and so are Gupta and Mehta. But then there can be just one leader.

  • Mullen Lintas conceives new film for Oppo F9 Pro

    By A Correspondent

     

    Oppo has officially launched its latest smartphone – Oppo F9 Pro – in the Indian market. To power the launch of this smartphone, Mullen Lintas Delhi has conceived the communication for the same.

     

    The campaign idea hinges on a common life situation – staring at a phone that shows just one red line of charge, barely keeping the phone on and an urgent call needs to be made. The film captures this simple life observation, highlights the safety of women utilizing the brand ambassadors, Deepika Padukone and Sidharth Malhotra, to showcase Oppo F9 Pro’s supremely long-lasting battery.

     

    Commenting on the new TVC, Will Yang, Brand Director, Oppo India, said: “Oppo has always given utmost attention to consumer feedback. This time around our consumers wanted a phone that could last a long duration and enable them to live their life on their own terms without being dependent on their phone battery. This new TVC featuring our brand ambassadors portrays the same sentiment. It takes cues from the current situations consumers might find themselves in and highlights how the VOOC Flash Charge Technology of Oppo F9 Pro enables them to be connected always, even on the go. We believe that Mullen Lintas has fabulously woven a great story that will help us reach out to our audience and help them realise how the Oppo F9 Pro will empower them.”

     

    Added Amer Jaleel, Chairman & Chief Creative Officer, Mullen Lintas: “As a generation, we are always on the move. And always on the phone. This is an interesting mismatch in our lives and that’s where F9 Pro has an important role to play. You only have to charge it for five minutes and you can chat for hours. It’s a very relevant innovation today. And that’s what the campaign intends to communicate. We’ve tried to capture this through a day in the life of a young lady and Deepika’s portrayal brings it beautifully alive.”