Omnicom Media Group (OMG) India has appointed Anand Chakravarthy as its new Chief Growth Officer. He will report to Kartik Sharma, Group CEO of OMG India.
Speaking on his appointment, Kartik Sharma, CEO of Omnicom Media Group India, said, “I am delighted to welcome Anand on board. His extensive knowledge, values-based leadership style and commitment to delivering results will undoubtedly be a great asset to our business going forward. His work speaks for itself and shows that he has the propensity to lead and help companies capitalize on new growth opportunities in an emerging market.”
Said Chakravarthy (Andy to friends and colleagues): “I am thrilled to be a part of OMG India and getting the opportunity to work with Kartik and his leadership team, for whom I have immense respect. OMG is recognized globally for its thought leadership and building future forward capabilities – a critical need in the industry today. Working in this ecosystem with this team and leveraging these capabilities to help brands evolve without any limitations is a fantastic opportunity. I look forward to fully committing to OMG’s vision and pushing the boundaries of innovation and growth.”
Omnicom Media Group returns with the second edition of its Digital Bootcamp to train and nurture a bevy of digital marketing acolytes, with a focus on media planning this time around. The OMG Digital Bootcamp will focus on helping young graduates hone their craft and ultimately give them a crucial head start in the digital marketing space. The paid internship program has been launched once again with the collaborative efforts of Executive Upskilling platform, Eleves.
Said Kartik Sharma, Group CEO, Omnicom Media Group, India: “Our continuing success, curiosity to explore new realms in media and the potential to become even better motivates us to constantly push the boundaries and set an example as a pioneering force in the industry. With this returning edition of the Bootcamp, we seek to attract even more bright minds who believe in creating a digitally sustainable future with zero limitations. Some of our best experts will serve in collaboration as a guiding force in empowering and nurturing upcoming talent.”
Added Anand Chakravarthy, Co-Founder of Eleves: “We live in a very different world today than what it was even 3 years ago. As more brands and services move online to cater to the fast-growing internet population in India, Digital Marketing is key for their success. But this requires a practical perspective of digital platforms and how best to leverage them to build brands online. We are thrilled to partner with OMG and run the second batch of the Digital Ninja Bootcamp, where our faculty will give them hands-on and practical upskilling across key digital platforms.”
Omnicom Media Group (OMG) has announced the launch of its first-ever OMG Digital Bootcamp, a four-week, full-time intensive learning programme designed to provide a launchpad to aspiring digital marketers looking to kick start their career in digital marketing.
Speaking of this new initiative, Kartik Sharma, Group CEO, Omnicom Media Group, India, said: “Progress and purpose are always at the heart of everything we do, and we believe that wherever learning thrives, so do people. One of the ways we have decided to support this is by nurturing budding talent in-house. In an industry where we are often faced with the challenge of onboarding entry-level aspirants in the digital ecosystem, we paused to take a hard look at how we could empower talent in-house and set them up for success within our agencies, thereby empowering business growth in the long run. This Bootcamp is one of the ways in which we have decided to support present and future talent, in-house, by enhancing their digital proficiency.”
Added Anand Chakravarthy, Co-Founder, Results & Outcomes: “With 2.5 million digital jobs set to be created over the next 5 years, the need for ‘ready for business’ talent is critical for organizations. With rapid digitalization, it is imperative to rethink learning and how upskilling should be delivered. Results & Outcomes is pleased to collaborate with OMG India to curate and deliver an application-oriented and hands-on, progressive digital learning program delivered by domain experts – experienced professionals who themselves have run digital campaigns for years.”
Essence, the GroupM agency for data and measurement-driven media investments, has announced the appointment of Sonali Malaviya as the agency’s Managing Director for India. Anand Chakravarthy, previously Managing Director for Essence India, has moved on from the agency to pursue new opportunities. Malaviya will be responsible for leading continued client-centric innovation in data, analytics and technology, as well as business growth and company culture for the agency in the market.
Based out of Delhi, Malaviya will report to Essence APAC CEO, T. Gangadhar (Gangs) and GroupM South Asia CEO, Prasanth Kumar (PK). She will join Essence’s APAC leadership team and GroupM India’s executive committee as part of her role.
Joining Essence in 2018, Malaviya most recently led the agency’s Google business in India and Southeast Asia as Senior Vice President, Client Services. Previously, she served as Chief Operating Officer at Colorbar Cosmetics and Country Marketing Lead at Twitter in India. With over 20 years of industry experience, she has also held senior roles at Mindshare, PHD, Roy Morgan Research and MediaCom in India, the United Arab Emirates and Australia.
Said Gangadhar: “Sonali comes with rich experience in management, marketing and media across industries and markets, as well as a deep understanding of Essence’s business, work, people and culture. In addition to building strong, collaborative partnerships with clients and employees alike, she is an advocate of diversity and inclusion in the workplace. India continues to be a priority for Essence in APAC and globally, and with Sonali at the helm, I am very excited about our next phase of growth and development in the market,” We would also like to thank Anand for his efforts in helping to establish our business in India over the last three years. We greatly appreciate his contributions and wish him the best in his future endeavours.”
Added Kumar: “We are glad to see Sonali take over the role of Essence India Managing Director. With her background and significant achievements, she will add to the capabilities of Essence and work with our teams to improve the client experience. As we continue to develop leaders internally, Sonali is also part of our growing pool of talent taking on various leadership roles across GroupM India. I look forward to working with Sonali and leveraging her expertise.”
Said Malaviya: “I am truly honoured to have the opportunity to lead Essence in India. Over the past three years, I have witnessed and been part of our incredible growth story in this market, and am very proud of what our agency, clients and employees have achieved together. I am looking forward to partnering with our highly talented teams and leveraging our industry-leading capabilities to help even more brands in India achieve data-driven growth and transformation, as well as valuable connections with consumers.”
Since Essence’s entry into India in 2016, the agency has rapidly expanded to three offices across Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai. Essence’s diverse portfolio of clients in the market includes Airtel, Britannia, Flipkart, Games24x7, Google, Honda motorcycles and scooters, Livspace, Melorra, Purplle, Vedantu, Wakefit and Zee5.
Essence, GroupM’s data and measurement-driven media agency, has been awarded integrated media agency of record duties for jewellery brand Melorra in India. Led out of Bengaluru, Essence’s scope of work includes media planning, media activation and content innovation.
Said Saroja Yeramilli, Founder and CEO, Melorra: “Melorra is well-poised to address the growing demand in the daily wear and lightweight jewellery segment. Having built a strong foundation as we seek to expand our customer base, we were looking for a media agency partner who has a deep appreciation for data and key metrics that drive a direct-to-consumer business like ours. Essence was able to amply demonstrate this and more, and we are happy to have the team on board as a partner in our growth,”
Added Anand Chakravarthy, Managing Director, India, Essence: “Melorra is a progressive brand in an exciting category. The lightweight jewellery space is set for tremendous growth, as we see more women from across India opting for such jewellery. Melorra is at the forefront of maximising this opportunity with its wide range of fashionable jewellery for everyday wear. The smart use of data signals, analytics and creativity combined is essential to driving acquisition for Melorra – this is one of Essence’s key areas of expertise and we are looking forward to helping accelerate business growth for Melorra,”
Zee TV collaborated with Flipkart and media agency Essense and to make TV viewing interactive during Flipkart’s annual sale – Big Billion Days. Viewers could scan a QR code on screen during the airing of Zee TV’s top-rated primetime dramas Tujhse Hai Raabta and Kundali Bhagya to shop for the look of Kalyani’s smart kitchen and get the same gifts as Srishti (in teh cast) had picked for her family. These featured products were all made available at discounted prices on an exclusive co-branded webpage on Flipkart.
Said Anand Chakravarthy, Managing Director, India, Essence: “Television content has always had a wide-reaching impact on people. It not only shapes perceptions and beliefs, but also consumer fashion trends today. The clothes and accessories worn by TV protagonists can be aspirational for viewers, who want to own similar products. This insight led us to the QR code activation on Zee TV, using simple yet effective technology that allows viewers to immediately gain access to desired products on Flipkart during the Big Billion Days festival. This is a great collaboration between the TV channel, Flipkart and Essence to deliver a first-of-its-kind ecommerce experience to consumers in India,”
Speaking on the initiative, Ashish Sehgal, Chief Growth Officer, Zee said: “In the business of entertainment, one of our key objectives remains making our brands increasingly tangible and accessible to our consumers. Our collaboration with Essence and Flipkart had our flagship channel Zee TV turning Interactive in the course of Flipkart’s Big Billion Days Sale wherein across a couple of shows, not only did we connect with viewers on an emotional level through content but satisfied their impulse purchase desires by connecting them to a Flipkart-Zee platform, thereby bringing point of purchase to consumer right in their living room.”
Added Vikas Gupta- Vice President and Head of Marketing, Flipkart said: “Big Billion Days is India’s biggest and most loved shopping festival and this offered an innovative way to showcase the plethora of shopping options on Flipkart. We showcased top products across Mobiles , Fashion, Electronics, Large, Home & Kitchen while the audience watched their favourite shows on Zee TV. This was a great example of merging online with offline and communication with commerce.”
Wakefit.co has unveiled its new brand campaign, #KnowMoreSleepBetter. With India being deemed the second most sleep-deprived country by a global study and internal studies by Wakefit.co revealing that one in five Indians believe they have insomnia, sleep-related disorders have become a pertinent lifestyle ailment.
Speaking on the launch of the new campaign, Chaitanya Ramalingegowda, Director and Co-founder, Wakefit.co, said: “The sleep industry in India is pegged at INR10,000 crore (growing to INR14,000 crore by 2021), yet there is little innovation in this space. We have witnessed disruption in the nutrition and exercise segments of wellness but sleep has so far been ignored due to the lack of visually appealing representation in the space. The idea of the campaign was to create a world around sleep that is inhabited by cool and likeable characters who are eager to unravel the mysteries of sleep and present it in a simple and digestible form The campaign strongly aligns with our brand ethos of making great quality sleep accessible to people across India.”
Added Vineet Gupta, Founding Partner, Spring Marketing Capital on collaborating with Wakefit as its brand partners, for this and future campaigns: “Sleep is one of the most important factors impacting a person’s health, productivity and success. However in today’s world, sleep is often de-prioritised, taken for granted and riddled with misconceptions. Wakefit was founded as a sleep solutions company and aims to bring sleep back into the consciousness and conversation of Indian consumers. We are thrilled to partner Wakefit in their journey of building a brand that is meaningful, fun and differentiated.”
Added Anand Chakravarthy, Managing Director, Essence, Wakefit’s integrated media agency: “Wakefit is a truly innovative brand that is disrupting the space of sleep solutions with its unique technology, service delivery and product offerings. This product segment will never be the same again, with consumers being the ultimate winners. We are truly excited to partner with the team at Wakefit and bring our media, data and measurement capabilities to help build the brand and drive business.”
Essence, a data-driven global agency that’s part of GroupM, announced the appointment of Sonali Malaviya as Vice President, Client Partner. She will be reporting into Anand Chakravarthy, Managing Director, Essence India and will lead the Google relationship, based in the Gurgaon office.
With experience spanning over 15 years, Malaviya is a senior marketing professional working with global brands and companies. Prior to Essence, she was the Chief Operating Officer of Colorbar Cosmetics. She was also the India Country Marketing lead at Twitter and helped set up and navigate their marketing offering to some of the biggest domestic and international brands in the market. In the past, she has also held the position of Principal Partner at Mindshare Delhi, and has done stints in leading media agencies and a research firm.
Said Anand Chakravarthy, Managing Director, Essence India: “Sonali’s diverse experience and her width of exposure working on both the agency and the client side, makes her a real asset to have at Essence and the ideal choice to steward our longstanding relationship with Google. Bring onboard key leadership like Sonali is priority to Essence building a strong differentiated offering in India.â€
GroupM has announced the leadership structure for the proposed Maxus-MEC merged entity (codenamed ‘NewCo’) in India and South Asia as also for the digitally-led agency Essence in South and North Asia.
As speculated in a report on MxMIndia a few weeks back, Tim Castree, Global CEO of MEC and CEO of “NewCo”has named Kartik Sharma as Managing Director of the new media, content and technology agency in India and South Asia when it launches in January 2018. Sharma has been Managing Director of Maxus South Asia since 2014 and in that time, has led the agency to outstanding new business growth and success.
Said Castree: “We’re creating a brand new billion-dollar revenue media, content and technology agency, dubbed ‘NewCo’ for now. With such ambition, comes a need for brilliant talent to lead and inspire, and so today’s news is very exciting for us. Under Kartik’s leadership, I am confident that we will have the right team in place to truly make NewCo a formidable future-facing agency in India and South Asia.†Sharma will report to GroupM South Asia CEO CVL Srinivas and Castree.
Following GroupM’s recent commitment to adding offline media capabilities, an expanded geographic footprint and an influx of talent to the agency, Christian Juhl, Global CEO of Essence, a global digital-first agency, has announced that T Gangadhar, current Managing Director of MEC South Asia, will transition into the new role of Chairman of India and Managing Director of North Asia, Essence. Gangadhar will report into Kyoko Matsushita, CEO of Essence APAC. He will continue to be based in Mumbai.
Meanwhile, Anand Chakravarthy, who has served as Managing Partner at Maxus India since 2015, will be transitioning into the role of Managing Director of Essence India. Chakravarthy will report into both Gangadhar and Matsushita and will work closely with the regional leadership in his new role.
Both Gangadhar and Chakravarthy will assume their new roles by January 2018. The Essence teams will be strongly supported by the GroupM network as they look to expand their presence in market. Said Christian Juhl: “India is such an important market for so many of our clients whose business challenges we work tirelessly to solve. Essence has built its credibility on being a data-centric agency that infuses technology and measurement across all media. We’re excited to expand our geographic footprint and apply our unique approach for our global clients looking for relevance in India. Gangadhar and Anand are experienced leaders who will help expand our presence.â€
Global communications consultancy firm Maxus has bagged the mandate for Infiniti Retail (Croma), a subsidiary company of Tata Sons dealing solely in electronic retail products. Maxus has taken over the mandate with effect from April 1st 2016.
This mandate will cover the entire media end-to-end solutions for TV, Print, Digital, Radio, Cinema etc. Maxus will also be managing the Social Assets of brand Croma and driving their Social strategy.
Kartik Sharma, Managing Director- Maxus South Asia said: “Maxus has had the opportunity to partner with multiple entities from the TATA GROUP. We are therefore very pleased to now be a partner to Croma as well. Croma has been a pioneer in the Electronic retail space and continues to thrive in an evolving competitive environment. We see our strong strategic and digital capabilities being a real asset to the Croma team and look to working closely with them to drive their business priorities. The larger goal will be to navigate the brand in this increasingly challenging media and marketing landscape to ensure that Croma continues to win.â€
Anand Chakravarthy, Managing Partner- Maxus India said: “Working with a TATA brand is always an exciting proposition and this partnership with Croma is a big win for Maxus. Given the vision and brand strategy articulated by the Croma marketing team, we are really looking forward to partnering them on this journey.â€
Ritesh Ghosal CMO Infiniti Retail said, “Maxus’ integrated digital approach covering content, social and bought media swung the pitch in our minds. With our increasing focus on digital media, we were looking for a partner willing to learn the new Omni-channel marketing game along with us and Maxus with its experienced team and strong digital understanding put their hand up.â€
​​Maxus has ​announced elevations of some of its key people and strengthened the top management team.
Anand Chakravarthy who joined last year as Head of Maxus West has been promoted to Managing Partner. Anand will continue to be based at Mumbai, leading the West team and expansion plans.
​​Unny Radhakrishnan who heads the digital practice for Maxus South Asia has been promoted as Chief Digital Officer. In his new role, he will be additionally responsible for developing new practices & investments and new offerings from Maxus Metalworks (the creative R&D lab of Maxus).
Vishal Jacob who was leading Digital Strategy earlier has been promoted as National Director – Digital. In his new role, Vishal will take over from Unny and be responsible for the digital services of Maxus across offices.
​Sairam Ranganathan has been promoted as General Manager. Sai currently heads Digital for Maxus West. Additionally, he will be also responsible for the Digital Media Product and digital training needs.
​And lastly, ​Mimi Deb who joined Maxus Delhi 3 years ago as client leader has been elevated to General Manager. She will lead several large new businesses like Shopclues and several other blue chip clients which the agency won recently.
Maxus has announced the appointment of Anand Chakravarthy as West Head. He will lead the region from the Mumbai office and report to Kartik Sharma, Managing Director, Maxus South Asia. Some of the clients under Mr Chakravarthy’s supervision are Vodafone, L’Oreal, Tata Sky, Colors and Fiat Motors.
Commenting on the appointment, Mr Sharma said, “We are excited to have a senior leader from the industry in the Maxus team. Anand comes with a rich and varied experience across categories and brands, not to mention his immense knowledge of working with one of the country’s largest media and entertainment brands. We are confident he will push the PACE agenda for Maxus and help our team deliver the 10/10 vision for our clients.â€
Speaking on his move, Mr Chakravarthy said, “As a marketing and broadcast media professional, I have watched Maxus emerge as a thought leader in a dramatically changing media environment. The opportunity to be part of this winning team and help create value for an enviable portfolio of clients is an exceptionally exciting opportunity I look forward to.â€
Prior to joining Maxus he was the Executive Vice President Marketing at Reliance Broadcast Network Ltd and Business Head for the Big CBS TV Network. He was part of the Executive Committee at Reliance Broadcast Network since its inception in 2006. Before he joined RBNL, Mr Chakravarthy was Associate Vice President, Strategic Planning at Lowe and even earlier at  Research International, a part of WPP’s Kantar Media.
Although the announcement on the appointment came in on Thursday, Mr Chaktravarthy is said to have joined Maxus earlier this year.
