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Tag: Anubhav Sonthalia

  • Anubhav Sonthalia gets additional role as CEO

    Dentsu India restructures its CXM business

    By Our Staff

     

    Following the restructure of its creative and media businesses in India, Dentsu has now announced the launch of a unified Merkle-led CXM proposition in the market. The announcement brings together Data Transformation, Digital Transformation, and CX Consulting into one unit to create the most specialised CX practice in India under brand Merkle.

     

    Part of the network’s global organisational redesign, the Dentsu India CXM business will now house the agencies – Sokrati, Fractal Ink Design Studio and Merkle B2B, under one umbrella. Anubhav Sonthalia will lead Dentsu CXM in India as its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in addition to serving his current role as CEO, Sokrati. He will continue to report into Anand Bhadkamkar, CEO, Dentsu India, and Z Shen, CEO, dentsu CXM, APAC.

     

    Anand Bhadkamkar
    Anand Bhadkamkar

    Speaking on the launch, Bhadkamkar said: “Keeping up with our #onedentsu strategy, the new CXM business will help us move closer towards our growth journey. CXM is growing rapidly, and it is soon expected to become 35% of our overall business in India. By 2025, we project that this growing field will have a 50% contribution to our business. With this new CXM line of business, our clients will see a host of benefits as it will be a one-stop solution for all their CXM needs. I have complete faith in Anubhav’s leadership and in CXM to create numerous opportunities for clients as well as for the network.”

     

    Anubhav Sonthalia
    Anubhav Sonthalia

    Commenting on his new role, Sonthalia added: “I am looking forward to leading dentsu India CXM and to develop newer strategies to up our customer experience game. We aim to provide world-class services to our clients and prioritise data-driven experiences and personalisation of the entire end-to-end customer experience. Our key focus will be to create a holistic view for the clients, and a focused strategy for delivering personalised experiences that they demand.”

     

  • The partnership will enable clients to connect with users on TikTok

    Merkle Sokrati inks content partnership with TikTok India

    By A Correspondent

     

    Dentsu Aegis Network’s Merkle Sokrati has inked a strategic partnership deal with TikTok in India. The partnership will enable clients to connect with users on TikTok.

     

    Sameer Singh

    Commenting on the association, Sameer Singh, Vice President – Monetisation, TikTok India said: “TikTok as a platform has championed the art of creative content marketing with unique ad formats that effectively drive engagement. The platform’s immersive short-form videos also allow brands to express their content and voice creatively. We value partnerships such as the one with Merkle Sokrati and are sure that this will further accelerate client benefits.”

     

     

    Anubhav Sonthalia

    Added Anubhav Sonthalia, CEO, Merkle Sokrati: “Digital media continues to evolve into a myriad web of features and ad formats. Based on our decade-long experience in helping brands get strong ROIs on their spends, I strongly believe that understanding and reacting to your audiences is extremely crucial, irrespective of the digital channel. TikTok is a phenomenally engaging platform. It is a definite opportunity to gain visibility and revenue and this is where our potential as a marketing agency lies.  I am excited to see the results driven by our teams with our client partners such as Dunzo, PharmEasy, Tata Sky and more.”

     

     

  • 100 per cent client adoption for YouTube for Action

    Merkle Sokrati achieves unique feat on YouTube for Performance

    By A Correspondent

     

    Merkle Sokrati, the data-driven performance marketing agency from Dentsu Aegis Network, has been recognised for its achievement on YouTube for Performance reaching a 100 per cent client adoption rate.

     

    Anubhav Sonthalia

    Said Anubhav Sonthalia, CEO Merkle Sokrati: “We are committed as always to lead the way in incorporating any innovation that can help our customers. Over the last year, we have seen YouTube emerge as a strong performance platform. As the leading performance agency in the country, we wanted to ensure that all our clients are leveraging the full power of innovative formats like TrueView for Performance, and we are excited to see 100% of our clients are already betting on this format.”

     

    Aditya Swamy

    Added Aditya Swamy, Head of Agency Partnerships, Google India: “We collaborated closely with the Merkle Sokrati team to set up integrated client onboarding with custom performance creatives from Ignition Labs using the Search-Up approach, and bespoke measurement solutions. It’s exciting to see the speed at which Merkle Sokrati’s clients have adopted YouTube for Performance, and I am looking forward to seeing our teams redefining performance video advertising excellence.”

     

     

  • The tool combines historical data with machine learning to calculate advertising budget for every product

    Merkle Sokrati unveils proprietary bidding tool for eRetail Marketing

    By A Correspondent

     

    Merkle Sokrati, the data-driven performance-marketing agency from Dentsu Aegis Network, has introduced a proprietary smart bidding tool for retail brands selling on online marketplaces such as Amazon.in.

     

    The tool combines historical data with machine learning to calculate advertising budget for every product (bid) every hour 24×7. These real-time bid changes are based on user intent, seasonality and sales trends. Retail brands with a wide range of products can optimize advertising spends across product categories to individual products with this data-driven bidding tool.
    Said Merkle Sokrati CEO Anubhav Sonthalia: “Having myself worked at Amazon, I can promise that they are in it for the long haul and will end up redefining the industry as we know it. We have seen strong traction for Amazon Advertising with our Merkle US counterparts, and we expect India to do the same. With this intelligent bidding tool, we are introducing a volume- and competition-tested smart bidding tool to this geography. We believe this will become a competitive advantage for optimising Amazon’s ad inventory which is still relatively new to Indian marketers. As through our history, we continue to focus on bringing high ROI solutions for our marketers.”

     

     

  • With this acquisition, over 35% of Dentsu Aegis Network revenue will come from digital

    Dentsu beefs up digital play. Buys Sokrati to launch Merkle

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    Left to Right: Anubhav Sonthalia, Ashish Bhasin, Ashish Mehta and Santosh Gannavarapu

    The Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN) has announced yet another acquisition, beefing up its digital play in a bigger way. It has informed that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Sokrati, a data-driven performance marketing and analytics agency. The network has also announced the launch of Merkle in India and post-acquisition, Sokrati will be rebranded as Merkle Sokrati. Founded in 2009, Sokrati is headquartered in Pune and employs a staff of 120 digital marketing professionals.

    Said Nick Waters, CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network Asia Pacific: “India is the fastest growing large economy in the world. It is on track for 400 million smartphone users, making it second only to China, and has emerged as a major e-commerce market. Sokrati’s strength in mobile, e-commerce, data, analytics and performance media provides an ideal basis from which to launch Merkle in India as we develop the roll-out plan for Asia Pacific. We will develop the unique M1 addressable media platform for India as a next step.”

    Added Ashish Bhasin, Chairman and CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network South Asia: “Sokrati has strong ability in CRM and data to accelerate the launch of Merkle in India and further bolster our data practice, which is becoming increasingly critical in all aspects of our business. It will also give our clients added value as we bring CRM and data into the heart of our digital offering. With Dentsu Aegis Network India already being a leader in performance marketing services, with iProspect and the recent acquisition of SVG, the complementary addition of Sokrati will enable the network to take a clearly dominant position in the rapidly growing Indian digital advertising market. With Sokrati on board, we will now be more than twice the size of any of our competitors in search and performance. Out of 3,500 staff in India, about 1,500 will be digital professionals, and over 35% of our revenue – a market-leading statistic – will come from digital.”

    Added Zhengda Shen, President of Merkle Asia Pacific: “Given Sokrati’s strong credentials and proven capabilities in data & analytics, Sokrati will be in the ideal position to give strong footing to Merkle’s launch in the Indian market, in line with Merkle’s global growth strategy. India is strategic to Dentsu Aegis Network and is one of the fastest-growing markets in the world.”