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Tag: Anupriya Acharya

  • Will be leading the group's digital experience and technology agencies

    Amaresh Godbole appointed CEO, Digital Tech @ Publicis

    By Our Staff

     

    Publicis Groupe has announced the appointment of Amaresh Godbole as CEO, Digital Technology Business, Publicis Groupe India. In this role, Godbole will be leading the group’s digital experience and technology agencies Digitas India and Indigo Consulting. He will also be responsible for scaling up the Publicis Commerce D2C offering.

     

    The role will report into Anupriya Acharya, CEO Publicis Groupe South Asia and both Unny Radhakrishnan, CEO Digitas India and Jose Leon, MD, Indigo Consulting will work closely with Godbole. Prior to this, Godbole was Head of Creative and Capability at Google India, and he also has a history of over a decade with Publicis Groupe where his last role was CEO, Digitas India.

     

    Said Acharya on the appointment: “The last two years have seen an acceleration in technology adoption and companies across sectors are grappling with the need to deliver more contemporary customer experiences and improve critical business processes. We have an opportunity to accelerate further our unique digital technology offerings in India and unlock new avenues, bringing in exponential growth for clients. In Amaresh, we have someone who deeply understands the Publicis way of working and also brings an outside-in view of technology trends and the wider industry from his time with Google.”

     

    Added Godbole: “In Digitas, Indigo Consulting and the Publicis Commerce teams, the Groupe has formidable technology transformation offerings. I hope to use the unique vantage point this role offers to find synergies and reimagine our combined go-to-market strategy in light of emerging client segments and technology opportunities such as Web3 and D2C. The Groupe’s Power of One approach will ensure we can offer these capabilities to all Publicis Groupe clients in India. On a personal note, Publicis Groupe has been like a second home for me and I’m excited to be back amongst people I’ve known and respected for a long time.”

     

  • It was earlier scheduled for Apriil 7-9

    Goafest now on May 5-7

    By Our Staff

     

    The Goafest Organising Committee has announced a change in dates for Goafest 2022, postponing it from the April 7- 9 to May 5-7, 2022. This change will also facilitate extra time for ‘One Show’ which has collaborated with the Abby awards.

     

    On the rescheduling of dates, Goafest Chairman Jaideep Gandhi said: “Ad Club joining hands with ‘One Show’ will truly take the Abbys – India’s premier and longstanding tradition of creative excellence, to the world. However, keeping in mind the ongoing pandemic situation, we believe the celebration of this unique, game-changing partnership would be better experienced with the 15th edition of Goafest scheduled in May, 2022. After all, a celebration of creativity and innovation gets even better when the world around us is safer.”

     

    Speaking on the tie-up, Anupriya Acharya, President, Advertising Agencies Association of India added: “I would like to congratulate Ad Club for the tie-up with ‘One Show’. The One Show is one of the most reputed advertising shows globally and further adds to the significance and the excitement around the festival that is returning after two long, eventful years. And similarly, the 2022 edition of Goafest provides a perfect platform for the redefined Abbys. There is much for everyone to come together and share at the festival.”

     

  • To oversee development of all technology capabilities across the Group

    Roopesh Pujari is now CTO @ Publicis

    By Our Staff

     

    Publicis Groupe India has announced the elevation and appointment of Roopesh Pujari, to Chief Technology Officer for the market effective January 2022. In this role, Pujari will steer the development of all technology capabilities across the Groupe in India including expansion of cloud solutions, platform integration, capability and capacity building and streamlining partners.

     

    Commenting on the appointment Anupriya Acharya, CEO, Publicis Groupe South Asia said: “Given the rapidly evolving landscape around 5G, Web 3.0, Metaverse, NFTs, Blockchain, Crypto and the like, technology roadmap is central to the success of any business. The new role will aid us in futureproofing our organisation as well as enabling the right support to client strategies. And Roopesh not only brings the right experience and competence but comes in with an exemplary track-record from within our organisation.”

     

     

  • This is the highest honour to be given to an individual in India for his/her outstanding contribution to the Advertising Industry

    Arvind Sharma to be conferred with AAAI Lifetime Achievement Award 2021

    By Our Staff

     

    The Advertising Agencies Association of India today announced that AAAI Lifetime Achievement Award for 2021 will be conferred on advertising veteran Arvind Sharma.

     

    Sharma, an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad (1975-77), led Leo Burnett for 21 years in a three decades-long association with the agency. He has led most A&M industry organisations and is now a serial investor and mentors to many entrepreneurs.

     

    Making the announcement, Anupriya Acharya, President, AAAI, said: “Mr Arvind Sharma has been a true pioneer. Apart from singlehandedly making Leo Burnett a top agency and a force to reckon with he has also groomed some of the finest talents in our industry. But more than that he has made a tremendous contribution to our industry across both the art and science of advertising. He is truly deserving of this honour.”

     

    Added Ashish Bhasin, Chairman of the AAAI Lifetime Achievement Award Selection Committee: “Arvind is a deserving winner of this prestigious honour. Not only has he been a successful advertising professional, he has also contributed significantly to the industry in various capacities, including as President of AAAI and a key driver in launching Goafest. I am pleased to say that the entire committee was unanimous in conferring this award upon Arvind.”

     

    Some of the past winners of this award include Subhas Ghosal, Alyque Padamsee, Mike Khanna, R K Swamy, Piyush Pandey, Sam Balsara, Prem Mehta, Roda Mehta, Ram Sehgal, Madhukar Kamath and others.

     

    Although AAAI hasn’t announced the date, according to information received, the award event is likely to be held in Mumbai on December 16, 2021.

     

  • Appoints Varun Shah and elevates Akshay Multani

    Publicis Groupe bolsters top team

    By Our Staff

     

    Publicis Groupe has consolidated its content production arm under Varun Shah and appointed him Executive Vice President and Head of Prodigious India and Content Factory India. Further strengthening the team, the group has elevated Akshay Multani to Executive Producer, Prodigious and appointed Deepak Bulchandani as Head of Brand Partnerships at Content Factory.

     

    Anupriya Acharya
    Anupriya Acharya

    Speaking on the appointments Anupriya Acharya, CEO Publicis Groupe, South Asia said: “Varun has been instrumental in growing the Prodigious India capabilities and under his leadership we have witnessed phenomenal growth over the past few years. He is a new age production leader with strong appreciation of international and local creativity and demonstrated experience in quality, reliability and business acumen. I am confident that Varun will take Prodigious and Content factory to newer heights.”

     

    Varun Shah
    Varun Shah

    Added Varun Shah, Executive Vice President and Head of Prodigious India and Content Factory India: “Currently we are one of the country’s leading production houses and our ambition is to bring cutting edge technology and expertise to the market, setting new benchmarks for the industry. The new structure provides a platform to create volume content solutions for our clients across all content types and will help fuel our growth in the platform world. This consolidation will help us streamline our efforts by creating a production model which drives efficiency while delivering world class branded content across media to our partners.”

     

  • 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.”

     

  • Initiative to challenge traditional gender stereotyping in advertising and media

    UN Women launches Unstereotype Alliance’s India Chapter

    By Our Staff

    The Unstereotype Alliance has aunched the India national chapter with a coalition formed to tackle harmful stereotypes advertising with support from EU funded WeEmpowerAsia Programme. The Alliance will centre its work in India on broadening the representation of women and girls in non-traditional roles in advertising with a focus on women returning to the workforce.

    Convened by UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment, the Unstereotype Alliance is a thought and action platform that seeks to eradicate harmful stereotypes from advertising and media. India is the ninth national chapter to launch worldwide, and the second in Asia.

    The Unstereotype Alliance’s India National Chapter Founding Members include: Hindustan Unilever (Champion), Diageo, WPP, Publicis Groupe, Havas Group, Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI), The Advertising Club and Samhita Social Ventures.

    Said Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of UN Women: “The launch of the India national chapter is a significant milestone for the Unstereotype Alliance. It shows that the India advertising and media industry is coming together in all its strength and diversity to tackle the harmful stereotypes that hinder progress towards gender equality. This is critical to addressing the drivers of inequality such as violence against women and girls, intergenerational poverty and the lack of women in leadership and decision-making roles. We hope that you will join us in making unstereotyped advertising and content the norm rather than the exception.

    Stereotypes in advertising perpetuate negative social norms and hinder progress of gender equality. Harmful social norms contribute to increased acceptance of gender-based violence, lack of economic decision-making for women and constricted opportunities in the job market. The chapter has defined strategic priorities to address gender stereotypes with a focus on harmful patriarchal traditions and norms to broaden the representation of empowered and autonomous women in private and public life, including in business leadership; and to ensure progressive representation in media and advertising.

    Unstereotype Alliance research into gender equality attitudes shows that there is a clear role not only to remove stereotypes in advertising and media, but to challenge widely-held beliefs and norms in society. Data from the Gender Equality Attitudes study, conducted across 10 countries including India, shows that whilst many Indians recognize the importance of women’s rights, outdated beliefs persist. Specifically:

     

    Here’s what a host of spokespersons have said:

    Susan Ferguson, Country Representative, UN Women India: “UN Women India is excited to launch the India chapter of the Unstereotype Alliance. I am confident with the support of such committed partners, we will generate a positive and enduring impact in the advertising and media industry and contribute to shaping a gender-equal world.”

    Priya Nair, Executive Director,-Beauty & Personal Care, Hindustan Unilever: “Across the globe, consumers are increasingly expecting brands to take a stand on the issues they care most about – gender stereotype has been one such issue. At HUL, we are committed to driving gender equity, including stepping up of brand programmes, advocacy to challenge the status quo and #unstereotyping advertising. With one billion people using our products every day and even more seeing our advertising, we know we have the power to make a real difference. Various organisations need to come together to bring about this systematic change and set new standards of empowerment and equality. As a founding member of the Unstereotype Alliance, we look forward to supporting UN Women, to drive social change, encourage action, and put an end to gender stereotypes and discrimination”

    CVL Srinivas, Country Head, WPP, India: “WPP is delighted to be a founding member of the Unstereotype Alliance – India Chapter. We look forward to working with the Alliance to bring about positive change to the issue of Gender Equality through the creative use of our skills and the passion of our people in this area.”

    Deepika Warrier, CMO, Diageo India: “Diageo India is proud to be associated with The Unstereotype Alliance – India Chapter, which will work to  accelerate progressive gender portrayal in advertising. Together, we will lead the creation of a framework that encourages increasingly progressive codes with themes ranging from empowerment to celebrating the power and imperfections of womanhood to challenging stereotypes to ultimately moving beyond gender codes. We hope our efforts would contribute to empowering women regardless of their race, class, age, ability, religion, sexuality, language, education etc.”

    Anupriya Acharya, CEO, Publicis Groupe South Asia:  “Publicis Groupe through Viva la difference is a company that celebrates talent, inclusivity and diversity. Our core values and people-first culture synergise seamlessly with the Unstereotype Alliance’s larger mission and objectives and we are pleased to be a part of its India Chapter. Publicis Groupe India looks forward to collaborating with other future-facing companies in building narratives that are progressive, purposeful, gender-equal, human and authentic.”

    Rana Barua, Group CEO, Havas Group India: “We are delighted to be coming on board at a crucial time as a member of the UN Women Unstereotype Alliance as they begin their chapter in India. At Havas Group, we are clear on driving gender diversity and want to bring about a cultural transformation and mindset shift that will encourage many more women leaders in the group. Our alliance with UN Women Unstereotype Alliance will surely help us in this journey.”

    Manish Kapoor, Secretary General, Advertising Standard Council of India: “Positive gender portrayals and depictions in advertising are high on ASCI’s agenda, and we aim to shape this narrative in the coming months through different initiatives. Partnering with the Unstereotype alliance is an important step in this journey. Working together helps synchronise voices of different stakeholders and we are very pleased to be a part of the alliance.”

    Sudhesh Kapoor, Secretary General, AAAI: “We are sure that this Alliance will go a long way in taking down some popularly held myths about genders which are consciously or sub-consciously propagated by popular media and advertising.”

    Namrata Tata, The Advertising Club: “While many organizations are taking initiatives to drive gender diversity & equality, collaboration at an industry level is needed to see the needle movement. As an integral part of the advertising industry ,The Advertising Club believes in driving real change when it comes to the portrayal of gender norms. We are delighted to join The Unstereotype alliance convened by UN women , which aims at removing negative gender stereotypes in Advertising and Media”

    Priya Naik, Founder and CEO, Samhita Social Ventures: “Companies, media and content companies, advertisers, and creative agencies have a social and ethical responsibility to break gender stereotype, as well as the capability to do so on a large scale. I am proud to be a part of the Unstereotype Alliance movement to dismantle traditional gender roles and their related”

     

     

  • Indigo to continue focus on building digital business transformation solutions

    Indigo is now part of Publicis WW

    By Our Staff

     

    Publicis Groupe has announced the integration of Indigo Consulting’s digital marketing teams with Publicis Worldwide, thereby creating a strong 300-member agency capable of providing the entire suite of brand building communication services from strategy to creative across mainline, digital and social, with data at the centre. Rajesh Ghatge (CEO) and Jose Leon (COO) will continue to helm the organisation.

     

    Anupriya Acharya
    Anupriya Acharya

    Said Anupriya Acharya, Group CEO, South Asia: “This made imminent sense to us. Communication services are no longer segregated by platforms, i.e., creative agencies for mainline platforms and digital agencies for digital platforms. More and more clients want to work with one agency that can offer holistic strategic & creative solutions to solve their marketing problems. In fact, the pandemic has only heightened the need to have digital at the centre of our solutions approach.”

     

    Subhash Kamath
    Subhash Kamath

    Added Subhash Kamath, CEO, BBH & Publicis Worldwide: “I see it as a win-win for everyone. The Indigo digital communications teams have already been working alongside the PWW teams across many of our top clients. By bringing them together under a common leadership, we can now provide our clients a more integrated solution and a more seamless brand custodianship. It’s a transformative move.”

     

    Russell Barrett
    Russell Barrett

    Said Russell Barrett, CEO & Chief Creative Officer, BBH & Publicis Worldwide, “We need to be absolutely modern and future-facing when it comes to the creative work we produce and digital has to be at the heart of it. I don’t see traditional and digital work needing separate thinking. I want our creative leaders to be able to think across all platforms in answering a brand’s needs. By the coming together of these two teams, it’s a potent force of talent.”

     

    Rajesh Ghatge
    Rajesh Ghatge

    Added Ghatge: “The tremendous traction that we have got for our digital business transformation and technology practice in the last year has propelled our plan to invest disproportionately to scale this practice. We are making a choice to focus (back) on our DNA. The top ranked digital marketing practice that we had built over the last few years, hence forth being housed in PWW will continue to deliver impactful cross-platform digital marketing solutions for the composite client roster. It is a win– win for our transitioning team, PWW, and our clients.”

     

     

  • Prasanth Kumar, CEO – South Asia, GroupM was unanimously elected Vice-President of the Association

    Anupriya Acharya takes charge as AAAI President

    By A Correspondent

     

    Anupriya Acharya, CEO – South Asia, Publicis Groupe was elected President of Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) for the year 2020-21 at its Annual General Body Meeting held in Mumbai on Monday. Ashish Bhasin, President of Advertising Agencies Association of India( AAAI), handed over charge to Acharya. Prasanth Kumar, CEO – South Asia, GroupM was unanimously elected Vice-President of the Association.

     

    Other elected members of the Executive Committee in alphabetical order are:

     

    Anand Bhadkamkar, Dentsu Aegis Network Marketing Solutions Pvt Ltd

    Kunal Lalani, Crayons Advertising Pvt Ltd

    Mohit Joshi, Havas Media India Pvt Ltd

    Pranav Premnarayen, Prem Associates Advertising & Marketing

    Rana Barua, Havas Worldwide India Pvt Ltd

    Vivek Srivastava, Innocean Worldwide Communications Pvt Ltd

    Ashish Bhasin will be the ex-officio member of the AAAI Executive Committee for 2020-21 as its immediate past President.

     

    Said Acharya: “It’s a tremendous honour and also an enormous responsibility to be elected as the President of such a prestigious organisation. I am acutely aware that our industry, like the rest of the world, has just witnessed the most unprecedented times and it’s a difficult time for most. The pandemic has only underscored the relevance of the collective thinking and the heightened role that AAAI can play. I will strive to do my best to further the interests of the advertising industry and take AAAI to greater heights as we emerge into the new normal. Many top advertising professionals have contributed very selflessly and relentlessly to the AAAI, both with and without executive positions. And that is what inspires me immensely as I take on this position. Many thanks to Ashish Bhasin for his leadership in the last two years as President – he has made great progress in making the association more inclusive, diverse and future-ready. Also, thanks to all the Executive committee members and the secretariat for all the learning they have given me in the past many years”.

     

    Added Bhasin: “I have had the privilege to lead AAAI for two years as its president, I wish to thank all my fellow executive committee members for their wholehearted cooperation and valuable support. I would also like to congratulate Anupriya Acharya on her election as President. Anupriya has been a key member of the Indian media and advertising industry for a long time. I’m sure she will play a stellar role in taking forward the Association and its work. I wish her the very best for this role.”

     

  • Gahlaut will be with the agency until mid-August and will see through a handover to teams and clients

    Ajay Gahlaut exits Publicis WW, Vikash Chemjong & Tito Mazumdar made Joint NCDs

    By A Correspondent

     

    Ajay Gahlaut
    Vikash Chemjong & Basabjit Mazumdar

    Ajay Gahlaut, CCO and MD of Publicis Worldwide, India (PWW) has decided to move on from the agency and pursue his passion on the personal front, a communique from the agency notes. He will be with the agency until mid-August and will see through a handover to teams and clients.

     

    The agency has also announced the elevation of Vikash Chemjong and Basabjit ‘Tito’ Mazumdar to the role of Joint National Creative Directors. The duo would take on the role of managing the creative mandate for all brands under PWW including Publicis Capital, Publicis Ambience, Publicis Beehive, Publicis Health, Publicis Emil and Publicis Business and will report to Srija Chatterjee, MD, Publicis Worldwide, India.

     

     

    Anupriya Acharya

    Said Anupriya Acharya, CEO, Publicis Groupe South Asia: “Working with Ajay has been a great experience even though our overlap has been only six months. He has built a great team here and we thank him for all his contributions. Am sure he will be successful in whatever he chooses to do next and our best wishes are with him.”

     

    Both Chemjong and Mazumdar had joined Publicis Capital over a year ago as National Creative Directors. Over the past one year, they have been instrumental in shaping the creative universe of some key brands under Publicis Capital including Beam Suntory, GUS, GPI, Nestle, Goodricke, Emami to name a few. Prior to joining Publicis, they both were Group Creative Directors at Ogilvy India and have over four decades of creative experience between them.

     

    Srija Chatterjee

    Added Chatterjee: “Ajay has been a great friend and a fantastic creative leader to have around. Over his 18-month long stint, he has helped build and nurture the creative process and output for a number of brands at the agency. I wish him a great ride in his future endeavours.” On the new roles for Vikash and Tito, Chatterjee said: “We are fortunate to be running on a group philosophy that thrives on the model of collaboration and ensure that we breed and train talent of great calibre. To that end, both Vikash and Tito come with over 40+ years of combined work experience and have been successfully leading the Publicis Capital business for the last one year, partnering some of our clients in delivering some great work. I look forward to them playing a key role in raising the creative bar.”

     

    Said Gahlaut: “For me it has been a wonderful year and a half at Publicis. I have made many friends, built a powerhouse creative team and done some nice work. The only reason for moving on is a desire to try new things. This is an extremely exciting time for all kinds of creative content in the country. I have a couple of interesting options I can explore. And while I will never say never to advertising, I thought it was a good time to attempt some things I hadn’t tried before.”

     

     

  • The report examines the impact on businesses, consumer sentiment and behaviour and the response of brands

    Publicis launches ‘Reboot To A New Normal’ report

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Publicis Group has released a report ‘Reboot To A New Normal’, a study on the consumption patterns, media usage, purchase behaviour and overall marketing and brand trends in India, in the face of the Covid-19 outbreak. We haven’t seen the report but a communique says it examines the impact on businesses, consumer sentiment and behaviour and the response of brands.

     

    Said Anupriya Acharya, CEO, Publicis Groupe, South Asia: “The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has meant that uncertainty has become the norm for brands and businesses across sectors and geographies. Publicis Groupe, through this report, offers some of our latest insights tracing the evident change in consumer behaviour, resilience, and solidarity among brands in these times, conceivable future implications and the reboot in brand response to that.  Most certainly, only the ones who imbibe this change, and more importantly, lead it, will emerge stronger. We look forward to and promise sharing the quest for the new normal, evolving businesses and robust communities.”

     

    Adds the communique:

    The report marks profound shifts in the wake of the lockdown enforced by the Government of India. Many of these behavioural changes are not transient in nature; they are likely to stay long-term.  While the focus of the report remains on the Indian market, the study also draws on comparisons with other countries across US, Europe and APAC and predicts some of the outcomes ahead for brands.

     

    Online is clearly the new norm as companies embrace remote work and rapidly digitise operations in order to ensure business continuity. However many still struggle to operationalise work from home initiatives because of cumbersome compliance and technical requirements.

     

    Indian consumers today are single-mindedly focusing on essential products, sidestepping discretionary purchases such as apparel, electronics and watches.  Immunity-boosting products such as Honey and Chyawanptrash see huge surge in demand, alongside medicines, face masks and hand sanitizers.  As they brace for uncertain times ahead, consumers are panic-buying and tend to hoard supplies. Restaurants and food delivery apps have started offering contactless delivery. The demand however continues to be muted given hygiene-related concerns.

     

    At the start of the outbreak, ecommerce witnessed huge momentum with people instinctively turning to online channels.  The convenience, promotions and value deals on online grocery platforms has in any case always been a huge draw and the crisis accelerated demand. During this period, online retail received a short-term boost in the fresh food, personal hygiene, and food delivery categories. However the shortage in stock and inability to deliver has led to frustration among consumers and has subsequently impacted sales volumes.

     

    Television ratings, on the decline over the past year has now experienced an exponential jump because of coronavirus-related news. The trend is in line with other Asian markets such as China and Korea.

     

    In the period between March 1-21, 2020, Gaming has witnessed a 41% increase  in time spent while Entertainment & OTT have registered a 34% increase.

     

    Online news has become the de facto  source of information with digital editions of mainline publications seeing  huge increase in traffic.  Between March 16-22, there has been a whopping 61% increase in visits to websites and mobile apps, as compared to a month ago. Regional publications  also see huge online demand, as much as 50% increase, significantly higher than that of English publications.  Publishers may need to shift focus on to digital operations as it remains uncertain whether consumers will continue subscriptions of physical  copies. Understandably, government notifications and health-related news in connection with the outbreak are the most consumed content categories

     

    Brands are now agents of positive change  and are instrumental in spreading social awareness and information around Covid-19. Examples are: Viacom ‘s #PauseForACause campaign focusing on care-givers,  Bajaj Alllianz’s #DooriHaiZaroori  campaign on social-distancing,  Jeep’s  Explore The Great Indoors campaign on staying safe and indoors, and  Zee’s  #BreakTheCoronaOutbreak campaign urging viewers to wash hands and maintain hygiene.

     

    With content consumption set to rise, brands are creating content relevant to their consumer, in areas such as health, fitness, DIY, food, mental health  and entertainment. Brands can weather the current conditions by creating relevant content, developing an omni-channel strategy,  addressing consumer anxiety through positive messaging,  realigning brand and media strategy in line with consumer trends, using media in agile ways.

     

     

  • He will be taking on from Amaresh Godbole who is set to move to to Google.

    One more ex-GroupM biggie joins Publicis. Unny Radhakrishnan is CEO,  Digitas

    By A Correspondent

    Unny Radhakrishnan

    Soon after the news that Sridhar Ramasubramanian was appointed CFO, Publicis Groupe, South Asia, comes the missive that Unny Radhakrishnan has joined the group has CEO, Digitas India. He will be taking on from Amaresh Godbole who is set to move to to Google.

    Unny comes with  rich experience of over  20 years in digital marketing, consulting and technology. Unny has  had an 11-year stint in Maxus, which he helped build as the first media agency in the GroupM system to have integrated capabilities in digital media, creative, social, technology and R&D. As Chief Digital Officer, South Asia, he led a team of over 250 people. In 2018, he took a sabbatical, did theatre training and studied public policy, along with a few consulting assignments. One of his consulting assignments  which was with Sheroes, an internet start-up and a women-only social network, soon turned to be full-time, where he donned the hat of Chief People & Business Officer.

    Anupriya Acharya
    Anupriya Acharya

    Said Anupriya Acharya, CEO, Publicis Groupe, South Asia on the appointment: “We are delighted to have Unny join us. Apart from his demonstrated capabilities across the whole gamut of digital, what really stood out for me is his approach to the future, passion for everything digital and commitment to groom talent. Each of these softer skills is very critical to succeed in today’s organisations. Digitas has a very strong team, great momentum and very diverse capabilities. Unny’s leadership will add to it tremendously.” Acharya herself has been with GroupM in the not-too-distant past.

    Added  Radhakrishnan: “I am very excited to join Digitas at a time when the Publicis Groupe model has just been put in place. The canvas to succeed both as Digitas and as a player in Publicis Groupe is limitless. It has an amazing track- record and momentum .  I  look forward to taking it from strength to strength.”