MxMIndia

Tag: Anupriya Acharya

  • In this role, Pant will be in-charge of enhancing capabilities on Measurement, Research, Advanced Analytics, Digital analytics, Data strategy

    Deepak Pant joins Publicis Groupe as Head, Data Science Practice

    By A Correspondent

     

    Deepak Pant

    Publicis Groupe India announced the appointment of Deepak Pant as Head, Data Science Practice. In this role, Pant will be incharge of enhancing capabilities on measurement, research, advanced analytics, digital analytics, data strategy including data integrity and automation, and also developmental work on Publicis People Cloud.

     

    Anupriya Acharya

    Said Anupriya Acharya, CEO Publicis Groupe South Asia: “Data is what fuels our marketing transformation solutions across creative, media and tech. In the last six years we have made significant progress in our Data Science Practice and today it competes with the best specialist shops. While it started as a centre of excellence providing advanced analytics solutions to our global clients, in the last 3-4 years we have seen increased appetite and hence huge uptake even in the local market. As margins of companies come under pressure the focus on ROI of marketing is only increasing. With 2000+ experts across digital and tech in the Groupe, our Data Science Practice has unmatched ability on multiple domain solutions.”

     

    Added Pant: “It’s both an honour and a huge responsibility to lead the Publics Groupe India’s Data Science Practise. The exciting possibilities that the scale and diversity of the Groupe and its clients present are unmatched. I look forward to making a difference here and bringing disruptive solutions that enable strong business results for clients and the Groupe alike.”

     

     

  • Praveen joins Publicis Groupe from Interspace Solutions, where he was the CEO

    Praveen Vadhera to head newly created Publicis In-Motion

    By A Correspondent

     

    Publicis Groupe India announced the creation of Publicis In-Motion, its specialist entity focusing on building brand salience and creating experiences and a strong engagement with consumers. The entity will see the coming together of Arc Worldwide, Solutions and Ecosys OOH and will be powered by data and tech-enabled insights to deliver execution at scale across the Groupe.

     

    Praveen Vadhera

    Praveen Kumar Vadhera has been onboarded in the newly created role of Head of Publicis In-Motion, South Asia. In this role, all the teams in Arc Worldwide, Solutions and Ecosys will report into him and he will work closely with Sejal Shah, Head of Publicis Media Exchange and the Executive Sponsor on Ecosys.

     

    Vadhera joins Publicis Groupe from Interspace Solutions, where he was the CEO. During his stint at Interspace, an entrepreneurial venture, he helped deliver media-agnostic business solutions for brands.

     

    Said Shah: “With fragmenting consumer attention and reducing attention spans, there is a growing need to connect with consumers at every touch-point in an engaging manner. With strength of 150 people and capabilities spanning across activation, shopper marketing, retail design and strategy, OOH and ambient marketing, without doubt Publicis In-Motion will provide our clients unmatched ambient and experiential capabilities. And Praveen brings in excellent and demonstrated credentials across this entire gamut of services. Delighted to have him on board.”

     

    Anupriya Acharya

    Added Anupriya Acharya, CEO, Publicis Groupe, South Asia: “Publicis In-Motion is an effort to make our Power of One offerings even more impactful and substantive for our clients where they can leverage all experiential capabilities at one go. We have highly specialized teams under each capability but the synergized structure will make it simpler and speedier for the clients to leverage it. We expect much momentum in this space as clients move to create more impactful engagements with their customers on the ground.”

     

     

  • We saw this para at the end of the release and thought it must be pulled out for special attention

    Regular churn. Sections of media trying to sensationalise routine moves: Anupriya Acharya, CEO, Publicis S Asia

    By A Correspondent

     

    It was a communique announcing the exit of Digitas CEO Amaresh Godbole, and we saw this para at the end of the release and thought it must be pulled out for special attention. It carries a quote by Anupriya Acharya, CEO, Publicis Groupe South Asian on “the recent exits”.

     

    Now there have been murmurs about some senior executives quitting the Publicis Communications part of the Publicis Groupe after the dramatic exit of former CEO Saurabh Varma.

     

    Varma has since announced that he will be venturing on his own. Independently, we have heard of a few messages sent to a few advertisers of the setting up of a new advertising agency with some honchos of an advertising network and that they (the advertisers) should consider moving their business to this new agency. We haven’t seen the messages ourselves but suffice to say that we have had very senior industry folk telling us about it.

     

    So here’s what Acharya has said in the press release: “There is a regular churn which is there in all organisations as talent seeks newer experiences – we have seen enough cases even in recent times where people move from advertising to start-ups, from media to marketing, from broadcasting to platform companies and such. And some of course to competition. That’s the nature of the market today. It’s unfortunate that some sections of media are trying to sensationalise routine moves. We continue to do great work, stay focussed, deliver on all fronts.”

     

    Sections of the media sensationalising? Hmm. It’s not a sweeping statement on all media, but we think it’s incorrect to damn the media – section or otherwise – in one brush and in an official statement. The Publicis Groupe should know that if the media – MxMIndia included – had chosen to truly sensationalise developments in the conglomerate, it could have. Perhaps the ‘Groupe’ should speak up on the various allegations that are floating around in the marketplace. We are surprised that the Publicis Groupe – which has a leading communications agency like MSLGroup as its part and some seasoned hands on its rolls – could go on record damning “some sections” of the media.

     

     

  • Amaresh has been with the company since 2009 and has been instrumental in scaling up the business in the country

    Digitas CEO Amaresh Godbole to join Google

    By A Correspondent

     

    Amaresh Godbole

    Publicis Groupe has announced that Amaresh Godbole, CEO, Digitas India, will be stepping down in March, to join Google. Godbole has been with the company since 2009 and has been instrumental in scaling up the business in the country.

     

    Said Anupriya Acharya, CEO, Publicis Groupe South Asia: “Amaresh has been a Publicis Groupe loyalist for over a decade. He is moving on to an interesting profile and we’re all extremely happy and supportive of this next chapter in his career. We value his contributions and wish him the very best. He is with us for a couple of months, and is committed to helping us plan a smooth transition. We will announce the succession plan in due course.”

     

    Added Godbole: “I have nothing but gratitude for my years at Publicis Groupe and Digitas. I have had the opportunity to grow as a professional and as an individual. I doubt I would have ever considered moving out for a similar role elsewhere. I felt ready for this one because Digitas has a phenomenal leadership team in place and is now at a scale where it is self-sustaining. We’ve had our best ever performance last year. Further, with the Groupe’s “Power of One” strategy and Anupriya’s leadership I have no doubt about its continued success.”

     

     

  • Says Saurabh Varma in an exclusive conversation hours after resigning as CEO of Publicis Communications

    ‘I’m Going to Create the Most Creative Company in the World’

    Saurabh VarmaIt took us some time to reach him. And when he didn’t respond to our messages, we sent him a set of five questions. A little while later, he texted back saying: Call me. Which we did. Here goes the transcript of a telecon – somewhere around 8pm on the Eventful Tuesday.

     

    Sorry to be so persistent.

     

    No, no. Not at all. You know, I was just not taking your call, but you can imagine there is so much of interest in this. I have just signed a whole bunch of contracts to make sure that I cannot talk too much, but go ahead. Ask me.

     

    So what happened. It seemed to be smooth sailing?

     

    Honestly, it’s been an incredible year. But I’ve been wanting to move on for some time and I took the call some time back to make the move. It’s as simple as that. People are speculating a lot of things on audit and all of that. Like, nobody leaves because of an audit! You know that. Right?

     

    I’ve spent now 17 years with the group and nobody has made real value for themselves without doing something of their own. So, this is my time.

     

    Clearly this was thought-out move

     

    These are always thought out things, no? For everybody else it seems like this is new or surprising, but obviously it has been in the works for a long time.

     

    Hmm. You wouldn’t have taken a decision just like that.

     

    Yes. Even from the group’s perspective, they’ve got two leaders and ultimately they would have to get into a country model, right? And if my choice was to move on and do other things then they have to exercise what option is there with them, no? They have to do that.

     

    So till when are you with the group?

     

    So like the way these things work, today is the last day. This is how all these things work…

     

    True.

     

    Because if I’m starting on my own, I cannot possibly continue, right?

     

    Yeah, it’s fair to both parties.

     

    Absolutely and that’s what it is. So, you will hear a lot more news, in the next few days. Hold on, as you can hear from the background. Lots of celebrations here! (as we started the conversation, there was a fair bit of ambient noise, but it died out soon hereafter)

     

    Yes, I have heard about some more people (from the group) joining you.

     

    See, that is up to those people. I’m starting something/ It is up to those people what they want to do. I mean, I cannot comment on other people

     

    So what is it going to be? What are you looking at doing? Similar kind of an advertising agency… an area that you know so well.

     

    The objective is to create the most creative company in the world. That’s it. Period.  That’s the objective. Now, I’m going to go ahead and create the most creative company in the world.

     

    As you look back at your stint at Leo Burnett and Publicis Communications, what would you say were your most memorable moment… something that you treasure?

     

    Honestly, my most memorable moment is creating the Bajaj V piece. That’s from the work perspective but from a business perspective, the fact that Prodigous is the largest production house and the fact that it didn’t exist two years back is really what I look back at as incredible moments.

     

    Since you mentioned you just signed some contracts to not speak, is there a restriction on you taking away some clients (to the new venture)?

     

    There are always contracts in play and like I keep saying, “The world is an oyster right now,” and there are so many opportunities. When you look at the environment and there is so much change, there cannot be a better moment to start. When you look at the story of Leo Burnett, he started the company during the Great Depression, 1935. I think I have a better moment.

     

    Any unfinished agenda at PubComm?

     

    Not at all. I’m very satisfied with my stint and this is the perfect moment to close this chapter and start a new one.

     

    All the very best!

     

    Thank you very much.

     

     

     

  • … as Saurabh Varma exited group as CEO of Publicis Communications (from yesterday)

    Publicis Groupe appoints Anupriya Acharya as CEO, South Asia…

     

    By A Correspondent [updated]

     

    Publicis Groupe has  announced the appointment of Anupriya Acharya as Chief Executive Officer, South Asia. Saurabh Varma, currently CEO of Publicis Communications, has exited the group. The reasons for his sudden departure are not known.

    In this newly created role, Acharya will be leading Publicis Groupe’s country agenda across India and Sri Lanka. Her primary responsibilities will include driving greater integration across the group’s operations to deliver “end-to-end marketing transformation to existing clients while winning the trust of new ones, as well as cultivating and attracting the best talent across agencies and practices”. The India leadership team, comprising all the agencies’ CEOs, including creative, media, digital, influence, data and technology will report to her.

    “I am thrilled with Anupriya’s appointment. She and I have been working together for a number of years, I am really impressed with her achievements to date and I cannot think of a better leader to take on this extremely important responsibility. India is an absolutely critical market for us, one of the very best talent pools in the world, with strong innovation and a great resonance well into the region and beyond. It is a strategic priority for us, and shifting to a Groupe leadership is a catalyst to accelerate our investments in India. Over the past 3 years, we have made significant progress in making the Power of One a reality in India, with great examples of collaboration for the benefit of our clients and talents and having Anupriya at the helm is very natural. I am truly looking forward to partnering with her in this new role.” said Loris Nold, CEO, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, Publicis Groupe. I also wanted to announce that Saurabh Varma, currently CEO of Publicis Communications has decided to pursue other career opportunities, and will be leaving Publicis Groupe after 17 years. In the past few years, we have built very strong momentum at Publicis Communications and I want to thank Saurabh for his partnership and wish him good luck in his future endeavours”.

    Said Anupriya Acharya: “Its a great honour to get this mandate and am both excited and humbled by getting this opportunity. We have such an incredibly talented leadership team in India, who has been the very reason for our success over the years. And moving to the Power of One model that puts our clients at the centre of our offering has infused unmatched vitality and energy across the entire organisation. I look forward to building on this momentum and innovate further with new products and approaches”

    Acharya started her career at Ogilvy in 1994 and worked at a number of agencies before joining Publicis Groupe in 2013 as CEO of Zenith. In 2016, she was elevated to CEO of Publicis Media where her mandate encompassed all the Groupe media agencies including Zenith, Starcom, and Performics. In this stint, she has more than doubled the operations in three years through expanding capabilities in digital media and services, analytics, consulting, content, commerce and adding new clients including Parle, Fiat, Ola, GSK, KrafHeinz, Lenovo, Motorola, Nykaa amongst others.

     

     

  • This will in particular benefit standalone, independent digital agencies which were left out from the AAAI as membership was only open to Creative, Media & Full Service Agencies

    AAAI opens up membership to digital agencies, constitutes Digital Agency Forum

    By A Correspondent

     

    In a significant move, the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI), the official apex national organisation of advertising agencies, has opened its doors to digital agencies by allowing them to be full-fledged independent members. This will in particular benefit standalone, independent digital agencies which were left out from the AAAI as membership was only open to creative, media and full-service agencies. Membership to the AAAI not only helps protect their interests, and gives representation on industry forums, but also benefits the larger digital marketing ecosystem, a communique adds

     

    Ashish Bhasin

    Said Ashish Bhasin, President, Advertising Agencies Association of India: “In order to future-proof AAAI it is absolutely essential to include the digital agencies as our members since digital is an important and ever increasing part of our industry. With this in mind, Anupriya Acharya was nominated by the Executive Committee of AAAI to drive the Digital Media Forum, which has now resulted in the opening up of Membership for the Digital Agencies to become full-fledged members of Advertising Agencies Association of India, for the first time in our 75 years of history as an association. On behalf of AAAI, I welcome the Digital Agencies to our membership fold and thank Anupriya Acharya for driving this initiative”

     

    Anupriya Acharya

    Said Anupriya Acharya, AAAI Vice-President: “With digital advertising becoming so mainstream, there are many digital agencies operating in this space now. Hence, it is important that AAAI begins incorporating these too, to be truly representative of the current industry environment. In order to enable greater participation from the digital agencies, we created the first-ever Digital Agency Forum wherein we got key leaders from digital agencies of existing AAAI members to identify important areas that are unique to the digital agencies and find solutions to address some of their challenges and opportunities.”

     

    According to an AAAI communique, the Digital Agency Forum will focus on areas such as account shift protocols, viewability standards and audience metrics, relationships with digital bodies, best practices, commercial norms, talent and training, to begin with, but will expand its role as it grows.

     

     

  • The Publicis Commerce Practice offers comprehensive capabilities in the online commerce and retail space

    Publicis Commerce forays into India; appoints key leadership

    By A Correspondent

     

    Kartik G Iyer

    Publicis Commerce has announced its expansion into India and the appointment of two new leaders in the market. Kartik G Iyer joins as Publicis Commerce Lead and Krishna Mothey joins him as Head Of Media for the Practice.

     

    In addition to India, both Iyer and Mothey will also oversee the Commerce capability within Publicis Media’s Global Distributed Delivery (GDD) offering – a centre of expertise based out of India that delivers robust capability to clients around the globe.

     

    Anupriya Acharya

    Said Anupriya Acharya, CEO of Publicis Media India: “As Commerce becomes mainstream for clients in India, it is the right time for us to further advance our global commerce offering here. We find there is a great demand for these services in the market both within our client sets and outside. Our strength in digital and performance marketing gives us a natural edge in scaling the global Commerce Practice. Both Kartik and Krishna come with immense brand experience and category expertise and are a tremendous boost to our capabilities.”

     

     

  • Anil is tasked with accelerating the growth of Publicis Media’s programmatic capability across the agencies

    Publicis Media appoints Anil Pandit as Programmatic Head

    By A Correspondent

     

    Publicis Media India appointed Anil Pandit as Head of its Programmatic Practice.

     

    Anil Pandit

    Pandit is tasked with accelerating the growth of Publicis Media’s programmatic capability across the agencies. He will oversee the central programmatic team – providing agency teams access to expert data, technology capabilities and solutions – that will deliver superior client value through greater effectiveness and media efficiency. He will also work with the global team to bring in the full Precision capabilities to India.

     

    Anupriya Acharya

    Said Anupriya Acharya, CEO Publicis Media India on his appointment: “We couldn’t be more thrilled to have Anil’s expertise and leadership in this crucial role as we focus on further consolidating our overall programmatic presence and bringing in PM Precision capability to India. Our group has been a pioneer in programmatic and with Anil’s leadership, we will look to fast- forward the full launch of the Precision capability in the market. Maintaining our competitive advantage on all aspects of digital and ensuring that we continue to deliver best-in-class capabilities and growth for our clients is key to our continued success.”

     

    Added Pandit: “Programmatic is witnessing a phenomenal rise both in India and globally. About a third of India’s ad inventory is already programmatically traded. I’m excited to get this mandate of expanding PM’s central capabilities in future platform innovation, audience strategy, data consulting and precision excellence. I would like to bring into my role, sharp client lens coupled with operational ad -tech experience and look forward to collaborating with our agencies and marketplace partners to deliver faster and more scalable impact for our clients.”

     

     

  • His last role was with Accenture UK & Ireland where he was based in Dublin and managed key businesses for Accenture EMEA, as the EMEA delivery leader with a 500+ member team based across Dublin, Lisbon and Krakow

    Publicis Media hires Sunish Jose from Accenture as Global Distributed Delivery Lead

    By A Correspondent

     

    Sunish Jose

    Publicis Media India announced a senior-level appointment for overseeing its Global Distributed Delivery set-up – a centre of expertise catering to international markets on a full spectrum of digital, data and tech services. It houses over 300 specialists across Mumbai and Gurgaon and supports a host of Publicis operations across US, Europe and Asia and their multinational clients on Search, Programmatic, Data engineering, Data sciences, Ecommerce, Consulting and Development.

     

    Jose comes with about 18 years of experience and is a Six Sigma Black belt professional with extensive experience in managing Digital Operations business across Programmatic Solutions, Search, Social, Display & Mobile, Analytics and Business Process Management. Some of the global clients he has had experience on include P&G, Sprint, Reckitt Benckiser, Nestle, Kraft, PepsiCo, Verizon, Toyota, Honda. With a proficiency in managing Service Delivery, defining SLA’s, contracts, His last role was with Accenture UK & Ireland where he was based in Dublin and managed key businesses for Accenture EMEA, as the EMEA delivery leader with a 500+ member team based across Dublin, Lisbon and Krakow.

     

    Anupriya Acharya

    Said Anupriya Acharya, CEO of Publicis Media India:  “Sunish Jose’s rich experience and demonstrated capabilities in successfully managing and scaling up large specialist operations across India and Europe, makes him the right fit for the role. As GDD expands its footprint both in terms of geographies as well as capabilities, managing the speed of growth well is important. Jose will guide our GDD charter and deliver on expansion and operational excellence. Furthermore, GDD will also continue to provide the right talent pipeline for our fast expanding domestic business and clients across all the future-facing service streams.”

     

    Added Jose: “This is an exciting time to be returning to India. The market is vibrant and the country continues to be an incubator and exporter of ideas and innovation. GDD is a world-class operation that provides the backbone talent and infrastructure for strong execution on our Global clients. I look forward to accelerating GDD’s growth and keeping our offering competitive, relevant and well-ahead of the curve as we gear up for the  next round of expansion.”

     

  • Publicis Media has also announced that Tanmay Mohanty will hold additional charge as Head of Global Partnerships role for India

    Publicis Media aligns Convonix & Resultrix under Performics. Tanmay Mohanty to take on additional role

    By A Correspondent

     

     

     

    Pallav Jain
    Sarfaraz Khimani

    Publicis Media India today announced the alignment of Convonix and Resultrix under the Performics brand. This, notes a communique, firmly establishes Performics as the largest performance marketing offering in the country by far and is in line with Publicis Media’s market-leading presence and ambitions in the areas of digital marketing, data, tech and analytics.

     

    Pallav Jain and Sarfaraz Khimani will serve as Co-CEOs of Performics India and will report into the Publicis Media India CEO Anupriya Acharya.

     

    Tanmay Mohanty

    Meanwhile, Publicis Media has also announced a new Head of Global Partnerships role for India. Tanmay Mohanty will take over this new role in addition to his current role of Zenith India Group CEO. In this role, Mohanty will bring in a “more strategic and holistic approach to global partnerships in India and ensure greater Groupe and client connectivity with partners such as Google, Facebook, Adobe and Microsoft amongst others”.

     

    Anupriya Acharya

    Said Anupriya Acharya, Publicis Media India CEO: “We stand at an important growth juncture and it is imperative that we put accelerated focus on next-frontier areas in marketing communications like machine learning, artificial intelligence, consulting, automation and the like.  The current changes reflect our endeavor to create a compelling offering with an effective structure that supports evolving client needs. Pallav and Sarfaraz have driven spectacular growth for Convonix from an entrepreneurial start-up to a scaled organisation, across India and in multiple market mandates including US, UK and Asia-Pacific and bring in expertise on innovative solutions around talent acquisition and talent management at scale. It makes them the ideal choice for leading Performics India. Tanmay Mohanty is a proven leader with a successful track-record of accomplishment of leading in the digital first space and then bringing that thinking to the larger integrated media space. He has brought in value and substance to every client conversation across Zenith and Resultrix. I am sure with his strong product focus and client need-gap understanding, he will shape our global partnerships in India well.”

     

     

  • Poojari will spearhead the networks tech vision and strategy, framework and infrastructure to deliver on clients requirements

    Publicis Media appoints Roopesh Pujari as Head Of Technology

    By A Correspondent

     

    Publicis Media India has roped in technology expert Roopesh Pujari as Head of Technology.

     

    Anupriya Acharya

    Said Anupriya Acharya, Chief Executive – Publicis Media India, on the appointment: “As digital spaces shape more and more of the touch points of a consumer journey, marketing has been transformed into a technology-driven sector! Increasingly we find that our clients require tech-led marketing solutions and internally too, a large part of our success on data-led insighting, real time execution and superior ROI returns depend on a strong tech foundation. We are delighted to welcome Roopesh on board who will spearhead our tech vision and strategy, framework and infrastructure to deliver on clients requirements that span across machine learning, platforms, automation and artificial intelligence.”

     

    Roopesh Pujari

    Added Pujari: “I am thrilled at the opportunity. This is an exciting time to be entering the media and advertising space! Its set to leapfrog on the back of new marketing and advertising technologies and advanced marketing and media models. I was particularly impressed by Publicis Media’s clarity of vision and the ambition for this role and I look forward to working closely with the leadership team at PM and contribute to the Publicis Media’s success story.”