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Tag: Cheil Worldwide

  • With just 14 metals, it was a forgettable year for the Indian contingent at the premier fest celebrating creativity in ad & marketing

    Glory eludes India @Cannes Lions 2012

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    1992 is not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure. In the words of one of my more sympathetic correspondents, it has turned out to be an Annus Horribilis. Thus spoke Queen Elizabeth II describing the year that was quite horrible for the British royal family. Now as the world celebrates 60 years of her Accession, the Latin phrase could be used for India’s performance at the Cannes Lions.

     

    Now that the 7-day grand creative festival has come to a close in the south of France, agencies that have emerged tall and triumphant from across the globe will be heading back to their respective continents to kick off celebrations.

     

    And that we guess India will miss out on, as the contingent make its way back home. Some have done so already as you read this. The boardrooms, bars and smokers’ areas will be busy as a new week commences with agencies trying to figure out what exactly went wrong. Or perhaps what didn’t go right. Some obvious questions that’ll come up for scrutiny are whether agencies have become too complacent and are taking their creative skills for granted or whether other countries have simply outsmarted India in the game of creative one upmanship.

     

    Few doubt the creative aptitude India possesses, having given a tough time to most agencies in the past but 2012 could easily be billed as the worst year thus far – just 14 metals in kitty when the number of entries that were sent were the highest at 1,182.

     

    Even in a dry year like 2008 where India had sent only 982 entries, the total metal count stood at 23. The only bad year was 2007 where India bagged just 12 metals but then one expects performances to see an upward spike year-on-year and not the other way round. It will be interesting to see the kind of reactions that emerge from the entrant companies in the ensuing days.

     

    Though it was a forgettable year for India , there were some agencies that shone bright and whose entries managed to win a few metals. Those that were hopeful of a win did just that and came back lapping up either Gold, Silver or Bronze in the respective categories. Mentos Sour Marbles by Ogilvy & Mather continued its winning spree across festivals as it bagged a bronze in the Press Lions category.

     

    Another sureshot that bagged India its metal was an entry by Leo Burnett for its client Bajaj Electricals for their exhaust fans. The team of KV Sridhar and Nitesh Tiwari carried on with their winning spree bagging Silver in the Press Lions category.

     

    In fact, the team of Leo Burnett carried on with their rich display by picking up a Media Lion Silver for its Doorstep School campaign in the Best Localised Campaign category.  Another entry from India that was sure of a win was Cheil Worldwide’s campaign for Samsung Printers. The work bagged a Media Lion Silver in Best Use of Integrated Media in Media Lions. BBDO India’s You Shave, I shave campaign for Gillette continued with its winning streak as it bagged a Bronze in the Media Lions category.

     

    While those that were touted to win did just that, it was the Gold winners that were the talk among the delegates at the Cannes Lions festival. The tally was opened by McCann Worldgroup which won an Outdoor Lions Gold for its client Western Union.

     

    An elated Prasoon collected the coveted prize on the dais. DDB Mudra’s ‘The Hinglish Project’ for Ministry of Tourism, Government of India was another Gold winner as it bagged the metal in the Design Lions category. The same project also won a bronze in the same category.

     

    Abhinay Deo

    The third Gold winner was the entry ‘I am Mumbai’ that was entered by Ramesh Deo Productions and the advertising agency for which was Taproot India . Abhinay Deo, on bagging the award, said: “There is no thumb rule for success. All I can say is that one has to be honest to his craft. Never make a film to win an award be it Cannes or any other, because then you surely won’t.”

     

    Failures Unlimited

    While that was about the winners, the conversation that dominated the festival during the latter half was the lack of wins by India across categories. The discussion was compounded by India failing to make the shortlist across categories too. India would definitely want to forget its showing in the Mobile Lions & Cyber Lions category where it didn’t manage a single shortlist.

     

    Even categories like Film Craft, Creative Effectiveness, Branded Content & Entertainment put up a poor show by bagging just a handful of nominations. In comparison, categories like Radio and PR performed better with the shortlisted entries in either of them going on to win metals.

     

    In fact, the categories where India had the maximum number of shortlisted entries like Press and Outdoor too were failures as the conversion rate averaged about 10 per cent or so for each of them. Titanium & Integrated continued to elude the Indian contingent of bagging any metal.

     

    KV Sridhar

    The overall grim mood at the festival was highlighted by KV Sridhar, NCD, Leo Burnett India : “We are extremely satisfied with Leo Burnett’s performance at Cannes this year; getting three Lions is not an everyday event. The only disheartening thing being that India’s overall performance this year wasn’t gratifying. I think we need to push ourselves a little more to do well in such awards, because at the end of the day it’s not about how good your work is, but about how much better the world is performing than you.”

     

    Said Pratap Bose, COO, DDB Mudra Group, whose agency did win some big awards but not as many as they had hoped: “At the end of the day, as DDB Mudra, we were more hopeful as we did get 21 shortlists. Though this is an extended India problem as well. We did bag a Gold and that compensated a little. The standard to which the world has risen surpasses India to a very great extent hence India has got a lot of catching up to do. To sum it all, we are quite disheartened with the overall performance.”

     

    Pratap Bose

    Mr Bose’s comments on the creative standard of other agencies around the world rising to surpass India may all but be true. Why else would entries that stood a high chance of bagging a metal miss out on winning one? DDB Mudra’s work for Stedfast, Volkswagen and GeeBees Beverages were all assured of a win but sadly missed up winning any.

     

    Chaplin Chapters & Google Chrome by BBH India , Keeping the Legend Alive by McCann Worldgroup, Parle Agro by Creativeland Asia and A Day in the Life of India by Taproot were other worthy entrants too but were skipped for the sake of others that were found to be more deserving.

     

    Manish Bhatt

    Manish Bhatt, Founder-Director, Scarecrow and a jury member for Cannes, 2012, said, “I would say that winning at Cannes has a lot to do with probability, so many factors can work for or against a piece of work during the judging process. Also with my interactions with other jury members, I got a feel that many felt that while there is no disputing Indian creativity but the viability of that idea on various medium is restricted. As creativity is being redefined, there is a need to bring on an idea that can work on multiple platform. There is also a need to bring in more interactivity in our entries as thats what the judges are looking for.”

     

    Perhaps, it’s time for India to stop being looked upon as the ‘favourite’ one and for more creative ideas to spawn if we have to make a rousing comeback in 2013.

     

    We could then look forward to a wonderful year… Annus Mirabilis may be

     

    With inputs from Shubhangi Mehta, Tuhina Anand and Meghna Sharma

     

    Cannes Lions 2012 Winning Entrant

    Gold

    Silver

    Bronze

    Bacardi India

    1

    BBDO India

    2

    Cheil Worldwide

    1

    DDB Mudra

    1

    1

    Leo Burnett

    2

    1

    McCann Worldgroup

    1

    Ogilvy India

    3

    Ramesh Deo Productions

    1

    In alphabetical order of agency names

     

    Imaging: Rafiq

    Photograph of Abhinay Deo: Fotocorp

     

  • On day 4,India managed to pick up 1 Gold, 1 Silver and 5 bronzes. The Gold was bagged by DDB Mudra Group for its entry 'The Hinglish Project' in Design Lions

    DDB Mudra, Leo Burnett within touching distance of each other on metals tally

    By A Correspondent [updated]

     

    With 11 out of 15 categories already finding their fate at the grand creative stage of excellence-Cannes,India’s performance at this juncture doesn’t paint an impressive picture. Out of a total 84 shortlists that India has managed to garner against its name across the 11 categories announced till date, only 12 have managed to find their way into the winners tally. A recap of India’s performance thus far shows the country having two Golds, three Silvers and 10 Bronzes in its kitty.

     

    On day 4, India managed to pick up 1 Gold, 1 Silver and 5 bronzes. The Gold was bagged by DDB Mudra Group for its entry ‘The Hinglish Project’ in Design Lions category. It also won a bronze for the same entry. The other Gold for India was bagged by McCann Worldgroup for its client ‘Western Union’ in the Outdoor Lions category. As for the Silvers, it is Leo Burnett that is leading the way with 2 Silvers including one in Press Lions for its client Bajaj Electricals and the other for Doorstep School in the Media Lions category.

     

    Leading the list among the agencies is DDB Mudra with 32 points (including 22 points from shortlists). At the second place is Leo Burnett with 30 points against its name. If not for the points accumulated from shortlisted entries, Leo Burnett would’ve been placed at the top spot. Coming in third is Ogilvy India that has a total of 19 points against its name, including 3 Bronzes that it has bagged so far. It is a close call between the fourth and the fifth spots with BBDO India sitting at 14 and McCann WorldGroup sitting at 13. Cheil Worldwide is next with 8 points including 1 Silver that it won for Samsung. Brand David is next with 4 points followed by Publicis and Bates at 2 each. The remaining ten agencies are placed at the same spot (tenth) having bagged a point each for their respective shortlists.

     

    With four more categories to go, including Film Lions, Film Craft Lions, Branded Content & Entertainment and Titanium & Integrated Lions, the table is still wide open. Whether a new contender will emerge at the top and whether India will compare this year’s metals tally to that of the past will be known in a couple of days. Note this does include the shortlists announced today.

     

    Agency Titanium Grand Prix Grand Prix, Titanium Gold Silver Bronze Shortlist Total
    Points 12 10 7 5 3 1
    DDB Mudra 1 0 1 22 32
    Leo Burnett 0 2 1 17 30
    Ogilvy India 0 0 3 10 19
    BBDO India 0 0 2 8 14
    McCann Worldgroup 1 0 0 6 13
    Cheil Worldwide 0 1 0 3 8
    Brand David 4 4
    Taproot India 3* 3*
    Bates India 2 2
    Publicis Communications 2 2
    BBH India 1*+1 1*+1
    JWT Mumbai 1 1
    Creativeland Asia India 1 1
    TBWA\ India 1 1
    M&C SAATCHI 1 1
    OMD India 1 1
    Mindshare 1 1
    Draftfcb + Ulka 1 1
    Grey Worldwide 1 1
    PERCEPT/H 1 1
    Bacardi India 1* 1*

     

     

    * Winners to be announced on Saturday late evening @ Cannes

     

  • Prathap Suthan announced on Monday that he is branching out from iYogi to float 'Bang in the Middle' as an independent agency

    Out with a Bang! Prathap Suthan, Naresh Gupta etc launch new agency

    By A Correspondent

     

    Prathap Suthan
    Naresh Gupta
    Viral Pandya
    Manoj Deb
    Sabu Paul

    It was one of the biggest news to have hit adland in March 2011 when Cheil Worldwide’s NCD Prathap Suthan quit his agency to join lesser-known direct-to-consumer remote tech support company iYogi as its Chief Creative Officer. It was seen as an unexpected move by the creative maverick who was responsible for creating some startling work for Cheil Worldwide in India. But after lying low-profile with its activities and having stayed away from the advertising glitz and glam for most part, Suthan (or Pat, as he is affectionately called) made an interesting announcement on Monday when he announced branching out from iYogi to float ‘Bang in the Middle’ as an independent agency.

     

    Started in early 2011, the division headed by Prathap Suthan was set up as the in-house branding, advertising and communication team at iYogi. The unit managed campaigns for the company, primarily leveraging digital media across North America, the United Kingdom, Middle East and Australia. After 12 months, and over 20 campaigns later, iYogi’s in-house agency is ready to step out and offer its services to a wider set of brands. The agency will now offer expertise in brand advisory, communication design and advertising to Indian and global corporations.

     

    To be based out of Gurgaon, the team line-up includes some of the best names in the business including Prathap Suthan, Naresh Gupta, Viral Pandya, Manoj Deb, and Sabu Paul. Speaking about the team, Naresh Gupta, Managing Partner, Bang in the Middle, said: “All the existing employees who worked in the branding department of iYogi are the founding members of BITM. Prathap is a creative leader of outstanding pedigree. I, myself, have worked for a spectrum of clients. Viral Pandya is a celebrated designer who has won every possible international accolade and Manoj Deb is a celebrated art director. Between the four of us we have over 100 years of experience across geographies. The team we have right now is the best that is in the business.”

     

    When asked on the funding pattern being adopted by the company, Gupta said: “There is an external investor who is helping us make the unit operate independently. Our approach is to marry the strengths of new media with the traditional roles of mass media. We have an industry tested model of working and we have real life experience of making it work for the brands.”

     

    In a statement to MxM India, Prathap Suthan, Managing Partner, Bang in the Middle, said: “Despite an overcrowded communication services market, India needs a new kind of communication agency. India is booming with opportunity. Increasingly Indian brands are spreading their wings to global opportunities and new age businesses are coming up all over the country bustling with enterprise, ambition and opportunity. There is an increasingly younger nation out there with global ambitions and enterprises are demanding better communication solutions.”

     

    On his decision to branch out from iYogi, he said: “Organized advertising is getting weaker and getting scattered across many areas, giving rise to independent agencies. We believe that Bang in the Middle comes with the right experience to exploit that opportunity.”

     

    The agency’s services span across brand advisory and campaign design and advertising across platforms and customer touch-points. Bang in the Middle will assist brands in establishing a deeper engagement with customers by creating an ecosystem from visual language to design guidelines and interaction across mediums. It will also assist brands create holistic communications approaches that will reduce dependency on traditional media and leverage digital to gain market share.

     

    As of now, the company just has a single client to boast of but are said to be in advanced talks with a few clients already. But that really may not be an issue for BITM, who have some experienced team that have bagged big clients in the past. What will now matter for the agency is to be seen as a new and small creative force to be reckoned with. Asserts Gupta: “We believe the age of independents is here. The biggest thing going for them is flat structure, focused delivery and hands-on experience of senior people.”

     

    That seems to be an assurance high on confidence and competency too. Given the run that small independents are having at the awards, a new addition will only make life for other agencies, especially the biggies, a tad more challenging. Only time will tell if BITM has it in them to challenge leadership norm and emerge a superior agency in the future.

     

  • For Cheil the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Y Duos was an ideal platform to carry forward the DNA of Galaxy Y and at the same time display the benefit of a Dual SIM Android phone

    New Samsung TVC from Cheil takes ‘Y’ smart to next level

    By A Correspondent

     

    Cheil’s latest television commercial promoting the Galaxy Y DUOS is an extension of the earlier campaign that drove preference for the Samsung Galaxy Y Smartphones and set the pace for Gen Y to make a shift from feature to smart phones.

     

    Once again Samsung has created a buzz in the market by launching the Dual SIM Android phone – Galaxy Y Duos (GT-S6102), a touch-screen dual-SIM Smartphone. It has 3.14″ screen with QVGA resolution and an 832 MHz processor.

     

    For Cheil the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Y Duos was an ideal platform to carry forward the DNA of Galaxy Y and at the same time display the benefit of a Dual SIM Android phone.

     

    Speaking about this new commercial for the Galaxy Y series, Alok Agrawal, COO, Cheil Worldwide SW Asia said,  “Galaxy Y is a great franchise which we’ve built by riding on an insight where we have divided the world of tech into the have and have nots. Smartphones is the way forward in the mobile category and the market is in an exciting phase. This is the second campaign from Galaxy Y and we are looking ahead to more exciting work in this space.”

     

    Cheil’s communication clearly shows the protagonist with Samsung Galaxy Y Duos demarcating the world between the have and the have nots and the need to be smart and have a smart phone in life.

     

    The new TVC created for Samsung ‘s new smartphone is set in a cafe showing a young girl with the new Galaxy Y Duos putting an irritating loud mouthed character in his place. As before, the communication ends with the antagonists being teased with a simple question “Dual SIM hai aur samsrtphone bhi, lekin aap ke pass nahin hai…Uncle?”.

     

    India’s mobile phone market is witnessing exponential growth and the smartphone market has gained traction with every mobile handset manufacturer offering smartphones at various price points and service providers providing lucrative data plans to entice the consumer to use email, apps etc on their phones.

     

    In this growth story, Samsung mobile has emerged as the No. 1 Smartphone brand inIndia. Samsung’s positioning is no surprise as it understands the consumer and develops smartphones to cater to the needs of all types of users. In 2011, the Galaxy Y series were launched though a successful campaign of TVCs that clearly focused on the youth of today- confident and courageous to take up challenges and solve them in their own unique ways.

     

    This TVC is part of the line up of an exciting range of products where Cheil Worldwide is actively involved in building communication across 360-degree consumer touch points, that offer a high degree of excitement and creating buzz for the brand.

     

    Client: Samsung electronics India Limited

    Agency: Cheil Worldwide SW Asia

    Creative Team: Varun Arora, Dinkar Porwal, Vishal Sagar

    Client Servicing team: Srijeet Das, Soma Chatterjee, Shruti Nanda, Chandramouli Prasad

    Production House:Code Rd

    Directed by: Gajraj Rao

     

    Cheil Indiahas been on an aggressive growth plan over the last 2 years, almost doubling its size in its employee strength and billings. Significant expansion and growth has been seen particularly in BTL and Digital areas, making Cheil one of the largest fully integrated single agencies inIndia, executing some of the largest cross-functional integrated campaigns, providing 360°implementation across all facets of marketing services.

     

    Cheil Worldwide Inc is Korea’s largest and one of the world’s leading advertising groups. Cheil offers a full portfolio of marketing communications services including advertising, PR, sports marketing, exhibition and display production, and production of large-scale performance events. In 2011, Advertising Age ranked Cheil as the #11 largest creative agency in the world.

     

  • Dutta will report to Alok Agrawal, Cheil Worldwide SW Asia.

    Cheil appoints Vivek Dutta as VP-Planning

    By A Correspondent

     

    Vivek Dutta joins Cheil as the Vice President-Planning after spending almost five years at Hakuhodo Percept where he was VP and National Planning Head. He has also worked for JWT in the past and in brand and marketing functions at Dainik Bhaskar, LNJ Bhilwara Group (Mayur Suitings) and Mahindra & Mahindra.

     

    Commenting on the development, Alok Agrawal, COO, Cheil Worldwide SW Asia, said: “Vivek has the right credentials to provide the required momentum in the planning function. His experience across diverse categories from automotive to consumer electronics; to health, lifestyle and sports; to social development, makes for the perfect choice of a seasoned partner for the Cheil India team.”

     

    Dutta has been in the industry for over a decade and a half and has had extended brand experience in the automotive sector having worked on the Maruti Suzuki range. He has also worked with Daikin, Carrier, Panasonic, Sharp, Toshiba, Sony and the like in both the HVAC and consumer electronics categories. Other career brands include Yakult, Hindware, Sukam Power Solutions, Unicharm, Citizen Watches, Top Ramen noodles, UNICEF, ILO, GAIL, Apollo Tyres, ESPN Star Sports among others.

     

    Confirming his appointment, Vivek Dutta said: “It’s a great time to be a part of Cheil. Contrary to popular belief Cheil is not just a Samsung agency. The intention here is to exponentially grow to be one of the top agencies in India. The fact that in the past few months Cheil has acquired a slew of varied business is a testimony for this. My intention is to be a part of this movement and provide momentum for growth.”

     

    Cheil India has been on an aggressive growth plan over the last 2 years, almost doubling its size its employee strength and billings. Significant expansion and growth has been seen particularly in BTL and Digital areas, making Cheil one of the largest fully integrated single agencies in India. Cheil set up the agency office in India in 2003 with just 12 team members and today has over 85 talented and passionate team members.

     

    Cheil Worldwide Inc is Korea’s largest and one of the world’s leading advertising groups. Established in 1973 with headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Cheil operates 49 offices in 27 countries with about 3,000 employees. Cheil offers a full portfolio of marketing communications services including advertising, PR, sports marketing, exhibition and display production, and production of large-scale performance events.

     

  • Nets the entire creative communication mandate, acquires the business in a multi-agency pitch

    Cheil Worldwide South West Asia bags Net4

    By A Correspondent

     

    Cheil Worldwide South West Asia has been awarded the complete creative mandate for Net4 India Ltd, India’s leading data centre, cloud hosting and network services provider, in a multi-agency, creative and digital communication pitch that encompassed strategy; creative and execution plan presentations.

     

    Confirming the news, Alok Agrawal, COO Cheil Worldwide SWAsia, said: “The win is yet another testimony to Cheil’s integrated expertise. We provided a 360-degree solution to the client’s brief. The challenge is to enhance awareness for Net4 and make it a top-of-mind choice in its fields of business. More than just advertising the brand requires active engagement with the consumers to get into their consideration set. At Cheil, we always lay emphasis on ideas that energise people into action. Net4 is one of the earliest Internet companies in India with a solid heritage and proven business models. Our solution focused on building a stronger brand franchise across all segments of a fully integrated communication plan to drive business to Net4.”

     

    Speaking on the appointment of Cheil WW SW Asia as Net4’s creative communication partner, Jasjit Singh Sawhney, Chairman & MD, Net4 said: “Net 4 is a leader in most of its areas of operations, especially Web Services to SMEs. It is the only fully integrated Internet Company providing solutions to businesses of all sizes, across a wide spectrum of technology services. We feel the market for our services is currently highly underpenetrated and is poised for explosive growth. To capitalize on this opportunity, we are embarking on an aggressive marketing plan and floated a brief to identify the right partner to build our brand and image. Cheil’s understanding, clear strategy and impactful creative for Net4 clearly demonstrated superior thinking. We are looking forward to our partnership with Cheil for driving business on the back of a solid brand” Cheil has already begun work with Net4 on its various projects.

     

    CheilIndia has been on an aggressive growth plan over the last two years, almost doubling its size in its employee strength and billings. Significant expansion and growth has been seen particularly in BTL and Digital areas, making Cheil one of the largest fully integrated single agencies inIndia. Cheil set up the agency office inIndia in 2003 with just 12 team members and today has over 85 talented and passionate team members with a never-say-die attitude. Cheil is a truly integrated agency executing some of the largest cross-functional integrated campaigns, providing 360°implementation across all facets of marketing services. Cheil Worldwide Inc isKorea’s largest and one of the world’s leading advertising groups.

     

    Net4 is India’s leading Data Centre, Cloud Hosting and Network Services Provider. It is a NSE & BSE listed business enterprise with consolidated revenues to the tune of R 304 Crores (2010-11). Net4 focuses on providing services to businesses (small, medium and large) and its offerings include Data Centre & Cloud Solutions, Web & Application Services and Network & Systems Headquartered in Noida, Net4 has a PAN India presence with offices in 11 major business cities & an ever-growing clientele which includes 850 Corporate Data Center Customers, 800 Internet Bandwidth customers, 2800 Business VoIP customers, 88,000 hosted websites, 1.2 million business e-mail accounts & over 350,000 registered domain names. Net4 is amongst the largest provider of hosted email, web hosting and domain name registration (www.net4.in) in the Asia-Pacific region.