Dentsu Creative Impact, which won creative duties for a range of Maruti Suzuki brands, has bagged the digital mandate for Maruti Suzuki along its digital partner agency IsobarIndia. A multi-agency pitch that was held earlier this year. Â According to industry estimates, the account is sized at Rs 100 crore.
Sanjeev Handa
The Dentsu Aegis Network teams will now handle digital creative, social and media duties for Maruti Suzuki corporate and all model brands other than the Nexa portfolio. A team comprising specialists across digital verticals has been put together to handle this massive mandate.
Speaking on the development, Sanjeev Handa, Vice President, Marketing Maruti Suzuki India said, “Our partnership with Dentsu Aegis Network on digital mandate is a strategic one. We wanted to have an integrated and synergistic approach to our digital mandate also. We feel having Dentsu Aegis Network as our creative partners in offline, the idea is to have a coherent communication to be more productive and efficient.â€
Amit Wadhwa
Speaking on the win, Amit Wadhwa,President, Dentsu Creative Impact, said, “It’s great to see that our partnership with Maruti Suzuki is going from strength to strength. What is even more heartening is to see that a leader like Maruti Suzuki is truly looking at an integrated approach. In today’s day and age a uniform approach is what is going to deliver in the market place and when brands like Maruti Suzuki demonstrate it, it forms a great example for others to follow. Look forward to an interesting journey ahead.â€
Dentsu Creative Impact, the creative agency from Dentsu Aegis Network has made two major senior appointments in an attempt to further strengthen its creative product. The agency has roped in Anupama Ramaswamy and Akashneel Dasgupta as Executive Creative Directors. They will report to Soumitra Karnik, National Creative Director, Dentsu India Group.
Anupama Ramaswamy
Prior to joining Dentsu Creative Impact, Anupama Ramaswamy was Executive Creative Director at Cheil, Gurgaon and was in-charge of the Samsung Mobile account. In the recent years, Anupama has worked on the launch of the Galaxy J series, Note 4, Grand 2 and the extremely-popular “Fickle is Fun†campaign for Lavie Handbags.
Commenting on her new role, Anupama said, “I am very excited to join Dentsu Creative Impact. I have loved the vibe of the agency since the moment I walked in. Soumitra and Amit have been trying to get the best possible talent, and my mandate here is to have fun while building a vibrant and creative culture. This will involve less rhetoric and more hands-on hard work.”
She further adds, “While it is important to win metals, it is also critical for us to glamourize our day-to-day business as well. It can never be an ‘either/or’ situation. I would really like to see the more difficult every day work, which keeps the business ticking, to become more creative. Lastly, together we shall try and build a creative culture, which for me is the 3 P’s of advertising – People with a Positive Purpose. Once these three come together, we have a winner at hand.â€
Some of the agencies that Anupama has worked with include JWT, Lowe, Rediffusion, Havas and FCB. She has worked across a gamut of brands such as Nokia, Airtel, Woodland, Whirlpool, LG, Maruti, Lays and Boost. In her kitty are a number of  AdFest Golds, Spikes, Effies, New York Festival and a number of Abby’s. She was part of the One Show Jury in 2012 and is a regular face on the Goafest jury panel over the last few years.
Akashneel Dasgupta
Meanwhile, Akashneel Dasgupta’s last assignment was at ADK Fortune where he was heading the creative function. Akashneel started his career in advertising with strategic planning at Mudra. After spending a good 5 years in planning, he decided to venture into copywriting within the DDB Mudra group. In 2010, he joined Lowe Lintas as a creative director and then moved to ADK Fortune as vice-president and creative head in 2013. He has worked across categories such as automobiles (both two wheelers and four wheelers), FMCG, media, online travel, fashion, real estate, food and beverages, etc. Some of the brands that he has worked on are Maruti Suzuki, Paras Pharma (Moov, Itchguard, Dermicool, Krack, Livon, etc) Rasna, Johnson and Johnson, Yamaha, Honda, Emami, Woodland, Expedia, DLF and Wills Lifestyle amongst others.
Commenting on his new role, Akashneel said, “It’s an exciting time to join Dentsu Creative Impact where a young new team has taken shape and one cannot fail to notice the energy and enthusiasm. Also, it was a personal desire for some time to work with Soumitra and I am happy that an opportunity has presented itself. Hope you get to hear more from us, soon.”
Soumitra Karnik
Talking about the exciting new additions to the team, Soumitra Karnik, NCD, Dentsu Creative Impact said, “Great work happens when people commit to constantly raising the bar. We are young and tremendously hungry for qualitative growth. To satiate our appetite and to help us achieve our objective, people become easily our single most valuable asset and we cherry pick each one of them. Both Anupama and Akash are just the kind of people Dentsu Creative Impact needs to write its destiny. For me, they are our fantastic acquisitions.â€
India features as one of the countries with the highest rate of road accidents in the world. And Maruti Suzuki, being a leader in the Indian automotive industry, has, for long, been going that extra mile to spread road safety awareness and bring about change. As part of its efforts in the same direction, Maruti Suzuki has come out with its latest communication campaign on road safety – a series of 8 films that take on the challenge of positively impacting people’s attitude towards road safety.
The films are not so much about educating road users and creating road safety awareness amongst them, as they are about changing their attitude of apathy towards road safety. It is this apathy that Indian road users can sometimes have towards traffic rule violations, which has dire consequences for them and fellow road users. The campaign aims to stir their conscience and make them reflect on their apathy.
More than spreading awareness, Maruti Suzuki is hoping for an attitude change amongst road users, as an impact of the campaign. Road users are generally aware of rules in case of the most common traffic rule violations, such as not wearing seatbelt/helmet, not stopping before zebra crossings etc. What they lack is an attitude of concern towards the grave consequences that may arise owing to their violations. Hence, the intent is to create a conscience for road safety rules, which are otherwise most commonly neglected.
The films cover subjects which are integral to our everyday living – giving way to ambulances, saying no to drunk driving, always wearing a seatbelt, lane driving, avoiding phone calls while driving etc. The plot of each film lets you pause and ponder about your own behavior.  The campaign features 8 TVCs on road safety, conceptualised by Dentsu Creative Impact, Gurgaon, addressing the issues of non-adherence to the road safety rules and norms. The thought behind the communication is “If we know it’s wrong, why do we still do it?â€
Speaking on the films Vinay Pant, AVP, Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., said “It’s a Hard-hitting campaign, rooted in on-road insights. Our desired impact would be that people are moved to think and reflect on their attitude. Intent is that every time people are breaking a traffic rule out of apathy, they should be reminded of these films, hopefully have a change of heart and start making the roads safer.â€
Mahesh Rajoria, AVP, Driving Training, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., said “Being a leader in the Indian automotive industry, Maruti Suzuki, has always gone beyond providing people with mobility solutions. We always go an extra mile to ensure the well-being of our society. We believe that it is our responsibility to work towards making the Indian roads safer and our teams work tirelessly to spread awareness about safe driving and traffic regulations.† Amit Wadhwa, Branch Head & SVP, Dentsu Creative Impact, adds “Since the start, the intention was to look out for new and unconventional ways to communicate a simple message of road safety. With a strong insight, we feel we can reach out to those who may not always break the rules because they want to, but because they are so used to it by now that it has become a part of them. And our honest effort, is to at least make them think before they act.â€
Soumitra Karnik, NCD, Dentsu Creative Impact, said “We believe in developing strong campaigns using consumer insights as a base, so that the message reaches the right segment. With the core insight of ‘If we know it’s wrong, why do we still do it?’, the expectation is to touch base with each individual.â€
Maruti Suzuki Swift has launched its latest campaign that celebrates another feather to the list – that of the sporty looking limited edition Swift Glory.
The film shows a few drivers driving the Sporty looking limited edition while the rest watch them drive by. Some watch as spectators, some like fans, some are the cheerleaders who add cheer to the world with an early morning hello, some are commentators because they make comments, some like the neighbor’s dog is a critic and barks as the Swift drives by…finally the vehicles come to a stop and the voice-over concludes that ‘Then there are the players… The limited edition Swift Glory is for the Players.’
The campaign is supported with a full-fledged 360 campaign with television, Cinema, radio, digital and activation.
Titus Upputuru, National Creative Director, Dentsu Creative Impact said, “The idea draws a parallel between the world of sports and the real world. Just like in a sports world, there are players and there are spectators, fans, cheer leaders etc,, the film shows that the new Sporty looking limited  edition of Swift creates a new distinction between those who are the players and those who are not. The sporty looking Limited edition from Swift is a great looking product. And we had a great fun creating this campaign.â€
RS Kalsi, Executive Director , Maruti Suzuki India Limited said, “There is a player in each one of us and the new Swift Glory intends to bring that out. The new sporty looking limited edition takes inspiration from sports and racing. It comes with an exciting range of features such as body graphics, multimedia system and sporty interiors. We are positive that the limited edition would be as loved as the earlier versions. Brand Swift has constantly evolved over the past ten years to become one of India’s favorite cars. With over a million cars on road our challenge is to constantly keep the excitement up and engage with consumers in newer ways. The Swift Glory limited edition is exactly the kind of change we want to create, thereby keeping the thrill and love for the brand at a high.â€
Dentsu Creative Impact and Dentsu Media have together bagged the creative and the media duties of Mandom Corporation’s Gatsby range of men’s grooming products.
Mandom Corporation (India) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Japan-based Mandom Corporation that is engaged in manufacturing and selling men’s and women’s cosmetics. Mandom offers its products under the brand names Gatsby, Pucelle and F&F among others. The company is also engaged in the provision of insurance agency and building management service through its subsidiary. The Company operates its business mainly in Japan, Indonesia, and other countries and districts in Southeast Asia.
On entering India and expanding the presence of the hair grooming brand in India, Takayuki Enomoto, Marketing Head, Mandom India,“We are all very excited about launching Gatsby Water Gloss in India and starting our marketing activities in full swing with our brand ambassador Varun Dhawan. We plan to cultivate a ‘Hair Styling culture’ in India. We are looking forward to influencing young men through Varun and expect this association to boost the brand’s visibility in India with the help of our creative partner Dentsu Creative Impact.”
After bagging the creative duties from the cosmetics and personal care products company, Tadashi Urashima, Chief Operating Officer, Dentsu Media said, “Partnering Mandom in the challenge to effectively access and engage with the trend-setting Indian youth, is both exciting and exacting work for Dentsu Media. It is an honour and pleasure to work with Mandom in communicating the emotion and passion of the Gatsby brand in this country, using an integrated Dentsu approach, with a cut-through campaign to deliver significant ROI.”
On getting the creative duties for the brand, Junichi Minohara, Chief Operating Officer, Dentsu Creative Impact said, “Excited, ecstatic and enthusiastic. It is a huge opportunity for us to partner a company such as Mandom Corporation in making a strong brand like Gatsby an even stronger player in the Indian market. The strength of this brand is immense in all countries where it is present, and we look forward to giving it the same stature in India as well.”
