MxMIndia

Tag: Kartik Sharma

  • Maxus has been the media agency on record ever since the DTH service provider launched its operations in India in 2006

    Wavemaker India retains media mandate for Tata Sky

    By A Correspondent

     

    GroupM agency Wavemaker has announced the retention of media duties for Tata Sky. Maxus (now part of Wavemaker) has been the media agency on record ever since the DTH service provider launched its operations in India in 2006.

     

    Said Kartik Sharma, Managing Director – Wavemaker South Asia: “I am grateful to Tata Sky team for selecting us as their strategic media partners right from the start of their launch in India. Associating with Tata Sky for over a decade now has been an enriching experience for all of us. Tata Sky is one of our oldest client partners in India and we are extremely happy to continue our relationship with them. We are excited about our new global framework – ‘Rapid Growth Planning’ which will help Tata Sky in identifying growth opportunities and help in further strengthening the brand.”

     

    Added Malay Dikshit, Chief Communications Officer – ‎Tata Sky:  “GroupM has been associated with Tata Sky for the past 10 years and it was time that we scanned the media industry for best practices, great leadership and sound commercials. While there were some brilliant and very strong contenders delivering on all of these requirements, team Wavemaker stood a step ahead with their strategic steer and detailed planning. Tata Sky welcomes Wavemaker on board again.”

     

     

  • The pitch was for the entire portfolio of brands and involves only offline duties. The multi-agency pitch saw participation from other leading agencies

    Wavemaker India retains Perfetti

    By A Correspondent

     

    Wavemaker has announced the retention of media duties for Perfetti Van Melle India. Maxus (now part of Wavemaker) has been the agency on record and had first won the media mandate for Perfetti Van Melle India way back in 2006.

     

    Speaking on the successful retention of the business, Kartik Sharma, Managing Director – South Asia, Wavemaker said: “We are extremely delighted to continue our decade long partnership with Perfetti. It is a huge moment of pride as this is the first win for us as Wavemaker. We couldn’t have asked for a better start to this year.”

     

    Added Navin Khemka, Managing Partner, Wavemaker India: “Working with Perfetti, one of the largest confectionery manufacturers in the world, has been a great experience right from the start of this journey. We have together built iconic brands and continue to deliver unmatched media value for them.”

     

    Said Rohit Kapoor, Director – Marketing, Perfetti Van Melle India: “[The] Wavemaker (erstwhile Maxus) team has played a significant role in building our brands over the years. We are excited to share that our partnership with Wavemaker will continue after a comprehensive media agency validation process. Wavemaker has consistently demonstrated adequate capabilities to support us to achieve key business objectives, drive performance and innovation rigour.”

     

    The pitch was for the entire portfolio of brands and involves only offline duties. The multi-agency pitch saw participation from other leading agencies.

     

     

  • Wavemaker India will be headquartered in Mumbai with offices in Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai, Thrissur and Cochin

    Wavemaker officially begins its operations in India

    By A Correspondent

     

    Wavemaker, GroupM’s new billion-dollar revenue, media, content and technology agency created from the merger of MEC and Maxus announced the start of its operations in India on Thursday.

     

    While the merger had gotten official after the formation of what was codenamed ‘newco’ and later the announcement of the name ‘Wavemaker’ and the leadership team, the official operations started yesterday. In fact, in many ways the fact that the entries from Maxus and MEC went as Wavemaker indicates that the process had perhaps been actualised even earlier.

     

    Wavemaker India will open with a team of 700+ professionals, led by Managing Director Kartik Sharma and will service a portfolio of clients including FMCG giant ITC Pvt. Ltd and L’Oréal.

     

    The agency will be headquartered in Mumbai with offices in Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai, Thrissur and Cochin.

     

    Said Sharma, Managing Director, South Asia of Wavemaker India: “I am excited as Wavemaker officially starts operations today in India. All our people, processes and technology are united through our focus on understanding, accelerating and optimizing purchase journeys; making them more satisfying for consumers and more effective for our clients.”

     

    Wavemaker will have offices in 90 countries with over 8,500 employees. Major global clients include L’Oréal, Vodafone, Marriott, Colgate-Palmolive and Paramount.

     

    Alastair Aird, Global Chairman, Wavemaker made the announcement of the formal operational launch in Mumbai on Thursday.

     

     

  • Star India and Vodafone crowned Client of the Year as Madison-Asian Paints win Grand Emvies

    GroupM agencies top Emvies leaderboard

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    It was what one would call a Kodak moment. As the leaderboards were being announced by emcee Brian Tellis, it was evident that the crown of the Agency of the Year could well rest on the all-new head of the recently established Wavemaker agency, set up by the merging of Maxus and MEC. Or of course the good oi’ Mindshare, winner of the crown for some 10 times thus far. The suspense grew when it was Madison that bagged the Grand Emvie, and not the two GroupM agencies.

     

    On the stage when the winner was being announced were Sam Balsara, Shashi Sinha, Vikram Sakhuja and CVL Srinivas. For Srinivas, as CEO, GroupM South Asia, it’s never an easy task when one sibling is  pitted against the other. It’s like the Williams sisters competing with each other on centre court.

     

     

    Srinivas put his hand on his eyes, as Tellis was set to unveil the Agency of the Year winner. Mindshare is the old warhorse and hence deserved to win, but for the all-new player Wavemaker, it would’ve been the perfect beginning.

     

    Adjudged by a jury of around 211 industry leaders through intensive judging sessions across the country, Emvies 2017 saw over 816 entries. Note the entire Publicis Groupe’s media and digital agencies stayed away from the awards given the global decision to be off all awards for a year.

     

    The Client of the Year which has seen Hindustan Unilever bagging the title comfortably over the last few years saw joint winners in Star India and Vodafone. Interestingly Star India works with Mindshare and Vodafone is with Wavemaker. The marketing heads of both commended the excellent partnership with their agencies as a contributor to their winning the title.

     

    Meanwhile, there was much happiness for both Prasanth Kumar, CEO of Mindshare and Kartik Sharma, CEO of Wavemaker.  For, even though Sharma’s team did not clinch the title, it went back home with a clear indicator to the world that it’s a significant force to reckon wit.

     

    Speaking about the changing dynamics of campaigns and the importance of being relevant, Punitha Arumugam, 2017 Awards Chairman for EMVIEs, said, “India has been at the forefront of many ingenious campaigns that showcase high effectiveness and the Emvies remain committed to recognising such outstanding communication stories. Being one of the most trusted and coveted awards in the category, the Emvies continue to scale with increased participation and representation from across industry stakeholders.” Arumugam has been spearheading the Emvies for five years now.

     

    Elaborating on the scale and the entries, Partha Sinha, 2017 Awards Co-Chairman for Emvies said, “The Emvies 2017 has successfully contributed towards recognizing high impact media campaigns that have made a difference. It continues to be one of the most coveted awards within the industry.”   For Sinha, who confessed that he wasn’t exposed to the Emvies much thus far because the awards event is out of bounds for creative agencies, co-chairing Emvies 2017 has been an enriching experience.

     

    In his welcome address on Emvies night (Friday, October 13), Vikram Sakhuja, President of The Advertising Club said: “In its 17th year now, the EMVIEs has continued to grow in scale and strength, emerging as the gold standard amongst media awards. With a jury consisting of over 211 distinguished industry leaders from across the country, this has been a transparent process to select transformational work.  We are engaging with some top global content sites to showcase the best of our archives to the world.

     

    Colors was presenting sponsor yet again for Emvies 2017, as MTV, Rishtey Cineplex and Republic TV powered the event.

     

    EMVIE 2017 CLIENT OF THE YEAR TALLY

    EMVIE 2017 RESULTS

  • T Gangadhar to head Essence in India & North Asia. Anand Chakravarthy to be MD, Essence India

    Kartik Sharma to head new Maxus-MEC entity

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    GroupM has announced the leadership structure for the proposed Maxus-MEC merged entity (codenamed ‘NewCo’) in India and South Asia as also for the digitally-led agency Essence in South and North Asia.

     

    As speculated in a report on MxMIndia a few weeks back, Tim Castree, Global CEO of MEC and CEO of “NewCo”has named Kartik Sharma as Managing Director of the new media, content and technology agency in India and South Asia when it launches in January 2018. Sharma has been Managing Director of Maxus South Asia since 2014 and in that time, has led the agency to outstanding new business growth and success.

     

    Said Castree: “We’re creating a brand new billion-dollar revenue media, content and technology agency, dubbed ‘NewCo’ for now. With such ambition, comes a need for brilliant talent to lead and inspire, and so today’s news is very exciting for us. Under Kartik’s leadership, I am confident that we will have the right team in place to truly make NewCo a formidable future-facing agency in India and South Asia.” Sharma will report to GroupM South Asia CEO CVL Srinivas and Castree.

     

    Following GroupM’s recent commitment to adding offline media capabilities, an expanded geographic footprint and an influx of talent to the agency, Christian Juhl, Global CEO of Essence, a global digital-first agency, has announced that T Gangadhar, current Managing Director of MEC South Asia, will transition into the new role of Chairman of India and Managing Director of North Asia, Essence. Gangadhar will report into Kyoko Matsushita, CEO of Essence APAC. He will continue to be based in Mumbai.

     

    Meanwhile, Anand Chakravarthy, who has served as Managing Partner at Maxus India since 2015, will be transitioning into the role of Managing Director of Essence India. Chakravarthy will report into both Gangadhar and Matsushita and will work closely with the regional leadership in his new role.

     

    Both Gangadhar and Chakravarthy will assume their new roles by January 2018. The Essence teams will be strongly supported by the GroupM network as they look to expand their presence in market.  Said Christian Juhl: “India is such an important market for so many of our clients whose business challenges we work tirelessly to solve.  Essence has built its credibility on being a data-centric agency that infuses technology and measurement across all media.  We’re excited to expand our geographic footprint and apply our unique approach for our global clients looking for relevance in India.  Gangadhar and Anand are experienced leaders who will help expand our presence.”

     

  • The scope of the pitch included complete media services comprising strategy, communications planning, integrated media approach, investment and buying, tools & processes and team capabilities

    Maxus retains media mandate for L’Oreal India

    By A Correspondent

     

    Maxus has successfully retained media responsibilities for cosmetic major L’Oréal India. The multi-agency pitch saw participation from other leading agencies along with incumbent agency Maxus. Maxus has been the media AOR for L’Oréal since 2010.

     

    Speaking on retaining the business, Kartik Sharma, Managing Director – Maxus South Asia said: “We are extremely excited and humbled to retain prestigious business like L’Oréal. It is a matter of pride to be associated with L’Oréal. Over the years, we have been able to successfully guide and execute various important campaigns for L’Oréal which have also won many accolades. We are committed to delivering many more meaningful solutions and continue to strengthen this relationship further.”

     

    The scope of the pitch included complete media services comprising strategy, communications planning, integrated media approach, investment and buying, tools & processes and team capabilities.

  • The movie is scheduled to release on May 26th, 2017

    200 Not Out appoints Maxus to promote ‘Sachin: A Billion Dreams’

    By A Correspondent

     

    There’s a fair buzz around ‘Sachin: A Billion Dreams’ and GroupM agency Maxus has bagged the account to innovate and promote the film. movie is scheduled to release tomorrow (May 26).

     

    Speaking on the win, Kartik Sharma, Managing Director, Maxus South Asia said: “In a country of cricket enthusiasts, getting to work on the epic biographical film is thrilling and humbling at the same time. It’s great to be regarded as experts in sports media and marketing. This is a unique project indeed because it’s not only about the social religion of cricket but also about the niche that Sachin has carved out for himself”.

     

    Added Ravi Bhagchandka, Producer, 200 Not Out:, “Sachin: A Billion Dreams is a very special project for us. We wanted a partner who could share the same passion in building this up just like us and give their best. Maxus’ understanding of media and sports marketing bundled up with innovative thinking and strong domain expertise makes them the perfect partner for us”.

     

    Said Jigar Rambhia, National Director – Sports and Entertainment Partnerships, Maxus India: “Working on this magnum opus project is a dream come true. Personally, sports has always been my passion and when you club your passion with profession, it only gets better”.

     

  • Both these tournaments will be played in the United Kingdom

    Maxus wins mandate for Champions Trophy 2017 & Women’s World Cup

    By A Correspondent

     

    Maxus has won media mandate in India for ICC Champions Trophy and ICC Women’s World Cup 2017. The Champions Trophy will be played from June 1 to 18 followed by the ICC Women’s World Cup from June 24 to July 24. Both these tournaments will be played in the UnitedKingdom.

     

    Commenting on the win, Kartik Sharma, Managing Director, Maxus said: “It’s amazing to be associated with ICC again for the ICC Champions Trophy and ICC Women’s World Cup. We are grateful to continue this association with ICC over these years. Sports has been an important vertical for us and we are looking forward to adding the Maxus touch to the world of sports media”.

     

    Maxus has previously handled several ICC campaigns in India including the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, ICC World Twenty20 2014, ICC Champions Trophy 2013, ICC World Twenty20 2012 and ICC Cricket World Cup 2011.

     

  • The GroupM agency lost the Rs 250 Titan account to Madison in Feb, but this is a big win

    Maxus wins ITC from Madison

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    Early in February this year, GroupM agency Maxus lost the Rs 250-odd crore account to Madison. And now it has got back and grabbed the coveted Rs 550+ homegrown cigarettes-to-hotels-to-food products conglomerate ITC Limited from Madison.

     

    As has been known, the account has been bagged in a fiercely contested pitch with five contenders in fray: Madison, GroupM (Maxus), IPG Mediabrands (Lodestar UM), Dentsu Aegis Network (Carat) and Publicis Media.Madison had bagged the ITC account in 2010.

     

    In the last lap, it’s said that other than Madison, Maxus and IPG were in the fray. ITC officials are reported to have visited the Maxus and IPG offices for detailed discussions and an evaluation.

     

    Like it was done with Madison in 2010, Maxus will also set up ‘Team ITC’ a dedicated team to service the business.

     

    The Media AOR will move to Maxus with effect from April 1. According to information received, Madison was informed of the move last week.

     

    Said Kartik Sharma MD of Maxus, South Asia: “We are excited and humbled to be chosen by ITC to be their media partner. We have huge respect and admiration for ITC in the way they have built their business and brands. We are confident that through our consistent investments behind cutting edge tools and a diversified talent pool across data, digital and content we will help deliver competitive edge to ITC for their future growth”

     

    Added CVL Srinivas CEO GroupM, South Asia: “We are delighted to be chosen by ITC as their media agency partner. This win comes as a huge recognition that we are on the right path as far as future proofing our business is concerned in an otherwise highly commoditised media industry. The investments we have made in talent, technology and data are helping us keep our clients ahead of the curve. We look forward to partnering ITC on its next phase of growth”.

     

    Over the years, GroupM as a whole and Maxus specifically have upgraded themselves in technology-led solutions. Last year,  ‘Maxus Kaleidoscope’, a mood-based planning tool was launched. This is Maxus India’s second initiative on behavioural mapping, the first being Moribus, a behavioural sciences lab by a media agency.

     

    Maxus also launched ‘Mesh’, a marketing command centre and dialogue engine, in partnership with Singapore-headquartered social media marketing firm Vocanic. Last year, the agency partnered with Bengaluru-based IoTBLR for pervasive computing. Then there is innovation technology consulting unit ‘Maxus Metalworks’ which is now in the country.

     

    ITC Limited is headquartered in Kolkata, with five diversified business segments: Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), Hotels, Paperboards and Packaging, Agri Business & Information Technology. The pitch was for the entire media mandate of the company across categories, for both urban and rural markets.

     

    While operations for ITC are generally done from Kolkata, Bengaluru and Mumbai, it is rumoured that it is likely that part of the ITC’s business operations may relocate to Mumbai in the near future.

     

  • Maxus has been the AOR for last 9 years

    Maxus retains IPL media business

    By A Correspondent

     

    Maxus has successfully retained the media responsibilities of the Indian Premier League for its tenth edition. Maxus has been the media agency for IPL ever since the league started in 2008. The account will be handled out of its Mumbai office.

     

    Commenting on the retention, Kartik Sharma, Managing Director, Maxus South Asia said, “We are extremely proud and humbled to be chosen as the media agency once again by BCCI. I am grateful to BCCI for valuing our efforts. We look forward to continue delivering even better results through our media campaigns on IPL.”

     

    The multi-agency pitch saw participation from other leading media agencies, following which Maxus retained the business.

     

  • The Media Management Conclave hosted by SIMC-PG tries to provide answers on what the future holds for media agencies

    Media captains mull future of biz

     

    By Anuka Roy

     

    Top leaders of the media and marketing services business in India addressed students at the annual Media Management Conclave of the Pune-based Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication hed on Sunday (August 7). The broad theme of the Conclave was ‘Agency of the Future’, focusing on how media in India has evolved over the past years.

     

    The Conclave was part of the silver jubilee celebrations of the institute and was followed by a Media and Marketing Analytics Conclave held in the second part of the day. Kartik Sharma, Managing Director at Maxus; Suresh Balakrishna, CEO, Middle East and South Asia at Kinetic and Sundeep Nagpal, Founder Director at Stratagem Media Pvt Ltd were the speakers on Media Management.

     

    “The value of data will shape not only the future of organisations but countries and human kind as well,” stated Sharma in his keynote speech. His presentation focused and elaborated on the trends which can currently be seen in the country, especially with mobile phones, whose reach is higher than that of television. “We are becoming a visual world driven by mobiles,” he said. He spoke about advertising on television, which still gets huge investments from brands for their products. According to him, television is the most effective in generating not just sales but profits. The importance of content was highlighted by him through video examples. He said that sometimes knowingly and sometimes unknowingly, the consumer becomes the producer of the content it consumes. Moreover, he encouraged everyone to closely notice how technology would change the world.

     

    Next up, Suresh Balakrishna shared a fresh perspective on the concept of ‘Out of Home’ (OOH) consumption and its dynamics. In his opinion, OOH includes television, newspaper and the internet. He cited how 80% of mobile consumption is done outside of home. Besides this, he also stressed on how innovations in digital OOH would impact OOH marketing. He opined, “Anything is OOH, and we do all of it.” He stressed on the importance of digital displays and gave the example of ‘Cadbury Bubbly’- which successfully carried out digital displays in metro stations. In conclusion, he said that once the measurability issue is resolved, OOH will become larger.

     

    ‘How to make media work for brands? – Black Magic’ was the name of the presentation by Sundeep Nagpal. He added that the reason behind the same would be understood once the presentation was over. Through various video examples he stressed on the changing investment scenario of media businesses in the digital era. The videos were also used to show what should be and what should not be done by brands to promote their products through content integration and Advertiser-Funded Programmes (AFP). “Big data is considered to be the most important thing happening not just to communications but to businesses as well,” he said. He spoke about the concept of branding and big data analytics, where businesses actually track every movement of their consumers. Nagpal also stated briefly about micro targeting, for which he said Netflix is the best example to understand how it can be done and about augmented reality. Even though the advancement of technology was spoken about in detail at the conclave, he concluded by saying “Technology is not everything, simplicity matters.” And, what does Black Magic actually mean? Black- a clean slate for you to start anywhere in the ecosystem.

     

    The second half of the day was dedicated to Marketing and Media Analytics Conclave, where NiteenBhagwat, Executive Director and CEO at Asterii Analytics; SarangPanchal, CEO at MRSS India; Mubin Khan, Head of Products, Research and Analytics, Senior VP at BARC, India, shared their expertise on the subject.

     

    The Marketing and Media Analytics Conclave opened with NiteenBhagwat, who spoke about the basics of analytics and the prospects it holds. Speaking on why measurement is the core of analytics he opined, “We cannot manage what we cannot measure.” Further, he underlined the amplification of human behaviour by technology and social media, and interestingly pointed out how social media is driven by altruism, homophily, tribalism, narcissism and control.

     

    Sarang Panchal, who covered the concept of research in the media landscape, further explained about the trends in the market research industry and its future, which involved the growth of DIY research, popularisation of market research, online communities and predictive analysis.

     

    The last speaker of the event, Mubin Khan began his discussion by saying, “What BARC envisaged for the future is happening now.” He elaborated on how market research is no more as simple as it used to be and predicted that the future agencies will not just depend on analytics but on consumer insights as well.

     

    The Analytics Conclave concluded with the speakers in a panel discussion with SIMC Adjunct Professor and MxMIndia columnist Indrani Sen moderating the discussion. They shared their personal experiences in the industry to make the students understand what the companies require from them during recruitment.

     

    The correspondent was hosted by Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication

     

  • Maxus India has bagged the consolidated digital creative and media mandate for Tata Motors

    Maxus to vroom Tata Motors digitally

    By A Correspondent

     

    GroupM agency Maxus India has bagged the consolidated digital creative and media mandate for Tata Motors.  Maxus has set up a large exclusive team in its Mumbai office for Tata Motors to handle the creative, media, social and innovations portfolio.

     

    Commenting on the win, Kartik Sharma, Managing Director – Maxus South Asia said ‘We are very delighted to be chosen by Tata Motors as their digital partner. Maxus today handles several leading brands from the Tata stable and with this win we are truly humbled by the group’s faith in our capabilities”

     

    Added Unny Radhakrishnan, Maxus’ Chief Digital Officer: “It is a moment of pride for us. Our focus will be to bring data, content and technology together to deliver effective and creative solutions for brands and we look forward to do some great work for Tata Motors in the coming months”