Veteran mediaperson Kaushik Roy needs no introduction in the marketing services domain. But the media professional was not content with resting on his past laurels. Last month, he launched his debut novel ‘Alphabetica’ with a subtext saying ‘A Satire On Majoritarianism’ written with the pseudonym of Roy Phoenix.
In an extended interview with MxMIndia founder and editor-in-chief Pradyuman Maheshwari, Roy talks about this book, why he wrote under a pseudonym and what’s coming next. As a bonus, watch and hear both Roy and Maheshwari read passages from the book.
Haier, the home appliances and consumer electronics maker, has launched a new digital film #LightUpAHeart, that celebrates the life of office people who work closely together but have drifted apart this Diwali due to remote office and work from home setups.
Commenting on the film, NS Satish, Senior Vice President, Sales & Marketing at Haier Appliances India said: “Diwali is a festival of lights, cheerfulness and joy. This year with offices closed, office-goers are missing the excitement that this festival brings. The challenges created by the pandemic have changed the way we live and celebrate. Through this film, we wanted to inspire everyone to come together and celebrate the festival with the same fervor, despite the obstacles posed by the pandemic. At Haier, we have always focused towards inspiring lives of our customers and this film is our way of showing care and inspire everyone to rise above the odds and make this Diwali special.”
Kaushik Roy, Co-founder and Creative Director, Zero Zero Creative Solutions adds, “Haier’s Diwali campaign celebrates the coming together of people who were very close but have become distant this year because of the pandemic. It does so by encouraging everyone to reach out to people they’ve lost touch with and brighten up their Diwali. During times when offices have become ghost structures shrouded in darkness, Haier takes the lead in encouraging all of us to re-visit our colleagues with whom our contact is now reduced to video calls and messages. Through this film, Haier depicts care and love as well as remind viewers about their second home – their office”.
The India chapter of the International Advertising Association (IAA) conducted the 10th edition of the Olive Crown Awards celebrating excellence in communicating sustainability.
In the Corporate Crusader of the Year category, Reliance Foundation won the Gold and Mathrubhumi Printing & Publishing Company the Silver. The two NGOs – People For Animals Wildlife Hospital & Rescue Centre and Chirag Rural Development Foundation – shared the Gold for their contribution to environment sustainability. Carbon Craft Design and Air Link was awarded the New Age Green Initiative Gold and Silver respectively. Earth Edition Drives bagged with the Digital Gold and FCB Interface with the Green Campaign of the Year-Gold.
Maharashtra minister Aditya Thackeray was Chief Guest on the occasion, but he arrived late. Also present was Mark Read, CEO, WPP who addressed the audience.
Said Punit Goenka, President, International Advertising Association (IAA) – India Chapter and MD & CEO, Zee Entertainment Enterprises: “We at IAA are extremely proud of Olive Crown Awards as an initiative. The overwhelming response received from the industry speaks a lot about the need of such initiatives in today’s era. Apart from being the pioneer in recognizing creative excellence in sustainability, Olive Crown Awards as a property has also led to a mindset change in the approach taken by the marketers and advertising agencies while crafting strategic communication campaigns. I am very glad to note that this initiative has touched the 10 year milestone. I am very proud of the entire team at IAA, for their immense amount of energy and time invested in building this initiative and all the key initiatives which bring about a positive change for the industry and the society at large.”
Added Megha Tata, Chairperson IAA Olive Crown Award: “Today we celebrate a decade of communicating sustainability, a decade where we have brought sustainability to the forefront and on the agenda of both Marketers and Agencies alike. We have seen the conversation shift from doing something green to campaigns and brands vested in sustainability. We have seen this shift and are happy to have identified and led the way to acknowledge these initiatives. We have shown that we are not just custodians of our respective Brands but Custodians of Brand Earth.”
Kaushik Roy, Past President IAA, expressed pride of being President IAA during the conceptualization of the Olive Crown Awards, fondly mentioned that if IAA Olive Crown was a tree it would be big today.
Prasoon Joshi, Chairman of the Central Board of Film Certification and CEO of McCann World group India, reminded us of the fact that while it is a great initiative we must imbibe and live by the values. He recited a poem he had written on Water.
The India chapter of the International Advertising Association inducted veteran mediaperson Kaushik Roy into the IAA Hall of Fame. Roy was recognised at the sevent edition of the annual IAA Leadership Awards held in Mumbai on Friday.
Other awards presented were Media Agency Leader of the Year to Prasanth Kumar, GroupM; IAA TV Anchor of the Year to Rahul Kanwal of the India Today Group, IAA Media Person of the Year to Sanjay Gupta, Star India and IAA Media Game Changer of the Year to Virendra Gupta and Umang Bedi of Dailyhunt.
Also recognised in the evening were a variety of industry leaders. See List below
Said Punit Goenka, President, IAA India, MD & CEO, ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Ltd: “The IAA India Chapter has been working relentlessly to enhance the stature of our marquee properties to enrich them with engaging and thought provoking conversations, and celebrate the commendable work being done by leaders across sectors. The 7th edition of the IAA Leadership Awards was one such exceptional evening that celebrated and applauded true leaders who have positively contributed to the economy, changed the landscape of the M&E industry and created global brands. The support received from the guests present at the event reinforces our commitment to keep working towards creating initiatives that benefit the M&E industry.”
Added Dr Bhaskar Das, Group President, Republic TV, Co-Chairperson of IAA Leadership Awards: “ IAA Leadership Awards is a humble attempt to honour industry doyens in the fields of Marketing, Advertising and Media, who have made enormous professional contributions and delivered business success to their companies. Because only we know the challenges, the hardships, the dilemma of ethics, the sacrifices and the tough decisions that go into making a leader – to stand tall, to stand true.”
A panel discussion was moderated by CVL Srinivas, Country Manager-WPP India, on “Platform is critical. Content be dammed” with panellists from across the media ecosystem: Punit Misra, CEO- Domestic Broadcast Business, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd., Sameer Nair, CEO-Applause Entertainment, Nandini Dias, CEO-Lodestar UM, and Pooja Jauhari, CEO –The Glitch. The panelists discussed how content, platform and the consumer are interlinked and how content and platform is a function of time and how data driven insights are helpful in generating timely content.
Srinivasan Swamy, Chairman and World President IAA, who was also present on the occasion, said: “We can now trace the progress of Chapters geographically”. The second being to promote education across.
In his acceptance speech, Kaushik Roy who is President Brand Strategy & Marketing Communication at Reliance Industries Limited, said: “It is a great honour that doesn’t come easy, especially from IAA that has been a global body for 80 years. One must keep the fire in the belly alive: To Grow – Stay Hungry”.
Winner List – 7th Edition of the IAA Leadership Awards 2019
The India Chapter of International Advertising Association has elected Neeraj Roy, Managing Director and CEO, Hungama Digital Media as its President. Monica Tata, COO – BTVi, was elected as Vice President and Pradeep Dwivedi, former CMO of the Dainik Bhaskar group, is the new Secretary. Jaideep Gandhi, Chairman, Jaya Advertising, has been elected as the Treasurer.
In addition, Ashok Venkatramani, CEO, MCCS India (ABP News), Janak Sarda, Director, Daily Deshdoot, Abhishek Karnani, Director, Indian National Press, Shreyams Kumar, Director, Mathrubhumi and Anand Sankeshwar, Managing Director, VRL Media Ltd have been elected as members of the Managing Committee.
Speaking about the development Neeraj Roy said, “International Advertising Association in India over the past few years has played a key role in bringing the Media, Marketing and Advertising community together and I am delighted to have been given the opportunity to serve as President. On behalf of our new team and management committee we would like to thank Srinivasan K Swamy for his stellar leadership over the past few years and we look forward to serving the ever changing needs of the marketing and advertising fraternity as India is at the cusp of a digital transformation that will impact all aspects of life.â€
The first Managing Committee meeting conducted immediately after the AGM, coopted additional members as per IAA Constitution. They were: I Venkat, CEO – Eenadu, Ashish Bhasin, Chairman India & CEO – South East Asia, Director – Posterscope, Aegis Media Group.
In addition, the following senior professionals were invited to be part of the Committee: Srinivasan K Swamy, Immediate Past President, IAA and Chairman RK Swamy BBDO, Kaushik Roy, President – Brand Strategy & Marketing Communication, Reliance Industries Ltd, Pradeep Guha, Managing Director – 9XMedia Pvt Ltd, Sam Balsara, Chairman & Managing Director – Madison Communications Pvt Ltd, Ramesh Narayan, Founder, Canco Advertising Pvt Ltd and Raj Nayak, Chief Executive Officer – Viacom 18 Media Pvt Ltd. More members are likely to be inducted in a few weeks.
And here’s what some of the officebearers had to say:
Monica Tata: “I am humbled and honoured to have been given this opportunity and I am looking forward to be part of the next phase of IAA under the new leadership.â€
Pradeep Dwivedi:  “There has never been a better time for our industry to evolve and transform itself. I am keenly looking forward to working with industry leaders to sustain the rich legacy of past IAA initiatives and contribute to new ones.â€
Kaushik Roy: “In the last four years under the able leadership of Mr Srinivasan Swamy, IAA India Chapter has witnessed tremendous energy and dynamism. With Mr Neeraj Roy, a luminary in the digital world, as the new President, India is on a good wicket to grow stronger in the coming years. One can also expect great momentum and healthy growth in the advertising industry across the Asia Pacific region. With strengthened senior level representation from India and the Asia Pacific, IAA globally is well poised to support and nurture the interests of the advertising, marketing and media fraternity. I wish the newly elected India Chapter Management Committee a very successful term. It will be my endeavour to forge strong ties in the region and across the world.â€
IAA India President Srinivasan (Sundar) Swamy and APAC head (and former President) Kaushik Roy are part of the global body’s leadership for 2016-18. The International Advertising Association (IAA) elected its team for the coming two years during its annual Board of Directors meeting.
“Felix Tătaru at 42 is the youngest IAA Chairman in our history,” commented Michael Lee, IAA Managing Director, adding:  “We have an ambitious agenda for the next two years and our exciting mission continues today”
Said Tataru: “We are very excited to assemble our leadership at such an exciting and challenging time in our industry. The IAA, representing all areas of  marketing communications – advertisers, agencies, media and educators is committed to inspire the industry and society. Everyone in our industry is empowered to contribute in their own way and the IAA looks forward to harnessing the resources and energy of our members around the world”
Among the current industry issues for the IAA include the continued importance of best practices and integrity; the defense of unwarranted bans and interference with brands and advertising and the development of talent within our industry
The following is the list of IAA Officers for 2016-2018:
Felix TătaruÂ
Chairman and World President,
GMP Group, Romania
Faris Abouhamad
Immediate Past Chairman and World President,
CEO, InterOne Resonance, UAE
Srinivasan Swamy
Senior Vice President,
CMD, RK SWAMY BBDO Pvt Ltd, India
Diane SladeÂ
General Secretary,
Head of Advertising Edith Cowan University,Perth, Western Australia
Venanzio Camarra
Treasurer,
Managing Partner and Chief Consultant of Studio Aldabra<, Italy
Carla Michelotti
Vice President Corporate Members and Government Affairs,
President, Carla Michelotti LLC, USA
Kaushik Roy
Vice President Area Director Asia Pacific,
President – Brand Strategy & Marketing Communication, Reliance Industries Ltd, India
Tom Brookbanks
Vice President Area Director USA/Canada,
Senior Vice President, Starcom Mediavest, USA
Kyra Roest
Vice President Are Director Europe
Business & People connector, /UM’GE:BUN/, Netherlands
Zero:Zero Creative Solutions has won the advertising mandate for Onida Air Conditioners. The account was won following a multi-agency pitch. The agency will create a multi-media campaign to present the new range of Onida Air Conditioners during the summer of 2016.
Nitin Navalkar, Chief – Marketing Communication, Mirc Electronics Ltd., said “Onida is a strong brand in room Air Conditioners and holds a pole position of offering powerful cooling. Having been a key player responsible for transformation of the industry from window to split Air Conditioners, it now plans to transform the industry to Inverter Air Conditioners. In our endeavor to move towards a green planet, the company has migrated to green gas R410A and its complete range of Air conditioner is now with this green gas. Onida was the first in the industry who brought out IoT (Internet of Things) in Air Conditioners and now comes with the complete range of Inverter IoT ACs. We were impressed with the young team of ZeroZero who have been able to create a refreshing story while maintaining the core values for the brand.â€
Speaking about the mandate, Kumar Subramaniam, partner, Zero:Zero Creative Solutions said “We are delighted to be chosen to charter next step of Onida’s journey. It’s a big win for a new, passionate team at our agency. More importantly, we were blown away by the innovations that we saw in their new range of ACs; we felt the brand deserves a platform which brings alive these innovations in a vivid manner. We created a brand story which does justice to this while also being true to brand’s rich pedigree.”
Kaushik Roy, (partner, Zero:Zero) adds “From a creative breakthrough POV, Onida is a high benchmark to keep in mind, and of course, a dream opportunity. We tried to demonstrate our big ambition through our creative strategy and the work . We’re thrilled that our thinking has found resonance with the great team at Onida. Now we’re looking forward to see how the world at large reacts to our campaign.â€
The multi-media campaign will break in March and will run through the summer.
IAA Young Turks Forum of the International Advertising Association (IAA) India Chapter has invited the Chairman Asia Pacific & CEO of McCann World Group India, Prasoon Joshi, to share his multi-faceted professional journey.
Kaushik Roy, President, Brand Strategy & Marketing Communication at Reliance Industries Limited will interact with him to uncover this journey, which will be followed by discussions with the young audience.
An acclaimed advertising industry leader, Prasoon exemplifies a rare breed of creativity and leadership. An icon who has built mega brands, a writer who’s been honoured with the prestigious National Award twice by the President of India and one who has garnered glory at International Awards like Cannes, D&AD, Clio, Media, Adfest, and plethora of others, Prasoon has also authored 4 books.
Srinivasan K Swamy
Srinivasan K Swamy, IAA India Chapter & Vice-President, Development Asia/Pacific Region of IAA said, “IAA Young Turks Forum in its three prior events has shown how the young professionals find this very useful. We are happy to have brought out this series, which is giving an opportunity for them to listen, learn and get inspired by successful communication experts from different genres.â€
Design and communications publication Kyoorius has announced the launch of the Kyoorius Awards. The awards are in partnership with D&AD and the International Advertising Association (India Chapter).
Conceptualized with the aim of recognizing and rewarding excellence, innovation and originality; the Kyoorius Awards ceremony will be held at the 9th annual Kyoorius Design Yatra in Goa on August 29.
With nine categories spanning print, packaging, digital, retail and design for good, the Kyoorius awards will not only recognize professionals but give real focus to young talent with the student awards.
The student awards will bring together some of the biggest names in the industry to create real briefs that students will work on – providing them a chance to showcase capabilities in real-world scenarios. A jury comprising of some of the best creative minds from across the world has been carefully selected by D&AD together with Kyoorius. Rather than online, the jury panel will fly down to India for a discussion-based jury session to judge all submitted entries.
Rajesh Kejriwal, Founder CEO, Kyoorius said, “At Kyoorius we are working every day to ensure that talent is nurtured and fresh ideas see the light of day. Kyoorius Awards aim to recognize and honour outstanding creative work in India. We are thankful to our esteemed partners D&AD and IAA (India Chapter) for coming on board to support this initiative.”
The D&AD Yellow Pencil is recognized the world over as the most prestigious amongst creative awards. Tim Lindsay, CEO of D&AD said, “At a time when global creative industries face continuing tough economic challenges, delivering outstanding creative work worthy of an award can be a valuable point of differentiation. Excellence in creativity inspires higher quality work, raises the bar and delivers success for business.”
Mr Lindsay added, “Joining hands with Kyoorius works in tandem with the objectives of D&AD, which aims to inform, educate and inspire those who work in and around the creative industries. Together, we aim to support and nurture creative professionals throughout their careers and across the world.”
Kaushik Roy, immediate past president – IAA India Chapter, said, “We know the power of design and it is crucial that we support and award the best creative minds in India. We, at IAA are excited about the partnership with Kyoorius and D&AD and feel this platform will futher IAA’s work in supporting and helping grow the creative industry in India.”
Entries close on June 18, 2013. More information is available at awards.kyoorius.com.
Moneycontrol.com recently launched its Budget 2012 campaign Rock the Sabha, which shows some well-known political personalities hitting the high notes.
The latest moneycontrol.com commercial, which is currently on the air, has set the ball rolling for moneycontrol.com’s Budget 2012 campaign. With key politicians like P Chidambaram, M Karunanidhi, Mamata Banerjee and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee playing guitars and jiving to the beats of rock music, the rock concert effect introduces the Budget 2012 coverage on moneycontrol.com in an unexpected way.
The bold punchline, ‘Budget Comes Alive’, brings to life the brand’s rather sober attitude and creates the right amount of curiosity towards the newly incorporated interactive elements like poll, debates, slideshows, online chats, LIVE blogging and videos on  moneycontrol.com’s budget page, said a release from the company.
Commenting on the campaign, Lakshmi Narasimhan, CEO, Web 18, said, “Apart from communicating that moneycontrol.com presents the biggest Budget coverage online, one of the key objectives of this campaign was to give a fresh perspective to moneycontrol.com and reach out to new users.â€
Ravi Deshpande, Chief Creative Officer, Contract Advertising, said, “Moneycontrol.com is the undisputed No.1 financial portal of the nation. It has redefined the way finance is presented and consumed in today’s day and age. Which is why we thought its communication too has to make a bold, emphatic statement. If the Budget campaign is disruptive, it’s only to mirror what the brand is actually doing in the marketplace.â€
Kaushik Roy Senior Creative Director & AVP, Contract Advertising said, “It’s absolutely eye-opening! The way in which moneycontrol.com is taking the boredom out of the Budget presentation. The ‘Rock the Sabha’ campaign is an attempt to make that point loud and clear. We hope it will attract newer, younger audiences, in addition to exciting millions of existing users.â€
The ad can be viewed at http://t.in.com/budget2012.
