MediaCom India has been awarded the media mandate for Aqualite, the men’s and women’s shoes footwear brand. The mandate was bagged after a multi-agency pitch and will be serviced out of MediaCom’s Gurugram office. The media duties include media strategy, planning, buying and implementation for TV, OHH, Activation, Cinema.
Commenting on the association, Avichal Gupta, Director Marketing, Aqualite said: “We are happy to team-up with MediaCom as our media partner as the agency brings the quality of experience and execution with them. For Aqualite, we always look for a partner who can understand and resonate with the brand as well as understand our consumer offerings and we saw this in the team and the work they put forward. We are confident that MediaCom will be able to develop a robust strategy for our media planning and buying to add impetus to all our marketing initiatives and help us be the best for our consumers. We look forward to working with them.”
On being awarded the business, Navin Khemka, CEO, MediaCom South Asia: “We, at MediaCom are very excited and proud to partner with a brand like Aqualite – an organic homegrown start-up which became one of India’s largest footwear companies through the years. Their dedication to providing their customers with multiple product choices and stay rooted in their objective has driven them to become one of the market leaders. We understand how Aqualite is committed to its consumers. Similarly, we want to be committed to deriving a very focused consumer-driven 360-degree media approach across all media platforms and help the brand reach their business goals.”
MediaCom India, a GroupM media agency, has announced that it has been awarded the media mandate of Bayer’s new Consumer Health division in India. The company envisions to make self-care for a better life a reality for billions of people around the world through everyday healthcare. The account was won following a multi-agency pitch and will be handled out of MediaCom’s Mumbai office. The media duties include full planning and buying all media platforms.
Bayer is a global life sciences company present in India for over 125 years and is committed to the principles of sustainable development and with a goal to create value for our customers, shareholders and employees. All this goes to make up the company’s vision, ‘Health for all, hunger for none’.
Sandeep Verma
Sandeep Verma, Country Head – Bayer Consumer Health Division, India said, “With Bayer’s Consumer Health division offering a portfolio of leading and trusted brands in India, we want people to adopt self-care and take charge of their everyday health. To make this possible, its essential to have the right partners on board who can add value to our efforts and contribute to our vision. We are hence happy to onboard MediaCom in our journey at Consumer Health.”
Navin Khemka
Commenting on the win, Navin Khemka, Chief Executive Officer, MediaCom South Asia said, “With the rising concerns of the global population, we believe it is important to have a company like Bayer in the market whose scientific successes are intended to help improve people’s lives. With our integrated teams and media-neutral solutions, we are looking forward to helping Bayer further scale its efforts and accelerate its business growth. Leveraging MediaCom’s expertise, we will be focusing a lot of new-age thinking and digital-first approach and are looking forward to creating an amazing experience for them.”
GroupM agency MediaCom has announced the appointments of Shekhar Sharma and Averill Sequeria. Sharma will take the role of Managing Partner (North & East), while Sequeria will be joining as the Chief Product Officer.
Said Navin Khemka, Chief Executive Officer, MediaCom South Asia: “The media landscape is accelerating and ever-evolving. We want to continue to build on our strong track record of helping brands build campaigns that deliver results. Today brands want to communicate quickly and effectively, and we believe that together with our new appointments, we will be able to deliver more powerful work for our clients. With having Shekhar and Averill as a part of our team, I am convinced that they’re uniquely positioned to successfully drive the company and are here to put their best foot forward towards offering the best solution to our clients and strengthening our portfolio.”
Following a competitive multi-agency pitch, MediaCom has bagged the media mandate for OTT platform Lionsgate Play in India.
As its full form AOR, MediaCom will be responsible for the media strategy, planning, buying and implementation for all media as per Lionsgate’s requirements.
Commenting on the partnership, Rohit Jain, Managing Director, Lionsgate South Asia, said: “This is an exciting year for Lionsgate Play. We will be launching our B2C app soon and aim to reach out to maximum number of audiences with the right media mix. We are glad to partner with MediaCom and are confident about their result oriented approach.”
Speaking on the recent win, Navin Khemka, CEO, MediaCom South Asia, added: “Content consumption has witnessed unprecedented growth in the last couple of years more so over the last few months as a result of the lockdown. Lionsgate Play has some great content in their arsenal. Being the first OTT platform in the country to also focus on offering key Hollywood content in region-specific language will definitely make the right connect with the Indian consumer. We look forward to creating an unmatched brand experience for them.”
The account will be managed and supervised by the MediaCom Mumbai office.
MediaCom has strengthened its leadership team with the announcement of key appointments and role changes in the Mumbai team. Vishal Shah joins as Managing Partner, MediaCom West. In this role, Shah will be leading MediaCom’s West clients excluding P&G. Rachana Monteiro has been elevated to lead one of MediaCom’s key portfolios – Agency Lead on the P&G business.
Speaking on these appointments, Navin Khemka, CEO, MediaCom South Asia, said: “It is great to have such talented leaders in our Mumbai team. Known to be brand change agent, I am confident that Vishal’s appointment will help grow MediaCom’s existing and potential clients and will add immense value to our media offering. Rachana, on the other hand, has been a passionate leader and I am delighted to see her grow and take on a larger role within the company. I am certain that team P&G is stronger and together this passionate team will help in growth to the next level.”
MediaCom has won the media mandate of Citroën India, part of the auto conglomerate, Groupe PSA.
Groupe PSA entered the Indian market in April 2019, with the launch of its brand, Citroën, which hits the roads in 2020. MediaCom has been working on the brand since its entry into India. As its full-form AOR, MediaCom will be responsible for the media strategy, planning, buying and implementation for all media. The account will be managed and supervised from the MediaCom Bengaluru office.
Commenting on the win, Navin Khemka, CEO, MediaCom South Asia, added: “Groupe PSA is an iconic brand and it is an honour to be associated with them. We are excited to launch the Citroën brand in India, in the category which is now getting totally redefined with the new launches. We are confident to craft a stellar success story with them in the dynamic Indian automobile market.”
Following a competitive multi-agency pitch, MediaCom has been awarded the digital media mandate for GOQii’s India Health Quiz (IHQ), a first-of-its-kind, nationwide initiative to educate the masses with information on health. GOQii, is tech-enabled smart preventive healthcare company promoted by entrepreneur Vishal Gondal.
Joining hands with GOQii, MediaCom will be responsible for digital media strategy, planning, buying and implementation across digital media as per GOQii’s requirements for IHQ.
Commenting on the win, Navin Khemka, CEO, MediaCom South Asia, said: “In this health and fitness conscious era, GOQii’s products are hitting the right chord by providing preventive health and wellness ecosystem to a wider audience. We are excited to work on the new educative initiative India Health Quiz with GOQii and help them grow in the market and reach out to the masses easily.”
“When we were ideating about the India Health Quiz, we were looking to partner with someone who has the capability across Digital channels and can deliver on our objectives. Mediacom presented to us their bouquet of services & we embarked on this journey to educate Indians about the smaller nuances of health via a quizzing template,” added Krishna Kumar, CCO, GOQii Technologies. The account will be managed and supervised by the MediaCom Mumbai office.
MediaCom India held its inaugural flagship Blink_live event in Mumbai earlier this week. The event is MediaCom’s thought leadership and innovation lab, designed to help its clients better understand and leverage the latest media and marketing trends, insights, innovations and opportunities.
The theme of the event was ‘Decoding Growth in A Slowdown’, given the current economic slowdown in India.
Byron Sharp
The event saw a detailed session on “Laws of Growth” by the keynote speaker Byron Sharp, Marketing Science Professor & Director of Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, Australia. The other speakers included Josh Gallagher, Chief Product Officer, APAC at MediaCom who spoke on ‘Will the promise of E-commerce survive a slowdown’; Nihar Das, Overall Lead, Borderless WPP Team shared insights on how to ‘Tackle the slowdown through customised growth models’; Baldeep Singh, VP, Client Engagement & Data Partnership at [m] PLATFORM spoke on ‘Cutting slump with laser focused Consumer Behaviour’, whereas, Preeti Reddy, CEO South Asia at Kantar, Insights focused on ‘Identifying Real Growth’.
Bianca Best
Speaking of this launch Bianca Best, Global Managing Director of Blink and Strategic Partnerships, MediaCom, said: “In the volatile, exciting and ever evolving landscape brands are operating in today, Blink satisfies not just the potential that comes from trialling innovation (which we see as part of every client brief) but is an absolute necessity to ensure clients achieve sustainable, long term business success. Only once brands partner with technology specialists are the ambitions of true digital transformation realised. I’m incredibly invigorated to be enabling this for our clients and see Blink becoming an essential complementary pillar to MediaCom’s already world class offering.”
Navin Khemka
Commenting on the India launch of Blink_live, Navin Khemka, CEO, MediaCom South Asia, said: “The media landscape has changed drastically, and exchange of trends and ideas globally has become more relevant than ever. Blink_live is one such platform that helps bring global marketing trends to India and shares India’s insights with the world. I am happy to bring Blink_live to India for the first time. I am sure it will add great value to our existing clientele and to enhance the brands’ marketing efforts. We are also hopeful to glean more insightful observations from the Indian team through this platform.”
Added Jaydeep Chaudhuri, Regional Managing Partner, MediaCom: “It was wonderful to have Prof Byron Sharp as the keynote speaker at Blink_live addressing this topic, which is critical not only for India but also for all sizeable economies around the world. MediaCom’s partnership with the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute allows us access to the best thought leaders in marketing academia and their research helps us create communications ecosystems for brands to unlock sustained growth”
Following a competitive multi-agency pitch, GroupM’s media agency MediaCom has been awarded the media mandate for Mobile Premier League (MPL).
As the AOR, MediaCom will be responsible for the media strategy, planning, buying and implementation for all media as per MPL’s requirements. The last year has been exciting for MediaCom with a couple of big wins, with MPL adding another feather in their hat.
Commenting on their newly formed partnership Abhishek Madhavan, VP, Growth, Mobile Premier League, said: “We are extremely delighted to appoint Mediacom as our media partners. Their understanding of the gaming audience as well as their strategy on how media can leverage the same was very sharp and focused. We are confident that together we will be able to achieve our business objectives and make MPL India’s top mobile e-gaming destination.â€Added Navin Khemka, CEO, MediaCom South Asia: “The e-gaming space is exploding, primarily due to the increasing penetration of smartphones and rising number of internet users. We are confident that together we will make MPL the go to destination for Indian gamers. With e-gamers increasing every hour and new games added every week, the platform will need repeat users and also add new users every day. This will be exciting. Let the games begin!!â€
The account will be managed and supervised from the MediaCom Bengaluru office under the leadership of Hariharan Vishwanath.
Mediacom has elevated Priya Choudhary to the role of Head of Mediacom West. In her new role, Choudhary will be leading Mediacom’s Mumbai office.
Choudhary joined Mediacom in 2014 as National Director – media buying. In 2016, she was chosen as the team lead on one of their key portfolios – P&G.
Said Navin Khemka, CEO, Mediacom South Asia:“I am glad to see Priya being elevated as the head of Mediacom West. She is a passionate leader and under her leadership, team P&G has achieved the highest rating ever. Her vast experience on both the client and agency side will help in growing Mediacom’s existing and potential clients and will add immense value to our media offering.â€
Added Choudhary: “It is an absolute privilege to take on the new role as head for Mediacom West region. My immediate tasks would be to lead strategy, insights and driving growth for Mediacom West. I hope to bring in more value for all our existing clients as well.â€
MediaCom has announced the appointment of Navin Khemka as CEO of its South Asia operations effective July 16, 2018. Khemka takes on the role from Debraj Tripathy who will be leaving the organisation to explore new opportunities outside the group. He will be based in Delhi (Gurugram) and report into incoming GroupM South Asia CEO Sam Singh and Mark Heap, CEO Mediacom Asia
Debraj Tripathy
Tripathy joined MediaCom in 2011 and under his leadership, MediaCom India has been among the fastest growing and most awarded agencies in South Asia. In recent years, MediaCom India was recognised amongst the Top 10 agencies in the Gunn Media 100 Agency Report, named Agency of the Year at the Festival of Media Asia, and delivered many award-winning campaigns recognised as amongst the best in the world, including Ariel’s “Dads Share the Loadâ€, Gillette’s “Bachelor of Shavingâ€, and Wrigley’s “Doublemint #Startsomethingfreshâ€.
Khemka is currently Managing Partner (North & East) and New Business Development Lead for GroupM’s Wavemaker India. He has over 20 years’ experience, working with brands such as Perfetti Van Melle, Hero, Pernod Ricard, PayTM, Nokia, Samsung, Reckitt Benckiser etc. A MICA alumnus, Navin has played a stellar role in growing Maxus and later Wavemaker in New Delhi with his client centric approach. He joined GroupM to lead the New Delhi branch of Maxus in 2014. He has previously worked in Zenith Optimedia, Cheil and Mudra.
Said Srinivas who also presently holds charge as CEO GroupM South Asia: “WPP and GroupM are making many investments into areas that will further enhance our market-leading capabilities in India and South Asia. We are excited to see Navin take on this role. With his experience and energy, we are sure he will take MediaCom to even further heights by leveraging all that our group has to offer, for the benefit of our clients. Debraj has done a terrific job leading MediaCom. He has been a fantastic colleague and a very admired leader.â€
Added Heap: “The search for a new leader has been an exciting one as there is no shortage of strong talent in India. We considered many candidates from within and outside the group and unanimously knew that Navin was the choice. Alongside our successes in India in recent years, MediaCom globally have built up tremendous positive momentum, winning more new business than any other agency in 2017 and being awarded the current Global Agency of the Year awards by Festival of Media, Campaign and Adweek. In Navin, we have a leader with stellar raw talent and a real thirst for growth, who can capitalise on the enabling assets of the MediaCom global network and the strength of GroupM and WPP India. I’m really looking forward to working with him to lead us boldly to a new level of success for our staff and our clients.â€
Said Khemka, CEO, MediaCom South Asia said “I am excited to continue my GroupM journey with MediaCom. Given MediaCom’s dominant global position and aggressive plans am confident we will able to drive growth and lead the agency to the next level. The future is promising with the dynamic media landscape in India and the challenge will be to lead this change by driving relevance and effective ROI for our brands, including several blue-chip clients.â€
MediaCom has bagged the media mandate for the Goibibo.com account. Goibibo has assigned MediaCom the integrated media planning and buying duties for the company.
Commenting on the win, Saujanya Srivastava, Group Chief Marketing Officer, Go-MMT Group said:“ We have a long standing association with MediaCom. The team has helped us deliver successful marketing campaigns for MakeMyTrip in the past, including the recent one on MakeMyTrip Assured Hotels proposition. Post the merger with the Ibibo Group, we have high impact marketing plans to pursue. MediaCom worked with us on the first Goibibo marketing campaign post-merger, featuring DeepikaPadukone as the brand ambassador. The campaign has been received well and we are confident of an equally positive impact on the business as well. â€
Debraj Tripathy
Speaking about the win, Debraj Tripathy, Managing Director, MediaCom South Asia, added: “Winning the Goibibo mandate is testament to the wonderful partnership MediaCom has enjoyed with Makemytrip over the last six years. We’ve always put client delight and systems thinking at the heart of our recommendations and this win just proves the effectiveness of this approach. Welcome aboard Goibibo!â€
Commenting on the same, Sushanto Biswas, General Manager, MediaCom, said: “We are delighted to win the mandate for Goibibo. Travel and hospitality is a super exciting industry and is only poised to grow in the future. We’re looking forward to delivering better media value to the Goibibobrand“
The account will be managed and supervised from the MediaCom Gurgaon office.
