GroupM India has elevated Navin Khemka and Sonali Malaviya at EssenceMediacom South Asia (EssenceMediacom = Essence + MediaCom). Khemka has been appointed as the CEO of EssenceMediacom South Asia, while Malaviya has been promoted as Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer – EssenceMediacom South Asia.
Both Khemka and Malaviya will be based out of Gurugram. They will work together to bring additional specialisations such as e-commerce, addressable content and digital OOH, to the offerings, while ensuring best-in-class core capabilities.
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 that lasted for well over three months, beverage major Parle Agro has awarded its media mandate to MediaCom India. The account has been serviced by OMD.
As the full form AOR for Parle Agro in India, MediaCom will be responsible for the media strategy, planning, buying and implementation for all media including its key brands – Frooti, Appy & Appy Fizz in India. The mandate is for the Indian subcontinent with a total media value of Rs 200 crores.
Said Nadia Chauhan, Joint Managing Director and CMO, Parle Agro: “We are happy to have MediaCom on board. As Parle Agro gears up for the next level of growth, our strategic partnership with MediaCom will help drive our aggressive targets through innovative and disruptive media strategies.“
Commenting on the win, Prasanth Kumar, CEO, Group M South Asia, added: “First, massive congratulations to MediaCom on the Parle Agro business win. It’s a very special moment for us. It is a fantastic opportunity to work on the portfolio of iconic brands across the Parle Agro group. And am confident Navin and his team will continue to bring in their collective experience and leverage our network’s strengths to deliver the best for Parle Agro’s portfolio of brands.”
Added Navin Khemka, CEO, MediaCom South Asia: “Parle Agro has a long and illustrious history – it has established leading household beverage brands by creating innovative and iconic products for over 34 years. We are completely in sync with their philosophy – and what makes this partnership even more exciting is that pursuing growth is our primary target, which calls for an extremely dynamic association. We are looking forward to creating an unmatched brand experience for our consumers. ”
The account will be managed and supervised from the MediaCom Mumbai office. MediaCom will begin working on the account from December 2019.
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”
ShareChat has appointed MediaCom to handle its media mandate. The mandate pre-dominantly includes media planning for the brand’s first commercial in Tamil language.
Commenting on the partnership, Sunil Kamath, Chief Business Officer, ShareChat said: “Tamil Nadu is one of the fastest growing userbase for ShareChat. With the campaign ‘Tamizhan da! Un Nanben da! we want to celebrate ShareChat’s success in the market. We are extremely excited about our first brand advertisement in Tamil and we believe that MediaCom’s experience and understanding of the market will help us penetrate and grow in India with their unique planning tools.”
Said Navin Khemka, CEO, MediaCom South Asia, on the win: “Regional content is substantial, and it has captured the Indian market over time as the mass demand for it is growing exponentially. Also, the penetration of such platforms is more because of the varied features they offer. We are very excited to partner with ShareChat and help in growing the popularity of the brand.”
The account will be managed and supervised by the MediaCom Delhi office under the supervision of Sudipto Chatterjee, General Manager, MediaCom.
Voot Studio partnered with Pedigree to celebrate Mother’s Day in an unconventional manner. Through this campaign, Voot Studio and Pedigree along with Mediacom as agency partner, urged people to adopt dogs.
Pedigree has tied up with 25+ pet NGOs to drive the cause of adoption for stray dogs.
Speaking about the initiative, Akash Banerji, Business Head–Advertising Video Platform, VOOT, said: “We recently launched our Voot Studio programme, an industry-first initiative that partners with brands around compelling storytelling and platform integrations, to drive their brand narrative for the new-age consumer. Our association with Pedigree is with the aim of creating ROI for a brand much beyond the 30 second ad spot..”
Added Mohit Arora, Marketing Director, Pet Nutrition India: “BringHomeJoy campaign was visualized keeping our vision of “making a better world for pets” in front ¢er. As category leaders we take pride in driving responsible pet ownership, one such initiative is creating awareness and consideration around pet adoption. By involving & directing all digital engagement to 25 partner pet adoption agencies across 16 cities, we hope to start an initiative to find more loving homes for all pets.”
Said Navin Khemka, CEO – South Asia, Mediacom: “Pet lovers know that pets are like their own kids. We dedicate this campaign to every pet caring person and are confident that many families will come forward and adopt a dog. In todays world we need more compassion, care and understanding. We are fortunate to be involved in co-creating this campaign with Voot Studio & Team Pedigree.”
