MxMIndia

Tag: Praveen Das

  • The agency will fuel the brand's aggressive growth plans through multi-dimensional communication campaigns across outdoor, digital and social media platforms

    Happy mcgarrybowen bags Indiamart

    By A Correspondent

     

    Happy mcgarrybowen’s specialist B2B arm has bagged the integrated communication mandate for Indiamart, an online marketplace that assists Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs), large enterprises and individuals to trade with each other at a common, reliable and transparent platform. The agencywon the account following a multi-agency pitch.

     

    As part of the mandate, Happy mcgarrybowen will fuel the brand’s aggressive growth plans through multi-dimensional communication campaigns across outdoor, digital and social media platforms.

     

    Sumit Bedi

    Commenting on the appointment, Sumit Bedi, Vice President, Marketing, Indiamart said: “We were looking for a digital-first agency to drive our integrated marketing communication plan. Apart from our SME clients, this year we are also focussing on ‘Brand Solutions’ and our new online payment gateway, ‘Pay with Indiamart’. Happy mcgarrybowen clearly fits the bill as it understands the digital space very well. We hope that our association with the exciting team at the agency will help us create some highly engaging communication for our target audience.” For the record, while ‘Brand Solutions’ by Indiamart offers enterprise companies to grow their distribution and sales network via the Indiamart platform, ‘Pay with Indiamart’ enables easy low-cost instant payments through Indiamart.

     

    Praveen Das

    Added Praveen Das, MD, Happy mcgarrybowen: “For Happy mcgarrybowen’s new arm specialising in B2B, Indiamartis a typical business that we want to take to the next level using a mix of digital and other communication formats that is calibrated to create a more favourable response.”

     

  • Happy mcgarrybowen is mandated with redesigning the brand’s logo, along with creating a comprehensive visual identity guidebook

    Dream11 partners with Happy mcgarrybowen to unveil new brand identity

    By A Correspondent

     

    Happy mcgarrybowen has been roped in by Dream11 to create its new brand identity.

     

    Commenting on the rebranding exercise, Vikrant Mudaliar, CMO, Dream11 said: “We found Happy mcgarrybowen’s design strategy true to our brand’s ethos, and their experienced team came with a dynamic & youthful vibe – everything that we wanted to take our brand identity to the next

     

    Added Praveen Das, MD, Happy mcgarrybowen said: “We have a talented, seasoned and specialised design team that has been creating waves for quite a few clients in the recent past. We are very happy to put our best foot forward for Dream11 and we look forward to taking the brand places in the coming months.”

     

     

  • To also handle the creative mandate for the brand’s launch and growth

    Happy mcgarrybowen bags cure.fit’s brand solutions mandate

    By A Correspondent

     

    Health-tech firm cure.fit has awarded its brand solution and creative mandate to Happy mcgarrybowen, the creative agency from Dentsu Aegis Network.

     

    Commenting on the partnership, Mukesh Bansal, co-founder, cure.fit said: “Happy mcgarrybowen has played a key role in helping us arrive at a very powerful brand identity and brand positioning. This is disruptive thinking in brand space and gives us huge advantage as we go about building a consumer brand. Happy team has also played a key role in helping establish cult.fit as a holistic healthcare brand in Bangalore with creative inputs for centre ambience and campaigns for the brand.”

     

    Added Praveen Das, MD and CCO, Happy mcgarrybowen: “We were excited and happy to partner with Mukesh to create a new brand of value together, right from ground upwards. Our talented design team first set out to create an international class brand identity, relevant to the digital world we live in, using global design thinking principles. Subsequently, we also created the look and feel of the world the brand occupies, its tone of voice, brand icons, environmental graphics and packaging that are not only unique but also express and communicate the soul of the brand at all touch points.”

     

    The mandate includes mainline and digital communications and will be managed by the agency’s Bengaluru office. Said Kartik Iyer, CEO, Happy mcgarrybowen: “What Mukesh is doing with cure.fit is truly revolutionary and inspirational. Our country needs a movement like this. Thanks to technology, the vision to do something like this is possible today. We are honoured that he placed his trust in us from day one, where we were brought in to create the launch video of the concept itself. We partnered with him right through the design phase of the entire cure.fit experience and shall also be working with him on launching and brand building all the offerings from the platform. The recent launch of the cult.fit centres with HrithikRoshan was met with a resounding success.”

     

  • He will spearhead growth of the specialised units for Design, B2B and Social Behaviour Change Projects

    Happy mcgarrybowen rejigs. Appoints Samarjit Choudhry as COO – Advertising

    By A Correspondent

     

    Happy mcgarrybowen has announced key structural changes to “further strategise its business approach and strengthen its top-line leadership”.

     

    As part of this change, Praveen Das, Co-founder and MD, Happy mcgarrybowen, will spearhead growth of the specialised units for Design, B2B and Social Behaviour Change Projects (SBCP).

     

    On the path ahead, Das said: “The dream here is to use ‘design thinking’ to contribute something unique to design from India and create value for our clients. We also want to help B2B clients with solutions that fall between a digital and communication agency by leveraging technology and creating unique experiences with UI and UX, VR, AR, AI, Machine Learning, IOT (internet of things), etc. In SBCP too, we have been trying to use technology to solve communication challenges even as we patiently engage with continuous research and feedback to create and recreate communication for change. Yes, the process is slow but fulfilling and effective if done well. To accomplish this, we have put together a talented, top-of-line team of experts to deliver results.”

     

    Kartik Iyer, co-founder and CEO – Happy mcgarrybowen, will continue to oversee the advertising discipline for Happy mcgarrybowen. On the developments, Iyer said, “We have always wanted Happy mcgarrybowen to be a hybrid agency with multiple capabilities. Between Praveen and me, we are very clear what we want for Happy mcgarrybowen in the future. So it just makes absolute sense to split forces and give the attention each discipline needs.”

     

    Meanwhile, Happy mcgarrybowen has roped in Samarjit Choudhry as chief operating officer (COO), Advertising. Armed with more than 20 years of experience, Choudhry’s mandate will be to run and grow the agency’s advertising business across the country. Prior to this, Samarjit was with Ogilvy Bangalore where he held the position of chief growth officer. He was also instrumental in setting up Orchard in Bangalore and Black Pencil for the Leo Burnett Group. In his new role, he will report to Iyer.

     

  • Text and video interviews with DAN South Asia Chairman & CEO Ashish Bhasin and Happy co-founders Kartik Iyer and Praveen Das

    Happy days for Dentsu Aegis Network!

     

    It’s been doing the rounds for many months, but when the news came in of Dentsu Aegis Network of acquiring Bengaluru-based creative agency Happy Creative Services, there was much happiness all around. Happy has being doing some spending work in the past and the Dentsu Aegis acquisition will ensure that it grows bigger. Plus with this, mcgarrybowen enters India and it will possibly carry some of its global mandates here. A few hours before complete the final legal formaties of the deal on Thursday, Ashish Bhasin, Chairman and CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network South Asia and Happy co-founders Kartik Iyer (also CEO) and Praveen Das (also Managing Director) took time off to speak with Pradyuman Maheshwari and Santosh Jangid. Excerpts from the interviews.

     

    To me the most important thing in an acquisition is chemistry: Ashish Bhasin

     

     

    One more acquisition?

    Yes, it’s another global brand that we have managed to bring to India with this and now Happy Mcgarrybowen is going to be our fifth creative agency in the market.

     

    While the Happy acquisition is significant, the big other story is that you have got a large full-service agency like mcgarrybowen to India. Tell us about that.

    mcgarrybowen is one of the most creative agencies which started off in the United States. It’s really huge there and some most outstanding global brands that they have worked on. Their philosophy is that they don’t want to have 200 offices in 180 countries. They have picked up few centres of excellence of places where they will operate from – in Asia, that is China, India and Singapore and we are very proud that they have selected India as one of those markets. They are now present in several European countries and perhaps in South America and few countries they are gonna take on. So it is a very big opportunity for us that such an agency which is known to be one of the most successful and large creative agency networks, we are able to bring in to India with this partnership with Happy. So that’s going to be Happy mcgarrybowen

     

    How will it be different than the other four agencies in the Dentsu Aegis Network fold in India? 

    Each agency that we have has its own independent leadership, its own independent creative directors and its own independent set of clients and they operate as completely separate agencies. Each of them has a different flavour and that depends to a large extend on the leadership, the creative directors and the business heads as well as on the flavour of clients that they have. So you will see each one of them having a very different flavour, different sub-culture. What we try to do is we allow each of our businesses to maintain their own sub-culture which they use to growing up with, which is healthy and which is why they have been successful. But we bring it under the over arching umbrella of Dentsu Aegis Network’s culture. We all subscribe to same vision, same values and that’s what binds us. But we don’t want to make any agency or any part of the business look like another part of the business.

     

    So why Happy?

    To me the most important thing in an acquisition is chemistry. When you meet somebody you must get that sense that these are people I want to wake up with every morning on a work day for next ten-twenty years. Their quality of work has to be superb because that’s what clients really want and value and their value system should be very similar to our value system. We had very straightforward meetings, we had two quick discussions and by the end of the second discussion itself both of us were very clear that we wanted to go ahead. Of course this being India and processes being what they are it takes a long time from that time to the acquisition to be finished but the actual decision-making process in my mind happened the fastest in this instance because the way the chemistry just stuck.

     

    Are you going to grow the mcgarrybowen network in India in terms of more acquisitions?

    I’m not sure in terms of more acquisitions but I’ll be happy if Kartik and Praveen are in an agreement, i would be happy for them to go to more bigger clients, I would be happy that we target some of mcgarrybowen clients which are there globally but we don’t have here in India  because we are just setting mcgarrybowen now. I will also be happy if need be and if clients want more offices of Happy mcgarrybowen in rest of India I don’t think another acquisition is what we will go for mcgarrybowen but definitely we would like to go for different clients, different cities, different set of challenges we work it.

     

    If you want to stay in business, stay relevant, you have to keep growing: Kartik Iyer and Praveen Das

     

     

    Why the sell-out after nine years as an independent creative agency?

    Kartik Iyer: We are not looking at it that way because we are still sitting here and doing everything we did up until now and in our perspective this is only going to help us do it better. Happy is an organically grown debt-free company and anybody who has been in business knows that at various stages of growth, money is what makes more money and we have done everything in our capability without pulling too many favours to bring this agency this far and our clients and campaigns have worked and our campaigns have brought to life the fact that what we are trying to do works and is correct in a lot of ways. It just came to a point where we had to give Happy everything it needs. We have always been very clear with that. We both are the founders of Happy and we are not Happy and to be able to compete in a market with the biggest guys we needed to equip the agency with everything that it could require. Happy has come to a point where we can’t turn away10 people especially because we are handling large clients saying that we can’t do this or you will have to find somebody else. We must have it all. Not saying that we provide every service that’s available but I think it needs that kind of muscle to pull forth from every angle.

     

    Does your acquisition and that of various others in the past meant that there isn’t much of a future for independent agencies

    Praveen Das: I don’t believe that. It’s a fact of life but when we started Happy we said we would just be 35 people and we will do some really kickass work but though we did that with that bit, there were a lot of people who wanted to join us and at that point we reached a stage where we were neither small nor big. So we thought why not just go to the other end and become a large agency with the same culture of a small agency.

    Kartik Iyer: Let’s not forget there are independents in the industry today who have aspirations to buy networks. So there is no hard-and-fast rule that the network is the end-game. For some it could be end-game for some it could be means to the end.

     

    Is acquisition the only way out to go to the next level?

    Praveen Das: We had Flipkart and Myntra when they started off and as they grew bigger we also had to grow bigger.

    Kartik Iyer: I wouldn’t look at it as a way out. It depends on what kind of business you are. Growth is the only law of business. So if you want to stay in business, stay relevant, you have to keep growing, at various stages capital is a very important ingredient. So far you can provide it yourself it’s fine but at a later stage you need that capital to be coming in and lastly it’s got to do with what is your vision, what kind of agency you are and what is it that you want. For some it could be a way out, for some it could be a way in.

     

    At which point did you think this is the way to go?

    Kartik Iyer: It’s a matter of perspective. Are we aligning ourselves with a large one or are we taking on the backing of a large one? Are we wiring into the nervous system or are we using their muscle? So it is a matter of perspective and that is the difference between different agencies. There is no single formula, there is no single perspective.

     

    Why Dentsu?

    Kartik Iyer : We met pretty much everybody. We have always had the belief that it doesn’t matter what organisation or brand who represents if long as the guy sitting on the other end is a monkey run. So it didn’t matter and it was all depended on the individuals we met. There was a certain no-nonsense, straight-to-the-point-kind-of person that Ashish is that we felt very comfortable about.

    Praveen Das: We met a lot of people before we met Ashish who came to our office and met us but we never found any fire on the other side but when we met Ashish we knew there was a leadership that was on fire.

    Kartik Iyer: We were very clear that at some point we would merge with someone. It wasn’t so much of a network but we wanted to merge with someone who would really bring in to the agency that would be a match in the philosophy and Ashish came speaking to us about mcgarrybowen. DAN was just the holding company. The brand and the philosophy that we were marrying into was mcgarrybowen and mcgarrybowen has a pretty much similar story as Happy. So we saw their work, we met them and there was a match in culture. At one end you have the DNA of a Japanese firm which we both are a big fans of Japanese culture and the work that they produce and on the other end there was a brand which was coming out of New York. It was a dream come true.

     

    What would be tangible difference apart from a name and ownership change?

    Kartik Iyer: One is opportunity, two is working with global units on global pictures, third is exchange of in talent which we had no one to ask, other agencies write to someone and dust it off and say, send me your presentation on this, but we had no one to send us any presentations.

     

    How are you looking at growing the mcgarrybowen brand in India?

    Kartik Iyer: We are not seeing Mcgarrybowen  as a separate brand, we are not seeing Happy as a separate brand. How we are going to grow Happy Mcgarrybowen in ways that we didn’t till now. We plan to go and take a shot at bigger accounts.

     

  • Post-acquisition Happy co-founder and CEO Kartik Iyer and co-founder and MD Praveen Das will both report to Ashish Bhasin, Chairman and CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network South Asia

    Mcgarrybowen makes entry to India as Dentsu Aegis Network acquires Happy

     

    Dentsu Aegis Network has announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire creative marketing agency, Happy Creative Services. Happy will join the global mcgarrybowen network of agencies and be rebranded as Happy mcgarrybowen. The acquisition will mark the first mcgarrybowen agency in India and expands its footprint in Asia – with other offices in Singapore, Hong Kong and China. The deal is expected to close in the next few weeks.

     

    Established in 2007, Happy is regarded as one of the most promising independent creative outfits in India, Happy boasts a staff of 100 across three disciplines – Brand Design, Integrated Brand Communication and Digital, building and rejuvenating brands through media agnostic ideas, customised to deliver on key business and brand metrics.

     

    Joining the Dentsu Aegis leadership team in India is Happy’s co-founder and CEO Kartik Iyer and co-founder and MD Praveen Das who will both report to Ashish Bhasin, Chairman and CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network South Asia.

     

    Said Ashish Bhasin, Chairman and CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network South Asia: “Happy has carved out a very strong digital and creative reputation in the Indian market. Founders Kartik Iyer and Praveen Das – who are among Fortune India’s 40 Under 40, are prominent and well-respected figures in the industry, and this acquisition will add creative bench strength to the wider team. This will enable us to launch mcgarrybowen in India and we will be another step closer to our mission of being the second largest agency group by the end of 2017 in India, overturning for the first time the existing ranking which has historically been in place for over 80 years in the market.”

     

    Added Gordon Bowen, mcgarrybowen Founder and Global Chairman: “India is an important creative market that boasts world-class talent and an enviable group of multinational clients, both of which represent untapped potential for mcgarrybowen. We knew that successfully expanding in this very competitive market required finding great partners that share our passions and values. With a respected reputation and well awarded creative offering, Happy is just that kind of partner and I am proud to welcome them into the mcgarrybowen family.”

     

    “Like us, Kartik and Praveen believe in the power of big organising ideas, collaboration and strong client partnerships. Together I am confident we will fuel even greater creative and business success for clients here in India and around the world,” he added.

     

    Kartik Iyer, co-founder and CEO, and Praveen Das, co-founder and MD of Happy said: “It has taken us a good nine years to come this far in terms of talent, business and reputation. There comes a time in every business to take a big leap to propel it to the next level and being a part of Dentsu Aegis and mcgarrybowen supports this growth ambition and provides us with the right platform.We are presently working with a number of marquee clients that require the support of a global network and we have always been clear that Happy should to equip itself to compete with the biggest players on the largest stage. In mcgarrybowen, we found a true match in philosophy and belief and being a part of their vision makes us truly proud.”

     

    Most recently, Happy bagged the ‘Agency of the Year’ title at the 2016 edition of Maddys, organised by The Advertising Club Madras. Happy’s work on the ‘Ola Boat’, which was an emergency boat service set up by Ola Cabs, to help stranded people in the city of Chennai during the Nov 2015 floods, has also won numerous national and international awards for the effort.

     

  • The website is already live, where people can become part of Team Swachh http://teamswachh.in/

    Happy associates with Team Swachh; plans pan India education movement

    By A Correspondent

     

    Happy Creative Services has won the mandate for two design projects to the Team Swachh initiative: brand logo and identity; and the creation of a play-based school kit called the Team Swachh action kit. Happy won these design mandates after a multi-agency pitch held in Delhi by WASH United, a Berlin based non-profit organization, and UNICEF India, who have jointly initiated Team Swachh.

     

    In support of the Government of India’s Swachh Bharat Mission, Team Swachh seeks to spark a social movement for sanitation and toilet use. This movement plans to cut across urban and rural population, class, gender, age, region and religion to help make India a clean nation, where everyone uses a toilet. To achieve that, Team Swachh taps into what Indians unanimously love: cricket. And Sachin Tendulkar is the captain of this team. Team Swachh aims to move people from apathy to concern and taking action. By joining the movement, people become team members and will be given options, online and offline, to become active agents for change.

     

    For the logo, the insight was that toilets alone won’t change India. People wanting to use toilets will. Hence, the logo merges the universal sign of good with the icon of an Indian toilet. The message: toilets are fantastic. The composition also brings out a keen eye for cleanliness. This logo was launched on 18th January 2016, with ICC and Sachin Tendulkar. And the Team Swachh initiative will be officially launched at the ICC T20 World Cup 2016.

     

    The second design project – The Team Swachh Action Kit — is designed specifically for schools. It is based on the principles of play-based learning and rule-based habit formation. It uses thoroughly thought out, tested games and activities, interspersed with discussions. The team at Happy, WASH United and UNICEF India have collaborated to ensure that the activities in the kit create a joyful and exciting experience, while at the same time driving life-saving behavioural change. The kit is created in English, Hindi and Bengali. And it will be adapted in other official regional languages to reach schools across India.

     

    Praveen Das, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer, Happy Creative Services, says, “Happy since inception has always been keen on communication for good. Team Swachh gives us an excellent opportunity not only in terms of doing good work but also working towards a bigger goal of educating the country on clean toilets and making India a young, healthy and vibrant nation.”

     

    Kartik Iyer, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Happy Creative Services, adds, “We have always believed in work that makes a difference. It is a matter of great pride to be collaborating with WASH United and UNICEF. The cause, which is very basic, is something that our country needs to wake up to while we race into the next decade. We strongly believe in the solutions we have created for the movement. We look forward to a considerable impact by 2019.”

     

    Sören Bruhn, Chief Creative Officer, WASH United says, “We have thoroughly enjoyed working with Happy from day one. The Happy team very much bought into the goal of Team Swachh to create transformative social change across India and went above and beyond to deliver outstanding quality. We look very much forward to teaming up again on other projects.”

     

  • Sources at Happy also confirmed that some more notable appointments would be announced soon

    Happy strengthens its strategic planning team

    By A Correspondent

     

    Phalgun Tiruvasu

    Bangalore based Happy Creative Services has strengthened its strategic planning team by bringing on board Phalgun Tiruvasu as Head of Strategic Planning.

     

    With a career spanning over 15-years across communication, research & journalism, Phalgun’s previous stint was with Lowe Lintas & Partners, Bangalore where he led the strategic mandate on Tanishq, Britannia, Tata Tea, Arvind Brands, amongst others. Prior to Lowe, Phalgun was the lead strategist on ITC Foods & TVS Motors at McCann Bangalore. Apart from Bangalore, Phalgun has also worked at Publicis Ambience, Mumbai on Marico & Diageo and with Y&R Jakarta on Danone. Well experienced in qualitative research, Phalgun worked with Quantum on Tata Motors & Unilever and also briefly ran his own research consultancy firm. Winner of multiple Effies, Phalgun has been integral to many noteworthy campaigns, namely Tanishq “Re-marriage”,  Tata Tea “Andar Wala Snaan”, Arrow “Bold New Professional” – just to name a few.

     

    Phalgun will lead manage a hybrid team comprising of strategists from communication (offline, online), data & design to further Happy’s prowess in delivering medium-agnostic, efficacious creative solutions to brands & businesses. Phalgun will be supported by Ravi Bhat, an old Happy stalwart, who recently returned to Happy after a short stint with Lowe Lintas Bangalore. Besides Ravi Bhat, the team also stars Ashwin Dravid (ex- Maxus, Jack-n-the-Box) looking after content strategy, Hari Nair (ex- Razorfish) on leading data & Anusha Pinto on design.

     

    Praveen Das

    Kartik Iyer & Praveen Das, Co-founders of Happy are equally emphatic about the new strategic impetus. Says Kartik: “Happy has always been a strong believer in strategic planning. We have taken great care to put together a team that has a multi dimensional approach to delivering strategic solutions. Under the able leadership of Phalgun, we sincerely hope to carve sharper insights and further success to all our clients. This is another step closer to our vision of being a truly hybrid agency in the country.”

     

    Praveen Das adds: “With Phalgun at the helm of strategy and him being a national level dart player, we are sure that he will hit the bulls eye for all our clients in terms of strategy. And will inspire our creative team to come up with great output.“

     

  • HolidayIQ is India's largest travel community and holidays recommendation engine powered by user-generated content

    HolidayIQ appoints Happy Creative its creative partner

    By A Correspondent

     

    Bangalore based Happy Creative Services has notched up the communication mandate for online travel community HolidayIQ.

     

    This win comes close to the agency’s recent announcements of winning the creative and digital mandates for hyper local discovery platform LookUp.to and the amusement park brand Wonder la.

     

    HolidayIQ is India’s largest travel community and holidays recommendation engine powered by user-generated content. Travel information is generated through varied forms of content including reviews, photographs, videos and interactive travel forums, connecting travellers to each other and to hoteliers, tour operators and online travel agents.

     

    Diptakirti Chaudhuri

    Commenting on the creative partnership, Diptakirti Chaudhuri, CMO at HolidayIQ said, “Holidays are a happy – pun intended – experience and HolidayIQ is in the business of making them perfect. We plan to communicate our offering – holiday reviews, information and options – to a large number of Indian travellers and be the first stop in their holiday planning. We are looking forward to working with Happy Creative Services, a creative powerhouse known for their stellar creds in building digital brands.”

     

    Kartik Iyer

    On the association with HoiidayIQ, Kartik Iyer, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer said, “Creating a category is always fun and exciting. HolidayIQ has been in this business, that too ahead of its time in India. Now it’s our job to take the magic of the brand to its consumers. The travel and holiday category is growing year on year, pushing the importance of holidaying for every kind of consumer. Unearthing the little joys of all trips, no matter how big or small, is at the core of it all. We look forward to creating some great work on the brand.”

     

    Praveen Das

    On adding the HolidayIQ brand to their portfolio, Praveen Das, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer, said, “As an integrated agency, we understand business objectives and match it with creative output across media. We have a young team with a proven record of building technology brands. We are excited to partner with Holiday IQ and create clutter breaking communication that not only resonates with viewers but inspires them to go on a holiday.”

     

  • Move aimed towards revitalizing the brand ahead of the launch of its social multipurpose wallet

    TranServ appoints Happy Creative its creative agency

    By A Correspondent

     

    Mobile digital payments company TranServ announced the appointment of Hyderabad-based Happy Creative Services as its creative partner. The move comes ahead of the launch of TranServ’s social multipurpose wallet and will look to revitalize the company’s existing brand proposition in order to facilitate a better customer connect with the Indian users.

     

    Through this new social multipurpose wallet, TranServ aims to turn the Indian digital payments industry on its head by incorporating a social angle into digital transactions. The wallet is expected to be a huge hit with the smartphone-friendly mobile population of the country and will push forward TranServ’s aim of creating a ubiquitous, holistic digital payments ecosystem in the country.

     

    Speaking on the announcement, Asutosh Upadhyay, Head-Marketing & Product, TranServ, said, “As TranServ forays into the B2C market segment, we are looking to re-position our existing brand proposition to provide a more personal connect to the new segment of users. Bringing Happy Creative is a calculated decision that would give us an outsider’s perspective into the digital payments industry. This will help us garner more insights into the consumer psyche, which can then be leveraged to overcome traditional communication hurdles and will translate into products that can resonate better with the Indian population.”

     

    Praveen Das, Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer, Happy Creative, commented, “Everyone uses money, but the communication has always been limited to older groups. It is only now that finance is becoming a mass offering across age groups, and we are thrilled to be part of this flux. Having designed brands in the digital space, we are especially excited for TranServ because we have done a complete re-branding of the brand’s name, positioning, and identity creation. We are now looking forward to how our efforts pan out in the digital ecosystem.”

     

    TranServ currently leverages innovative, easy to integrate APIs to deliver the best payments solutions to big, medium and small businesses across the country. With its social mobile wallet loaded with features such as referral-based incentive programmes, funds transfer from one wallet to another, money transfer from wallet to the bank account, reward redemption through rewards management companies, and social gifting,

     

  • Lookup is a free hyper-local messaging app to chat with any local business

    Happy wins creative mandate for Lookup

    By A Correspondent

     

    Lookup has appointed Happy Creative Services to handle its creative partner. The appointment is for both the communication mandates, traditional and new age media.

     

    Lookup is a free hyper-local messaging app to chat with any local business. The application was launched earlier this year without much fanfare. Even so, due to its simplicity and relevance to consumers and businesses, it has managed to hit a million downloads within the first 9 months with over 70,000 merchant signups.

     

    Deepak Ravindran, a serial entrepreneur, who has spent over a decade in the messaging industry believes that chat is the future of commerce and envisions Lookup to become the Google of Offline for finding and ordering anything from a cup of latte to a prescription drug from any local store near you.

     

    Currently serving Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi, Lookup will soon be launched in 10 major cities by end of this year.

     

    On the partnership with Happy, Deepak Ravindran, Founder of Lookup said “Happy brings to us the perfect combination of sound strategy, creativity, professionalism and young perspective. The brands they’ve built are proof of their capabilities. The team is made of young early adopters who have a pulse on what’s happening today as well as foresight of what will set us apart in the future. That’s very important for a tech-business like ours.”

     

    Speaking on the association, Praveen Das, CCO and Co-Founder of Happy Creative Services said “It’s interesting when both parties are wowed by each other. Deepak is a young founder. And he already has a few startups in his portfolio. He is bold, unafraid and just goes for it. His previous ventures have circled around similar themes, so his learnings are vast. We believe that hyper local is not the next big thing but the way forward now. Lookup partners with us during exciting times.”

  • The include Creative Effectiveness; Design; Film, Print, Outdoor & Radio; Media; and PR juries

    Spikes Asia announces Jury list for several categories

    By A Correspondent

     

    Spikes Asia, the International Festival of Creativity taking place in Singapore from 23-26 September, has announced the jury members that will make up the Creative Effectiveness; Design; Film, Print, Outdoor & Radio; Media; and PR juries.

     

    “We feel very privileged to be able to announce these well-known industry names as being part of our juries for Spikes Asia 2014,” shared Philip Thomas, CEO, Lions Festivals. “They help set the standard for this year’s awards and we will watch with interest as they debate and decide the best of creative communications in the region.”

     

    The jury for Creative effectiveness comprises the foll: Matthew Godfrey, President – Asia, Y&R, Asia Pacific - Jury President; Charles Cadell, President, Asia Pacific, McCann Worldgroup, Asia Pacific; Natalie Pidgeon, Chief Strategy Officer, IPG Media brands, Asia Pacific; Nick Garrett, Managing Director, Colenso BBDO, New Zealand; Paul Roebuck, Chief Executive Officer, Singapore/Malaysia, Saatchi & Saatchi, Singapore; Rahul Kansal, Executive President, Bennett Coleman & Co, India; Ross Jackson, Asia Pacific Head Brand, Product, Client Marketing and Cross Border, Visa Worldwide, Asia Pacific; Wong Mei Wai, Head of Marketing, Vietnam Brewery, Vietnam.

     

    The Design Jury comprises Stefan Sagmeister, Designer, Sagmeister & Walsh, Global - Jury President; Dan Ellis, Regional Creative Director, S & SE Asia, Brand Union, Singapore; David Park, Creative Director, Maud, Australia; JJ (Jongjoo) Ha, Executive Creative Director, Cheil Worldwide, South Korea; Jon King, Executive Creative Director, Beacon/Leo Burnett Tokyo, Japan; Lana Roulhac, Design Director, Siegel+Gale, China/UK

     

    Praveen Das, Chief Creative Officer, Happy Creative Services, India;

     

    Pum Lefebure, Co-Founder & Chief Creative Officer, Design Army, Thailand/USA.

     

    The Jury for Film, Print, Outdoor and Radio comprises Ted Royer, Chief Creative Officer, Droga5, Global - Jury President; Ajay Thrivikraman, Chief Creative Officer, Publicis, Singapore; Erick De Souza Rosa, Executive Creative Director, Lowe and Partner, Regional

     

    Gavin Siakimotu, Creative Director, Y&R, New Zealand; Kitti Chaiyaporn, Chief Creative Director, Choojai, Thailand; Morihiko Hasebe, Executive Creative Director, Hakuhodo, Japan; Patrick Baron, Executive Creative Director, McCann Melbourne, Australia; Raoul Panes, Chief Creative Officer, Leo Burnett Manila, The Philippines; Raymond Chin, Creative Director, Wieden & Kennedy, China; Sami Thessman, Executive Creative Director, TBWA\Worldwide, Hong Kong; Sonal Dabral, Chairman & Chief Creative Officer, DDB Mudra, India; Zenobia Pithawalla, Executive Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather, India.

     

    The media Jury consists of Mark Patterson, CEO, Asia Pacific & Chairman, China, Asia Pacific - Jury President; Atiek Sudirman, Managing Director, UM, Indonesia; Jeffrey Seah, Chief Executive Officer, SE Asia, Starcom MediaVest Group, Singapore; Jun-Woo Park, Media Group Director, HSAD, South Korea; Mike Wilson, Chief Executive Officer, Havas Media, Australia; Roid Sin, Chief Executive Officer, OMD, Hong Kong

     

    Yesudas Sankara Pillai, Managing Director, Indian Subcontinent, Vizeum, India; and Yusuke Suzuki, General Manager, Hakuhodo DY Media Partners, Japan.

     

    The PR Jury consists of David Brain, Chief Executive Officer, APAC/MENA, Edelman, Asia Pacific - Jury President; Christina Cheang, Chairman, CMG Group, Singapore; Dilip Cherian, Founding Partner & Group Chairman, Perfect Relations, India; Hock Chuan Ong, Partner, Maverick, Indonesia; John Orme, President APAC, Porter Novelli, China; Kat Thomas, Executive Creative Director, One Green Bean, Australia; Koichiro Shima, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Creative Director, Editor in Chief, Hakuhodo Kettle, Japan; Leah Huang, Managing Director, Ogilvy PR Manila, The Philippines.