MxMIndia

Tag: Publicis Groupe

  • Rajesh Ghatge takes on additional role of Chief Growth Officer

    Publicis Groupe launches PubHub

    By Our Staff

     

    Publicis Groupe launches PubHub, an ecosystem to create bespoke marketing transformation solutions at scale, through the integration of specialised capabilities across Data, Content, Technology, Production, and Commerce.

     

    Rajesh Ghatge
    Rajesh Ghatge

    PubHub will be led by Indigo Consulting CEO Rajesh Ghatge, who now additionally takes on the role of Chief Growth Officer, Publicis Groupe India. Ghatge is already leading the implementation of Global Hub for GSK.

     

    Ghatge has been with Publicis Group for close to four-and-a-half years and has close to three decades of experience across marketing and technology. Previously he has launched and built organisations in the space of travel, training and brand activation. Before joining Publicis, he also led a technology-enabled social enterprise which trained and certified school drop-outs to become certified elder care workers.

     

    Anupriya Acharya
    Anupriya Acharya

    Said Anupriya Acharya, South Asia CEO, Publicis Groupe: “Today, the demand for scaled marketing transformation solutions is growing exponentially- on the back of accelerated adoption of digital and tech. For Publicis Groupe, India has emerged as a massive capability centre for digital and tech-led deep expertise across contemporary and innovative marketing and business transformation solutions. Large mandates across global and national brands are being managed across the Groupe in India. The launch of PubHub is timely and apt. With an intrinsic model to scale fast,  it has been designed to be agile and responsive while leveraging our proficiency and vast experience across the creative, technology and media competencies.”

     

    Added Ghatge: “As a Client organisation, the choices of agency partners, consulting partners, tools and technologies are immense. These choices are giving rise to one big challenge – that of being able to weave together the right components of creative, data and technology to effectively win in the platform world. Moreover, reclaiming growth has become the number one priority for most enterprises in a dramatically changed world. In this added mandate, I am looking forward to leverage our diverse capabilities and experience to create repeatable and scalable solutions for our clients via PubHub, and fuel significant growth for them.”

     

  • Will handle North and West of 20:20 MSL

    MSL appoints Shashanka Nanda as VP

    By Our Staff

     

    Shashanka Nanda
    Shashanka Nanda

    MSL, Publicis Groupe’s strategic communications and PR firm, has announced the appointment of Shashanka Nanda as Vice President, North and West. Nanda was until recently Vice President and Technology Lead at Edelman India.

     

    Commenting on the appointment, Amit Misra, CEO, MSL South Asia said: “Shashanka is an accomplished professional. His depth of experience will add strategic value across our diverse client portfolio. As a strategic thinker and team player, his knowledge of the communication environment will be complementary to our operations. I am confident that he will be a great asset to our teams and I look forward to working closely with him.”

     

    Added Viju George, Managing Director, 20:20 MSL: “We are delighted to have Shashanka join our team. With his deep expertise in the technology sector, he will be a terrific addition to our leadership team as we continue to focus on expanding our bouquet of services and upscaling our offerings.”

     

     

  • As SVP and Head of Planning

    Abhishek Chaturvedi joins Digitas

    By Our Staff

     

    Abhishek Chaturvedi
    Abhishek Chaturvedi

    Digitas, the global marketing and technology services brand from Publicis Groupe, has announced the appointment of Abhishek Chaturvedi as Senior Vice President & Head of Planning. Abhishek will report into Sonia Khurana, COO of Digitas India.

     

    Sonia Khurana
    Sonia Khurana

    Said Sonia Khurana, COO of Digitas India: “It was a deeply thought-through decision to get someone with Abhishek’s experience and expertise into our fold. His specialty in decoding consumer behaviour, understanding of brand and business will complement and strengthen our current planning function immensely. Working with him in the last couple of weeks has been an absolute pleasure. It’s reinforced that not only is he going to be a great partner to our creative teams but also to our clients. Makes me very excited and confident about the future.”

     

    Added Chaturvedi: “We are about being a ‘Connected Marketing Agency’ and our business is about forging meaningful connections – whether it is between people, brands or businesses. All my interactions with Sonia Khurana (COO), Mark Mcdonald (EVP & Head of Creative) and Unny Radhakrishnan (CEO) have been energising and positive. Here’s a set of people absolutely determined about creating great work and I look forward to creating some magic together.”

     

  • …as Priya Jayaraman steps down as CEO

    Victor & Iqbal assigned leadership roles at Saatchi & Saatchi Propagate

    By Our Staff

     

    Saatchi & Saatchi Propagate, the full-service digital agency of the Publicis Groupe, has announced the departure of its CEO, Priya Jayaraman. Taking over the reins is Charles Victor, who has been elevated as the Chief Operating Officer at Saatchi & Saatchi Propagate. Victor will be responsible for driving business growth and strategic direction at the agency while also continuing to serve as the Executive Director of L&K Saatchi & Saatchi. He will continue to report into Paritosh Srivastava, MD of L&K Saatchi & Saatchi.

    To further strengthen the team, the agency has also announced the appointment of Sabah Iqbal as Senior VP & Head – S&S Propagate. She will report into Charles Victor and will play a key role in furthering business growth at the agency. Iqbal joins the agency from Digitas where she was Senior VP – West & South and managed some of the key brands at the agency including Puma, Hindustan Unilever, Nivea, Nissan, Mondelez among others.

    Commenting on the development, Srivastava said: “Would like to thank Priya immensely for her contribution and hard work in making SSP into a powerful digital offering with a national footprint with some amazing client partners and talent.”

    Adding further he said, “Charles Victor has been with LKSS for 15 years, working across creative, mainline and digital. He’s got a perfect mix of business, creative and technology that one could have asked for to take on SSP. He’s a trusted and true partner for clients and agency alike. Joining him will be Sabah Iqbal, who with 15 years of enviable pedigree brings with her a unique creative lens combined with astute knowledge and expertise across mainline, digital and media. I am excited to partner the duo in the next chapter of growth at the agency.”

  • Indigo to continue focus on building digital business transformation solutions

    Indigo is now part of Publicis WW

    By Our Staff

     

    Publicis Groupe has announced the integration of Indigo Consulting’s digital marketing teams with Publicis Worldwide, thereby creating a strong 300-member agency capable of providing the entire suite of brand building communication services from strategy to creative across mainline, digital and social, with data at the centre. Rajesh Ghatge (CEO) and Jose Leon (COO) will continue to helm the organisation.

     

    Anupriya Acharya
    Anupriya Acharya

    Said Anupriya Acharya, Group CEO, South Asia: “This made imminent sense to us. Communication services are no longer segregated by platforms, i.e., creative agencies for mainline platforms and digital agencies for digital platforms. More and more clients want to work with one agency that can offer holistic strategic & creative solutions to solve their marketing problems. In fact, the pandemic has only heightened the need to have digital at the centre of our solutions approach.”

     

    Subhash Kamath
    Subhash Kamath

    Added Subhash Kamath, CEO, BBH & Publicis Worldwide: “I see it as a win-win for everyone. The Indigo digital communications teams have already been working alongside the PWW teams across many of our top clients. By bringing them together under a common leadership, we can now provide our clients a more integrated solution and a more seamless brand custodianship. It’s a transformative move.”

     

    Russell Barrett
    Russell Barrett

    Said Russell Barrett, CEO & Chief Creative Officer, BBH & Publicis Worldwide, “We need to be absolutely modern and future-facing when it comes to the creative work we produce and digital has to be at the heart of it. I don’t see traditional and digital work needing separate thinking. I want our creative leaders to be able to think across all platforms in answering a brand’s needs. By the coming together of these two teams, it’s a potent force of talent.”

     

    Rajesh Ghatge
    Rajesh Ghatge

    Added Ghatge: “The tremendous traction that we have got for our digital business transformation and technology practice in the last year has propelled our plan to invest disproportionately to scale this practice. We are making a choice to focus (back) on our DNA. The top ranked digital marketing practice that we had built over the last few years, hence forth being housed in PWW will continue to deliver impactful cross-platform digital marketing solutions for the composite client roster. It is a win– win for our transitioning team, PWW, and our clients.”

     

     

  • Both will report to Vandana Verma, Co-Founder and Managing Partner – Experience Platform at Wondrlab

    Wondrlab opens in NCR, brings in Ankit Grover & Biswajit Das from Arc Worldwide

    By A Correspondent

     

    Wondrlab, the Saurabh Varma-founded agency, has officially kicked off operations in North India with an office in NCR, which will also cater to the East. Teams comprising platform, strategy and creative experts are in place in both North and East, notes a communique.

     

    Vandana Verma
    Ankit Grover
    Biswajit Das

    The firm has made two senior appointments for the new office. It has brought in Ankit Grover as Lead Integration Director, and Biswajit Das as Lead Strategist, for the Experience Platform. Both will report to Vandana Verma, Co-Founder and Managing Partner – Experience Platform at Wondrlab.

     

     

    Saurabh Varma

    Said Verma, Co-Founder and Managing Partner – Experience Platform, Wondrlab: “Starting off our Delhi office means we now have excellence in the North and East. This move has come a little after Wondrlab’s launch and the momentum is unprecedented. Ankit and Biswajit are a great choice as leaders; both are new-age thinkers, excellent integration managers and tech enthusiasts with diverse cross-category brand experience. Our clients can expect hands-on leadership involvement in their business problems, great turnaround time and collaboration on the implementation of industry-first solutions at an enormous scale.”

     

    Grover has over 14 years of experience in experiential and integrated marketing and has joined from Arc Worldwide – Publicis Groupe’s experiential marketing arm – and has been part of agencies such as Wizcraft, RK Swamy BBDO and ESP Active.

     

    Das Biswajit has over 12 years of industry experience. His previous stint was also with Arc Worldwide. He has previously worked in companies such as Hansa Events, Network18 and ESP Active Marketing.

     

     

  • He will report to Rakesh Hinduja, Wondrlab’s Co-Founder and Managing Partner – Content Platform

    Wondrlab Appoints Haiderali Amir for content prod

    By A Correspondent

     

    Haiderali Amir

    The Saurabh Varma-headed Wondrlab has appointed Haiderali Amir as its Head – Content Production. Haiderali, a former Publicis Groupe Executive Producer (with Prodigous) will be based out of Mumbai and will report to Rakesh Hinduja, Wondrlab’s Co-Founder and Managing Partner – Content Platform.

     

    Haiderali will be involved with delivering content across Wondrlab’s clients ranging from hygiene production to deliverables such as branded content and web series.

     

    Rakesh Hinduja

    Said Hinduja, Co-Founder and Managing Partner – Content Platform, Wondrlab:“We welcome Haiderali to the Wondrlab family. Content is one of the most important pillars of communication today, and we needed someone with formidable experience such as Haiderali’s. He perfectly fits Wondrlab’s vision of creativity delivered through technology, and with a platform-first lens. His experience brings in the understanding needed to create content at scale that’s contemporary, high-level and customised for brands’ business challenges.”

     

    Added Haiderali Amir, Head – Content Production, Wondrlab, said, “When it comes to content in today’s times, the sky is the limit. Wondrlab gives me the freedom and encouragement to explore different realms of content and creativity to solve clients’ business problems. Its platform-first lens is an interesting approach to content and a big step forward in the right direction. I’m excited to work in a start-up like Wondrlab that is dynamic, progressive and limitless in its thinking.”

     

     

  • The account was won following a multi-agency pitch

    Indigo bags L’oreal digital marketing mandate

    By A Correspondent

     

    L’Oreal Paris has awards Indigo Consulting, Publicis Groupe’s digital agency, with its complete digital marketing mandate. The account was won following a multi-agency pitch.

     

    As a part of the mandate, Indigo Consulting will drive key agendas for the brand on digital, a medium that is emerging as a critical channel for the brand for both engagement and commerce. Indigo Consulting will offer solutions across digital marketing, ORM, and analytics, as well as manage high velocity e-commerce content operations.

     

    Pau Gruart

    Said Pau Gruart, General Manager, L’Oreal India: “With the beauty category’s focus on digital and e-commerce growing rapidly, we welcome this partnership with Indigo. We are confident that Indigo Consulting is the perfect partner considering their sharp data led approach rooted in their intrinsic understanding of the Indian consumer and the beauty category. We look forward to build insightful and data led communication across all digital touchpoints that can help drive significant growth for L’Oreal Paris”.

     

    Ankush Sohoni

    Commenting on the account win, Ankush Sohoni, Vice President, Strategic Business Unit, Indigo Consulting, added:“The beauty and skin care category in India is filled with great opportunity. L’Oreal Paris is one of the few brands in this category that has embraced digital extensively and has leveraged it to transform itself. L’Oreal is dialling up on new marketing codes to provide access and deep personalised experiences to its consumers. The use of data is intrinsic to what they do on digital and the quality of communication that they put out is rich. We are looking forward to use our capability of integrating data, creativity and technology to support L’Oreal Paris to achieve their business and brand goals. It is a privilege to get the opportunity to work on such an amazing brand.”

     

     

  • Leon will continue to report to Rajesh Ghatge, CEO, Indigo Consulting

    Indigo elevates Jose Leon to COO

    By A Correspondent

     

    Indigo Consulting, Publicis Groupe’s leading digital business and marketing transformation company, has elevated Jose Leon to Chief Operating Officer. Leon will continue to report to Rajesh Ghatge, CEO, Indigo Consulting.

     

    Rajesh Ghatge

    Leon joined Indigo Consulting in 2017 from Adobe. Commenting on his elevation, Ghatge said: “Soon after my joining Indigo Consulting, I was clear of needing a transformational leader to partner me in our endeavour to build on the organisation’s strength and transform it into a data-led, creative fuelled, technology driven digital solutions provider for our clients. Over the last few years, Jose has collaborated with me in executing on this vision. Powered by fantastic talent, today we deliver excellence on very large marketing and technology mandates for number of brands across categories. Jose has played a pivotal role in introducing new services and growing marquee businesses. Given the unprecedented challenges that we face in the business environment, we feel that we are just in the right place to add tremendous value to our clients. We are launching sector -specific technology enabled products and solutions across platforms fintech , omnichannel and content velocity.It is just the time for Jose to take over a larger role and lead the next wave of innovation and growth at Indigo Consulting.”

     

    Jose Leon

    Added Leon on his elevation: “When I joined the company, I saw great potential in executing transformation across Talent and Technology at Indigo Consulting to drive superior value for our customers. It has been an exciting journey thus far and in the new role, I look forward to continuing our relentless drive to deliver excellence across our product and service offerings. The next wave will see a launch of a series of innovative products and further deepening of expertise across sectors. The current challenge has deepened our resolve to partner our clients and help them cope and win.”

     

     

  • He will be taking on from Amaresh Godbole who is set to move to to Google.

    One more ex-GroupM biggie joins Publicis. Unny Radhakrishnan is CEO,  Digitas

    By A Correspondent

    Unny Radhakrishnan

    Soon after the news that Sridhar Ramasubramanian was appointed CFO, Publicis Groupe, South Asia, comes the missive that Unny Radhakrishnan has joined the group has CEO, Digitas India. He will be taking on from Amaresh Godbole who is set to move to to Google.

    Unny comes with  rich experience of over  20 years in digital marketing, consulting and technology. Unny has  had an 11-year stint in Maxus, which he helped build as the first media agency in the GroupM system to have integrated capabilities in digital media, creative, social, technology and R&D. As Chief Digital Officer, South Asia, he led a team of over 250 people. In 2018, he took a sabbatical, did theatre training and studied public policy, along with a few consulting assignments. One of his consulting assignments  which was with Sheroes, an internet start-up and a women-only social network, soon turned to be full-time, where he donned the hat of Chief People & Business Officer.

    Anupriya Acharya
    Anupriya Acharya

    Said Anupriya Acharya, CEO, Publicis Groupe, South Asia on the appointment: “We are delighted to have Unny join us. Apart from his demonstrated capabilities across the whole gamut of digital, what really stood out for me is his approach to the future, passion for everything digital and commitment to groom talent. Each of these softer skills is very critical to succeed in today’s organisations. Digitas has a very strong team, great momentum and very diverse capabilities. Unny’s leadership will add to it tremendously.” Acharya herself has been with GroupM in the not-too-distant past.

    Added  Radhakrishnan: “I am very excited to join Digitas at a time when the Publicis Groupe model has just been put in place. The canvas to succeed both as Digitas and as a player in Publicis Groupe is limitless. It has an amazing track- record and momentum .  I  look forward to taking it from strength to strength.”

     

  • Praveen joins Publicis Groupe from Interspace Solutions, where he was the CEO

    Praveen Vadhera to head newly created Publicis In-Motion

    By A Correspondent

     

    Publicis Groupe India announced the creation of Publicis In-Motion, its specialist entity focusing on building brand salience and creating experiences and a strong engagement with consumers. The entity will see the coming together of Arc Worldwide, Solutions and Ecosys OOH and will be powered by data and tech-enabled insights to deliver execution at scale across the Groupe.

     

    Praveen Vadhera

    Praveen Kumar Vadhera has been onboarded in the newly created role of Head of Publicis In-Motion, South Asia. In this role, all the teams in Arc Worldwide, Solutions and Ecosys will report into him and he will work closely with Sejal Shah, Head of Publicis Media Exchange and the Executive Sponsor on Ecosys.

     

    Vadhera joins Publicis Groupe from Interspace Solutions, where he was the CEO. During his stint at Interspace, an entrepreneurial venture, he helped deliver media-agnostic business solutions for brands.

     

    Said Shah: “With fragmenting consumer attention and reducing attention spans, there is a growing need to connect with consumers at every touch-point in an engaging manner. With strength of 150 people and capabilities spanning across activation, shopper marketing, retail design and strategy, OOH and ambient marketing, without doubt Publicis In-Motion will provide our clients unmatched ambient and experiential capabilities. And Praveen brings in excellent and demonstrated credentials across this entire gamut of services. Delighted to have him on board.”

     

    Anupriya Acharya

    Added Anupriya Acharya, CEO, Publicis Groupe, South Asia: “Publicis In-Motion is an effort to make our Power of One offerings even more impactful and substantive for our clients where they can leverage all experiential capabilities at one go. We have highly specialized teams under each capability but the synergized structure will make it simpler and speedier for the clients to leverage it. We expect much momentum in this space as clients move to create more impactful engagements with their customers on the ground.”

     

     

  • We saw this para at the end of the release and thought it must be pulled out for special attention

    Regular churn. Sections of media trying to sensationalise routine moves: Anupriya Acharya, CEO, Publicis S Asia

    By A Correspondent

     

    It was a communique announcing the exit of Digitas CEO Amaresh Godbole, and we saw this para at the end of the release and thought it must be pulled out for special attention. It carries a quote by Anupriya Acharya, CEO, Publicis Groupe South Asian on “the recent exits”.

     

    Now there have been murmurs about some senior executives quitting the Publicis Communications part of the Publicis Groupe after the dramatic exit of former CEO Saurabh Varma.

     

    Varma has since announced that he will be venturing on his own. Independently, we have heard of a few messages sent to a few advertisers of the setting up of a new advertising agency with some honchos of an advertising network and that they (the advertisers) should consider moving their business to this new agency. We haven’t seen the messages ourselves but suffice to say that we have had very senior industry folk telling us about it.

     

    So here’s what Acharya has said in the press release: “There is a regular churn which is there in all organisations as talent seeks newer experiences – we have seen enough cases even in recent times where people move from advertising to start-ups, from media to marketing, from broadcasting to platform companies and such. And some of course to competition. That’s the nature of the market today. It’s unfortunate that some sections of media are trying to sensationalise routine moves. We continue to do great work, stay focussed, deliver on all fronts.”

     

    Sections of the media sensationalising? Hmm. It’s not a sweeping statement on all media, but we think it’s incorrect to damn the media – section or otherwise – in one brush and in an official statement. The Publicis Groupe should know that if the media – MxMIndia included – had chosen to truly sensationalise developments in the conglomerate, it could have. Perhaps the ‘Groupe’ should speak up on the various allegations that are floating around in the marketplace. We are surprised that the Publicis Groupe – which has a leading communications agency like MSLGroup as its part and some seasoned hands on its rolls – could go on record damning “some sections” of the media.