MxMIndia

Tag: Publicis Groupe

  • With many finding it too expensive to attend, the organisers make it more economical. Also rehauled awards

    Coming Soon: Shorter, Cheaper Cannes Lions 2018

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    Cannes Lions has launched the 2018 Festival of Creativity, with significant changes to the delegate experience and awards structure. The 65th edition of the festival will run for five days, from Monday, June 18 to Friday, June 22. This will mean that people will find it more economical to attend and the awards will be more in tune with the times (and trends). It may be recalled the Publicis Groupe has backed out of participating at Cannes Lions and other awards events given rising costs. Other agencies and individuals have also been finding attending the Cannes Lions very expensive.

     

    As a result of the reorganisation:

    :: The Lions will be organised across nine core tracks to better reflect and support the creative industries

    :: The new tracks will simultaneously provide the foundation for the festival’s content programme – speakers, panel sessions and workshops – to help attendees navigate the festival more easily

    :: The points allocations for the Special Awards (Holding Company of the Year, Agency of the Year, Network of the Year) have been changed to appropriately reward the very best work

    :: 120 Lions sub-categories have been removed

    :: Charity and NGO work will now be presented to the jury separately from brand-led work; the first step to separate charity and brand work

    :: A new entry cap means that each piece of work can only be entered into a maximum of six Lions

    :: Lions Innovation and Lions Entertainment return in their established home in Palais 2, with Lions Innovation extended across the entire week with a full programme of content to reflect the importance of technology as an enabler of creativity

    :: Silver metals will now get 7 points (earlier 5), Gold will get 15 (earlier 7), a Grand Prix 30 (earlier 10) and Grand Prix in Creative Effectiveness or Titanium will get 35 instead of 12 points.

     

    Changes to the Lions:

    :: The Cyber Lions, Integrated Lions and the Promo Lions have been removed (okay, retired)

    :: The Brand Experience & Activation, Creative e-commerce and Social and Influencer Lions will be launched as part of the new architecture

    :: The craft categories within Print, Outdoor and Design will be removed from their respective Lions to be judged by a specialist Industry Craft Jury.

     

    Commenting on the 2018 Festival, Philip Thomas, CEO, Ascential Events said: “This is an especially important launch for us. We have spent a lot of time talking to the relevant people to make sure the festival is not only as aspirational as possible, but to also ensure the sentiment behind the Festival is fundamentally founded on the work and those behind it. We have held lengthy discussions in order to curate an updated Festival that puts the creative content back at the heart of Cannes Lions.”

     

    Also, following on from conversations with the City of Cannes, the first in a series of exclusive benefit packages for Festival attendees has also been unveiled. Alongside capped taxi fares and expanded free Wi-Fi facilities along the Croisette, hotel prices will be frozen for 2018, and fixed-price menus will be on offer exclusively for festival badge holders at more than 50 restaurants. The complete pass is now 900 euros cheaper. And Cannes to Nice taxis will cost 80 euros.

     

    Next year’s festival also marks the introduction of a new initiative aimed at nurturing global young talent across the industry. One Young Lions delegate pass will be given free to every office which entered more than 15 entries at the 2017 Festival, totalling over 650 free places for the Festival in 2018.

     

    Next year’s Festival will also mark the first time that every awards show will be available to view for free on all major platforms. As usual, all winning work will be published on the Cannes Lions site.

     

    Speaking to the impact of the plans for the 2018 Festival, Philip Thomas said: “Change has always been part of Cannes Lions and the innovations we’re introducing for 2018 mark an exciting new phase in the story of the Festival. Some of the effects from these changes will be felt immediately, while others represent the start of a longer transitional journey. But what they all have in common is that they refocus the festival and ensure that Cannes Lions continues to be the leading global event for the world’s creative communications industries for many years to come.”

     

    Passes are already available to purchase through the canneslions.com site.

     

     

  • Star India and Vodafone crowned Client of the Year as Madison-Asian Paints win Grand Emvies

    GroupM agencies top Emvies leaderboard

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    It was what one would call a Kodak moment. As the leaderboards were being announced by emcee Brian Tellis, it was evident that the crown of the Agency of the Year could well rest on the all-new head of the recently established Wavemaker agency, set up by the merging of Maxus and MEC. Or of course the good oi’ Mindshare, winner of the crown for some 10 times thus far. The suspense grew when it was Madison that bagged the Grand Emvie, and not the two GroupM agencies.

     

    On the stage when the winner was being announced were Sam Balsara, Shashi Sinha, Vikram Sakhuja and CVL Srinivas. For Srinivas, as CEO, GroupM South Asia, it’s never an easy task when one sibling is  pitted against the other. It’s like the Williams sisters competing with each other on centre court.

     

     

    Srinivas put his hand on his eyes, as Tellis was set to unveil the Agency of the Year winner. Mindshare is the old warhorse and hence deserved to win, but for the all-new player Wavemaker, it would’ve been the perfect beginning.

     

    Adjudged by a jury of around 211 industry leaders through intensive judging sessions across the country, Emvies 2017 saw over 816 entries. Note the entire Publicis Groupe’s media and digital agencies stayed away from the awards given the global decision to be off all awards for a year.

     

    The Client of the Year which has seen Hindustan Unilever bagging the title comfortably over the last few years saw joint winners in Star India and Vodafone. Interestingly Star India works with Mindshare and Vodafone is with Wavemaker. The marketing heads of both commended the excellent partnership with their agencies as a contributor to their winning the title.

     

    Meanwhile, there was much happiness for both Prasanth Kumar, CEO of Mindshare and Kartik Sharma, CEO of Wavemaker.  For, even though Sharma’s team did not clinch the title, it went back home with a clear indicator to the world that it’s a significant force to reckon wit.

     

    Speaking about the changing dynamics of campaigns and the importance of being relevant, Punitha Arumugam, 2017 Awards Chairman for EMVIEs, said, “India has been at the forefront of many ingenious campaigns that showcase high effectiveness and the Emvies remain committed to recognising such outstanding communication stories. Being one of the most trusted and coveted awards in the category, the Emvies continue to scale with increased participation and representation from across industry stakeholders.” Arumugam has been spearheading the Emvies for five years now.

     

    Elaborating on the scale and the entries, Partha Sinha, 2017 Awards Co-Chairman for Emvies said, “The Emvies 2017 has successfully contributed towards recognizing high impact media campaigns that have made a difference. It continues to be one of the most coveted awards within the industry.”   For Sinha, who confessed that he wasn’t exposed to the Emvies much thus far because the awards event is out of bounds for creative agencies, co-chairing Emvies 2017 has been an enriching experience.

     

    In his welcome address on Emvies night (Friday, October 13), Vikram Sakhuja, President of The Advertising Club said: “In its 17th year now, the EMVIEs has continued to grow in scale and strength, emerging as the gold standard amongst media awards. With a jury consisting of over 211 distinguished industry leaders from across the country, this has been a transparent process to select transformational work.  We are engaging with some top global content sites to showcase the best of our archives to the world.

     

    Colors was presenting sponsor yet again for Emvies 2017, as MTV, Rishtey Cineplex and Republic TV powered the event.

     

    EMVIE 2017 CLIENT OF THE YEAR TALLY

    EMVIE 2017 RESULTS

  • He will be involved over the next six months during the transition, mentoring and guiding the teams

    Praveen Kenneth to exit L&K Saatchi & Saatchi

    By A Correspondent

     

    Praveen Kenneth

    Praveen Kenneth, Founder and Chairman of Law & Kenneth, which was the largest and one of the most successful Independent communication companies in India, before becoming a part of Publicis Groupe in January 2014,  to create L&K | Saatchi & Saatchi, announced his retirement from active engagement on the sidelines of the final sale of his shareholding, in Paris. That’s officialese for Kenneth’s earn-out period ending and his decision to move on from the group. He will be involved over the next six months during the transition, mentoring and guiding the teams

     

    Anil Nair, CEO and Managing Partner, has been groomed over the past two years and will take the company forward.

     

    Commenting on this from Paris, Maurice Levy, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Publicis Groupe said: “Praveen has been with us slightly after opening Publicis in India (in 1999) and had led the agency to growth and creative excellence. He then decided to launch Law & Kenneth ( 2002),which also has been a great success. The acquisition of his agency and the merger with Saatchi and Saatchi ( in 2014), has allowed building a superb agency we are all proud of. Praveen is a leader, a real ad man, always led by the interest of the clients. I developed a great personal relationship with Praveen and wish him the very best.”

     

    Commenting on his retirement from Paris, Kenneth said: ”The incredible success story of Law & Kenneth and L&K| Saatchi & Saatchi,  has been nothing less than a magical testimony of “making the Impossible, possible”.

     

    It speaks volumes for Kenneth’s capabilities and the fact that Levy and the world recognised it that even as Publicis Groupe acquired Law & Kenneth, it merged with the beleaguered India operations of Saatchi & Saatchi and gave Kenneth and his team management control of the merged entity.

     

    Kenneth is said to be starting life anew and increase his investments in the media ecosystem.

  • Just 53, Shastri was CEO of Publicis Beehive. He passed away on Thursday following a cardiac arrest

    RIP, Sanjit Shastri

    By A Correspondent

     

    Sanjit Shastri, CEO of Publicis Beehive passed away on Thursday following a cardiac arrest. He was 53, and is survived by his wife and daughter.

     

    Shastri set up Beehive Communications, a full-service integrated service agency, in 2003. He was the agency’s CEO since inception, and continued in the same capacity even after its takeover by the Publicis Groupe in 2013. Before Beehive, he was the President at Concept Communications, helping the business soar under his leadership.

     

     

  • Emmanuel André will be in charge of talent management and recruitment

    Emmanuel Andre appointed Chief Talent Officer at Publicis Groupe

    By A Correspondent

     

    Emmanuel Andre

    Publicis Groupe Chairman and CEO Arthur Sadoun has announced the nomination of Emmanuel André to the newly created position of Chief Talent Officer (CTO), with effect from September 18, 2017.

     

    André will be in charge of talent management and recruitment, working directly with the Solutions CEOs and their respective CTOs, who will be functionally reporting to him. He will report directly to Arthur Sadoun, Chairman and CEO of Publicis Groupe.

     

    Emmanuel André is currently President International of TBWA\Worldwide and has in his existing remit the management of the company’s collective people strategy, covering the key areas of learning, career development, top talent recruitment and the culture at large.

     

    “Emmanuel’s appointement is an important step in our ambition to become the market leader in marketing and business transformation. Bringing a CTO at the top level of our organisation was critical at a moment when our people need to embark on our transformation journey. With Maurice Lévy, we strongly believed it was essential to entrust this role to someone who knows our business inside out and understands the challenges our people are facing every day. Talent is the Groupe’s top priority and biggest asset. Emmanuel will have an important role to play in all the initiatives that are building our Groupe culture while attracting, rewarding, retaining and training the best and most collaborative team in the industry to serve our clients even better than before,” said Sadden.

     

    Added Andre: “Publicis Groupe clearly has the vision, the right business model and the energy to write an exciting new chapter for our industry, and they’ve placed talent and culture at the top of their priorities. I’ve spent my whole career witnessing how these things make all the difference in our business and I’m honoured to join the team.”

     

  • Agency heads/clients acknowledge MSL role in winning Gold, Silver and two Bronze Lions at Cannes Lions 2017

    MSL demonstrates Publicis’ ‘Power of One’ with four Cannes Lions for group agencies

    By A Correspondent

     

    The honours may have been bagged by other Publicis Groupe agencies, but each of the four winning campaigns saw strategic inputs by MSL India, the group’s strategic communications and engagement firm.The winning campaigns of #GiveHer5-The Ammada Trust, HPCL Roads That Honk and Vicks #Touchofcare, involved crucial strategic communication approach to drive conversations and impact, notes a communique.

     

    Said Amit Misra, CEO, MSL India: “The wins are a true reflection of the power of strategic PR counsel in creating the right conversations that lead to measurable impact. As we continue to work with greater collaboration under PublicisGroupe’s ‘Power of One’, our mission is to consistently raise the quality of our work and partner our clients to deliver integrated solutions. All in line with our promise to be a communication partner that provides strategic counsel and creative thinking.”

     

    For instance, with the Gold Glass Lion for #GiveHer5, The Ammada Trust bagged by Law & Kenneth Saatchi & Saatchi, Praveen Kenneth, Chairman, Co-owner and MD at L&K Saatchi & Saatchi acknowledges the MSL role: “I am a firm believer that passion and hard work always deliver great results. Born from a self-interest to support betterment of girl child in India, the mission and goals of #GiveHer5 have surpassed all our expectations. In a campaign of such nature, while it was definitely imperative for us to drive mass reach to crowdsource support, the more important and tougher task was bringing to light the issue and creating awareness with action; a task more than well managed by MSL. Their strategic communication counsel and approach, makes them an equal partner in this win.”

     

    Said Saurabh Varma, CEO, Publicis Communications India and CEO, Leo Burnett South Asia The Roads that Honk work created for HPCL which bagged a Silver Innovation Lion and a Bronze in Design (Promotional Item Design) for Leo Burnett India: “A great example of how collaboration and the right strategic communication mix can create a big impact. MSL’s role was instrumental in the win, since it was imperative for the campaign to create the right conversations around the idea and its innovation and earn credibility. MSL delivered and deserves as much credit for the win as Leo Burnett.”

     

    The Vicks #TouchofCare which bagged a Bronze in Entertainment Lion was created by Publicis Singapore. Endorsing MSL’s contribution, Nitin Darbari, Chairman and CEO P&G Teva JV China, Marketing Director Asia, Middle East and Africa said, “Vicks #TouchofCare work by MSL is a great example of how power of an idea coupled with strong agency can delivery wonders even at low budgets. The MSL team tapped creatively into the full network of celebrities and influencers with virtually no budget and based on the strength of the idea delivered outstanding value in amplifying the story of Vicks Touchofcare. Added Ritu Mittal, Country Brand Marketing Manager, Procter & Gamble: “The MSL team was exemplary in working the end-to-end PR plan and execution on the #TouchOfCare campaign. The team managed everything within a very limited budget and demonstrated superb agility. The campaign received an overwhelming response across global and national publications as a result of the relentless efforts made by this team.”

     

  • Himani brings 22 years of diverse experience across business, finance, strategy, technology and media

    Himani Kapadia appointed CEO of Sapient Razorfish as Charulata Ravi Kumar exits

    By A Correspondent

     

    Sapient Razorfish, a part of Publicis Groupe announced that Himani Kapadia has assumed the position of CEO, India, Sapient Razorfish and DigitasLBi effective immediately. In this new role, Kapadia will be responsible for the growth of both businesses in India by leveraging the complimentary propositions and offerings of the brands, to help clients reimagine their business through radical customer-centricity. Charulata Ravi Kumar, who led the Sapient Razorfish India business, moves on to pursue other opportunities.

     

    “India is a strategic market for us with immense potential. The combined capabilities of Sapient Razorfish and DigitasLBi across consumer, digital, experience, data and technology, offer a unique advantage to our clients as they partner with us on their digital transformation journey. With Himani at the helm of both brands in the market, I am excited at the opportunity we have to help clients in the region truly reimagine their propositions for a rapidly changing consumer set,” said Rajdeep Endow, Managing Director, Sapient Razorfish, Asia Pacific.

     

    “We are thrilled to have Himani taking on the role of CEO for India. Having known Himani for a number of years, her experience in India coupled with her focus on doing what’s best for her clients reassures me that she will help lead our clients through the digital transformation journey, Also, Amaresh Godbole, MD, DigitasLBi India, who has done a brilliant job leading and growing the brand in India, will continue his current role as MD, reporting into Himani,” said Annette Male, CEO, DigitasLBi, APAC.

     

  • Positions Sapient Razorfish to help clients drive customer-centric digital transformation across the enterprise from CMO to CIO

    Publicis.Sapient launches new enterprise business transformation offering

    By A Correspondent

     

    Publicis Groupe and Publicis.Sapient unveiled a new set of integrated offerings from SapientRazorfish designed to help clients transform their businesses in the connected world.

     

    The integration of Sapient Razorfish, part of Publicis.Sapient, now culminates with the launch of a new brand identity and six best-­of-­breed offerings, which clients from across all industries will benefit from:Digital Business Strategy & Innovation; Customer Experience; Data & Artificial Intelligence; Marketing Modernization; IT Modernization; and Commerce.

     

    “The market clearly needs a partner that drives real and sustainable business transformation for the connected age through an obsessive focus on the customer,” said Maurice Lévy, Chairman & CEO of Publicis Groupe. “Today’s business leaders are realizing that a bifurcated approach of leaning on agencies to transform experiences and on consulting partners to transform business processes no longer works – it’s too slow, too fractured, organizationally unsustainable and most importantly, the focus on the customer gets lost in the complexity.”

     

    “Our clients want skills and capabilities across the entire spectrum, from customer experience to deep technical implementation and strategy and consulting expertise for transforming in the connected age,” added Sapient Razorfish CEO Alan Wexler. “The new economic era requires putting digital at the core of business, including new operating processes and new ways of deploying technology. Innovation is increasingly important as clients look to evolve business models and leverage the bundling opportunity of platform effect.”

     

  • Menon, who will continue his responsibility of leading Delivery out of India as Global Head of Service Lines for Sapient Razorfish, takes on this new role from Rajdeep Endow

    Sanjay Menon appointed Managing Director of Sapient India

    By A Correspondent

     

    Sapient, a part of Publicis Groupe, announced that Sanjay Menon has assumed the position of Managing Director of Sapient India, effective immediately. In this role, Sanjay will drive the strategy, capability development, and growth of Sapient’s India presence and maintain its status as hub of the company’s globally distributed delivery network.

     

    Menon, who will continue his responsibility of leading Delivery out of India as Global Head of Service Lines for Sapient Razorfish, takes on this new role from Rajdeep Endow. Endow has taken on the role of Managing Director, Sapient Razorfish, Asia Pacific and is responsible for leading strategy and growth for the region and helping clients reimagine their business through radical customer-centricity.

     

    “I am excited to see Sanjay take on the role of Managing Director for Sapient India. He has been a key part of the India leadership team, and has played an instrumental role in promoting our culture and building capabilities. As India continues to remain a strategic talent market for Publicis.Sapient, I am confident Sanjay will help us strengthen our brand that has always attracted the best engineering minds. I’d also like to recognize the contributions of Rajdeep in growing the India business both in terms of size and impact,” said Chip Register, Co-Chief Executive Officer at Publicis.Sapient.

     

  • Named Asia Pacific Consultancy of the Year by Holmes Report at the 2016 SABRE Awards ceremony in Hong Kong recently

    MSLGroup named APAC Consultancy of the Year by Holmes Report

    By A Correspondent

     

    MSLGroup was named Asia Pacific Consultancy of the Year by the Holmes Report at the 2016 SABRE Awards ceremony in Hong Kong recently. It is the second time in four years that MSLGROUP has received this highest of Asia recognitions by the Holmes Report. In addition to the agency honour, Glenn Osaki, MSLGROUP’s Asia President, was presented the Outstanding Individual Achievement SABRE Award for his contributions to the company and the industry during his 30 years of leadership at MSL, especially the past 12 years in Asia.

     

    Said Osaki:  “We are very proud to be recognised as Asia Pacific Consultancy of the Year for the second time in four years by Holmes Report. MSLGroup has transformed itself to lead the growth and the revolution of the communications industry in Asia. Now even further powered by the closer collaboration with our sister agencies within Publicis Groupe, we will continue to support clients in their marketing transformation, delivering interdependent solutions with the Power of One.”

  • The event was held at their operations space at the iconic Bombay Stock Exchange Building at Dalal Street

    Publicis Drugstore targets real estate sector

    By A Correspondent

     

    Publicis Groupe’s innovation initiative – Drugstore has started its India operations with the first of its initiatives targetting the real estate sector. Publicis Drugstore is an innovation incubator, which incubates innovation ideas/projects on behalf of the Publicis Groupe clients around the world in collaboration with the startup sector. These innovation incubation programs range from supper chats with CXOs, to hackathons and long format innovation projects.  ‘Meet The Makers’ is one such format which allows for an evening of intimate interaction between large  companies and curated start ups in their respective sector. This experiential event was designed and created in partnership with Zone Startups, an organisation that incubates and accelerates start-ups in the Indian ecosystem. The event was held at their operations space at the iconic  Bombay Stock Exchange Building at Dalal Street.

     

    Key speakers at the event included Anil K Nair who leads the Publicis Drugstore initiative in India and Ajay Ramasubramaniam, Director, Zone Startups India. Anil K Nair, the ‘entrepreneur -in-residence’ for Publicis  Drugstore believes that the biggest business disruptor and saviour going into this decade will be an attitude of inside out innovation within large traditional organisations that will need to be encouraged & cultivated. This and a symbiotic relationship building between these organisations and the start up sector. “It’s a win-win for both. And we at Publicis Groupe are determined to make these dialogues happen for the overall good of the market place and the consumer at large”. Speaking at the event, he added: “The start-up space has been responsible for some of the biggest market disruptions across the world. Be it Uber or Air Bnb, they have all gone to redefine the space they were conceived in. We could have gone the traditional way and approached the fin-tech or other sectors which have such interfaces all the time. We however, have focused on real estate as it is one industry that needs the kind of innovations that start ups bring with them.”

     

    Ajay Ramasubramaniam added further, “The start-up scene is well ahead in terms of infrastructure, support and finance. It is only recently that the Indian scenario has started catching up. There is still some time when crowdsourcing and crowd-funding will become the norm for our nation, until then we are focused on creating the right kind of environment with the assistance of the Publicis Groupe to incubate, accelerate and facilitate the transition of the start-ups to their relevant industrial sector.”

     

    Some of the notable  startup pitches that came up were Phynart, a home automation start-up that incorporates Artificial Intelligence and data mining in traditional automation systems and  Enso Immersive, a R & D establishment driving research in technologies like Augmented Virtual Reality for developing applications and platforms across industries like real estate.

     

    The real estate industry was represented by leading players like Omkar, Tata Housing, Kalpataru , Godrej properties & Puranik.

     

  • The attempt is to offer integrated solutions and thereby bridge the gap between large companies and tech startups through the Drugstore India initiative

    Publicis Groupe opens Drugstore in India… no, it’s selling medicines or legalising you-know-what

    By  A Correspondent

     

    Over the last ninety years, Publicis Groupe has worked closely with its clients to build some of the most iconic brands around the world.  Today as we enter the era of the fourth industrial revolution wherein the lines between physical, digital and biological spheres are narrowing, it is imperative for large companies to avoid the ‘Kodak moment’.  Our goal is to help Publicis Groupe clients brace for this change by helping them innovate and stay ahead of disruption. We intend to do this by bringing together some of the sharpest minds from within the tech startup ecosystem in India and  the Publicis Groupe brand builders to ‘hack’ solutions  on the various brands that we work with across the Groupe.

     

    Uff, did all of the above mean anything to you. But then that’s communication conglomerates are masters at doing. Foreplay.

     

    So read further:

     

    The Publicis Groupe has always strived to help their clients constantly stay ahead of the game. In the late 50s Publicis Groupe founder Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet started the  Drugstore near Arc de Triomphe in Paris to bring multiple brands physically under one roof, with the express idea of getting ‘consumers to experience brands and for brands to get to experiment with them in return’. Today, we invoke our founder’s vision to bring this concept of disruptive innovation thinking & prototyping to our clients and help them ‘thrive at scale’.

     

    Okay, okay, let’s get on with it.

    Drugstore India is an innovation facility (oh, thank heavens, it’s not been called a lab!) that fosters relationships between large companies and early stage startups for mutual benefit.  This innovation thinking will be mentored by the best of minds across Publicis Groupe companies such as L&K | Saatchi & Saatchi, Publicis India, Leo-Burnett, MSLGROUP and Razorfish. True to the spirit of today’s startup ecosystem, where collaboration matters more than competition, the idea for a platform such as Drugstore is just right and timely.

     

    The idea of the Drugstore is fundamentally based on the spirit of identifying and harnessing these innovations and innovators and bridging the gap between needs and resources. Drugstore India will collaborate with leading players in the Indian startup ecosystem like Zone Startups amongst others to bring some of the proven and agile innovation programmes such as Minibar, Meet the Makers, Demo Days, Supper Club, Rapid Prototyping and Incubator Accelerator to capitalise on inventions and have radical outcomes in the process, products and services.

     

    Besides helping successful client brands stay successful, Drugstore will add strategic marketing value to the emerging startup fraternity through both physical and cloud-based access to brand building resources across the Publicis Groupe and by collaborating with them to help them acquire scale expertise and by mentoring and immersing them on turning any business into a successful brand.

     

    Publicis Groupe has successfully launched the Drugstore in London, Sydney, Johannesburg and Zurich and the first Drugstore edition in Asia is now officially starting in India and will be based in Mumbai.

     

    The Drugstore India team will be led by Anil K. Nair (CEO, Digital L&K | Saatchi & Saatchi) along with a core team comprising Sreeraman Thiagarajan (Publicis), Parth Nagar & Aarti Samant (L&K Saatchi & Saatchi), Sanju Menon (Leo-Burnett), Suryasen Kundu (MSL Group), & Swapnil Puranik (Razorfish) and  under the overall  mentorship of Praveen Kenneth, Chairman & Managing Director, L&K Saatchi & Saatchi.

     

    Phew!

    So that was the communiqué we received from the Publicis Group this morning (Tue, June 14). Now, basically this is what it’s all about: Publicis Groupe has set up (no, we didn’t saying waking up to!) the increasing demands of the start-up community and setting up a pan-group(e) initiative. We are sure this doesn’t mean Anil K Nair and Co will give up their rest of their commitments and embrace this alone.

     

    Now, here’s a thought that was expressed by an insider?  Does the fact that Praveen Kenneth has been entrusted with the responsibility mean that if this is a success he could be given greater responsibilities within the group? Like overseeing the umbrella company of the communications business of Publicis? India is one of the few countries that doesn’t have a head for Pubicis Communications though Publicis Media did name Anupriya Acharya as CEO for the group’s media businesses. Or is it that it’s a sop to Kenneth and someone else may be made the big(g) boss?

     

    We’ll know it soon. A CEO of one of the Publicis Comm firms told us that India may not have that such a position.

     

    PostScript: Why name it Drugstore? We know it’s advertising and it helps in being disruptive etc etc, but Drugstore? Next is what? Well, as long as what’s dished out are good solutions and not placebos. Right?