MxMIndia

Tag: Publicis Worldwide India

  • Ajay will begin his stint at Publicis on February 4, 2019

    Ajay Gahlaut joins Publicis India as CCO & MD

    By A Correspondent

     

    It’s now official. Publicis Worldwide India has announced that Ajay Gahlaut has joined as Chief Creative Officer & Managing Director, Publicis Worldwide India and will be based out of the Mumbai office. Gahlaut will begin his stint at Publicis on February 4, 2019.

     

    Said Saurabh Varma, CEO, Publicis Communications, South Asia: “Anyone who knows Ajay or even follows him on Twitter, will know that he’s one of the finest storytellers in the country. His ability, experience and talent in transforming brands by creating stellar communication across formats or platforms is truly remarkable. With, Srija, Neeraj and Ajay at the helm, Publicis Worldwide India is going to be a force to reckon with. I welcome Ajay to the Publicis Groupe, and wish him the best of luck.”

     

    Added Srija Chatterjee, Managing Director, Publicis Worldwide India: “We’re in this phase of transformation at Publicis Worldwide India. Today, the industry is all about constantly listening to clients and anticipating their needs. It’s about delivering the best in-class creative idea and doing it over and over again for each of your brands. Ajay is one of those creative mavericks who has been able to do that, consistently for over a long period of time. I’m truly excited to work with Ajay and I look forward to a great partnership.”

     

    On joining Publicis Worldwide India, Gahlaut said: “I’m looking forward to my journey with Publicis. The new age thinking here excites me. It’s a nimble set up based on the principles of collaboration and integration to deliver the ‘Power of One’. The quality of work is already solid and I look forward to working with the teams to raise the creative bar both in terms of variety and quality of work.”

     

     

  • Bassi will be based out of the agency’s New Delhi office

    Publicis appoints Neeraj Bassi as Managing Partner & Chief Strategy Officer

    By A Correspondent

     

    Neeraj Bassi

    Publicis India has announced the appointment of Neeraj Bassi as Managing Partner & Chief Strategy Officer. Bassi will be based out of the agency’s New Delhi office.

     

    He joins Publicis after a brief stint as an independent consultant where he provided strategic guidance and brand solutions for multiple clients across various categories. Bassi has worked with leading market research networks such as TNS, IMRB and NFO and led the Strategic Planning function in advertising agencies including Cheil, Ogilvy, JWT, McCann in India and abroad.

     

    Saurabh Varma

    Announcing the new appointment, Saurabh Varma, CEO, Publicis Communications, South Asia said: “In Neeraj, we found a partner with a shared vision of driving a deeper level of integration within the Groupe by leveraging the Power of One model. Neeraj’s vast experience and media neutral planning approach will help clients in building a holistic brand experience which will aim to create one-to-one consumer engagement, at scale. I look forward to working with Neeraj and wish him the best of luck.”

     

    Srija Chatterjee

    Welcoming Bassi to the Publicis family, Srija Chatterjee, MD – Publicis Worldwide, India said: “Neeraj joins at a time when the Groupe is implementing a profound transformation which puts our clients front and centre of everything that we do. His wealth of experience of working across diverse sectors and with cross-functional teams, will help build a narrative around our clients’ business and marketing transformation that connects data, content and technology in an omni-channel world. I’m excited to welcome Neeraj to the Publicis Groupe family, and we look forward to him riding the next strategic wave at the agency.”

     

    Added Bobby Pawar, MD & CCO – Publicis Worldwide India: “I’ve always believed great work is born out of a strong partnership between strategy, creative and clients. Neeraj Bassi has a history of creating strategic platforms that killer ideas can springboard from. His cross-platform approach to planning will also be a huge asset to our march towards the future of creativity. It also helps that he is fun to be around. I can chat with him for hours; the chemistry is very important when you are going to be more or less living out of each other’s metaphorical pockets.”

     

     

  • He will report to Srija Chatterjee, Managing Director, Publicis Worldwide India

    Paritosh Srivastava named COO of Publicis Beehive

    By A Correspondent

     

    Publicis Communications has announced the appointment of Paritosh Srivastava as the COO of Publicis Beehive. Srivastava steps into the role in place of Sanjit Shastri, who passed away in September 2017.The appointment is effective immediately.

     

    Srivastava will take over the reins of the agency apart from continuing to lead Publicis Ambience as its COO. He will report to Srija Chatterjee, Managing Director, Publicis Worldwide India.

     

    Publicis Beehive is the advertising agency under Publicis Worldwide, India and is focused on serving startups and entrepreneurial ventures, and manages media buying, creative, PR and activation to drive growth for clients. Some of the clients it serves include Games24x7, Stovekraft, Xseed Education, e-Seva (MoPNG), UBS, MAAC, Tourism Malaysia, DSK Benelli, UIDAI, Pitaara Namkeen, Chambor Cosmetics, Sangeetha Mobiles among others.

     

    Commenting on the appointment, Srija Chatterjee said: “Publicis Beehive is what it is because of the relentless drive by Sanjit Shastri, whose untimely demise shocked one and all. Luckily, he has placed the agency on a pedestal that compares it to some of the best in the country. We are excited to have Paritosh Srivastava take over the reins and bring in his dynamism, astute business sense and ability to connect well with clients to drive the next phase of growth for the agency. I wish him all the luck for the role ahead.”

     

    Commenting on his additional role within Publicis Worldwide, Srivastava added: “I’m honoured to be given the mandate of leading Publicis Beehive. Unfortunately, the void left by my friend Sanjit Shastri is too big to be filled but I’m glad to be stepping in and look forward to further building on the legacy. Beehive is uniquely positioned in the market with its integrated offering and I see a huge potential for it in current business scenario. We have a solid team at Beehive and can expect some great momentum on both new business and work in the months to come.”

     

     

  • As part of the mandate, Publicis India will be responsible for preparing a pan India communication objective for the brand

    Cera appoints Publicis India to handle full-service mandate

    By A Correspondent

     

    Publicis India has been mandated to handle the full-service responsibilities of Cera, the Ahmedabad-based home solutions provider. The mandate will be handled by the Delhi office of Publicis India and was won after a multi-agency pitch.

     

    Commenting on the appointment, Atul Sanghvi – Executive Director, Cera said:“Cerahas exponential growth plans for coming years—with product and brand extensions. We felt the need to bring in freshness into our brand communication and with that in view we narrowed down on Publicis looking at their international stature, past work and people strength.”

     

    On winning the business mandate, Srija Chatterjee, Managing Director, Publicis Worldwide India said:“We’re excited to see our strategic insight and ideas resonate positively with brands. This has led us to win some high-profile accounts in the recent past including a cluster of channels under ZEEL, Linen Club, etc. Cera is a leading home solutions player in India and we’re keen to partner them and play a significant role in making it a future-ready player of tomorrow.”

     

    Adding to this, Ravpreet Ganesh, Executive Director, Publicis India said: “Cera is a leading name in home solutions and we’rehappy they chose us to accomplish their communication objective in India. Despite it being a familiar name with the masses, they have high expectations in terms of where they aspire to be in a few months from now. We are confident they will achieve this dream in the quickest and best way possible.”

  • Lowe Lintas will handle the Zee Corporate brand amongst others, Publicis has on its plate the flagship Zee TV in its kitty

    Zee exits FCB Ulka, appoints Lowe Lintas & Publicis India for creative. Appoints Genesis BM for PR

    By A Correspondent

     

    The winds of change are blowing at Zee Entertainment. The network has appointed two agencies – Publicis India and Lowe Lintas – to spearhead its creative duties.

     

    So while Lowe Lintas will handle the Zee Corporate brand amongst others, Publicis has on its plate the flagship Zee TV in its kitty along with a slew of others channels. Meanwhile, although the channel has not made any official announcements, the WPP-owned Genesis Burson-Marsteller will be handling its public relations mandate.

     

    Announcing the move on the creative agencies, Punit Goenka, MD & CEO, ZEEL said: “As we embark on this journey, we would like to thank FCB Ulka for the long and fruitful association in building some of the most loved channels that have become a part of our viewers’ lives. To build our equity further on this solid foundation, we welcome Lowe Lintas and Publicis on-board as partners who will help establish the organisation’s presence across all the entertainment verticals. By consolidating the entire business with two strong agency partners, the organisation is committed to building significantly higher capability in brand building, consumer centricity and strategic marketing thinking. Both agencies bring with them a strong consumer centric DNA and a deep knowledge of brands and business, which is core to our philosophy of driving future growth for the organisation. We look forward to Publicis and Lowe partnering with us to grow & develop our strong and evolving portfolio of brands.”

     

    Speaking on the development, Punit Misra, CEO – Domestic Broadcast, ZEEL said, “We are excited to have Lowe Lintas and Publicis on-board as our creative partners. The appointment follows an extensive pitch process which was evaluated by the key leadership team involving an in-depth assessment of creative, planning & servicing capabilities of the agencies, to cater to a large & diverse bouquet of channels & business needs. The move is to ensure that the channels build stronger consumer preference and loyalty for each of the individual brands and businesses. Together, we aspire to create the best in class brand andmarketing ecosystem for every channel and the overall organisation.”

     

    Other than planning and executing a 360-degree creative mandate for the ‘Zee’ Corporate Brand, Lowe Lintas will also work on the bouquet of cinema channels- including Zee Cinema, Zee Classic and Zee Action, the ‘&’Brand – &TV and &Pictures, and Zee’s South Cluster regional channels.

     

    And for Publicis India, other than Zee TV, there’s Zee Anmol, Zee Café & Zee Studio, the youth andmusic channels- Zing and ZETC and the regional channels in Marathi, Bengali and Odia – Zee Marathi, Zee Yuva, Zee Talkies, Zee Bangla, Zee Bangla Cinema and Sarthak.

     

    Interestingly, the Zee Entertainment communique on the announcement carries a statement from Nitin Karkare, CEO, FCB Ulka: “We are proud of our partnership with the Zee Group.  It’s been a wonderful relationship and we have together had many successes across channels and programmes. We wish them the best and many more successes in the years to come.” It may be noted that the &TV creative mandate was with Infectious, the boutique agency set up by Ramanuj Shastry and Nisha Singhania.

     

    Highlighting his agency’s mandate on the new business win, Raj Gupta, CEO-Lowe Lintas said: “We’re absolutely thrilled to partner ZEEL, who pioneered a series of revolutionary television watching experiences and much more for India in the last 25 years. At a time where content networks are competing to get attention with serials/shows, multi-crore blockbuster movies, digital content and millions of shares on digital - we’re excited about the possibilities of imagining and reimagining purpose-led strategic and creative ideas for all the ZEEL offerings, that will inspire Indians to dream more, do more and become more.”

     

    Elaborating further on the partnership, Srija Chatterjee, Managing Director, Publicis Worldwide India said: “Zee is an iconic brand that has been in the minds and hearts of millions of Indians over almost 25 years. We are delighted that we were able to demonstrate our strong strategic approach through the use of proprietary tools that enable brands to grow at the speed of culture and creative capabilities across the different consumer segments that the brand appeals to, that enabled the ZEEL team to choose us for this very exciting challenge. We are truly excited and looking forward to this partnership to create iconic work that takes the brand and its offerings forward in the minds of the consumers.”

     

    On PR, Genesis B-M has been appointed for the corporate mandate, but there are rumours that this could extend to the various or at least some Zee brands.