Rediffusion Y&R has announced the appointment of Rahul Jauhari as Chief Creative Officer, Rediffusion Y&R Group. Meanwhile Komal Bedi Sohal, will relocate to Y&R Singapore as Chief Creative Officer.
Rahul is no stranger to the Rediffusion YR Group. His team created memorable work for the Tata Group on brands likes Tata ACE and Magic. Rahul’s work was responsible for the successful repositioning of Kaya (Marico) and Onida, to name a few. Prior to Everest, in a 7-year-long stint at Rediffusion Delhi & Mumbai, Rahul led the creative work on Airtel, the agency’s biggest account.
Over the past four years, Everest Brand Solutions added accounts like SAB TV (Sony Entertainment), CNN IBN, Kotak Mutual Funds, IndiaFirst General Insurance, Onida, Catch Spices (DS Group), Aditya Birla Retail & more. In addition to this, the agency added multiple brands from its largest account Parle Products.
Dhunji Wadia
Commenting on Rahul’s appointment, Dhunji Wadia, President Rediffusion Y&R India said, “Rahul has done a stellar job within the group. What I admire most is his passion and collaborative style of functioning and unending quest for creative excellence. Komal remains an ally within the network and we will continue to take full advantage of that and I wish her the very best in her new role.â€
Komal has spent the last two years as CCO at Rediffusion Y&R India, during which time the agency has undergone a resurgence, with a run of 16 new business wins and a return to The Economic Times’ list of India’s top 10 advertising agencies.
Commenting on the appointment, Y&R Singapore Managing Director Melvin Kuek said, “Komal’s track record of both new business and awards success make her an ideal creative partner at the helm of Y&R Singapore. Having also ramped up the agency’s strategic planning team we’re very optimistic for 2015.â€
Leo Burnett has announced the appointment of Sanju Menon as Vice President based at its Mumbai office. Sanju will lead the Bajaj business nationally, taking charge of both strategy and account management.
Sanju’s appointment reinforces the agency’s talent philosophy of handpicking best professionals to serve clients.
Saurabh Varma
Welcoming him on board, Saurabh Varma, CEO, Leo Burnett India, says, “Sanju is extremely passionate about strategic thinking and providing business solutions. His ideology is in sync with that of Leo Burnett’s (HumanKind) philosophy that is to delight clients with integrated ideas that are based on human truth. Apart from leading the advertising mandate, Sanju will deliver solutions for Bajaj across functions, namely – shopper & retail, activation, branded content, website development & maintenance, social and search. He will play the role of an integrated lead managing all these functions to build the strong narrative. In addition to this, he will lead a multidisciplinary team and manage the newly established communication centre called ‘Play’ for Bajaj.â€
Sanju joins Leo Burnett from Rediffusion Kolkata where he worked as the Branch Head. He joined the agency as a brand Associate in 2007 and grew to the position of Business Head in 2011 before moving on to head the operations from 2013.
He started his advertising career with SN Design in 2005 and a year later joined Bates 141 as Brand Executive. In a career spanning more than ten years, Sanju has worked on brands across categories, namely, Eveready, Lafarge, Berger, AnandabazarPatrika, PC Chandra Jewellers and Spencer’s Retail.
TVS TYRES has unveiled their latest TVC campaign around the ‘Nayi Soch Nayi Pehchaan’ thought to support the new brand identity that was unveiled recently. The tyre major followed up the print media campaign with their latest TVC aimed at reaching out to the large young customer base across the country.
Riding on the ‘Change’ thought process we are witnessing in India, the TVC aptly brings out the relevance of the new brand identity and validation of the core brand ethos in this story. The visuals capture the thought well while retaining a firm hold on the core brand values of the tyre brand that stands for durability, high performance and strong road grip.
The campaign has been created by Rediffusion Y&R and the first round of the TVC is on air across national television channels from 23rd March, 2015. It’s a 360 degree campaign that would be evident across the country.
The film visual opens with an Eagle flying high, it zooms down to a group of riders who are seen making their way across rusty rural roads, the visuals show the tyre negotiating tough roads while the young riders go on a ‘clean the village’ drive. The second visual cuts to a city road where a group of school children find it difficult to cross a busy road; enter TVS TYRES riders who make an impromptu barricade with their bikes halting traffic while allowing the children to safely cross the road. The third sequence shows a newlywed sardharni riding a bike with her soldier husband to drop him at the railway station. The fourth visual shows a newlywed couple using their bikes instead of the customary horse carriage / marriage procession. The message of change comes out clearly in this new TVC campaign by TVS TYRES.
Videocon has shifted a part of its advertising account to Rediffusion Y&R as it tries to reposition its telecom, mobile handset and flat panel television business. The account size is pegged at upwards of Rs 150 crore. The mobile handset business was handled by McCann World-Group’s second agency TAG until three months ago. The rest of the account moved to Rediffusion Y&R last week.
Videocon has also appointed a small independent agency SHO to handle its home appliances business, which had been awarded to Mindset, a subsidiary of JWT last year. Videocon’s direct-to-home (DTH) business D2H will continue to be managed by Lowe Lintas. Confirming the development, Sunil Tandon, group chief marketing officer, Videocon, said that multiple agencies pitched for the account.
“We expected the agency to understand our products, market and consumer behaviour, so that we reach out to the right set of audience with relevant message. We observed team Rediffusion Y&R understood these requirements and the same was reflected in their proposal,” he said. Amitava Sinha, chief operating officer, Rediffusion Y&R said: “We have been pursuing and engaging with Videocon for a really long time and I believe our previous stint with LG helped us win the business. These are categories that are fast evolving and consequently the communication challenges will demand clutter breaking and innovative thinking.”
A mail sent to JWT received no response until the time of going to press, but Sanjay Nayak, president, McCann WorldGroup, who also heads TAG, acknowledged that they parted ways with Videocon “some time ago.” Videocon’s telecom business was not a part of this process, however.
The company has telecom licences in six circles. Though Videocon does not operate in any of the circles, it plans to launch 4G services by the end of 2014. Videocon’s pan-India telecom licenses were cancelled in February 2012, following which the company bid for seven circles during the auction in November 2012.The company is expected to launch a range of mobile handsets in the coming months, and a new campaign will be launched around Diwali said a source at the agency.
TVS Tyres has announced the launch of its new multimedia campaign in India. The ad brings out the importance of high performance and toughness of the tyres in an emotional setting as it shows an army jawan braving difficult terrains by riding on TVS Tyres to hand-deliver letters from home to his fellow compatriots.
This is the first time that TVS Tyres has adopted a different route to showcases the ruggedness and dependability elements of the brand. The campaign has been created by Rediffusion Y&R and will be promoted heavily on television, print, outdoor, radio, cinema and ambient media over the next two months.
The TVC begins with a rider sitting near the river side. As the rider moves ahead in his journey, he is shown negotiating his way through the treacherous path in the midst of gushing water – roads washed away, roads no more than dirt tracks and rubble, roads no decent driver would risk taking. The tyres act as his companion as he tries to negotiate through a particularly hazardous patch, where a landslide has occurred, weaving his way through boulders and riding on the absolute edge of the cliff, a steep drop barely an inch away.
As evening approaches, the rider reaches a hillside town where a few army men are stationed. The driver stops, removes his helmet and opens one of the sacks and delivers a letter to one of the men standing around him. The man takes it from him, emotion writ large on his face, as he notices it’s a letter from home. He is joined by others in reading their respective letters. The film ends with the tagline “Koi toh raasta zaroor niklega”.
The film has been created by Ananda Ray, NCD, Rediffusion while Lloyd Baptista is the Director of the film. Ravneet Mahajan is the producer of the film while 7 Films is the production house.
By A Correspondent
We told you so. Rediffusion-Y&R and Edelman India announced a strategic alliance to take care of the Tata group business that starts today, November 1.
The alliance brings together ad agency Rediffusion and PR firm Edelman. Edelman India is an independent public relations (as against others like Hanmer, Genesis and Sampark being part of international networks). The alliance will involve the formation of a separate business unit within Edelman to operate as Rediffusion/Edelman. Note: the SBU is part of Edelman. So, for all practical purposes, the Tatas have awarded the PR contract to Rediffusion which in turn has let it out to Rediffusion/Edelman. A spokesperson clarified that although the unit has been set up for the Tata account, in future it could also take on other businesses. A la Vaishnavi, which started out with the Tatas and took on other accounts.
“The complexity of the Indian market favours an integrated communications approach that needs to seamlessly combine multiple marketing disciplines,†said Arun Nanda, Chairman and Managing Director, Rediffusion-Y&R in a communique. “Our partnership with Edelman allows us to partner one of the world’s finest PR companies and offer our clients the best in class thinking and capability in this area. This will enhance our already existing offerings in Advertising, Direct Marketing through Rediffusion/Wunderman, Media through TME/MPG and Digital. We will be able to add greater value to our clients across all of their marketing and communications requirements.
“We believe this alliance will further enable us to push the boundaries of how PR is practised in India today†said Robert Holdheim, Managing Director, Edelman India in the statement. “We are seeing a significant shift in strategic stakeholder communications. An integrated marketing approach is crucial in addressing today’s communications challenges.â€
The spokesperson from Edelman was tightlipped about the staffing and who would be incharge of the SBU. It will evolve, he told MxMIndia.
It’s not something that’s not happened before. I recall Time magazine doing it in the late 1970s when it reported that an Indian politician had visited China when in fact he had called off the trip last-minute.
I was alerted on this thanks to a Facebook post by a former colleague, Narendra Kusnur. The city supplements of both the Hindustan Times and Times of India in Delhi reported that the Metallica concert had happened on
Friday. While the front page of the main paper did make a mention of the chaos at the venue, that of their supplements – which Kusnur believes happened because of an early deadline – was incorrect.
I am sure this is more than just a severe embarrassment for the editor and management of both publications. It’s not the case of an error in reportage or a typo or even a wrong picture that was printed. And mind you it doesn’t appear to be an inadvertent error.
Here was a case where the paper’s editors cheated their readers by deliberately printing incorrect information. We got to know about it thanks to a vigilant reader and also because it was a much-hyped event.
But my worry is what if the editors do such acts habitually, with other events too. Also a cause of concern is that the city supplements of the two leading newspapers in the capital carried a similar error. The Times of India blanked out the news item on the epaper, while HT didn’t do that. So obviously the decay exists not just in one publication.
I went through the front page of HT City and Delhi Times on Sunday to see if there’s any apology. I didn’t see any in the epaper edition. Times magazine, btw, had apologised for the error.
This only further accentuates my distress that the reader is being taken for a ride and no one really appears to care.
The Niira Radia exit. Good riddance or sad to see her go?
I still remember the days when Vaishnavi was setting up. The Tata group accounts were consolidating under an agency with a name unlike the other PR agencies. In the early days, the folks were working out of makeshift office at the Taj Mahal hotel and the Army and Navy Building in Mumbai.
But the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and I found it very pleasant interacting with Vaishnavi staffers. For a period when I was with the Dainik Bhaskar group, we had recruited Vaishnavi with an assignment which again was executed very well.
The PR industry grapevine always had assorted stories about how the Vaishnavi bosswoman Niira Radia had managed to net the entire Tata group account. Needless to say most of it was out of jealousy. Guess they found some merit in getting the entire business group to go to just one agency for PR just as you tend to do for, say, media buying.
My sense is that this policy doesn’t work. It’s always good to get a few different players, given their strengths in various business areas and have experience professionals available in the locations you want them.
Two questions: now that she’s gone (well, as of close of business today), what’s the view. How would the world remember Niira Radia? High profile lobbyist or a quality communications professional? Lobbyist yes, but perhaps incorrect to stretch it to her being a wheeler dealer.
There’s a lot that exists as part of the deliverables under public affairs, and there’s nothing wrong if the influencing has to happen beyond media folk. For instance, if a senior politician from Kerala thinks he or she is not being recognised by the powers that be in Delhi, then there’s nothing wrong in pushing your way around in Delhi.
And if there’s a journo or bureaucrat who is amenable and can get influenced, it’s surely not the crime of the practitioner.
That both the Tatas and Reliance groups entrusted their responsibility to Radia speaks volumes for her skills.
There is a lot on Radia that the various enforcement agencies are busy with. I don’t see anything happening to her. She has enough contacts to get her out of any mess and has enough dirty stuff on people to pull the trigger if anyone gets naughty.
Question 2: were the Tatas wise by going in for Rediffusion? I would be interested to know what swung it for Arun Nanda. After all, he doesn’t have the best PR brains with him any longer.  Perhaps that’s why tied up with Edelman.
But then 10 years back when the group went in for Vaishnavi, similar questions were being asked. Radia’s team put up a decent show. The Tatas can obviously spot talent where not many of us can.
PostScript: Are news media professionals worried about the mutterings of Press Council chief retired Justice Markandey Katju. Read this hilarious account on Legally India. Must-read. More on Katju’s comments on the media next time (which I promise you won’t happen after three weeks!)
TVS TYRES has unveiled their latest TVC campaign around the ‘Nayi Soch Nayi Pehchaan’ thought to support the new brand identity that was unveiled recently. The tyre major followed up the print media campaign with their latest TVC aimed at reaching out to the large young customer base across the country.
