MxMIndia

Tag: Sabyasachi Mitter

  • For Green Abby, Technology and Static Print categories respectively

    Bobby Pawar, Emmanuel Upputuru, Sabyasachi Mitter are Jury Chairs for Abby 2023

    By Our Staff

     

    Emmanuel Upputuru, Founder of Efgh Brand Innovations, Sabyasachi Mitter, Founder and Managing Director, ibs + Fulcro and Bobby Pawar, Chairman and CEO, Havas Group India, are Jury Chairs for Green Abby category, Jury Chair of Technology category, and Jury Chair of Static Print respectively, at the Abby One Show Awards 2023.

     

    Said Mitter said: “The Abby One Show Awards is without doubt the gold standard of the advertising awards in India. With technology becoming ubiquitous in marketing and communication and CX becoming a critical lever of business success, the technology category at the Abby One Show awards is really the one to watch out for.”

     

    And this is what Pawar has said in the communique: “I am thrilled to be on the Abby One Show Jury in a category I love which is Print. I look forward to raising the bar further in this prestigious award show.”

     

  • The campaign helps Kotak put their two-wheeler low interest loan on the map

    Fulcro launches new campaign #KotakPrimeWithHer

    By A Correspondent

     

    Fulcro has launched a new campaign for Kotak Prime on the sidelines of Women’s Day. The campaign titled ‘#KotakPrimeWithDrive’ helps Kotak put its two-wheeler low interest loan on the map.

     

    Talking about this campaign, Sabyasachi Mitter, Founder, Fulcro, said: “When the audience you want to talk to is glued to their smartphones, how do you grab their attention and effectively convey a story? That is how, we as an agency came up with a new approach called ‘Thumbstoppers’ which takes storytelling to a different level. Thumbstoppers uses 90% of landscape of your smartphone in a vertical format. The whole idea was to come up with an innovation which would be catchy, appeal to the masses, and tell a story in the most simplest way in just 10 seconds.”

     

     

  • Fulcro will work on the design, development and Integration of the consumer experience

    Canara HSBC OBC Life Insurance to experience Adobe Exp Cloud

    By A Correspondent

     

    Canara HSBC OBC Life Insurance has appointed Fulcro Technology to implement its next generation digital commerce experience using Adobe Experience Cloud. Fulcro will work on the design, development and Integration of the consumer experience and Purchase and onboarding journeys and create new intelligence powered experiences for Canara HSBC OBC Life Insurance customers.

     

    Speaking on the win Sabyasachi Mitter, Managing Director, Fulcro, said: “The Insurance sector has always been heavily regulated and as a result, the customer experience online is impacted by the rules set forth. Canara HSBC OBC Life has demonstrated that they work towards bringing an easy to understand product and process to their customers. Fulcro is proud to work with them to bring this vision to life digitally. The client appreciated the deep knowledge of consumer behaviour,  user experience design and technology capabilities that Fulcro brought  to the table at an extremely competitive price point and fast delivery timelines.” Mitter added.

     

     

  • The mandate entails working with an incumbent agency to deliver Whisper’s social media and strategic alignment of the brand on digital

    Fulcro bags Whisper’s digital mandate

    By A Correspondent

     

    Fulcro has bagged the digital mandate for P&G’s Whisper. The mandate is to channelise the entire Whisper range of products on digital, including social media along with an incumbent agency.

     

    Commenting on the association, Sabyasachi Mitter, Founder and MD, Fulcro, said: “We are excited to have Whisper on board and look forward to creating a disruptive leg of communication for a pioneer brand on digital. It’s amazing how the category of personal hygiene has grown through the times and a digital foot forward is an ideal approach considering women are significant drivers of digital. We plan to leverage our digital expertise to change the consumer journey in a more agile and compelling manner. The idea is to build a connect between the brand and the consumer that extends beyond their usage phase. The team is enthralled with the association and is confident about achieving milestones together.’’

     

     

  • The mandate entails end-to-end management of Zee Corporate’s social media and other platforms

    Fulcro bags Zee Corporate’s digital mandate

    By A Correspondent

     

    Fulcro, the recently rechristened digital marketing agency, has bagged the digital mandate for Zee Corporate, the official corporate communication channel for company news, people and financial results. The agency will be responsible for managing social media channels, creating awareness around internal and external HR initiatives, and using the digital platforms to create a more direct access to get people involved.

     

    Commenting on the association, Sabyasachi Mitter, Founder and MD, Fulcro, said: “We are honoured to have Zee Corporate on board and look forward to create a strong communication foundation for the brand across platforms. We plan to harness our digital expertise along with deep understanding of communication across all B2B and B2C practices to provide Zee Corporate a solution that helps them create an impact at the employer brand and group level. The team is enthralled with the association and is confident of achieving great milestones together.’’

     

     

  • He will lead the creative team at the venture

    Fulcro appoints Akshat Trivedi as ECD

    By A Correspondent

     

    Akshat Trivedi

    Fulcro, an integrated digital marketing and communication agency which was earlier called Ibs, has appointed Akshat Trivedi as Executive Creative Director. He will lead the creative team at the venture.

     

    Trivedi brings over a decade of experience in creative communication to the Fulcro team. He started his creative career at Ogilvy, Mumbai. Where he worked on different brands including Star TV, Cadbury Perk, HUL, Mumbai Indians, Nutrela, and SBI life, to name a few.

     

    Speaking about his association with Fulcro, Trivedi, said: “It is indeed heartening to lead the creative souls at Fulcro,  I look forward to share my learnings while creating a few of my own, through the young tech brains at Fulcro. So together we can do some awesome work for new set of brands and take the company to greater heights.”

     

    On this appointment, Sabyasachi Mitter, Founder and Managing Director, Fulcro, added: “As we grow, it is also important to continue to offer our partners the very best output. We’ve long admired the incredible campaigns that Akshat delivers and at a time of increasing opportunity for our long form content, we are excited to welcome him to the team.”

     

  • Parmar brings 15 years of wide experience in creative communication

    Fulcro appoints Brijesh Parmar as ECD

    By A Correspondent

     

    Brijesh Parmar

    Digital media-led advertising agency Fulcro has appointed Brijesh Parmar as Executive Creative Director – Art. Parmar brings 15 years of wide experience in creative communication and is the one of the brains behind campaigns such as Saregama Carvaan, Fogg perfume body spray, McDonald’s, Bajaj Electricals, etc.

     

    Said Sabyasachi Mitter, Founder and Managing Director, Fulcro: “It is indeed heartening to have someone like Brijesh on board the Fulcro bandwagon. He brings immense experience in compelling storytelling and is someone with meticulous precision in whatever task he undertakes. We are sure that with his guidance, our team will bring out some successful campaigns that are sure to resonate with the target groups. We welcome him to the team.”

     

     

  • It may remembered that IBS had won a Grand Prix at the Abby and a Grand Emvie in 2014. But, then, five years is a long, long time

    IBS is now Fulcro

    By A Correspondent

     

    IBS, our former neighbour (yes, MxMIndia’s office is in the same building) and leading digital marketing firm has now rebranded itself to Fulcro.

     

    Said Sabyasachi Mitter, Founder, and Managing Director, Fulcro when explaining the reason for the change: “I believe disruption is always just around the corner. It is better to disrupt and reinvent one’s own business than to be disrupted by someone else. In the day and age when digital is a key driver of a brands success in the market, our clients were looking for thought leadership as well as best-in-class service in each service vertical that they needed. It was no longer about clients choosing a single agency for ease of operations but the best in class in every vertical. We did not want to be the Jack of all but the master of all, and that is the premise on which Fulcro has been built.”

     

    It may remembered that IBS had won a Grand Prix at the Abby and a Grand Emvie in 2014. But, then, five years is a long, long time. There were many other agencies which were doing very well some five years back.

     

     

  • The financial year 2013-14 ended with hope for the economy, but how was it for media industry stakeholders. We spoke to some and asked them to look ahead

    Last Year, This Year

     

    By Shobhana Nair

     

    The financial Year 2013-14 may have ended with some optimism given the forthcoming elections, but was the year good for the advertising and marketing services sector? We spoke to a few industry leaders to get their views about the same and also asked them to look ahead.

     

    Ashish Bhasin, Chairman India & CEO South East Asia, Aegis Group plc:

    Last year was a brilliant year for us, because it was the first year that we managed to bring Dentsu and Aegis together to form the DAN Network. We saw a lot of growth in digital, out-of-home, retail and so on. We were happy that our growth rate was two-and-a-half times more than the market growth rate and we managed to gain a lot of market share, etc. For us, it was a good year and it has set the pace for the following year. We are looking forward to more growth as we’ve gathered momentum on the basis of the growth that we had in the past few months. As a model, we have one P&L across the country so nobody is driving to sell just TV or Print to the client. We do whatever is required for the brand as nobody has an agenda. That’s giving us a huge competitive edge in the market. The idea is to give to benefit of specialization to the client.”

     

    Nagesh Alai, Chairman, Draftfcb Group India:

    “I would say advertising is inextricably linked to the macro and micro economic environment. Considering that India’s GDP growth for FY 2013-14 is expected to be sub-5 percent, the advertising industry’s growth would be in the range of 5 to 6 percent at best. FCB Ulka Group’s growth would be about 6-7%. Overall, it has been a challenging year for the industry. Given the general elections and a sort of policy and execution vacuum till the new government gets in place and that the macro-economic indicators are still in the caution mode, my personal view is FY 2014-15 is going to be no different than the previous year. There is an air of exuberance and over expectation, which may not materialise in the current year.  Note that even a country goes through economic cycles and the worst is not over yet for the Indian economy. Q 4 of the 2014-15 may show some pick-up trends.”

     

    Ashok Venkatramani, Chief Executive Officer, MCCS

    It’s a mixed bag as the first half was not good at all due to recession, slowing down of economy, the fear of ad cap getting implemented. The first half was not very good but the second half was marginally better than the first half because of the elections. Overall it has been an average year.

     

    FY 14-15 will augur well if there’s a stable or a strong government. With a Fractured mandate comes uncertainty and then I expect it to be bad.

     

    Suresh Srinivasan, Vice President (Advt), The Hindu Group:

    It was a good year for the print industry which fared better than television on an overall basis with reference to revenues. Despite subdued economic conditions coupled with low growth, high inflation and with Forex volatility the industry performed well. The growth was more or less in line with the growth projected, largely contributed by significant growths from Realty, FMCG, Retail and Consumer Durables.  Auto, Education and BFSI verticals fared lower than expectations. Rising incomes and infrastructure development in tier2/3 towns saw several retail brands expand their store presence coupled with ad expenditures.

     

    It will be one of the best years for print. AdEx on elections alone will be significant with the rupee getting stronger, stock markets hitting an all time high and with the hope of a stable and better government the economic growth will be higher leading to optimism and higher spends in print advertising.

     

    Auto and BFSI are looking poised for a revival. We are already seeing good volumes in our Tamil daily indicating there is room for good language publications and the trend should continue.”

     

    Asheesh Chatterjee, Chief Financial Officer, RBNL

    For the TV market, the growth has not been strong. The 12-minute ad cap & LC1 ratings added a lot of pressure on the TV broadcasting company. But the good news was on the digitization front as there was rapid progress. Hence, clearly it was a mixed year. With respect to our channel, Big Magic has grown steadily and there are a lot of good things that we are expecting from this year like the ad cap which will help a large number of channels as the advertising money will be spread across them including the smaller ones who otherwise were not getting inventory.”

     

    Alok Jalan, Managing Director, Laqshya Media Group:

    “It was generally a mixed year. While the year started on a good note and the first quarter was very good, things slowed down in the next two quarters and then bounced back again in the last quarter. Overall the industry growth was about 8-10%. For Laqshya Media Group, revenue- wise it was a mixed year where some verticals and markets showed very high growth while some fared below expectations. That aside, we have looked at new areas to expand our footprint in terms of media ownership.

     

    I feel 2014-15 will be a turnaround year for advertising and marketing industry. I believe that we will see early signs of revival from the first quarter itself and second half of the year is likely to be substantially better. Also industries like BFSI, Auto and Real Estate who were less active in the current financial year will become more active in the coming year by putting more media investments on the table. What I am also looking forward to seeing is the growth of digital OOH advertising in India… it is quickly becoming crucial to the transitioning media ecosystem.”

     

    Roshan Abbas, Managing Director, Encompass Events:

    2013 has been a good year for us! We focussed on new business development and got on board brands as diverse as Datsun, Fortis, GVK, Eicher, Samsung etc. Encompass has remained a leader in the business. I asked about 20 agency members of the Event and Entertainment Management Association (EEMA) and most have said the year saw a lot more competition and no growth. Those who focussed on internal cost management or capability building have improved margins while the ones who have invested in IPs over the long term are hoping for a profitable return soon. There were multiple new arena-based events and detonation festivals from EDM to Wellness, etc. but the jury is out on spend versus return.”

     

    Neeraj Roy, MD and CEO, Hungama Digital Media Entertainment Pvt. Ltd:

    “FY 14 has been one of the most challenging years for the VAS economy in India because of the implementation of the TRAI directive which was initiated back in     FY 13 and had a subsequent implementation in July 13. Therefore in the back of that, across the board there would have been very vast erosion. Around the same time, telecom companies were grappling with challenges of cancelling licenses to overall costs going up in this way. It’s really been one of the difficult challenging years. As a company which has been the leader in the industry, we had to experience it the same way. Fortunately for us, there are other areas where we focussed like the gaming industry & the international markets. It’s been a tough year but has only made us more determined & gritty. I don’t see the market turning in an extremely positive territory immediately in the coming financial year. I believe the first 6 months will be extremely crucial as the new government comes into power. It is important to know what will be their outlook towards the telecom economy as it needs a lot of policy driven direction. If that is done then I think it will set the pace for the growth phase in the next couple of years. In FY 15, I would say I am cautiously optimistic about FY 15.”

     

    Jaideep Shergill, CEO, HANMER MSL

    We follow a calendar year for global reporting so that’s January to December, 2013. The year was good for us and we grew. In fact the first two months of 2014 have also started on a good note. In my assessment, the industry grew at about 10 percent overall.

     

     

     

    Sabyasachi Mitter, Managing Director, Interface Business Solutions (I) Pvt. Ltd:

    “I think overall 2013-14 was a tough year for the industry. The rising dollar, political paralysis and an overall depressed sentiment led to a lot of cautious approach by marketers. A lot of independent digital agencies got acquired in the last financial year continuing the trend of consolidation. On an average my estimation of growth for the digital industry would be in the range of 20%. For ibs, the last year has been good with a turnover growing 90% YOY. We have been aggressively investing in talent, research and development hence profit growths have been more modest.

     

    The initial trends point towards a great year ahead. The dollar has dropped below the psychological Rs 60 mark. There is a belief that if the elections result in a decisive and stable government at the centre, overall economic outlook would be extremely positive. On the back of the last two years of caution, this could lead to a 30-40% growth in the digital industry. We at ibs are also extremely bullish about 2014-15.”