MxMIndia

Tag: Sam Singh

  • PK, as Prasanth Kumar is better known, will take up the CEO role with immediate effect

    Prasanth Kumar takes over as GroupM CEO

    By A Correspondent

     

    GroupM Asia Pacific announced the elevation of GroupM South Asia COO, Prasanth Kumar, to CEO. Sam Singh is leaving the GroupM CEO role in a little over a year after taking charge. While Singh will leave GroupM at the end of June. PK, as Prasanth Kumar is better known, will take up the CEO role with immediate effect.

     

    Said Mark Patterson, CEO, GroupM Asia Pacific: “PK has performed to the highest levels for 15 years in GroupM and agency leadership roles. He is uniquely and perfectly positioned to take on the CEO role, working closely with myself and CVL Srinivas (our WPP Country Manager), our local leadership team, clients and media partners. We have ambitious plans to continue to leading growth in the market as we help our clients fulfil their ambitions. It’s an exciting time for India, and the region and the future is bright. PK has been very much a part of our success to date and will be in the years to come in his new role. I’d like to thank Sam for his hard work and leadership and wish him all the best in his new role. No doubt, we will work closely with him and his new team in the future.”

     

    Added Srinivas: “PK has contributed immensely to the success of GroupM in India and South Asia through the various roles he has enjoyed since joining us back in 2004. His passion for the business, never say die attitude and a strong commitment to our clients and partners have earned him a great deal of respect across the board. I have enjoyed working with him and am excited to see him lead GroupM South Asia. I’d like to thank Sam for his leadership and wish him the very best”.

     

    Said Sam Singh: “Heartiest congratulations to PK on his promotion. It has been an absolute privilege working with GroupM this last one year. The friends that I have made, are friends for life. First hand I’ve seen the excellence and passion that the GroupM people bring to work every day; and the bonds that they have with their clients and the passion for their brands. I wish GroupM all the success. To ensure a smooth transition, PK and I will be closely working together.”

     

    And this is what PK said on his new role: “I am humbled at the opportunity to take on the CEO role for GroupM in one of the most dynamic and fastest-growing markets in the world. When it comes to advertising and media, India has made its mark on the global stage and success with our consumers is of vital importance to some of the world’s biggest advertisers.  It’s been thrilling to be with GroupM as we’ve led the way and there is much more to come”

     

     

  • Based in Gurugram, Singh will be starting his role in August

    Sam Singh goes TikTok to ByteDance. As VP – Monetisation for India

    By A Correspondent

     

    ByteDance has announced the appointment of GroupM CEO Sameer Singh as Vice President, Monetisation (India). In his new role, Singh will work closely with ByteDance’s partners and clients while leading the advertising, sales and marketing strategies across all of ByteDance’s products in India. Based in Gurugram, Singh will be starting his role in August.

     

    Commenting on his new role, Singh said, “I am truly excited to join ByteDance, which is one of the fastest growing global technology companies spearheading innovation in the mobile space. In India, ByteDance has transformed the way people create and interact with their content, and I believe that my experience will contribute to ByteDance’s promising journey in this market. I am looking forward to working with my colleagues, our clients, and our partners at ByteDance to create new synergies in the industry.”

     

    Welcoming Singh to the team, Lidong Zhang, Senior Vice President, ByteDance said, “We are excited to welcome Sameer to the team. We are looking forward to working with him to bring ByteDance’s monetization efforts in India across our various platforms such as TikTok and Helo  to even greater heights.”

     

     

  • India is the fastest ad market in the world, notes GroupM’s TYNY report

    GroupM forecasts 14% adspends growth

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    GroupM, the media investment group of WPP, announced its advertising expenditure (AdEx) forecasts for India for the year 2019.  As per the ‘This Year, Next Year’ (TYNY) 2019 report, India tops the list as the fastest growing major ad market in the world. TYNY forecasts India’s advertising investment to reach an estimated Rs. 80,678 crores this year. This represents strong estimated growth of 14%, for the calendar year 2019 (approx 2x of the GDP growth).

     

    India will be the third highest contributor to the incremental ad spends, only behind China and USA and the tenth fastest growing country with respect to ad spends across the globe.

     

    The Cricket World Cup and Elections in 2019 are expected to boost adspends. FMCG, Auto, Retail, e-commerce, Tech/Telecom are expected to contribute to 2/3rd of the AdEx. According to GroupM, the special events of the year (World Cup Cricket and Elections) will add around 3 per cent to the 11 per cent organic growth forecast for the year.

     

    Speaking on the TYNY 2019 report, Sam Singh, CEO – GroupM South Asia said: “While we are estimating the global advertising expenditure to grow at 3.6%, India would be witnessing the fastest growth at 14% and reach an estimated Rs.80,578 crores. This would be approximately 2x of the estimated GDP growth in India. This also makes India the third largest adex growth to the worldwide ad spends. We expect sustained and stable media investment growth across categories in India”

     

    This year 37% of incremental ad pends will go towards digital advertising including mobile. The scale at which we are witnessing this digital transformation, GroupM estimates the Digital Adex to continue to grow by 30% in 2019 to Rs. 16,038 crores.

     

    Added Prasanth Kumar, Chief Operating Officer – GroupM South Asia: “Indian adspends CAGR between 2014-2018 is at 13% and 2019 expected to witness a higher growth. India is unique among key markets and will witness growth in all media segments and not just digital. Offline media is poised to continue to grow and will contribute to being around 80% of ad spends in 2019.”

     

    Television will continue to grow at a steady pace. This year, the growth rate for TV is estimated to be 15%.

     

    Print is estimated to grow by 2.2% and the share of print to all media is expected to be at 23%. While it is expected for both English and regional languages to grow, regional will see slightly higher growth. Vernacular will continue to thrive on both TV and print.

     

    This year radio is expected to grow at 15% which is higher than the last couple of years. Cinema will grow at 25% in 2019, as 2018 saw more titles winning audience at the box office. In 2019 GroupM expects cinema to shift from title-based advertising to continued advertising through the year. Lower tax on cinema tickets is expected to drive more footfalls to theatres.

     

    GroupM also presented some of the biggest trends that will shape the media Industry in India in 2019. The trends presented were around emerging technology, data, content creation and distribution put the consumer at the center and underline the theme of digital driving the change across all formats of media. The trends touched upon the TRAI tariff order implementation as well its potential impact of increasing original programming and investments on content across broadcaster networks.

     

    Said Tushar Vyas, President Growth and Transformation – GroupM South Asia: “With the surge of technology, better insights and relevant engagement across different platforms, we are expecting marketers to build superior consumer connections for brands. 2019 will witness a faster growth in digital and we are expecting digital to be at 20% media mix. As we are witnessing one in every three Indians digitally connected, we can expect the convergence of data, digital and content to deliver seamless and powerful solutions to brands as well as constantly adding inventive practices into the market.”  ESP Properties head Vinit Karnik also spoke on the occasion.

     

    TYNY 2019 Media Handout

  • Prasanth Kumar is COO – S Asia, Tushar Vyas, President Growth & Transformation, S Asia , MAPS is CEO, Mindshare & Amin Lakhani, COO, Mindshare

    On R-Day eve, GroupM rejigs top deck

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    Okay, the Republic Day reference was just for effect. It’s just a coincidence. Also, the news has been doing the rounds for a bit.

     

    After announcing a new CEO in Sameer ‘Sam’ Singh last year, GroupM South Asia has announced a significant restructuring in its leadership. Effective immediately, Prasanth Kumar (PK) is named Chief Operating Officer, South Asia, and Tushar Vyas is named President Growth and Transformation, South Asia. Both are new roles in the organisation, notes a commuique.

     

    Meanwhile, Parthasarathy Mandayam (Maps) is named Mindshare’s CEO for South Asia and Amin Lakhani is named Mindshare’s Chief Operating Officer in South Asia.

     

    Now here’s what the communique adds:

     

    As Chief Operating Officer, PK will be responsible for operational excellence, i.e. ensuring client expectations are reliably met by continuously improving processes ensuring clients are successful today. He will guide and lead the teams across OpCos, Trading and Specialised Units to execute the same more consistently and reliably to drive client delight while fortifying partnerships.

     

    Most recently as Mindshare’s CEO, PK oversaw Mindshare’s rapid expansion in the market, bringing it to a market-leading position and winning numerous global awards. During his tenure, he developed a record for the most number of new business wins by a single market and created a tradition of external accolades, including a Glass Lion at Cannes, a Grand Prix at WARC and an average of over 250 external awards per year. Mindshare India was also recognized globally as #2 in the Gunn report. Prior to Mindshare, he led the GroupM Central Trading Group across South Asia and championed exciting partnerships in digital and traditional media.

     

    Tushar Vyas will take over the role of President Growth and Transformation. In his new role, Tushar will drive digital transformation and focus on building GroupM wide capability focusing on Digital, Data, Analytics, and Content, and working across GroupM to ensure our clients are ahead of the curve for tomorrow.

     

    Before taking over his current role of the Chief Strategy Officer at GroupM, Tushar launched the Digital Media Agency business unit (Interaction) for GroupM India and built a 600+ member team by expanding services in areas like content, search, programmatic buying, mobile, digital activation, social insight and digital analytics. Today, GroupM’s digital media practice is the largest digital media solution provider with more than 500+ active clients. Under his leadership, the digital practice was a regular at all the major digital and media awards. He was also part of SureWaves start-up team focused on Media technology.

     

    Speaking on the new appointments, Sam Singh, CEO, GroupM South Asia said: “PK and Tushar are passionate leaders with high integrity and proven ability to envision and deliver successful outcomes in a challenging environment. As we become a more data-centric organization, there is a need to drive transformation and build future capabilities with a focus on Digital, Data, Analytics, and Content. We must work across GroupM to drive organizational transformation and operational excellence. The new team structure is another step in this direction.”

     

    He added, “I am also sad to announce that Lakshmi Narasimhan, our Chief Growth Officer for GroupM South Asia, has decided to step down from his current role effective January 31, 2019, to pursue personal interests. I thank him for his contributions over the years and wish him all the best. We will miss him as we continue to build upon his hard work and passion. Lakshmi was instrumental in building our strong trading community with solid practices”.

     

    Parthasarathy Mandayam (Maps) will take over the role of Chief Executive Officer(CEO) of Mindshare, South Asia effective February 1, 2019. Maps takes on the role from PK, who will be moving to his new role within GroupM.

     

    Maps has spent 10+ years with Mindshare in various leadership roles – Data, Insights, Analytics, Strategy, Client Leadership and Business Unit leadership. He will report into Sam Singh, CEO GroupM, South Asia, Prasanth Kumar – COO – GroupM South Asia and Amrita Randhawa, CEO Mindshare Asia Pacific.

     

    Going forward, Amin Lakhani will take on the role of Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Mindshare South Asia.

     

    Lakhani has over 20 years’ experience in various roles in Mindshare and GroupM and is currently leading Client leadership at Mindshare. He will continue to be based out of Mumbai.

     

    Talking on the latest developments, Prasanth Kumar, the new GroupM COO, said: “Our industry is an ever-mutating one, so we have to also continue to evolve and adapt. With Maps and Amin now at the helm of Mindshare, we have leaders with a proven track record of consistently achieving clients’ business goals. They will continue cultivating client relationships at the highest level and delivering great results.”

     

    With investment in data, technology, and diverse talent, GroupM aims to shape the future and transform business challenges into opportunities for clients.

     

     

  • Appoints GroupM for media and Famous Innovations for creative responsibilities

    Homelane.com appoints GroupM & Famous, unveils new brand identity

    By A Correspondent

     

    Online home interiors provider HomeLane has appointed Famous Innovations and media agency GroupM to launch the first ever brand campaign with digital as the lead medium while using other mass communication mediums.

     

    Said Tanuj Choudhry, Chief Business Officer of HomeLane.com: “The goal of going into the market with the brand campaign is to create a relatable brand identity for potential consumers. With GroupM and Famous Innovations are our partners, we are excited to launch the brand across India’s Top 5 cities and make HomeLane the go-to player for home interiors”.

     

    Meanwhile, HomeLane has also announced a new tagline as part of its rebranding exercise – Interiors Made Easy.

     

    Said Sam Singh, CEO of GroupM South Asia: “We, at GroupM, are very excited to partner with the Homelane team in their growth and expansion plans. We are geared to create cutting edge solutions and customise our existing  array of products to pair up with Homelane’s futuristic outlook”

     

    Commenting on the partnership, Raj Kamble, Founder & CCO of Famous Innovations added: “HomeLane is a brand with tremendous potential and we are excited to have joined hands with them at this defining stage in their journey. Setting up a new home is a once-in-a-lifetime momentous occasion for most people, and by promising personalisation, affordability and convenience, HomeLane is solving a crucial problem for consumers. The brand team is a passionate, ambitious and dynamic one, and we saw great synergies in both our company cultures. We look forward to the days to come.”

     

     

  • Mobile Marketing Association in partnership with GroupM decodes and shares insights on the state of the mobile marketing ecosystem and ad-sizing in India

    MMA & GroupM unveil Mobile Ecosystem & ad-Sizing Report 2018

    By A Correspondent

     

    Mobile Marketing Association, along with GroupM, released its ‘Mobile Ecosystem and ad-Sizing Report’ 2018. The report includes an in-depth analysis of India’s mobile reach, smartphone penetration, rural and urban usage pattern, emphasis on gaming and mobile advertising spends. Advocated by GroupM, the report is a collaborative effort by the marketing and mobile industry.

     

    The latest report has a quick peek on a basic guide on how programmatic works and its pros and cons, and its future evolution. It also brings an up-to-date on the latest trends in data growth, content play, programmatic, device status; how India is moving towards a new era of mobile marketing, seeing rampant growth in both usages and spends.

     

    Said Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director, MMA Asia Pacific: “Mobile Marketing is now a mainstream advertising and marketing medium and it is imperative that we start to decipher the various parts of this burgeoning media. We hope the ecosystem study would provide insights to marketers and the industry on the whole on the opportunity and will help in making the right investments for its continuing growth. “

     

    Added Sam Singh, co-chair of Mobile Marketing Association India and CEO GroupM: “The number of smartphone users is expected to only go up and it just shows how much potential these digital screens have. Hence, we as marketers must understand various facets of mobile marketing. Times are changing fast and we want to enable marketers with the knowledge that can help them in a long run.”

     

     

  • She will report into Sam Singh, CEO of GroupM, South Asia

    Motivator appoints Mausumi Kar as Managing Director

    By A Correspondent

     

    Motivator has announced the appointment of Mausumi Kar as its India Managing Director effective from October 1. She will report into Sam Singh, CEO of GroupM, South Asia.

     

    Kar has been associated with GroupM for over 10 years and has handled multiple roles from heading Maxus–North and East, to leading the Google Partnership for GroupM nationally. Before the move, she led the independent SBU that handled the Airtel mandate.

     

    On the announcement Sameer Singh, CEO of GroupM, South Asia said: “It’s a welcoming change in the organisation. I have seen her work and feel her leadership skills and experience will play a vital role in the firm. I’m looking forward to working with her and wish her all the best for her new role.”

     

    Talking about her new role, Kar said: “It has been a rewarding journey at GroupM. I am excited and looking forward to the new assignment. My aim would be to become a trusted advisor to my clients and help them in delivering superior value while  delivering the best to our partners . I would like to thank Sam and the leadership team for reposing their faith  in me. I am grateful to my team which has made me shine.”