AdTech firm Frodoh World has onboarded former Wunderman Thompson CEO and digital native Shamsuddin Jasani as a Strategic Advisor. Jasani will help in the teams expansion plans. He will also play a pivotal role in the launch of Frodoh World’s digital Retail Media platform.
Russhabh R Thakkar
Speaking on the development, Russhabh R Thakkar, CEO of Frodoh World, said: “Shams has always been a mentor to me and we believe that his invaluable expertise will catalyse Frodoh’s leadership in CTV innovation, Digital Retail Media and our overall company growth. With his strategic guidance, we are poised to pioneer groundbreaking advancements in the CTV space and new ventures in Retail Media further solidifying Frodoh World’s position as a frontrunner in the industry.”
Shamsuddin Jasani has announced he will be stepping down from the role of CEO at Wunderman Thompson South Asia.
Over the past two years, adds a communique, Jasani has accelerated the transformation of the agency to a modern-day growth partner – delivering impactful solutions for clients across the entire customer journey. Under his leadership the agency won large competitive pitches including Skoda, Vivo, Indigo, Hafele, NPCI, Rupay, Manyavar and Cult Sports, across creative, MarTech and commerce.
Jasani reflected on the past two years stating: “It has been an amazing and rewarding two years at Wunderman Thompson and I’m proud of what we have achieved. During my time, we have transformed the company into a partner that provides smart and impactful solutions to crucial business problems – all powered by creative, tech and commerce. As the business continues its evolution, I believe my job is done. I am looking forward to a new and exciting chapter in my life with an amazing opportunity. I thank everyone at Wunderman Thompson – the clients, our partners and specially our team.” Jasani continued.
Audrey Kuah, now Joint-CEO of VML APAC commented on Jasani’s commitment to the agency over the past years: “With such a large and diverse market like India, I have seen Shams work diligently to bring the offices and capabilities together. I would like to thank Shams for his dedication to our business and wish him every success in his new endeavours.”
Wunderman Thompson India has officially launched Wunderman Thompson Health (WT Health) to target the healthcare sector.
Shamsuddin Jasani
Commenting on the launch, Shamsuddin Jasani, Chief Executive Officer, Wunderman Thompson South Asia, said, “We couldn’t have chosen a better time to launch our specialised practice of Wunderman Thompson Health as the healthcare market is poised for exponential growth owing to an unprecedented demand for robust health and wellness solutions. Health and wellness brands are on the lookout for a partner that understands the specific nuances of healthcare marketing, and we believe we can provide business solutions to brands and can unlock growth by leveraging our core strengths of creative, strategy and martech.”
Srikant Subramanian
Added Srikant Subramanian, Director, Business Development, Wunderman Thompson India: “Advances in technology make the next chapter in healthcare delivery very exciting. In the ever evolving, and digitally transforming eco-system, it’s so important to create tailored communication for each audience, and develop optimized ways to engage with them, be it HCPs, patients, MRs, or pharmacies. Our strategic technology partnerships, leveraged using our in-house medical professionals, allows us to provide truly end-to-end omnichannel healthcare delivery.”
Samarth Shrivastava
Said Samarth Shrivastava, Senior VP and Executive Business Director, Wunderman Thompson India: “It’s an incredibly exciting time to be working in healthcare. Healthcare has evolved massively in the last 19 months compared to the last 19 years. Current developments have forced the industry to evolve at an unprecedented pace and have dramatically accelerated digital health’s adoption. With its pedigree in strategy and its complete suite of services, Wunderman Thompson Health has a unique offering which will help clients achieve their objectives in these dynamic times.”
When in November 2018 advertising and marketing services conglomerate WPP merged the 1896-born J Walter Thompson with Wunderman to form Wunderman Thompson, there were many advertising purists who were upset that the new name was not Thompson Wunderman, but the other way around. They feared that creative would possibly take a backseat in the new dispensation.
But folks in India were happy that a JWT senior Tarun Rai was at the helm to head the South Asia division. There were mixed reports about the health of the agency, and the lockdown ensured that the business model of the creative agency domain was under question.
In October 2021, Wunderman Thompson announced the appointment of Shamsuddin Jasani, a digital advertising specialist, as the CEO. Jasani took charge on November 1, and has charted an all-new direction for the agency with the confluence of creative, data, commerce and technology.
In a freewheeling chat with Pradyuman Maheshwari, founder and editor-in-chief, MxMIndia, Shamsuddin ‘Shams’ Jasani speaks about his plans for Wunderman Thompson, the foray in healthcare and his focus on technology and commerce. But, as he says, WT will always be creative-first.
It’s been in the works for a bit, but it’s now official. Marketing services conglomerate WPP’s crown jewel Wunderman Thompson has appointed Shamsuddin Jasani as its Chief Executive Officer, South Asia effective November 1.
Jasani, or Shams as he is called, set up Isobar in India in 2008, growing it from a two-person team to over 300-strong across South Asia and part of the Dentsu network. He will report directly to Ewen Sturgeon, CEO, International of Wunderman Thompson. Meanwhile, Tarun Rai, Chairman and Group CEO South Asia will become Executive Director Strategic Initiatives, APAC, effective January 1, 2022. He too will report to Sturgeon.
The change of guard is significant as Wunderman Thompson was formed merging iconic advertising firm J Walter Thompson and Wunderman. If advertising industry veterans were shocked that Wunderman preceded Thompson in the name, Jasani taking charge of the agency is an indicator of the course the bosses want the agency to take. And appointing someone from outside the system is possibly another noteworthy act. Although Rai wasn’t exactly an insider (he worked with The Times of India group as head of World Wide Media publishers of Femina, Filmfare amongst others), he was part of what was JWT not too long ago. Jasani was of course a key member of Dentsu’s leadership team in India and is no stranger to advertising nitty gritty, helming an organisation with an agency of a legacy like JWT is going to be an ask. But those who know Jasani, say he will be able to essay that role with alacrity and take along the gods of the trade within the traditional advertising part of the business. Clearly, WPP wishes to make WT digitally first, and Jasani’s appointment will – if nothing else – help change the perception of the agency.
Said Ewen Sturgeon, CEO, International, Wunderman Thompson on the changes: “We are pleased to have Shams join our Wunderman Thompson leadership, and believe he is the natural successor to continue propelling our South Asia business forward. We would like to thank Tarun for his leadership and efforts as Group CEO of South Asia, and are pleased that Tarun will continue his strategic guidance and support for the agency as he moves on to serve as our APAC Executive Director of Strategic Initiatives.”
Added Shams: “It’s a great honour, but an even greater responsibility, to join such an iconic brand as Wunderman Thompson, with an amazing legacy. I am really excited to not only continue this legacy but to take it to greater heights with the combination of creative, Data, Commerce and Technology. I believe at Wunderman Thompson we have all the ingredients to be the partner of choice for the growth and transformation of brands and business in India.”
And this is what Rai has said in a statement: “The last seven years have been very exciting and rewarding. The unprecedented changes in these years required nimble leadership. I also had the opportunity to lead the transition to our new company, Wunderman Thompson, which has a powerful mix of creativity and technology. I am extremely proud of our people and of our leadership team for their fantastic work through these years. We partner with some of the best clients in the industry and I value their friendship and support. I now look forward to stepping into my new role in an expanded geography.”
Isobar, the digital agency from the house of Dentsu India, has roped in Aalap Desai as National Creative Director (NCD). In his new role, Desai will lead the agency’s creative team and report into Gopa Kumar, COO, Isobar India.
Shamsuddin Jasani
Speaking on the appointment, Shamsuddin Jasani, Managing Director, Isobar South Asia said: “At Isobar, our motto is to ‘Invent, Make, Change’. We are striving to deliver innovative creative experience-led solutions for our brands in India. Aalap looks at tech as not something dry and lifeless but as something that can change lives and makes it work harder for brands. That’s a perfect fit with our philosophy and is the apt approach we need to make Isobar future-proof as a leader in innovations in India.”
Aalap Desai
Commenting on his joining, Desai said: “Digital is a creative mine that is still hugely under-explored. Solving brand challenges with a proper insight that is supplemented by digital intuition is an explosive combination that very few people are aware of and something that even fewer choose to tap into. This combination has always been part of the Isobar DNA, and I will work towards hyper-charging it. Also, the past year has been tiring. Work pressure has eclipsed the joy we derived from work. One of my top agendas will be to reverse that because I genuinely believe that a tiny, seemingly insignificant thing as joy is actually the only key that opens up many locks. It unlocks creativity, leading to unlocking fame, awards, and a thriving creative culture because all of these follow. Isobar has phenomenal energy and a brilliant set of people. I’m looking forward to having tons of fun.”
There’s a hardly a day or a week when we don’t receive a communique from Dentsu India. Like this one which informs us of a new structure for its creative service line in India. The restructure will bring together the creative agencies along with their digital and PR capabilities – all from the house of Dentsu – under one umbrella with an aim to provide a more collaborative and aligned offering to clients. The brands that will come together as part of this redesign as Dentsu Creative include Dentsu Webchutney, Taproot Dentsu, WatConsult, Perfect Relations, Isobar, Dentsu One, Dentsu India and Dentsu Impact.
With the eventual consolidation under the two strong global brands – Dentsumcgarrybowen (DentsuMB) and Isobar, Dentsu Creative will provide digital-native, brand-led, customer-centric, creative, and strategic solutions to clients, effortlessly.
In India, the Dentsu Creative service line will be led by Amit Wadhwa as its Chief Executive Officer (CEO). He will be reporting into Anand Bhadkamkar and the regional dentsu Creative leadership.
Sidharth Rao
Sidharth Rao, in addition to his current responsibilities, will now also be in charge of the brand DentsuMB Group in India as its CEO. He will work with the leadership team on DentsuMB’s brand strategy for the market. Shamsuddin Jasani, who continues to oversee the Isobar brand in South Asia as its Managing Director (MD), will also take on an additional role at Dentsu Creative. He will now work with the regional and global leadership teams to support the Isobar practice area and will work closely with the Isobar Global leadership team on the same.
Anand Bhadkamkar
Speaking on the new development, Anand Bhadkamkar, CEO India said: “This global restructure is about consolidation of capabilities across our brands and businesses with an aim to bring the best of our services to our clients and provide those specialisms without any hassles. The idea is to ultimately stand true to our #OneDentsu strategy and thus, transform into a sharper and leaner business partner to brands. The changes in the India leadership team only reflects a step ahead in bolstering and scaling up our market ambitions. Amit, Sid and Shams are amongst the strongest creative leaders not just within Dentsu but across industry; and with the kind of experience and knowledge backing them, I am certain that they will steer Dentsu towards excellence not just in India but beyond.”
The network has elevated Narayan Devanathan as President – Strategy & Integration for India, in addition to his current role as CEO, Dentsu Solutions. He will continue to report into Anand Bhadkamkar for his additional responsibility as part of the India market leadership team. Meanwhile, Devnathan will now also don a regional hat as APAC Head for the Dentsu Creative Strategy & Consulting practice.
“Narayan has been instrumental in driving integration across our units and, as part of the South Asia integration initiatives, he will be supporting the Sri Lanka team in strategy and integration across the two markets. He will now be moving away from his current additional role as Chairperson, Creative Service Line for India and will take up a regional leadership role as APAC Lead – Strategy & Consulting Practice in the creative service line. In this role, he will be working with the Regional and Global leadership teams within the creative service line to help develop the area of Strategy & Consulting Practice in the APAC region,” Bhadkamkar added.
Bosch Home Appliances (BSH) has brought on board Isobar India, the digital agency from the house of Dentsu international, as its strategy and creative agency partner. Headquartered in Munich, Germany, BSH is poised to enhance its marketing strategy in India with this announcement. The agency won the account following a multi-agency pitch and will service the brand from its Mumbai office. As per the mandate, Isobar India will handle the entire gamut of strategic planning, digital strategy and creative duties for the brand.
Commenting on the partnership, Neeraj Bahl, MD, BSH Household Appliances said: “We are delighted to have Isobar on board to drive the digital communications for Bosch and Siemens. Keeping in mind our core proposition of empowering the Indian audiences and enabling them with peaceful and hassle-free life at home, Isobar was an appropriate fitment for us as their solution-oriented approach combined with creative renditions aligns with our core requirements. We are confident that together, we will be able to creatively connect with audiences to make Bosch a relatable household name.”
Speaking on the win, Shamsuddin Jasani, Group MD, Isobar South Asia added: “I am thrilled to witness the faith that BSH has put in us. Our digital-first, innovation-led approach truly hit home and now, together with the BSH team, we look forward to creating long term relationship to help drive value for all stakeholders.”
Isobar, the digital agency from the house of Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN), has announced the launch of Isobar Consulting in India. Isobar Consulting will help brands define their digital transformation strategies.
Priyanka AgrawalShamsuddin JasaniRahul Vengalil
Isobar Consulting will be led by Priyanka Agrawal, Co-founder, COO and Chief Strategy Officer, Fractal Ink, as Country Head. Additionally, the agency has also appointed Rahul Vengalil as Chief Business Officer, Isobar Consulting. Both will report into Shamsuddin Jasani, Group MD, Isobar South Asia.
Said Jasani: “We have been readying ourselves to launch this world-class Experience-led Transformation business for almost six months now. However, we wanted to fine tune it before launch and now, on the back of two big wins, we are launching Isobar Consulting. I feel that by drawing capabilities from two of the finest agencies within the Isobar India group – Fractal Ink and Isobar India, we can deliver a roadmap for a lot of businesses that seek this transformation. Experience-led Transformation is our key offering, and we genuinely believe that we have a substantial competitive advantage in this space. With the addition of this service, the Isobar India Group can deliver end-to-end solutions to clients – right from consulting to delivery.”
Isobar India, the digital agency from the house of Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN), has announced the launch of ‘KickStrat’, an internship opportunity to foster future strategists.
KickStrat is a 24-week training programme that allows young and budding talents to explore account planning and strategy as a significant career choice.
Speaking on the launch, Shamsuddin Jasani, Group MD, Isobar South Asia said: “We are excited to launch this program and train our future strategic leaders. We intend to enable ‘strategic planning’ for interested candidates who can think fast and think hard. This program will help transform new talent into capable strategists for the future. At Isobar, we believe in nurturing culture and a value system that is unique and will help the industry at large.”
Added Gopa Kumar, Chief Operating Officer, Isobar India: “We are excited to launch this programme for all the budding brand strategy planners. As we see a shift in the entire communication landscape where everyone is looking at driving transformation, planners will play an important part in driving strategic relationships with clients and help in long-term development and retention. There is a huge dearth of talent, and this program aims to enable and nurture new talent.”
The data sciences division of the Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN) India has announced the launch of ‘DMC Video+ [Dentsu Marketing Cloud Video+]’, a tool that provides an agnostic approach towards planning and buying on over-the-top TV (OTT) platforms.
Shamsuddin Jasani
Commenting on the launch, Shamsuddin Jasani, Group MD, Isobar- South Asia said: “The Indian OTT ecosystem is hyper competitive and has attracted varying types of players, each of whom offer varied value propositions to consumers. This has created a somewhat fragmented ecosystem with no accurate measure of how brands should engage and activate these audiences. With rapid increase in consumption of online content – primarily fueled by OTT Video, audio and gaming, the ecosystem suffers from the absence of a single source of truth when it comes to buying inventory from these platforms. The Dentsu Marketing Cloud Video+ presents a unique solution to this problem by creating a single ecosystem to understand and buy these audiences in a seamless manner, limiting the rise of another walled garden ecosystem.”
Gautam Mehra
Added Gautam Mehra, CEO, DAN Programmatic & Chief Data Officer, DAN – South Asia: “In an environment that is now heavily focused on reducing wastage, brands know they need to move budgets from linear TV and traditional advertising towards digital advertising driven by OTT. They however, tend to play it conservatively when they aren’t sure exactly how much of shift will achieve the best ROI. In the absence of transparency, unified insights and audience buying system for OTT consumers, there exist several inefficiencies within the ecosystem. The promise of the Dentsu Marketing Cloud Video+ product is to plug this gap, thereby guiding brands on their journey of capitalizing on audiences who are increasingly mobile and engaged in consuming high quality production content on OTT rather than traditional video consumption of user generated content.”
The tool has been launched under the umbrella of DMC Explore through which clients are not only enabled to gain deep insights into the content consumption of audiences in the OTT ecosystem, but can also activate selected segments for their campaigns.
Isobar India has been appointed as the creative and digital partner for Diageo India. Isobar India won the account following a multi-agency pitch and will manage the duties out of its Bengaluru office. As per the mandate, Isobar India will manage integrated communications for Diageo’s Antiquity and Captain Morgan, along with the digital duties for Signature and Royal Challenge.
Speaking on the association, Amarpreet Anand, Executive Vice President & Portfolio Head, Diageo India said: “We are very happy to bring Isobar on board as our partners on some of our most prestigious brands in India, to handle the mandate of creative and digital across different brands. At Diageo, we are constantly trying to build a strong agency ecosystem and onboard the right set of creative minds to build our brands. Isobar bring their insights on brand building in the creative space and digital-first thinking which will be of much value.”
On the win, Shamsuddin Jasani, Group MD, Isobar South Asia added: “We have grown from being a digital agency to an agency for the digital age. I am very happy that Diageo has appointed us as the integrated agency for Antiquity and Captain Morgan, along with awarding us the digital duties for Signature and Royal Challenge. It is an exciting opportunity and we are looking forward to delivering result-oriented strategies aiming at business transformation through the creative use of digital.”
Isobar India, the digital agency from the house of Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN), has announced the launch of ‘KickStrat’, an internship opportunity to foster future strategists.