Quotient Ventures, Mumbai based Brand and Communications Group, appoints media and advertising veteran T. Gangadhar (Gangs) as co-founder and Group CEO.
Talking about the appointment, Founder and Group Chairman & CEO, Joseph George ( Joe ) said: “I have always admired leaders in companies getting in talent better than oneself; I think I have done so too with the appointment of Gangs. His experiences and competencies across Organizational leadership (India & APAC), P&L Management, Advertising (strategic planning and account management), Marketing, Media, Content, Digital and Data are just what the Group requires hereon in its growth ambitions across Tilt Brand Solutions, Vector Brand Solutions and StudioQ.”
Talking about his appointment, T.Gangadhar, the incoming Co-Founder & Group CEO added: “I have tremendous admiration and respect for what Joe, Shriram and Rajiv have built in such a short period of time. Rarely does one get the opportunity to lead an organization that has so much going for it, yet is hungry to do better. I am excited about the prospect of deploying the Full-Brained-Thinking philosophy, and further consolidating the Group’s position as a premier destination for brands and businesses owners.”
Essence, the GroupM agency for data and measurement-driven media investments, has announced the appointment of Sonali Malaviya as the agency’s Managing Director for India. Anand Chakravarthy, previously Managing Director for Essence India, has moved on from the agency to pursue new opportunities. Malaviya will be responsible for leading continued client-centric innovation in data, analytics and technology, as well as business growth and company culture for the agency in the market.
Based out of Delhi, Malaviya will report to Essence APAC CEO, T. Gangadhar (Gangs) and GroupM South Asia CEO, Prasanth Kumar (PK). She will join Essence’s APAC leadership team and GroupM India’s executive committee as part of her role.
Joining Essence in 2018, Malaviya most recently led the agency’s Google business in India and Southeast Asia as Senior Vice President, Client Services. Previously, she served as Chief Operating Officer at Colorbar Cosmetics and Country Marketing Lead at Twitter in India. With over 20 years of industry experience, she has also held senior roles at Mindshare, PHD, Roy Morgan Research and MediaCom in India, the United Arab Emirates and Australia.
Said Gangadhar: “Sonali comes with rich experience in management, marketing and media across industries and markets, as well as a deep understanding of Essence’s business, work, people and culture. In addition to building strong, collaborative partnerships with clients and employees alike, she is an advocate of diversity and inclusion in the workplace. India continues to be a priority for Essence in APAC and globally, and with Sonali at the helm, I am very excited about our next phase of growth and development in the market,” We would also like to thank Anand for his efforts in helping to establish our business in India over the last three years. We greatly appreciate his contributions and wish him the best in his future endeavours.”
Added Kumar: “We are glad to see Sonali take over the role of Essence India Managing Director. With her background and significant achievements, she will add to the capabilities of Essence and work with our teams to improve the client experience. As we continue to develop leaders internally, Sonali is also part of our growing pool of talent taking on various leadership roles across GroupM India. I look forward to working with Sonali and leveraging her expertise.”
Said Malaviya: “I am truly honoured to have the opportunity to lead Essence in India. Over the past three years, I have witnessed and been part of our incredible growth story in this market, and am very proud of what our agency, clients and employees have achieved together. I am looking forward to partnering with our highly talented teams and leveraging our industry-leading capabilities to help even more brands in India achieve data-driven growth and transformation, as well as valuable connections with consumers.”
Since Essence’s entry into India in 2016, the agency has rapidly expanded to three offices across Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai. Essence’s diverse portfolio of clients in the market includes Airtel, Britannia, Flipkart, Games24x7, Google, Honda motorcycles and scooters, Livspace, Melorra, Purplle, Vedantu, Wakefit and Zee5.
Essence, GroupM’s data and measurement-driven media agency, has announced the appointment of Monica Bhatia as the company’s Managing Director for Singapore. Bhatia will be responsible for driving continued client-centric innovation in data, analytics and technology, as well as business growth and company culture for Essence in Singapore. As part of Essence’s APAC leadership team, Bhatia will report to APAC CEO T. Gangadhar (Gangs).
Alongside her new position, Bhatia will continue in her current role as Essence’s Senior Vice President, Client Partner, APAC, leading the agency’s Google business across the region and reporting to Dave Marsey, Essence’s President, Global Client Partner. Prior to joining Essence in 2017, she headed the digital practice for GroupM’s Maxus in APAC, building its product proposition across 14 markets. With over 17 years of experience in the industry, Bhatia has worked on the brand side at L’Oréal and Godrej Group in India, and Dabur in Nepal. She has also held client services and strategic planning roles at creative and media agencies in Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and India.
Said Gangs: “Monica’s impressive experience in marketing, advertising and media, and her deep understanding of Essence’s business, clients and culture, make her the best person to lead our Singapore office. A believer in true partnerships as well as diversity and inclusion in the workplace, she constantly strives to nurture strong collaborative relationships with both clients and employees. I am really excited about our next stage of growth with Monica’s steady strategic leadership and direction, as she continues to champion our clients, work and people in Singapore.”
“It is a privilege to have the opportunity to lead the highly talented, entrepreneurial and dedicated team at Essence in Singapore. Having worked closely with the team over the past three years, I am truly proud of the industry-leading capabilities we have built in data, analytics and technology. Brands today are increasingly looking to achieve transformational data-driven growth, and I am looking forward to leveraging our unified approach to media and creativity to deliver breakthrough work for our local, regional and global clients in Singapore,” said Bhatia.
Essence, a global data and measurement-driven media agency which is part of GroupM, has announced the appointment of T Gangadhar (better know as Gangs in the fraternity) as the company’s CEO for APAC. Succeeding Essence’s Global CEO Kyoko Matsushita, who previously served as APAC CEO, Gangadhar will be responsible for driving continued client-centric innovation in data, analytics, and technology, as well as business growth and company culture across the agency’s fastest-growing region. Based out of Mumbai, Gangadhar will work closely with Essence’s global and APAC leadership teams, and will continue to report to Matsushita.
Gangs most recently served as President, Growth and Strategy, APAC for Essence, incharge of the agency’s business strategy, development, and growth. He first joined Essence in 2018 as Chairman, India after having held the role of Managing Director, South Asia at MEC and Senior Vice President, Head of Marketing at Sony Entertainment Television.
Said Matsushita: “Gangs’ extensive experience in the industry, his knowledge of Essence’s culture and our clients, and his vision for our business in the region make him the ideal person to lead us into our next phase of growth and innovation in APAC. As the most senior member of our regional leadership team, Gangs has done an outstanding job in partnering with me to navigate our business through the challenges of 2020 and I am truly excited about what we will be able to achieve with him at the helm in APAC going forward,” .
Added Gangadhar: “I am honoured to have the opportunity to lead this truly special agency in APAC. Essence is pioneering the use of data, analytics, and technology at a time when more and more companies are looking to take advantage of data-driven media and creativity. I am excited about leveraging our best-in-class capabilities to discover new ways to add value for our clients, consumers, and employees – in these current times and in the post-Covid-19 future ahead of us.”
GroupM has announced the leadership structure for the proposed Maxus-MEC merged entity (codenamed ‘NewCo’) in India and South Asia as also for the digitally-led agency Essence in South and North Asia.
As speculated in a report on MxMIndia a few weeks back, Tim Castree, Global CEO of MEC and CEO of “NewCo”has named Kartik Sharma as Managing Director of the new media, content and technology agency in India and South Asia when it launches in January 2018. Sharma has been Managing Director of Maxus South Asia since 2014 and in that time, has led the agency to outstanding new business growth and success.
Said Castree: “We’re creating a brand new billion-dollar revenue media, content and technology agency, dubbed ‘NewCo’ for now. With such ambition, comes a need for brilliant talent to lead and inspire, and so today’s news is very exciting for us. Under Kartik’s leadership, I am confident that we will have the right team in place to truly make NewCo a formidable future-facing agency in India and South Asia.†Sharma will report to GroupM South Asia CEO CVL Srinivas and Castree.
Following GroupM’s recent commitment to adding offline media capabilities, an expanded geographic footprint and an influx of talent to the agency, Christian Juhl, Global CEO of Essence, a global digital-first agency, has announced that T Gangadhar, current Managing Director of MEC South Asia, will transition into the new role of Chairman of India and Managing Director of North Asia, Essence. Gangadhar will report into Kyoko Matsushita, CEO of Essence APAC. He will continue to be based in Mumbai.
Meanwhile, Anand Chakravarthy, who has served as Managing Partner at Maxus India since 2015, will be transitioning into the role of Managing Director of Essence India. Chakravarthy will report into both Gangadhar and Matsushita and will work closely with the regional leadership in his new role.
Both Gangadhar and Chakravarthy will assume their new roles by January 2018. The Essence teams will be strongly supported by the GroupM network as they look to expand their presence in market. Said Christian Juhl: “India is such an important market for so many of our clients whose business challenges we work tirelessly to solve. Essence has built its credibility on being a data-centric agency that infuses technology and measurement across all media. We’re excited to expand our geographic footprint and apply our unique approach for our global clients looking for relevance in India. Gangadhar and Anand are experienced leaders who will help expand our presence.â€
MEC India announced the launch of their specialist content offer – Wavemaker. MEC Wavemaker is a unique content offering, which will bring together content strategy, social, partnerships and experiences, SEO and creative services expertise in one place at scale.
The objective of MEC Wavemaker is to improve a brand’s performance by embedding content into the consumer purchase journey, driving maximum exposure through optimum distribution and measuring effectiveness of content through the lens of clients’ business goal. They will create excitement; generate momentum and build client’s confidence, by providing the world’s best data, technology and trading in the content space.
MEC Wavemaker is being launched simultaneously in 10 countries (including India) with over 750 highly talented and motivated people. In India, MEC Wavemaker will be led by Kumar Deb Sinha who will report to T Gangadhar, Managing Director, MEC South Asia. Kumar has an experience of more than 13 years in content marketing & branded content solutions for brands
T Gangadhar
Gangadhar said, “Our creative restlessness is embodied in our philosophy: Don’t Just Live, Thrive. For us, an idea is brilliant if and only if the right audience responds to it and behaves in ways that lead to the right outcomes for our clients. Wavemaker is not an agency, but a specialist content solution provider. We at MEC take pride in our efforts to build winning brands to drive their business growth.â€
Kumar Deb Sinha
At the launch of MEC Wavemaker, Kumar Deb Sinha, Head – MEC Wavemaker said, “In my experience, clients today realize that effective content can make a big difference to their business, but they struggle to know exactly what type of content is right for them and the right partner to guide them. Our objective is to help them see the role content can play in their customer’s lives which will have a direct impact on brand performance. It will give them the confidence to invest in content knowing clearly how it is taking their brand forward
We will bring together all the resources that client needs to create content designed specifically to achieve measurable business goals. MEC Wavemaker will, thus, allow brands to look at “content†in a different way as it gives a powerful and commercial role in transforming brand performance.â€, added Sinha.
MEC India has been awarded the media duties for ParentCircle, for its upcoming products and platform. MEC won this account after a multi-agency pitch.
A household brand of Shri Harini Media Ltd (a Ramco group associate), ParentCircle started off as an English monthly magazine that caters to various subjects related to parenting and child development. After tasting its initial success, SHML also garnered mileage with Chellamey – a monthly Tamil magazine exclusively designed for Tamil reading audience around the subjects of parenting and child development. Taking this success further in an anticipation to strengthen its product portfolio, ParentCircle is planning to launch its new product in the market and create a demand for subjects like parenting and child development.
Commenting on the win, T. Gangadhar, MD, MEC India said, “We are delighted to associate with Parentcircle. ParentCircle is driven by a vision to bring about a positive transformation in the Indian parenting community. We look forward to an exciting partnershipâ€.
Nalina Ramalakshmi, Founder and Managing Director of ParentCircle says, “This is another significant moment for ParentCircle. We are extremely pleased to partner with MEC to help us in our growth strategy. Given the proven record of MEC worldwide, we believe this partnership should bring in more efficiency into our overall media planning. We now are best placed to optimise the opportunities available in the market.”
The account will be led from MEC’s Chennai branch.
Online professional network LinkedIn and leading media agency MEC have released ‘The Affluent Millennial Opportunity’ study in partnership with research firm Ipsos. The study reveals how the behaviour and attitudes of Affluent Millennials could reshape the future of the financial services industry.
The study revealed that Affluent Millennials are more likely to facilitate their entrepreneurial and life goals by opting for debt related financial products. According to the survey, 68% of this group owns at least one credit card and 52% have a personal loan. Given their entrepreneurial spirit, it is not a surprise that 27% have a business loan.
The dynamic, self-empowered and technologically advanced generation is a key driver of India’s economic growth. To help financial institutions nurture and deepen their relationships with the Affluent Millennials, here are some interesting insights from the study:
Independent and hungry for information
54% of Affluent Millennials said that they conduct their own research before making an investment, but consult with an advisor to validate before they take a decision
68% Affluent Millennials expect to be successful and advance quickly in their career through their own hard work – not through their country’s prosperity
The study revealed that 86% of the Affluent Millennials use social media for obtaining financial information. They look for financial institution which offers a great degree of privacy and has a positive buzz online
Peer opinion (93%), thought leadership (92%) and informational resources (90%) is the content Affluent Millennials want from accompany on social networks
Low dependence on salaries
The source of affluence for this group is changing.Salaries are losing prominence as the primary source of wealth ascompared to the GenX Affluents**. Affluent Millennialsare 1.8 times more likely to have gained their wealth from royalties, 1.6 times from self-employment and 1.4 times by way of grants and scholarships.
High on loyalty
They are highly loyal and trust the financial institution they work with and more than three quarters of Affluent Millennials with multiple checking accounts hold all of them at the same financial institution.This is much higher compared to GenX (31%)
More than half of Affluent Millennials (51%) are more likely to say they are VERY loyal and plan to do more business with financial institutions they work with.
“Millennials are an incredibly crucial audience for marketers and that makes this a very important study. For the very first time, we have deep insights about how this generation views financial mattersâ€, says T. Gangadhar, MD, MEC India
“Majority of the millennials consider themselves global citizens who are digitally savvy and constantly looking for information. Our study revealed that, 60% of this group consider social networks as a must have for making a financial decision. For financial services providers this translates into two key takeaways,building stronger relations with the Affluent Millennials and generating relevant content online,†said Ashutosh Gupta, Director of Marketing Solutions, LinkedIn India.
Given the unique and dynamic behavior patterns of the Affluent Millennials, there are a number of opportunities available to financial services companies to alter their marketing strategies. They need to personalise and socialise their approach, provide expert advice in order to establish trust and enable independence and build a loyal customer base at an early stage.
MEC India, a leading media agency,  have been awarded the media duties for Global Consumer Products. The account will be led from MEC’s Bangalore branch.
Started by FMCG stalwart and a serial entrepreneur, A Mahendran (former MD Godrej Consumer Products), Global CP  is a ‘’synthetic’’  start up all set to make its foray in to the FMCG market with product offering in chocolates, confectionery, beverages (juices, mineral water) as well as snacks. Incepted a year ago with an investment of Rs. 315 crore from Goldman Sachs and Mitsui Ventures, the company has built its management team with FMCG professionals from reputed multinational and Indian organizations. The first brand to roll out is LuvIt – a new brand in the chocolate market with an extensive portfolio of 9 variants and 14 SKUs.
Commenting on the win, T. Gangadhar, MD, MEC India said, “It is a privilege to be partnering Global Consumer Products on this exciting journey. We have a ringside view of Mr Mahendran’s grand vision and it is absolutely inspiringâ€.
Anuradha Narasimhan, EVP – Sales and Marketing says, “As a start-up, we are looking for agency partners who will think proactively for our brands and will work with us to grow our business. We are delighted to be working with MEC who bring in media as well as activation expertise in the offline and online spacesâ€.
MEC India has announced the appointment of Mukti Kumaran as West Head. Prior to joining MEC, she was heading the Mumbai branch at IPG Mediabrands firm BPN. Based out of Mumbai, Mukti will report to T Gangadhar, Managing Director, MEC India.
Speaking on the appointment, T Gangadhar, said, “We are delighted to have Mukti on board our leadership team. She is a progressive communications professional and brings with her a wealth of experience. I have no doubt she will be a real asset to MEC”.
On her appointment, Ms Kumaran said, “My focus will be to ensure that we are pushing our understanding of consumers and evolving smarter and newer ways to engage our brands with them.â€
Dish TV has announced a new partner for its media duties – MEC India. The relationship will be managed by the agency’s Gurgaon office.
With digitalization phase 3 & 4 on the anvil, the brand is planning for significant growth acquisition volumes as well as, retention initiatives. The brand portfolio is now armored with multiple products and offerings especially, for technology savvy users (like) recorders in SD/ HD, a strong HD content basket, dish-online for streaming on mobile devices and so on. The coming months will witness action and challenges both in terms of festivals and events and sporting actions.
Dish TV has decided to consolidate its ATL and digital business for a more uniform and seamless experience for its consumers, across media. Owing to MEC India’s vast experience in the domain, both the ATL and Digital business have been handed over to them.
Anjali Malhotra, Executive Vice President – Marketing said, “We pride ourselves in being Asia’s largest DTH company that understands the dynamics of the new age consumer and his needs. We have not only provided innovative product solutions and finest services to our consumers, but build smart go-to market strategies and communication plans. Agency change is a manifestation of this philosophy. We are excited to work with MEC India and believe that the group will help us communicate more strategically and efficiently in this rapidly evolving marketplace”.
Speaking about the win, T. Gangadhar, Managing Director, MEC India said; “We are delighted with this win. We, look forward to (our partnership with) Dish TV on their quest for disproportionate share of the digitization opportunity. We are particularly excited about leveraging the power of data for smart, business-oriented solutions”.
MEC has announced the appointment of Sidhraj Shah as Head of Brand Activation. His mandate will be to deliver innovative consumer experiences and to expand MEC’s brand engagement and implementation services.
Mr Shah’s last assignment was at Wizcraft as Deputy General Manager. An MBA from Bombay University, Mr Shah will report to T Gangadhar, MD, MEC and to Dalveer Singh, Head Experiential Marketing, APAC, GroupM’s experiential marketing unit.
With prior stints at O&M, SSC&B Lintas and Bates 141, Mr Shah has conceived and executed ground-breaking campaigns for clients such as McDonald’s, Standard Chartered, Virgin Mobile, Siemens, MTV and MiD-Day.
