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Tag: Vikram Sakhuja

  • Vikram Sakhuja will now lead the mandate of representing the countrys leading industry representative forum

    Vikram Sakhuja elected President of The Advertising Club

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Advertising Club has unanimously elected industry captain Vikram Sakhuja, Group Chief Executive Officer – Media and OOH, Madison Communications, as President. Taking on the baton from Raj Nayak, Sakhuja will now lead the mandate of representing the country’s leading industry representative forum.

     

    Speaking about his experience in helming The Advertising Club, Nayak said:“Leading an apex industry body like the Advertising Club towards new echelons of growth has been an enriching experience. The Indian advertising industry has witnessed tremendous growth and has been at the forefront of curating some iconic behavioural change campaigns. I would also want to thank all the Advertising Club’s managing committee members who have supported me in my journey and helped bring alive the vision of  showcasing the Indian advertising industry as a global gamechanger. It is important for us to continue showcasing our work and ensure that we are well excellently represented in the global advertising and media landscape.

     

    Speaking about Sakhuja’s appointment as President, Nayak further added:”Vikram brings with him tremendous understanding of the industry and global media trends. I would want to congratulate him on his new role. His affable  and dynamic personna is sure to  add to the spirity of the Adverising  Club and all its initiatives. I am sure that under his aegis, The Advertising Club will scale new highs.

     

    Speaking about his appointment, Sakhuja said: “I am both happy and honoured to be nominated as President by the prestigious Advertising Club. My endeavour is to work towards building further scale to the great work done by Raj, by adding onto and developing our existing marquee leadership forums into formidable and relevant global platforms.The Avertising Club will continue to deliver on its intent of becoming a networking platform and a great ideas exchange forum for advertising and media industry practitioners.

     

  • Bandhan Financial Services Ltd, a microfinance entity, was set up in 2001 for poverty alleviation and women empowerment

    Madison Media wins Bandhan Bank account

     

     

    Madison Media announced that it has won back the assignment of media planning and buying media space for Bandhan Bank.

     

    It may be recalled that Madison Media had launched the bank in August 2015 with a high decibel TV, print and outdoor campaign.

     

    Commenting on this development, Vikram Sakhuja, Partner & Group CEO Madison Media and OOH, said: “We are delighted to partner with Bandhan Bank once again and are looking forward to achieving greater milestones for the bank in the years to come.”

     

    Added Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, Managing Director and CEO, Bandhan Bank: “I am sure Madison will do a great job in adding value to our brand pan-India.”

     

  • Founded six years ago by Jyothirmayee JT, HiveMinds’ strengths have been in search, social, performance marketing and programmatic buying with specialisation in eCommerce, Education & Travel, notes a communique

    Madison Media acquires majority stake in HiveMinds

    By A Correspondent

     

    Madison Media has just announced it has taken a controlling stake in Bengaluru-based performance marketing agency, HiveMinds Innovative Market Solutions Pvt. Ltd. has a staff strength of 70 and has BigBasket, ABOF, ClearTrip, CloudNine Hospitals amongst its clients. Founded six years ago by Jyothirmayee JT, HiveMinds’ strengths have been in search, social, performance marketing and programmatic buying with specialisation in eCommerce, Education & Travel, notes a communique.

     

    Says Jyothirmayee JT: “Partnering with Madison is a big next step in our journey. We have so far excelled as a digital first agency and played a crucial role in the growth of leading startups in India. Joining hands with Madison, we can take our digital expertise, technology driven marketing to larger brands and innovate in omni-channel strategies for our clients”

     

    Added Vikram Sakhuja, Partner and Group CEO Madison Media and OOH: “This is Madison’s exciting partnership to deliver data driven outcomes. HiveMinds brings exciting and bold innovation in data mining and uses it to dynamically improve performance. As a first, we look forward to uniting consumer intent, interest and purchase in driving media insights.”

     

    Said Lara Balsara, Executive Director who identified HiveMinds and successfully concluded an agreement with HiveMinds: “Marketers are embracing customer focused digital opportunities. I am delighted at the progress Madison Media is making in the Digital space in the last one year and having HiveMinds as part of us will further strengthen the way we partner with our clients in their digital transformation journey.”

     

  • The AOR comprises key Godrej companies includingGodrej Consumer Products, Godrej Industries, Godrej Agrovet, Godrej Properties and Godrej Natures Basket

    Madison Media appoints Saif Shaikh as VP to Head Godrej Media AOR

    By A Correspondent

     

    Madison Media has announced the appointment of Saif Shaikh as Vice President to head the Godrej Media AOR based in Mumbai. The AOR comprises key Godrej companies including Godrej Consumer Products, Godrej Industries, Godrej Agrovet, Godrej Properties and Godrej Natures Basket. Shaikh has 15 years of experience in media across media partners (BusinessWorld and Bennett Coleman & Company), Research (Nielsen) and Media agencies (Maxus India and Maxus Malaysia). He has been in GroupM for the last seven years before joining Madison Media.

     

    Said Vikram Sakhuja, Partner and Group CEO, Madison Media & OOH:”I am delighted to have Saif join and lead our team on Godrej and am sure he will add a lot of value to the client’s business and our existing team”.

     

    Added Shaikh on his appointment: “I am delighted to join Madison and lead one of its foremost and prestigious account of Godrej and at the same time looking forward to working with Sam [Balsara] and Vikram.”

     

  • The unit is headed by Sunny Vohra, who joined the agency seven months ago from GroupM with teams in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru

    Madison World launches experiential marketing unit Madison Turnt

    By A Correspondent

     

    Madison World has announced the official launch of its experiential unit – Madison Turnt. Turnt is an oft-used word by millennialsto describe the feeling when someone is excessively excited or is high on life.

     

    The unit is headed by Sunny Vohra, who joined the agency seven months ago from GroupM with teams in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru. The unit will provide 360* integrated plans with strategic and research-based insights to effectively bring together brands and their target audience through flawless execution.

     

    The unit focuses on events, activations, exhibitions and field marketing and will be a part of Madison Out-of-Home group.

     

    The Unit has already worked with a large number of prestigious clients likes Vivo, Nissan, Britannia, Michelin, Reebok, Roca, LinkedIn, Marico, LG, Philips, Kohler, JSW, Toyota, Raymond, Renault, Asian Paints, Dabur, CNBC, Godrej,Pidilite, Tata Motors andCroma.

     

    Said Sam Balsara, Chairman & Managing Director, Madison World:“I am delighted that under the leadership of Sunny Vohra, Madison Turnt has got off to a great start. More and more clients are discovering the power of experiential marketing, so our timing for the launch of Turnt is most appropriate.”

     

    Added Vikram Sakhuja, Group CEO Madison Media & OOH:”Experiencing a brand is one of the most immersive forms of brand engagement. I am excited to be launching Madison Turnt – Our New Age Experience Company which combines the Physical with Digital, Data and Social. Sunny Vohra who leads Turnt is a transformational marketer and in a short time has built some exciting experiences for Brands”.

     

    Said Vohra:“We started a new journey under our new identity “TurnT” six months back with a young and dynamic team. We are now truly off the block, having created meaningful experiences for a host of brands and we are truly excited about the future. It has been a privilege working under the mentorship of Sam and Vikram as they push the envelope and bring out the best in us as a Unit.”

     

  • Q&A with the Madison World Chairman

    Sorry to know about ITC, but we won our fair share of accounts: Sam Balsara

    Sam Balsara

     

    The news of the loss of a client in advertising is big, not just for the agency that has bagged the account, but also for the incumbent that has seen the exit of a relationship. And whilst an official communique came in from Maxus, we thought it would be good to do a Q&A with Sam Balsara, Chairman, Madison World, on his sentiments on the loss of the ITC business. Normally, any business leader would hesitate doing it, but not when it’s Balsara. Always very candid, and not one to shy away from facing what may appear to uncomfortable questions from Pradyuman Maheshwari. Read on….

    Question: How do you view the exit of ITC? Your comments on what you think could have led to the account moving out? (Since ITC is a homegrown FMCG, one can’t even attribute it on an international realignment.)

    Sam Balsara (SB): We are of course sorry to know that we will be losing the ITC account. We cannot comment on what could have led to the account moving out, because as a policy we do not comment on client relationships. ITC continues to be one of our valuable clients at Madison PR.

    Interestingly, Madison recently bagged Titan, an account held by Maxus. Would you say these movements (and account swaps, if we can call them) are part of the game? Is that the way things work in the advertising world?

    SB:Unfortunately, yes that’s the way things work in our advertising world. That is what makes our world so exciting and challenging. It’s a sign of the new VUCA (Volatile, Ambiguous, Complex, Uncertain) world we live in. It’s interesting to see that recently of the three large accounts that came up for pitch – Maruti, Titan and ITC, none of the incumbent agencies retained their accounts. We won our fair share of accounts at play, having won the prestigious Titan/Tanishq account.

    Given that ITC was a significant business, will this impact in [your] staffing?

    SB: We have some vacancies across offices and also need people to handle the new businesses we have won, so our endeavour will be  to accommodate as many people as we can.

    There is talk on the street on how the ITC exit is going to severely impact the Madison stature in the Indian media agency scene. Your comments and a word to naysayers/detractors.

    SB: In the last 12 months, Madison Media has won the media mandate of 21 new clients, which include some large ones like BJP election campaign in UP and Uttarakhand, Ministry of Petroleum,  Dixcy Scott undergarments, Times Jobs, RBL Bank and National Basketball Association (NBA – US) and Titan/Tanishq amongst many others.

    Madison Media now handles the media mandate for over 80 media clients. Our decision, a few years ago to not restrict ourselves to only large clients, but to include some medium sized ones, has as you can see paid rich dividends and de-risked our business considerably.

    Vikram[Sakhuja] has done a good job of attracting and bringing in our roster almost 35 new clients in the last two years. Lara [BalsaraVajifdar] continues to do a good job of growing Madison World, which across its 11 units now handles over 450 clients. And we continue to hold a 26% stake in Mediacom that handles P&G and many other clients.

    So, the talk is mildly amusing. But, as they say, “Only the paranoid survive”, so I take it seriously.

     

  • The company's goal is to ensure that young urban migrants have a smooth and comfortable transition to settling down in a new city

    NestAway hands over media mandate to Madison Media

    By A Correspondent

     

    Madison Media Omega has announced the win of NestAway, a managed home rentals platform based in Bengaluru.

     

    “We are delighted to appoint Madison Omega as our Media AOR. We look forward to a great partnership and some iconic work together,” said Rishi Dogra, CMO, NestAway Technologies on choosing Madison Media.

     

    Added Vikram Sakhuja, Group CEO, Madison Media & OOH, “NestAway is bringing a revolution to India in providing rooms on lease to the young urban Indian workforce working away from home. It is truly exciting to partner them in this journey.”

  • He joins the agency from Starcom Mediavest Group where he was National Trading Director. based in Mumbai

    Madison Media appoints Vinay Hegde as Sr Vice President – Buying

    By A Correspondent

     

    Vinay Hegde

    Madison Media has announced the appointment of Vinay Hegde as Senior Vice President – Buying reporting into Neelkamal Sharma, COO – Buying for the group. Hegde joins the agency from Starcom Mediavest Group where he was National Trading Director.

     

    Hegde has over 20 years of experience having worked in Mindshare Fulcrum for over 10 years handling buying for Unilever business. He has also worked in Disney as Director Revenue Strategy and HTA and Percept previously.

     

    Says Vikram Sakhuja, Group CEO, Madison Media & OOH, “I am delighted to have Vinay join our team. I have known him as a fantastic buyer whose understanding of the Indian TV environment is second to none.  He will bring considerable heft to Madison’s prodigious buying strength.”

     

    Said Hegde, on his appointment, “In my view, Madison is the quintessential example of an agency with strong foundations built on human spirit by the enigmatic and brilliant Sam Balsara and now infused with a fresh energy by the charismatic Vikram Sakhuja. ”

     

  • Effies 2016 will be held on Friday, December 16 at the Taj Lands End, Mumbai

    Vikram Sakhuja to head Effies 2016 organising committee, Mitrajit Bhattacharya to co-chair

    By A Correspondent

     

    Vikram Sakhuja

    The Advertising Club has announced the appointment of Vikram Sakhuja, Group CEO, Madison World as President, Effies 2016.The awards recognise and commend excellence in marketing communications and encourages thoughtful dialogue about the drivers of marketing effectiveness. Mitrajit Bhattacharya, ‎President & Publisher at Chitralekha Group will be Co-Chair of Effies 2016.

     

    Speaking of Sakhuja’s appointment, Raj Nayak and President, The Advertising Club said: “Effies have emerged as a coveted industry awards that laud campaigns and individuals delivering landmark brand solutions.  Vikram has been an essential part of Effies 2015 and was instrumental in ensuring the awards success last year. I am delighted that Vikram will be at the helm of the prestigious awards this year too. I am confident that under his leadership the awards will gain further in repute, stature and scale. Wishing all the best to Vikram and the team.”

     

    On his role as President Effie Awards 2016, Vikram Sakhuja said: “It is a privilege to be chairing the Effies. It remains the one award that Agencies and client covet equally since it celebrates effectiveness. This year the Effies will be held in December, a little earlier than last year to ensure that Christmas and New Year is not spent working on entries. We look forward to again welcoming great work from all quarters.”

     

    According to information received, Effies 2016 will be held on Friday, December 16 at the Taj Lands End, Mumbai.

     

  • Ad Club sets up new managing committee, Raj Nayak re-elected President, Vikram Sakhuja, Group CEO, Media and OOH, Madison Communications Pvt. Ltd is vice-president

    Ad Club sets up new managing committee, Raj Nayak re-elected President

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Advertising Club has elected Raj Nayak, CEO, COLORS, as its President for the second consecutive term.

     

    The new managing committee is as follows:

    • President: Raj Nayak, CEO, COLORS, Viacom18 Media Pvt. Ltd.

    • Vice President: Vikram Sakhuja, Group CEO, Media and OOH, Madison Communications Pvt. Ltd.

    • Secretary: Ajay Kakar, Chief Marketing Officer, Financial Services, Aditya Birla Group

    • Jt. Secretary: Bhaskar Das, Group CEO, Zee Media Corporation Ltd.

    • Treasurer: Shashi Sinha, CEO, IPG Mediabrands

    • Officebearer: Ashish Sehgal, COO, Zee Unimedia Ltd.

    • Member: Mitrajit Bhattacharya, President and Publisher, Chitralekha Group

    • Member: Partha Sinha, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, McCann

    Worldgroup

    • Member:Pradeep Dwivedi, Chief Corporate Sales & Marketing Officer, DainikBhaskar Group, DB Corp Ltd.

    • Member, Ramesh Narayan, Managing Director, Canco Advertising Pvt. Ltd.

    • Member, Vikas Khanchandani, Chief Business Officer, Reliance Broadcast Network Limited

    • Member, Viral Jani, Head TV Partnerships, Twitter India

    • Co-opted Member: Partho Dasgupta, CEO, Broadcast Audience Research Council

    • Co-opted Member: Punitha Arumugam, Director, Agency Business, India and South East Asia, Google India Pvt. Ltd.

    • Co-opted Member: Ajay Chandwani, Director, Percept Limited

    Immediate Past President: Pratap Bose, Founder, Social Street

     

    Special Invitees:

    :: Preeti Vyas, Founder & Chairwoman, Vyas Giannetti Creative.
    :: Namrata Tata, Head of Sales, Colors Infinity, VH1 & Comedy Central.
    :: Sapangeet Rajwant, Head of Marketing, Hindi Mass Entertainment, Viacom18
    :: Manish Bhatt, Founder Director, Scarecrow Communications Ltd

     

    Expressing his pleasure at his re-election, Nayak said: “I am extremely honored and humbled at the love bestowed upon me by the industry. I hope to continue working even more vigorously to realise The Ad Club’s agenda of acting as a catalyst in developing our vibrant and dynamic industry.”

     

    Said Nakul Chopra, CEO South Asia, Publicis Worldwide and President, AAAI welcoming the announcement: “I am delighted that Raj has been elected President Ad Club for another term. A dear friend, a respected colleague – Raj has always worked for the good of the industry via various forums. I look forward to working closely with him to further the already strong relationship between The Ad Club and AAAI.”

     

    Commented Punit Goenka, MD & CEO, Zee and President, IBF: “I am most certain that with his rich experience, acumen and industry knowledge, Raj will continue to take ‘The Advertising Club’ to greater heights. The very fact that he is re-elected, speaks abundantly about his contribution made to the club and to the industry. Over the last year, the club has certainly been a catalyst in developing the industry and with its interactive platforms and properties, it has served as a brilliant platform for industry professionals to interact and exchange thoughts. I wish Raj all the success in this role.”

     

    Expressing his excitement about the announcement, Srinivasan Swamy, Chairman and MD, R K Swamy BBDO and President IAA India Chapter and Senior Vice President IAA Global, said, “I was delighted to hear that Raj was reelected to lead The Advertising Club. His passion and energy levels are infective. He has brought in many senior names‎ to join the committee and I eagerly look forward to next phase of accelerated growth for the Club under his stewardship.”

     

    Industry stalwart Sam Balsara, Chairman, Madison World, also expressed his pleasure by saying, “I am delighted that Raj has agreed to continue as The Ad Club President. This augurs well for the members of the advertising, media and marketing community in general and members of The Ad Club in particular. Raj is everybody’s favorite person and is uniquely positioned to discharge this onerous responsibility which he has kindly agreed to, despite his hectic and I am sure taxing work schedule”.

     

    Industry veteran CVL Srinivas, CEO, GroupM, South Asia, commented, “Its great news for the industry that Raj Nayak has been re-elected President of The Advertising Club. Raj brings a lot of style and substance to whatever he does. His boundless energy, passion and commitment is so amazing. I wish him the very best and look forward to another great year with him at the helm”.

     

  • The account will be worked on by Madison Media Plus’s office in New Delhi NCR

    Madison Media wins Timesjobs.com Media AOR

    By A Correspondent

     

    Madison Media Plus has announced the win of the Timesjobs.com account in in a multi-agency pitch. With this win, Madison Media handles major Times Internet portals – MagicBricks.com, Gaana.com and CricBuzz.com.

     

    Said Vikas Deep Verma, Head of Product and Marketing, TimesJobs on choosing Madison Media, “Madison Media Group stood out against the competition and demonstrated good insights for our category. I am confident that Madison will be a great partner and help us in using our media investments to drive real business value for TimesJobs”.

     

    Vikram Sakhuja, Group CEO, Madison Media & OOH added: “I am delighted to have Timesjob.com as one of our clients in Delhi and am looking forward to build the brand further in the country”.

     

    The account will be worked on by Madison Media Plus’s office in New Delhi NCR.

     

  • The account size is estimated to be Rs 50 crore, and is based in New Delhi

    Madison Media wins Zopper AOR

    By A Correspondent

     

    Madison Media has just announced the win Zopper.com’s media mandate. The account size is estimated to be Rs 50 crore, and is based in New Delhi.

     

    Zopper is hyperlocal marketplace funded by Tiger Global and has emerged as a frontrunner in bringing online and offline retailers to a common platform for Indian consumers. It is set to expand its operations to over 50 cities in India, while hosting over 15000 offline retailers.

     

    Vikram Sakhuja

    Said Vikram Sakhuja, Group CEO, Madison Media & OOH, the win: “It is a proud moment for us to win Zopper. Targeting remains one of Media’s greatest opportunities. And it would be exciting to unleash this capability in a hyper local retail context.”