Wavemaker India has announced the appointment of Deepa Jatkar as its Chief Growth Officer. Jatkar joins Wavemaker from Meta India, where she was a part of the global sales and marketing team and a key member of the India sales leadership team.
In her new role at Wavemaker, Jatkar will report to Ajay Gupte, CEO – South Asia and will be based out of the agency’s Mumbai office.
Speaking on the appointment, Ajay Gupte, CEO – South Asia, Wavemaker said, “We are delighted to welcome Deepa as part of the leadership team at Wavemaker. Deepa is a seasoned media professional with an exceptional understanding of the industry. As Chief Growth officer, she will help us fast track growth by driving new business and creating avenues for growth amongst our wide spectrum of clients.”
The Advertising Club hosted the 23rd edition of the Emvies, celebrating high-impact media campaigns on Friday, March 10 in Mumbai. As many as 1469 entries from 26 agencies participated in the competition where 29 Gold and 53 Silver trophies were presented in addition to 55 Bronze winners receiving recognition.
Wavemaker with 630 points was recognised as ‘The Best Media Agency of the Year’ and Mondelez India Foods Pvt Ltd was declared as ‘The Best Media Client of the Year’. Wavemaker bagged the coveted Grand Emview for Mondelez India Foods Pvt. Ltd.’s Cadbury Celebrations’ Not Just a Cadbury Ad – 2.
Mondelez India Foods Pvt Ltd – The Best Media Client Of The Year
It was a GroupM show with the second and third ranks occupied with Mindshare at 340 points and EssenceMediacom at 100 points.
The Diversity Equality & Inclusion (DE&I) award presented by Google was awarded to Kinnect for Bausch & Lomb’s How Bausch + Lomb’s – #LookOfLove advocated for unbiased and unprejudiced love.
Partha Sinha
Said Partha Sinha, President Times of India group and President of The Advertising Club: “It is great to see this kind of energy at the Emvies. Each entry received was deserving and we encourage our industry folks to keep up this quality, which is par excellence. Many of the entries are of global standards and worthy of international acclaim. Many congratulations to all the winners for creating a mark at the Oscars’ of media awards once again.”
Aditya Swamy
Added Aditya Swamy, Chairperson of EMVIE’s Committee: “It is very exciting and encouraging to know that each year, the quality of entries received only surpasses the previous editions of the Emvies. Big congratulations to all the winners. We urge them to continue to put their best work forward and keep raising the bar.”
There was an unusually cool breeze at the lawns of Taj Landsend hotel in suburban Mumbai, the venue of choice for the Effie Awards each year. Conducted by The Advertising Club the Effie Awards are key for networked agencies as the performance in India adds up to the global performance, and when it comes to critical pitches, it’s Effectiveness (hence Effie) as against Creativity (the Creative Abby) that matters most.
EFFIE India 2022 Client of the year
So in the 2022 edition, it was favourites Ogilvy that took away the top honour of the Agency of the Year. Mondelez India was Client of the Year, while coveted Grand EFFIE was won by Leo Burnett India for Whisper India’s campaign ‘Whisper: Changing the education system to keep girls in school.’
Grand EFFIE India 2022
Surpassing all its previous editions, Effie 2022 received 986 entries, the highest ever in 22 years, and saw participation from 53 agencies.
Speaking at the awards night, Partha Sinha, President, The Advertising Club, said: “It is extremely heartening to witness Effie become the most coveted trophy within the marketing and advertising fraternity. Like every year, this year too, Effe has witnessed significant patronage from industry veterans and category leaders. I’d like to congratulate all the winners for crafting impactful campaigns that are now sheer examples of innovation and effectiveness.”
Elaborating on the awards, Mitrajit Bhattacharya, Chairperson, Effie India, said: “It gives me great joy to host the Effie Awards once again as a physical event, celebrating the best work of the year with the people who create them. A big thank you to 493 judges who judged a record-breaking 986 entries over three rounds of online judging. I also thank each participating agency and client for their support. And a huge shout out to our sponsors, The Ad Club managing committee, the Effie committee, Effie New York, and The Ad Club secretariat to make this event a huge success.”
Adding on the enhancements in the award process this year, Pradeep Dwivedi, Co-Chairperson, Effie India, added, “We have built a sustainable trajectory as a leading Effie organising body, having successfully implemented the new Acclaim Platform for the jury process this year, in tandem with our worldwide peers and Effie Global team. The adoption and change management of the same by our industry members has been truly amazing!”
A special award for creator marketing was awarded to Mondelez, Wavemaker and Ogilvy.
Center fresh chewing gum, the flagship brand of Perfetti Van Melle, has launched a new digital campaign to promote their brand and commemorate Fresh Breath Day (August 6th). The campaign features Rohit Saraf and Alaya F.
The campaign collaboration has been facilitated by Wavemaker India, with support on creative front from Ogilvy India. The campaign will be further amplified through YouTube and other social media platform promotions.
Commenting on the film, Rajesh Ramakrishnan, Managing Director – Perfetti Van Melle India (PVMI) said: “Center fresh has been synonymous with ‘freshness’ at its core for almost three decades. The brand has pivoted on fresh breath confidence with contextual snippets and narratives that are relatable & resonate with the youth. This Fresh Breath Day, our endeavour is to bring the magic of first meetings and have a fresh take on stereotypical & classical rules that cloud the youth. We’re happy to onboard Alaya and Rohit as they truly represent the youth of today: confident, non-conformist, spontaneous, and strongly resonate with the brand personality.”
Media agency network Wavemaker pipped sibling Mindshare to be Agency of the Yeat the Emvie Awards held on Friday, March 25. The 22nd edition of the coveted Emvies happened in Mumbai with much fanfare and a full house. Hindustan Unilever was Client of the Year.
The Advertising Club (TAC), this year, received 1054 entries with around 25 agencies participating. There were over 1200 professionals in attendance as 26 Gold and 51 Silver Emvie trophies being presented in addition to 42 Bronze Winners receiving recognition.
Wavemaker Is The Media Agency Of The Year
Wavemaker with 395 points was ‘Media Agency of the Year’ and it also bagged the coveted the Grand Emvie for Mondelez India for the Cadbury Celebrations – Not Just a Cadbury Ad (Best Response to Covid 19). Mindshare with 375 points stood second and Lodestar with 160 points stood third.
Hindustan Unilever Limited was declared ‘Media Client of the Year’. The Best Implementation Team of the Year award went to Wavemaker for Mondelez India Food Pvt. Ltd for Cadbury Celebrations – Not Just a Cadbury Ad Google, the Presenting Sponsor, instituted special recognition for work done in the area of Inclusion. The campaign that backed the honour was McDonald’s – Eatqual – One Bite Closer to Equality by DDB Mudra. This will be a regular category in the EMVIE entry form from the next year.
Hindustan Unilever Limited Is Best Media Client Of The Year
The Times of India Group instituted the Pradeep Guha trophy for the category Young Emvie of the Year. The Pradeep Guha trophy was presented on stage by Partha Sinha, President, actor Dia Mirza, and Papia Guha wife of the Late Pradeep Guha.
Said Aditya Swamy, Chairperson Of Emvie’s Organising Committee: “It is the privilege of the The Ad Club to shine the light on the best work in our industry and it is our endeavour through our award shows to inspire our community to keep raising the bar.”
Added Partha Sinha, President, The Advertising Club: “It’s great to be back on the ground. The energy was infectious and the agency and clients had an excellent time celebrating the spirit of excellence. The winners were not only just best in class in India but they were of global standard. No wonder Emvies is called the Oscar of media awards.” said
Wavemaker India has unveiled a specialised unit in collaboration with One Mercuri which will focus on helping brands leverage the entertainment and content businesses in south India. The unit will open up a whole new world of collaborations and opportunities for brands and creators.
This is an effort to help corporatise the business of ‘south entertainment’, by way of providing brands structured access to entertainment content from South India, right at the conception stage. It will deliver on creating Original Content IPs, enabling better brand associations in films and OTT content (audio & video), bringing in an era of measurement and collaborations with writer rooms, among other things. The partnership will be a catalyst in developing the symbiotic relationship between brands and the South entertainment industry – one that has under-delivered so far.
The unit will be based out of Wavemaker’s Bengaluru office and led by Anilkumar Sathiraju under the leadership of Karthik Nagarajan.
Commenting on the launch of this new unit, Ajay Gupte, CEO – South Asia, Wavemaker, said: “We have always focussed on paving newer ways to provide innovative solutions to our clients and partners. Creativity, Content and Collaboration are the three pillars of this newly launched specialised unit. We see huge potential in content, partnerships, digital content and content creators / influencers in the next few years. With this unit, our aim is to create a new wave in the entertainment and business space”.
Added Sriram Bakthisaran, MD & Group CEO, One Mercuri: “A resurgence of quality content from the region which is home to the four thriving film industries besides a large entertainment-hungry viewership, a larger than life fan following base seen nowhere in the world and the content coming out from this region fast attracting global interests and gaining prominence on pan India scale and with our already significant presence in the south market having serviced some of the biggest production houses and the celebrities in the past, we feel we are better placed to expand our offerings than before as we jointly venture out to feed all stake holders including the consumer, the production houses as well as the brands. As Wavemaker has all the experience and knowhow with their global exposure, I am very confident that this collaboration will only elevate the industry and set standards for several to follow and benefit.”
GroupM India has announced a restructure of its media buying function- Central Trading Group (CTG).
Sidharth Parashar
Said Sidharth Parashar, President – Investments and Pricing, GroupM India: “This restructure is a part of evolving transformation for GroupM. We constantly recognise and invest in talent across functions for our team members who have helped evolve key areas like the media buying practice. The relentless commitment to delivering value to its client’s business is what truly defines team CTG, and I am privileged to lead a multi-dimensional team of leaders who are passionate about media and our client’s business. I am delighted to see these leaders grow and take on larger responsibilities in shaping the GroupM CTG transformational journey.”
Pratik Rathod who has been successfully leading buying for Wavemaker will be taking on an elevated group-level role of National Broadcast Head, GroupM India.
Muralidhar T is taking on an elevated role of leading buying function for the whole of Mindshare.
K Srinivas Rao takes over the Wavemaker buying mandate from Rathod. Rao has been leading the Mediacom buying function for the past few years.
Rahul Satoskar, currently the region buying lead for Mindshare west, gets elevated to lead Mediacom buying nationally.
Wavemaker has named Shipra Roy as its new Global Chief People, Inclusion and Culture Officer alongside Helen Price as Global Chief Investment Officer. Both will be based in London and join CEO Toby Jenner’s global leadership team.
Roy, who comes to Wavemaker from a position as Chief People Officer for McCann UK and Europe, will oversee all aspects of the people function to ensure that Wavemaker continues to attract the best talent and creates great careers regardless of level, role or geography. Price joins Wavemaker from IPG Mediabrands where she was Head of Global Accountability and Investment. At Wavemaker her focus will be on creating value for clients and commercial opportunities for the agency.
Said Jenner: “Even in the face of a global pandemic, Wavemaker has had an incredibly strong year and, as our growth journey continues, I’m pleased to welcome Helen and Shipra to the team. They are both tremendous resources in their fields, and I look forward to working closely with them to help us deliver positively provoking, innovative and commercially sound solutions for both our clients and our people.”
Wavemaker India has won the media mandate for Paragon Footwear. The mandate comprises traditional media and content including social creative and digital. The account will be handled out of the Bengaluru office of Wavemaker.
Speaking on the association, Navin Thomas, Executive VP Sales & Marketing, Paragon said: “We are happy to partner with Wavemaker as our media agency. Their stronghold on media landscape clubbed with in-depth understanding of consumers dynamics is impressive. We believe the team at Wavemaker will surely help us in our journey to establish ourselves as the leading footwear brand within the young consumers too. Their volume of work in creating successful brands say it all.”
Commenting on the win, Ajay Gupte, CEO – South Asia, Wavemaker added: “We are absolutely thrilled to work with a trusted brand like Paragon. Paragon has been a household name for generations in India. Their consumer focused approach, adapting to sustainable and bio-degradable ways to create environment friendly products is a huge testament to their dedication. With our AI powered platforms, we are certain to drive great efficiencies and help Paragon make a mark as a preferred brand in this changing consumer dynamics.”
Wavemaker has developed an indepth audit which will prepare clients to plan better in the new-age marketing landscape. The audit will assess risk areas, dependency on currently deployed solutions, and where the brand can pivot or redesign its marketing strategies to best mitigate the impact of cookie removal.
Talking about the audit, Ajay Gupte, CEO – South Asia, Wavemaker said: “We have always believed in crafting solutions which help brands better connect with their consumers. We see this as an opportunity to rebuild consumer journeys with trust and creativity and we are already on our way. I am sure we will soon be able to advice our clients on more provoking and innovative solutions.”
Added Vishal Jacob, Chief Digital Officer, Wavemaker India: “The 3PC Dependency Audit is the need of the hour. With increase in fragmentation of audience segments, rising demand for data privacy, navigating in a Cookie-less World is going to be extremely challenging for advertisers and marketers. With this audit, we aim to provide first mover advantage to our clients by providing unique consumer perspectives and solutions to chart out their growth plans.”
Wavemaker has retained the media responsibilities for the beauty leader L’Oréal. Wavemaker has been the media AOR for L’Oréal since 2010. The mandate includes online and traditional media duties for the brands.
Said Ajay Gupte, CEO – South Asia, Wavemaker: “Retaining L’Oréal in the 12th year of our association and continuing this partnership is a huge testament to our services and efforts. I am excited to strengthen this relationship further and partner with L’Oréal in their transformative business journey. I am certain with our digital first & data led approach clubbed with best in class media services, we will be able to accomplish L’Oréal’s mission of creating an innovative and responsible beauty brand”.
Added Shekhar Banerjee, Chief Client Officer & Head – West, Wavemaker India: “Working with L’Oréal makes you better every day and we have been creating some of the industry first work in real time measurement, precision and audiences for them. We are delighted that they believed in the vision we have set for our partnership and trusted our ability to positively provoke them and drive new thinking”.
Kotak Mahindra Bank (KMBL) has unveiled its latest campaign that chronicles the story of Ashok Das, a young, aspiring cricketer from one corner of the country, as he realises his ultimate dream – to showcase his talent on the world’s biggest stage. The creative agency that worked on the campaign is Cartwheel Consultancy Pvt Ltd and the media agency is Wavemaker.
Said Ramakrishna (Ramki) Desiraju, Founder & Creative Director, Cartwheel Creative Consultancy: “No other sporting event has given as many Indians an opportunity to excel, earn and entertain on the global stage. It has made it possible for a player of the most modest means from the smallest of places to aspire for and achieve greatness. To lift their families several rungs up the economic ladder. This campaign captures the emotions that accompany this dizzying journey. In a way that Kotak has made its own ever since the Kona Kona Kotak campaign. Kotak continued the celebration of inclusive growth with its India Invited and Dreams Invited campaigns. The story of Ashok Das’s spectacular success at the player auction continues Kotak’s chronicling of emerging India.”
