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Tag: ZenithOptimedia Group

  • Acharya is among four CEOs appointed to look after individual markets and will report to Regional CEO Gerry Boyle

    Anupriya Acharya to head Publicis Media in India

    By A Correspondent

     

    Anupriya Acharya

    ZenithOptimedia Group CEO Anupriya Acharya will head Publicis Media in India. Last week, Gerry Boyle, Regional CEO, Publicis Media, Asia Pacific, announced market leadership appointments for APAC. Responsible for oversight of Publicis Media’s operations in their respective markets, these appointments will leverage the scale and capabilities of its global agency brands Starcom, Zenith, Mediavest | Spark and Optimedia. With this elevation, the Starcom operations will also report to Acharya.

     

    Other than Acharya, the other APAC Publicis Media Market CEOs are:

    :: Bertilla Teo, Greater China (China, Hong Kong, Taiwan) CEO, Publicis Media

     

    :: Gareth Mulryan, Singapore CEO, Publicis Media

     

    :: Matt James, Australia and New Zealand CEO, Publicis Media

     

    In addition to the Market CEO appointments, Chris Nolan is appointed COO of Publicis Media Australia and New Zealand, and Mykim Chikli is appointed COO of Publicis Media Greater China.

     

    “Publicis Media was launched with the vision to get to the future first and these strong, dynamic, and incredibly talented leaders will ensure we do just this,” said Gerry Boyle, Regional CEO for APAC, Publicis Media. “I’m excited to work with them as we deliver on our promise to invent modern approaches to gain efficiency, create greater collaboration and effectiveness and drive new levels of scale and client value.”

     

    “It’s a great honor to get the mandate to lead the newly created Publicis Media in India, and build further on the trust, talent and transformation agenda. I am both very excited and happy to have been given this opportunity” says Anupriya Acharya, India CEO, Publicis Media. “We are at an inflection point. The group is witnessing tremendous energy and vitality and I am fully committed to delivering the Publicis Media vision and promise. We already have formidable scale and footprint in this market in mainline as well as digital and performance media. We have a cutting-edge practice in Analytics, Data and Tech. In the months ahead, we will line up our end-to-end capabilities in a model that is simple, flexible and efficient and puts client satisfaction first, thus eliminating complexity and silos.”

     

    The reorganisation of Publicis Groupe’s media capabilities into a Publicis Media hub is part of Publicis Groupe’s transformation efforts previously announced. Publicis Groupe is organized into four Solutions Hubs — Publicis Communications led by Arthur Sadoun, Publicis Media led by Steve King, Publicis.Sapient led by Alan Herrick and Publicis Health led by Nick Colucci—and connected through a Chief Revenue Officer organization, led by Laura Desmond, which will deliver client impact leveraging Publicis Groupe’s entire range of services.

     

    Additionally, Publicis One will service markets outside of Publicis’ Top 20 with a global communications enterprise operating across Publicis Communications, Publicis Media, Publicis.Sapient and Publicis Health.

     

  • Radhakrishnan is a Hons graduate of Indira Gandhi National Open University in Accounts and Economics, and has worked with companies such as Webchutney, Carat Media and ABN Amro

    Tanushree Radhakrishnan appointed as SVP at ZenithOptimedia

    By A Correspondent

     

    Tanushree Radhakrishnan

    The ZenithOptimedia Group is expanding and consolidating its digital operations in India, and has made a key hire in the form of media veteran Tanushree Radhakrishnan. With experience of over twelve years across varied areas such as Display, Search, Social and Mobile, Radhakrishnan has joined the group in November 2015 as Senior Vice President and will drive its product standardization and programmatic agenda. Her last stint was with GroupM India where she was the digital head, MEC North.

     

    This is her second innings with the ZenithOptimedia Group. She was previously employed in the organisation between 2008-2013 and was instrumental in the phase when Resultrix was being integrated into the group. Radhakrishnan will report into Tanmay Mohanty, the Managing Director of ZenithOptimedia Group’s digital companies Performics and Resultrix.

     

    Mohanty says that Radhakrishnan will help the group deliver holistic value to the clients, and help develop a 360-degree offering basket in line with the Live ROI philosophy. “The group is witnessing unprecedented growth all around, whether it is increase in spends from existing clients, the rush of new business or talent. Be it the setup of a media technology division in Bangalore this year or the launch of Performics Mobile last year or the Centre of Excellence teams, there is a lot of vibrancy and energy flowing within, and I am sure that Radhakrishnan will now be a part of it. She has rich and varied experience across all key verticals of digital marketing and we are delighted to have her on board. Her real strength lies in delivering high ROI for clients.”

     

    Radhakrishnan is a Hons graduate of Indira Gandhi National Open University in Accounts and Economics, and has worked with companies such as Webchutney, Carat Media and ABN Amro.

     

    Radhakrishnan started her career in audit and planning at ABN Amro in 2001. After a 2yr run in finance she made a switch and pursued an MBA in Advertising & Communication from EMPI. In early 2005, she interned with Carat Media, after which she joined Webchutney in 2005 as SEM analyst. She joined Performics in 2008. She has been involved with performance campaigns for clients and maximizing return on interest (ROI) for them. She has worked with brands across categories, whether it is Makemytrip, Airtel, HP, Nestle, ICICI, Microsoft, Citibank and Aviva.

     

  • The forum was especially relevant in the context of the digital revolution that the country is undergoing and the resultant impact on the financial sector

    ‘Financial Services Forum’ unravels new frontiers in digital

    By A Correspondent

     

    The ‘Financial Services Forum’, an event jointly hosted by Facebook and Publicis Groupe in India, had many key learnings for brands in the banking, financial services and insurance categories (BFSI).

     

    The event included leaders from Facebook and Publicis, as well as marketers from the BFSI segments, and there were discussions on how to best leverage Facebook as a powerful tool in performance marketing, segmentation of consumers and extrapolation of data, personalized marketing, creative and visual storytelling and effective use of Facebook’s ad serving platform Atlas.

     

    This forum is especially relevant in the context of the digital revolution that the country is undergoing and the resultant impact on the financial sector. There are over 200 million internet mobile connections in India – estimated in June this year, over 150 million in last October. There will be over 600 million smart phones by 2019. Every avenue remains transformed for the BFSI sector, be it transactions or marketing or creation of new products or channels and distribution.

     

    Kirthiga Reddy, Managing Director, Facebook India said, “We are pleased to partner with the Publicis Groupe for the first ever Financial Services Forum. The financial services ecosystem has always been at the heart of economic growth and one of the first in adopting digital and CRM platforms in the country. This conference is about “growth” and how Publicis Groupe and Facebook can work together to help business in the segment grow, in the wake of the consumer’s shift from desktop to mobile.”

     

    Anupriya Acharya, Group Chief Executive of  ZenithOptimedia Group says that in the context of the Indian government‘s call for financial inclusion coupled with the fast transforming consumer journey, the given mobile revolution and now the Digital India initiative, the time to hold a seminar such as ‘Financial Services Forum’ made perfect sense.

     

    Acharya states, “The BFSI sector is set to undergo complete transformation in the next few years. Facebook, with its tremendous mobile reach and equity is not only a great platform for Social and Display but also a powerful tool for Performance marketing. And hence, holds great potential to accelerate growth and business for the BFSI clients. I think that the forum was quite successful in highlighting this and answered a lot of key questions for the marketers. We hope it will help our clients to reflect on their digital assets, on whether they are fully mobile ready for the many millions of addressable consumers on boarding, and how data driven insights can drive thumb stopping content.”

     

    Hanley King, Chairman, Starcom MediaVest Group, feels that Facebook’s immense reach, frequency of usage, deep mobile penetration and advanced targeting options, make it a platform like none other for the BFSI sector for driving both performance as well as brand awareness objectives.

     

    Speaking on the sidelines of the first ever “Financial Services Forum” King remarks, “The question in everyone’s mind was how do we unleash the unique features of Facebook to drive tangible business results, especially in a category like BFSI which cannot purely depend on relevant exposures. What everyone took away from today’s event is that, in the context of the BFSI sector Facebook is not just a potent source for new customer acquisition but a powerful tool for driving customer retention, engagement and cross-sell opportunities.”

     

    King further added, “I am sure that the case studies, new product features and tools that were showcased helped our clients see Facebook in a new light and they were able to walk away with a road map on how to translate the platform’s reach, along with its precise and deep segmentation of audiences to achieve their business goals. It has always been our endeavor to bring forth to our clients the best-in-class in digital and we are committed to partner with our clients in their journey to exploit the potential of platforms like Facebook to enhance their business.”

     

  • Last week, print majors made hay with ecomm sales. ZenithOptimedia group MD Hari Krishnan on why print (still) works

    Print still rules for advertisers (including internet start-ups)

     

    By Hari Krishnan

     

    India counters the rest of the world’s media-evolution-pattern of traditional media de-growth. And this is evident from the mushrooming of daily newspapers in the country, including regional ones. The Hindi and other vernacular print media markets performed exceedingly well on the back of low media penetration, high population growth and rising income and literacy levels. FMCG, retail and real estate want to reach these new audiences. In urban India, e-commerce and internet businesses are driving the growth. No wonder the forecast for ad spends in dailies is a growing 13 per cent (next only to digital), and in magazines it is a positive projection of five per cent growth.

     

    Let’s look at some of the key reasons that makes press still a dependable vehicle that advertisers are betting on, especially the new-age, internet, smartphone and app- enabled ecosystem players. Of course the generic advantages of newspaper ads being more informative in a credible environment, carrying content with greater shelf life than a TVC and the audience being a bit more involved, still apply, as they did ever since the medium was invented. However the altered market landscape offers a few new answers.

     

    Over 2000 first-time advertisers in 2015

    The total number of first-time advertisers on mass media, is a staggering 2,250 in 2015 alone, implying the need for creating basic brand awareness for over 2,000 new brands in the market. The press offers the advantage of quick and high reach to create mass awareness levels on Day One, because it’s the best ‘announcement medium’.

     

    E-commerce action is date-specific

    As the e-commerce war heats up, brands are betting on specific ‘sale days’ to drive a huge surge of traffic and transactions. While TV, too, is used to build up the stress and anticipation, the print media does the job best on specific dates earmarked for the shopping event, additionally offering the benefits of a ‘catalogue effect’ of individual products and pricing. The same applies to major brick-and-mortar retail players too.

     

    TV time inventory has shrunk

    The year-and-a-half-old cap on TV ads (10+2 rule) has resulted in a shortage of supply of TV advertising time, the added number of new advertisers and growing budgets of existing players have created an excess demand that has been diverted to the next high-reach, high-impact medium: Print. E-commerce player spends have doubled in 2015 (over last year), standing at a staggering Rs 1,600 crore. The online category will overtake cars to become the third-biggest spender in 2015.

     

    Hari Krishnan is Managing Director, ZenithOptimedia Group, India

     

  • The mandate for Resultrix includes the full range of digital capabilities including Communication planning, Search, Display, Mobile and Analytics

    Resultrix wins digital mandate of Air Vistara

    By A Correspondent

     

    Airline brand Air Vistara, the Tata Group-Singapore Airlines joint venture has awarded its digital mandate to Resultrix, an end to end interactive agency under the ZenithOptimedia Group.

     

    The mandate for Resultrix includes the full range of digital capabilities including Communication planning, Search, Display, Mobile and Analytics.

     

    Resultrix has had a good run this year and has won nine significant accounts in the last six months. These include IDFC Bank which is going to be IDFC’s foray into the highly competitive consumer banking category. The other accounts won are Bharti AXA General Insurance, Taj Hotels, PNB Metlife, RBNL.

     

    Anupriya Acharya

    Anupriya Acharya, Group Chief Executive of the ZenithOptimedia Group said, “These are all prestigious wins for us and in sectors that are fast growing and future facing. We are delighted to be chosen as a partner to these marquee brands and the opportunity it provides us to do high caliber work.”

     

    Tanmay Mohanty, Managing Director of Resultrix & Performics India says, “We are very excited to partner with such great brands.  We have long been known for our superior performance marketing expertise but over the last year, we have diversified and enhanced our offerings in other areas too. Be it the setup of a Media Technology and Analytics division in Bangalore earlier this year or the launch of our mobile offering Performics Mobile last year or the Centre of Excellence teams out of Mumbai and Delhi, we have kept the momentum going. The new wins, we believe are on the back of these specializations. We bring new elements to the game, raising the bar ever higher.”

     

  • Announces Adobe as a preferred partner

    ZO sets up Centre of Excellence for media tech

    By A Correspondent

     

    Tanmay Mohanty

    ZenithOptimedia’s Performics announced setting up a full-fledged digital media technology Centre of Excellence, a first of its kind in India, out of their Bangalore office. This will provide capabilities on real time segmentation and insights, services across marketing automation, attribution, data modeling, content and commerce. The centre will specifically cater to the Indian sub-continent.

    Comments Tanmay Mohanty, MD Performics, India “This centre is set up to provide solutions for comprehensive and integrated marketing, that will enable marketers to measure, personalize, and optimize marketing campaigns and digital experiences across screens and platforms. As you would know, globally Publicis has partnered with Adobe for these ‘Always On Solutions’ that will power insights and data fuelled planning globally for Publicis. The preferred partnership between Performics India and Adobe is already gaining traction with customers such as Airtel and Tata AIG already migrating to Adobe Marketing Cloud. Many other organizations are showing similar interest.”

     

    Anupriya Acharya

    Anupriya Acharya, Group CEO ZenithOptimedia group, India elaborates, “This is something that we have been working on for some time and in our assessment, the time is ripe to set up a centre like this. Online video is seeing explosive growth thanks to the explosion of mobile video consumption and the spread of internet-connected devices like desktop computers, tablets and television screens. All key social media platforms are developing their video products; and more online video is being sold by programmatic buying, providing advertisers with more control and better value. We find that currently a lot of clients, especially in the e-commerce and mobile segment have to work with media technology companies that are outside of India and have a hard time getting the time and attention they require. Inside India we will be testing multiple technologies against client requirements.  Both our teams and clients are excited about it.”

     

    Kulmeet Bawa, Director – Enterprise, South Asia, Adobe says, “Top brands around the world across industry verticals use Adobe Marketing Cloud to reach and engage customers, and our partnerships go a long way in making this possible. We congratulate ZenithOptimedia’s Performics on the establishment of their first centre of excellence for media technologies in India and are certain that customers in India will benefit immensely from this set up.”

     

  • The account will be handled out of ZO's Mumbai office

    Faaso’s hands over media biz mandate to ZenithOptimedia

    By A Correspondent

     

    ZenithOptimedia Mumbai has won the media mandate for Faasos after a selection process that involved a multi-agency pitch. This mandate covers all aspects of the company’s media planning & buying, and will include digital and OOH duties as well. The account will be handled out of ZO’s Mumbai office.

     

    Faasos is a food technology business which delivers more than 75,000 orders through its mobile app every month across eight major cities. The company which recently raised US$ 20 mn from Lightbox Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Innoven Capital, is planning to build brand awareness across the Country while it expands to 15+ cities by the end of the year.

     

    Anupriya Acharya

    Revant Bhate, Co-founder and CMO, Faasos, said, “We needed a partner in Mumbai who has a deep understanding of the Consumer Internet space and it’s complex ever-evolving relationship with media touch points. ZenithOptimedia impressed us with their strategic framework and ability to execute with speed and accuracy.”

     

    Commenting on the win, Anupriya Acharya, Group CEO, ZenithOptimedia Group, said “This is a significant win for ZO in a sector that is fast growing and future facing. It is indeed a matter of pride for us to be partnering with Faasos.”

     

  • The ZenithOptimedia Group announced the appointment of Saswati Sinha as Head Of Talent and Human Resources, India

    ZO appoints Saswati Sinha as talent head

    By A Correspondent

     

    Saswati Sinha

    ZenithOptimedia Group announced the appointment of Saswati Sinha as Head Of Talent and Human Resources, India. Based out of Gurgaon, she will be taking charge of ZenithOptimedia Group’s pan-India operations including ZenithOptimedia,Performics, Resultirx, Newcast and Ninah.

     

    Said Anupriya Acharya, Group CEO ZenithOptimedia India, on the appointment: “Given our growth journey, diverse offerings that need both specialists and integrators and the fast evolving media market with shortage of skilled talent, we needed to accelerate our talent and training agenda. Saswati’sexperience in different industries and geographies spanning Media, Advertising and ITeS and a strong understanding of managing growth and training requirements in the new world made her the perfect choice for this role. Am glad she has chosen to join us.”

     

    Anupriya Acharya

    Added Ms Sinha:  “I am very excited to join ZenithOptimedia as I believe talent intensive industries are places where Human Resource function has a critical role to play. ZenithOptimedia believes in people and building a strong culture of values, performance and realize the importance of nurturing talent. I am looking forward to a positive journey”

     

    Ms Sinha joins ZenithOptimedia Group with more than 16 years of experience in the field of human resource development and has worked with companies like JWT, Evalueserve and Cyber Media. Her last assignment was at Cheil Worldwide SW Asia where she was the Head of Human Resources for the region and as part of the major growth journey she on-boarded teams of diverse skills spanning from Retail, Digital, Media, Activation, Mainline and developed talent programs across the region.

     

  • ZenithOptimedia Group has announced the launch of its full service, fully owned Mobile marketing subsidiary 'Performics Mobile'

    ZenithOptimedia launches Performics Mobile

    By A Correspondent

     

    ZenithOptimedia Group has announced the launch of its full service, fully owned Mobile marketing subsidiary ‘Performics Mobile’. The subsidiary has already bagged the mandate for Nestle, SBI Life, Tata AIG, Musafir, ZeeQ, Cordlife and will handle these businesses out of its Mumbai and Delhi offices.

     

    Performics Mobile will focus on building brands on mobile through crafting and managing end-to-end solutions across all platforms and services. Platforms will include display, search, social, SMS, MMS, videos and Services will includedriving application downloads,incentivizing activations, generating site traffic, m-commerce and content-driven solutions. Also, in one of the firsts in the market, it will also bring in mobile programmatic buying using Publicis’s AOD platform.

     

    The subsidiary will be led by Nirvan Biswas who has 17 years of experience across diverse companies like Netcore, Midday, Rediff.com and Boston Consulting across both  technical and business roles. A cross-functional team will support him across creative, development and media.

     

    Says Tanmay Mohanty, MD, Performics: “The market for marketing via mobile devices is one of the fastest-growth areas in the advertising sector. That growth has continued over the last year – reflecting a 400% rise. We believe that there is significant potential in offering this specialist expertise across our client base and new clients.”

     

    Anupriya Acharya

    Adds Anupriya Acharya, Group CEO, Zenith Optimedia Group: “Mobiles, Tablets, Phablets are seeing explosive growth – a clear demo of insatiable consumer appetite for the convenience, content, information and connectivity provided by these. It is but obvious that as more and more consumers shift their attention here, the space becomes critical to have a focused full service offering in this space. I am confident that Nirvan and team are set for explosive growth and will transform the way mobile marketing is being looked at currently.”

     

  • ZenithOptimedia India has been appointed as the media planning and buying partner for Viber, the mobile and messaging service provider

    Viber connects with ZenithOptimedia for media

    By A Correspondent

     

    ZenithOptimedia India has been appointed as the media planning and buying partner for Viber, the popular mobile and messaging service.  The business was won after a competitive pitch amongst five media agencies in New Delhi.

     

    Confirming ZenithOptimedia’s appointment, AnubhavNayyar, Country Manager India, Viber Ltd said, “We partnered with Zenithoptimedia Group as we really liked their thinking and strategic approach to our marketing challenges as well as their excellent track record of helping create new age brands like Micromax and OLX.”

     

    We are really excited to partner with a brand like Viber for their India ambition.The brand and the category gives us an even better opportunity to demonstrate our Live ROI proposition.”said SatyajitSen, CEO, ZenithOptimedia India.

     

  • The announcements are part of ZenithOptimedia Group's management succession moves for Performics and Resultrix in India

    Tanmay Mohanty to take charge of Resultrix and Perfomics in India as Gulrez Alam moves to Singapore as Chief Devpt Officer for ZO APAC

    By A Correspondent

     

    Gulrez Alam

    After founding, growing and leading Resultrix as Global COO for close to five years and making it a name to reckon with in the digital marketing industry, Gulrez Alam moves to Singapore as Chief  Development Officer, APAC at Zenith Optimedia. In this role he will be working with Gerry  Boyle to lead New Business and develop as well as evangelize Digital in the APAC region for ZO.

     

     

    Tanmay Mohanty

    Tanmay Mohanty, who has played a pivotal role in shaping up  Resultrix under Mr Alam for more than a year now, will be taking on the mandate of MD, Performics India and in this role will be incharge of leading both Performics and Resultrix operations in India. He will also  help the ZO Group to further develop and grow its digital capabilities.

     

    In this new role, he will directly report into Anupriya Acharya.

     

    Comments Mr Alam, “I totally believe in ZenithOptimedia’s Live ROI philosophy. I am excited about offering data-led solutions to clients  across mainline and digital media. And also looking forward to working with a very passionate, performance and excellence driven team at ZO APAC office. As I move, I am totally confident in Tanmay taking  over the India responsibilities from me and am sure he will take the organization to greater heights”

     

    Said Mr Mohanty: “At ZenithOptimedia Group, we all have thoroughly imbibed the Live ROI philosophy and all our digital and mobile offerings across Content, Creative, Communication have Performance culture at the core”.

     

    Confirming the development, Ms Acharya noted that Resultrix has been a spectacular success story and will continue to be a competitive advantage for the ZenithOptimedia Group in India. As the client requirements becomes more sophisticated and move from vanilla to more expertise-based solutions, the competitive advantage will get  even more sharply defined. She said “Our revenues from digital as ZO Group in India, are already upwards of 40% and we will focus to grow this further in the coming years.”