Tag: South Asia

Mumbai, India – Wondrlab, the platform-first marketing technology start-up in India, has appointed Jateen Kore, former head of digital marketing at banking firm IDFC First Bank, to be its new digital head. 

Kore brings with him over 20 years of experience in managing digital businesses across several industries including banking, financial services, and insurance, as well as telecom. He has been an entrepreneur of a B2B start-up and has previously held business roles at telco Vodafone, online marketplace Apnaloan.com, and life insurance providers ICICI Prudential Life and Tata AIG Life. 

In his new role, Kore will be setting up the digital practice and bringing forth the company’s platform-first approach to help brands win on digital. He will be based in Mumbai, India, and will report directly to Rakesh Hinduja, the co-founder and managing partner for content platform at Wondrlab.

Commenting on his appointment, Kore said that the opportunity to work with a dynamic start-up like Wondrlab is a great chance to augment his experience and contribute to the success of brands across categories.

“I completely believe in its platform-first strategy and I can contribute significantly to furthering their approach thanks to my digital-first experience. I look forward to an exciting and fruitful inning here,” added Kore.

Meanwhile, Hinduja shared that Wondrlab’s vision is to strengthen the digital ecosystem for brands, and they focus on building expertise that creates real value for them to support today’s dynamic marketing demand. 

“Jateen’s experience straddles the entire digital funnel and his key focus area is to apply a platform-first approach for our brands to win across social, performance marketing, influencer marketing, e-commerce, and martech best practices. His diverse skill-set and deep understanding of top digital-first brands like Vodafone and IDFC First Bank will help us deliver tangible creative solutions to our client partners,” said Hinduja.

Mumbai, India – Tata Capital, the financial arm of the Tata Group, has released a new corporate film based on its new brand promise ‘Count on Us’, done in collaboration with integrated creative agency Infectious Advertising.

Tata Capital’s former brand tagline ‘We only do what’s right for you’ was changed for the first time since the company was established in 2007. The firm offers consumer loans, wealth management, and commercial finance, as well infrastructure finance, among others.

The film portrays a story about the dreams and hopes of the people of India and how Tata Capital is well suited to help them achieve their dreams. According to the firm, its financial solutions are designed to meet India’s diverse customer needs which are articulated in the film.

“Tata Capital as a brand and organization has transformed over the years while retaining the core value of trust. Our corporate digital film reverberates our brand’s promise ‘Count On Us’ and how we as an organization serve our customers fulfill their needs and aspirations with our diverse, innovative, and customized financial solutions,” said Hector Anklesaria, the associate vice president of marketing at Tata Capital.

Meanwhile, Ramanuj Shastry, the co-founder and director at Infectious Advertising, commented, “Tata Capital Corporate film – whose purpose was to bring to life their promise that India can ‘Count On Us’ – is a large canvas film with many logistical challenges. Upcoming director Tim Gollar has done a stellar job of telling a complex story simply.”

Mumbai, India – MediaCom, the media agency by media investment company GroupM, has appointed two new key senior talents to strengthen its core leadership team in India.

The new hires are Shekhar Sharma, the new North and East managing partner, and Averill Sequeira, the new chief product officer.

Sharma has previously worked as the vice president for digital platforms and services at GroupM, where he has been instrumental in spearheading a digital-first approach for brands varying from global to large Indian conglomerates and mid-sized businesses. He has also been an accomplished integrated marketing professional with experience in managing large media investments from global clients to large Indian conglomerates across different vertical

Sharma brings with him over 25 years of diversified experience in the media and marketing industry. His expertise ranges from crafting media strategies, bringing in an insights-based approach to sharpen the strategic planning and deliver ROI for clients. In his new role, Sharma will be responsible for the team’s offices, clients, and growth. 

Meanwhile, Sequeira was a GroupM alumnus, with over 18 years of experience across the media, communications, and consulting industry. She specializes in data, digital media, and strategy, as well as creativity. Her formative years were spent in developing audience insight tools and specializing in marketing ROI/ econometric modeling.

In her new role, Sequeira will be leading ‘Seeing the Bigger Picture’, a MediaCom Creative Systems wherein they use the power of data to bring together media and creativity, which was successfully soft-launched in the US and Australia, and is now ready to roll out to the rest of the world.

Commenting on the appointments, Navin Khemka, the chief executive officer of MediaCom South Asia, said that as the media landscape continues to accelerate and evolve, they want to build on the strong track record of helping brands build campaigns that deliver results.

“Today brands want to communicate quickly and effectively, and we believe that together with our new appointments, we will be able to deliver more powerful work for our clients. With having Shekhar and Averill as a part of our team, I am convinced that they’re uniquely positioned to successfully drive the company and are here to put their best foot forward towards offering the best solution to our clients and strengthening our portfolio,” added Khemka.

Mumbai, India – EuroKids International, the education service company in India, has launched a new digital campaign, titled ‘Right Start, Flying Start’, which comprises a series of three videos. The campaign was done in collaboration with creative agency The Womb.

The ‘Right Start, Flying Start’ campaign aims to stem the learning gap that the pandemic has caused to toddlers’ developmental journey, as EuroKids International strongly believes in #UninterruptedLearning being the key to unlock a child’s potential. It showcases a few ways a toddler should learn concepts of language, numbers, and colors, among others.

According to the company, a recent survey conducted with 1,082 pre-school parents revealed that the parents are worried about their children losing out on learning and, as a result, 95% of those surveyed said that they have enrolled their children in some form of learning, such as online or homeschooling, to ensure continuity in their education.

Prajodh Rajan, the co-founder of EuroKids International, said that there is irrefutable global evidence that the learning journey for children is the most rapid in the early years and the closure of early childhood education centers during the pandemic has resulted in a widening gap in learning for most children. 

“In order to stem this, we want to encourage parents to consider remote learning for their children, so they can continue to achieve their developmental milestones. Children can stay indoors and learn with experienced teachers and use a scientifically developed curriculum,” said Rajan.

Meanwhile, Navin Talreja, the founding partner of The Womb, shared that working with the management, curriculum creators and teachers at EuroKids helped them understand that some of the critical phases in a child’s learning journey are the early years in school. 

“Our task in communication was to bring to the forefront the unique ways Eurokids teaches kids to give them this flying start,” said Talreja.

India – Following the recent re-organization of the network, dentsu in India has finally named its CEO for the Media division, Divya Karani. Alongside this, the company has also announced a new COO, Kartik Iyer. 

The new appointments are both internal elevations. Karani is currently the CEO of dentsu X India and will have the new appointment as an additional role, handling all media agencies of dentsu in South Asia, including Carat, iProspect, and Posterscope, aside from dentsu X. She is tasked to drive the global media strategy and delivery in the region, ensuring its alignment and relevance to the market.

Meanwhile, Iyer has previously worked as the president of dentsu’s Media Brands and media investment and innovation platform Amplifi. With the COO role, Iyer will be engaging with regional teams, global teams, and all other network brands to ensure the ongoing transformation program. He will also be driving the implementation of dentsu’s new business model within the country. Iyer will be collaborating with leaders and client teams across businesses in the market to change how the network works and inculcate the culture of operational excellence.

Both Iyer and Karani will report to Dentsu India’s CEO Anand Bhadkamkar.

Commenting on the new promotions, Bhadkamkar said, “Dentsu is committed to delivering the best to its clients and Kartik and Divya are veterans in what they do. Kartik is recognized industry-wide for his media expertise while Divya is one of our finest from the industry. Her strength lies in delivering first-class, client-centric results and I am confident that their expertise and experience will only help accelerate the effectiveness, purpose, and performance offered to our clients.” 

Earlier this year, Dentsu India also announced the recent merge of Vizeum and iProspect into one to bring together the former’s media strategy and planning, storytelling, and brand-building capabilities with the latter’s digital expertise. 

Mumbai, India – Digital agency Yellophant Digital has won the digital marketing mandate for ExpertMFD, India’s collaborative initiative to create financial entrepreneurs for the mutual fund industry.

The partnership will see Yellophant Digital managing ExpertMFD’s digital marketing duties, such as creative and content solutions, social media management, and digital campaign strategy, as well as media planning and buying, and ORM, SEO, and SEM.

According to the agency, the Indian Mutual Fund industry is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the country and there is an enormous opportunity for potential entrepreneurs to participate in the industry’s growth story. With this, Yellophant Digital plans to educate and give insights to potential entrepreneurs about the brand through targeted strategy on all digital platforms.

Himanshu Vyapak, the managing director of the Center for Investment Education & Learning (CIEL), said that they have about 2.3 crore unique mutual fund investors in India, and the growth in mutual fund distributors have not kept pace with the growth of assets in the mutual fund industry.

He further shared that they try to build a strong foundation and a cohesive growth environment for future financial experts to create Atmanirbhar India, which translates to ‘self-reliant India’, by providing a full-stack end-to-end platform for anyone who wants to become a mutual fund distributor. Vyapak stated that they are truly thrilled to join hands with one of India’s leading AMCs and they look forward to seeing Yellophant Digital give them a digital presence across all the platforms and help them reach more people and create mutual fund entrepreneurs of the future.

“This is a big opportunity and as 90% of the Indian audience has become social media savvy, we want to create a huge impact on various digital platforms. We understand that Yellophant Digital knows how the industry works and we are thrilled to see how they will make ExpertMFD a brand that reaches everyone. That is the reason we have collaborated with Yellophant Digital and I am confident that working together will help our brand reach new heights,” added Vyapak.

Meanwhile, Preksha Seth, the co-founder of Yellophant Digital, commented, “We look forward to working with ExpertMFD, which focuses on creating new financial entrepreneurs. It is the first time in India that all of the Mutual Fund Industry is coming together to create a revolution in investing. We are fortunate and grateful that we have this responsibility to build the digital-first brand from inception. We are super excited to come up with insight first thoughts for the brand and use social media to amplify the same.”

Mumbai, India – ART Fertility Clinics, the global institution of reproductive medicine in India, has set its eyes on amplifying its digital presence, and they have chosen independent digital marketing agency Social Beat, to boost its digital marketing in the country. 

The Middle East-headquartered ART Fertility Clinics deems to be one of the leading institutions in the fertility sector globally and is known for its knowledge and latest advancements in Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART). Recently, private equity firm Gulf Capital has invested $30M in ART Fertility Clinics to help the brand expand in India. The firm’s investment will enable the fertility chain to open 18 clinics in different parts of the country over the next 12 months.

Aside from their main website, the clinic currently has its digital footprint on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. At present, it uses its social media channels to share reliable information on health and fertility. Through the new partnership, Social Beat will be responsible for handling the India branch’s digital media planning and performance marketing to accelerate patient acquisition.

CEO of ART Fertility Clinics India, Vinesh Gadhia said, “We are pleased to appoint Social Beat as our digital marketing partner. As we embark upon a new journey in India, we believe with their strong experience and capabilities, Social Beat will be able to drive our narrative in a compelling manner and build brand trust in India”

Meanwhile, Vikas Chawla, the co-founder of Social Beat, commented that the agency is thrilled to join ART Fertility in its growth journey, as the fertility segment is growing at a rapid pace, and they are looking to leverage their digital capabilities to educate, as well as acquire patients. 

Rachna Ganatra, the head of strategy and business development of Social Beat, said, “Our vast experience in providing digital marketing services for brands in the healthcare sector, particularly patient acquisition will help us drive success for ART Fertility. We are looking forward to narrating ART fertility’s brand story to the audience through innovative and engaging campaigns.”

Mumbai, India – Global financial superapp Revolut has appointed Paroma Chatterjee, former chief business officer of online financing company Lendingkart, to be its new CEO for the India team, as it expands its market presence in the country this year.

Chatterjee is a renowned leader in the fintech and consumer tech industry. She has held senior executive roles for various companies including travel agency Via.com, e-commerce company Flipkart, and telecommunications enterprise Airtel Money. In her new role, Chatterjee will be responsible for building and leading Revolut’s subsidiary in India. She will also be defining and implementing the fintech’s business strategy, as well as hiring a team and managing license applications and any potential acquisitions in the market.

According to Revolut, the fintech is making a multi-million-pound investment in India over the next five years and has committed to the creation of around 300 new jobs in the country to serve its global business operations. Furthermore, it has also recruited heads of operations and legal for the country and is leveraging India’s strong talent pool to recruit across multiple functions such as human resources, finance, growth, marketing, recruitment, and compliance, as well as risk, and technology.

Commenting on her appointment, Chatterjee said, “It is an honor and a privilege to be asked to lead the business for such a world-class company, in a country that presents one of the largest opportunities globally for Revolut. I look forward to building an exceptionally talented team and working with them, as we continue to develop superlative financial solutions for millions of consumers in India.”

Meanwhile, Nik Storonsky, the CEO and founder of Revolut, commented that Paroma is an excellent fit for the role and her appointment is a major achievement in Revolut’s continued mission to become the world’s first truly global financial super app. 

“We’re looking forward to transforming the way people in India access and manage their money as we bring our products and services to more people around the world. India is a core market in our expansion strategy with a huge supply of talent, and we’re excited to tap into that talent pool to help Revolut go from strength to strength,” said Storonsky.

Mumbai, India – Integrated creative agency Infectious Advertising has won the creative mandate for furniture manufacturing company Ebco.

Ebco is one of the leading manufacturers in the furniture hardware and fittings industry in India. The brand’s product range includes office furniture fittings, home furniture fittings, and retail display systems, as well as a range of window and door hardware, and LED furniture lights, among others.

The appointment will see Infectious Advertising handling Ebco’s above-the-line (ATL) and below-the-line (BTL) advertising, as well as leading the company’s digital creative services.

“We are happy to appoint Infectious Advertising as our creative agency for digital and non-digital brand communications of Ebco and its group brands. We are confident that their expertise in working with established brands across different industries will align with our growth plan for the brand,” said Rajesh Nair, the director of sales and marketing at Ebco.

Meanwhile, Nisha Singhania and Ramanuj Shastry, the founding partners of Infectious Advertising, commented, “Ebco has a fantastic range of innovative products. It’s an honor for us to be selected as their communications partner. We look forward to creating some fantastic work for them.”

Earlier this month, Infectious Advertising has also announced the appointment of Nitin Sharma as its new vice president of business. Sharma’s appointment aims to strengthen the existing businesses of the creative agency and develop organic growth.

Mumbai, India – Independent media agency Madison Media in India has promoted Vishal Chinchankar, former chief digital officer, as its new chief executive officer for its digital agency Madison Digital and Madison Media Ultra. 

Chinchankar brings with him over 22 years of experience in domestic and international markets, specializing in marketing services and business development which involves both start-up and growth organizations. He has been instrumental in shaping Madison Media’s digital agency Madison Digital since his appointment in 2017. Under his leadership, the digital agency has grown 10 times in terms of billing in the last 3 years, to become a 150-employee strong outfit with capabilities in branding, performance, and creative solutions.

In his new role, Chinchankar will be responsible for driving a few integrated mandates under Madison Media Ultra, the unit that handles consumer goods company Marico, and home appliance brand Atomberg, among others. He will also continue to be a part of the agency’s Exco and strengthen the agency’s value proposition under his leadership.t IDMA Digital Awards 2019, in addition to winning over 100 awards since January 2019. 

Commenting on his promotion, Chinchankar said, “I am absolutely excited about this opportunity. Clearly, the work done at Madison Digital has been exceptional and completely on the back of an extremely talented team. We’re determined to work towards making Madison Digital bigger and better than it already is while keeping clients and the Madison values at the core of our work.”

Meanwhile, Vikram Sakhuja, the partner and group CEO of Madison Media and OOH, commented that Chinchankar has been an exceptional leader with a clear vision and relentless passion, and he has put Madison Digital right on top over the past three years. 

“In addition to strong domain expertise, he has also been highly successful in building the business. As a natural evolution it is only fitting that in addition to leading the Agency’s overall Digital agenda, he also runs the whole Media business of Madison Ultra. I wish Vishal all the best, in building a world-class practice for Madison,” added Sakhuja.