Dentsu Aegis Network promotes Narayan Devanathan to Chief Executive Officer,Dentsu Creative Impact

In his new role, Narayan would lead the growth of the full service creative agency, Dentsu Creative Impact across qualitative and quantitative parameters. Narayan will also be heading the two specialist units, Dentsu Mama Lab (dedicated to better connecting brands with mothers through original insights) and Citizen Dentsu (the social communications division),  as a part of his expanded role. He will continue to be based out of Gurgaon.

Narayan’s rich experience in the advertising industry spans over 20 years across two of the most distinctive markets in the world. He has worked across capacities in planning and creative with leading advertising agencies in India and the United States. Prior to Dentsu, Narayan was Chief Strategy Officer, Euro RSCG India (now Havas Worldwide) and Senior Planning Director at Ogilvy & Mather India. Before he moved back to India in 2007, Narayan had also worked with the US-based Cramer-Krasselt and Admerasia, New York.

“I am very happy to announce Narayan’s appointment as the Chief Executive Officer of Dentsu Creative Impact. Narayan, with his tremendous experience in building brands, is now tasked with building Dentsu Creative Impact into a strategic and creative power-house that partners our global and local clients in the new, dynamic era of advertising that we are entering. Dentsu Aegis Network clients deserve the best talent on their brands and as a part of that commitment we have placed Narayan, amongst our best managers, in the role of heading this operation” said Ashish Bhasin, Chairman  & CEO South Asia - Dentsu Aegis Network.

“There are a lot of words that are currently being bandied about in terms of where the future of advertising lies. I believe the road to the future lies in a return to simpler times. Where the focus is on creating a happy place that helps people generate fabulous ideas. That’s probably still the best way to deliver value to clients, and success to our people. And those are the two metrics I’m going to raise the bar on,” said Narayan Devanathan, CEO DCIPL Group.

Rohit Ohri, CEO, Dentsu APAC, said, “In his four years at Dentsu, Narayan partnered me in the agency transformation process in India as National Planning Director. Understanding client’s marketing problems and finding the most effective solutions for them has been Narayan’s core strength. Insightful and intuitive, he is a natural advertising person. I believe that under his leadership, Dentsu Creative Impact G will scale newer heights.”

Among the key brands Narayan has helped build are Honda, Dulux, Canon, DS Group, Max India, Toshiba, Panasonic, Monster.com, Unicharm, the Reckitt Benckiser portfolio, Fair & Lovely, Sprite, KFC, American Express, GE Healthcare, Mitsubishi Motors, Baskin Robbins, IBM, Motorola, Cisco, Teacher's (Beam Global Spirits), Hennessey, New York Life Insurance, Pramerica Life Insurance, MetLife, Corelle, Corningware, Pyrex, GNC, WD-40 and Bombardier Recreational Products.

Narayan has been an eminent speaker at several industry forums as well as leading educational institutions and has been part of the Effies jury.

Beam Suntory’s top bourbon whiskey brand Jim Beam has awarded its digital duties to leading independent digital marketing solutions agency- FoxyMoron.

The mandate entails building and strengthening Jim Beam’s digital presence through strategic insights and unique solutions that engage their young urban consumers. The account was won following a multi-agency pitch.

On appointing FoxyMoron, Ankur Bhatia, Marketing Controller, Jim Beam India – Although the Bourbon Whiskey market is still nascent, Jim Beam is witnessing exciting growth in India, given early adoption by new younger consumers. India being one of the biggest markets globally in terms of social media usage and growing digital/mobile penetration, we are excited to partner with Foxymoron who bring in brilliant expertise and consumer insights in this space.

Commenting on this win, Pratik Gupta, Co-founder and Director, New Business & Innovation, FoxyMoron said, “Whiskey is breaking the ‘old man’s drink’ cliché in India and Jim Beam is trying to use that insight and target the urban youth of the country. We presented a fresh perspective that revolves around creating awareness about Bourbon whiskey and promoting the versatility and mixability of the brand. It’s a great brand to work with and will continuously challenge us to innovate and execute unique digital strategies.”

The win is a significant addition to FoxyMoron Gurgaon’s expanding client roster that already includes Viber India, Red FM, Micromax YU, and Muscle Blaze among others.

AskmeBazaar enters into flowers and cakes category in partnership with FlowerAura.com

AskmeBazaar.com, India’s fastest growing online marketplace, today announced its strategic alliance with FlowerAura.com, an emerging flowers and cakes delivery service that has created innovations like same day delivery and midnight delivery. This alliance will help FlowerAura reach out to the 40 million monthly visits across the AskMe platform.

AskmeBazaar now expands its offering to consumers by including a wide range of flowers and cakes, with features like guaranteed same day delivery in 150 cities andacross 2000 pin codes inIndia,and midnight delivery in select cities. Customers can choose from more than 500 options of products ranging from special flower bunches, a range of flower bouquets, flower and gift combos, cakes, soft toys and chocolates available in theprice range of Rs.399 to Rs.18499, once the complete catalogue is live. The portal is live on flowers.askmebazaar.com.

Commenting on the tie up, Mr. Kiran Murthi, CEO, AskmeBazaar.com said “With flowers we are entering a key category of perishable gifts where delivery time is important. We are excited about this partnership as FlowerAura has differentiated its offerings with impeccable delivery and assured quality.We are planning to add other similar categories that help expand our offerings and complete the shopping experience on AskmeBazaar for buyers.”

Speaking on the association, Mr. HimanshuChawla, Co-Founder of FlowerAura said, “We are excited about our association with AskmeBazaar. When we decided to partner with a marketplace, AskmeBazaar was our obvious choice, owing to their vast and diverse customer base pan India as well as their commitment to the growth of their partners. We are confident that this partnership will provide us witha favourableenvironment to grow and strengthen our foothold in the online gifting category. We hope to continue to provide a wonderful experience as well as superior quality products to customers through this new association.”

Kavita Acharekar from Nielsen has joined Motivator, in its Mumbai Office, as Client Leader (Business Engagement Team). Motivator is a media agency of GroupM.

With nearly 10 years of experience, Kavita would be leading client relationships across Motivator Mumbai’s key businesses.

On her new assignment, Kavita Acharekar says ‘I am looking forward to apply my consumer insighting skills in the media planning process to deliver a sharper product. Its a new journey for me and am very excited to be a part of the Motivator story'

Trishul Bhumkar, General Manager, Motivator, says “ As a part of getting talent and skills ‘outside in’ we are happy to have Kavita join the team. With a good decade of research experience, Kavita will being a new dimension to the way we view consumers. With these diverse skills amongst our team members, we are better equipped to look at same problems in newer ways for our clients”.

MRSS India announced the appointment of Ms Swati Sawant as the new Vice President who brings with her 20 years experience in sensory science and sensorial research at P&G. Swati’s core competence stems from her robust experience in Sensory Panel development and maintenance. She also has vast experience in setting up and operating sensorial labs.

MRSS INDIA would now be offering multiple internationally accepted and state-of-the-art sensorial research and evaluation techniques in partnerships with leading domain experts. This will allow MRSS to provide the latest implicit research methodologies including neuroscience, eye-tracking, facial coding and emotional measurement inter alia.

Commenting on this development, Raj Sharma, Co-Founder and President (Global), said: "We are extremely excited with the addition of talented professionals in MRSS, as they bring unique strengths to diverse functions in our organization as we are also setting up an advisory board of Global Sensory Experts over the coming months."

“We know Swati through her work and contribution to the market research industry in India. She has expertise in proactively working across multiple functions of marketing, R & D, product supply, regulatory and successfully defining and achieving business challenges”, said Sarang Panchal, CEO, MRSS INDIA.