<ul><li>Kartik Sharma comes from Wavemaker, where he was most recently CEO for South Asia. </li><li>In his new role, Sharma will work closely with <keyword id="2738740" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Priti-Murthy">Priti Murthy</keyword>, CEO of OMD India, and Jyoti Bansal, CEO of PHD India.</li></ul> <keyword id="242831" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Omnicom-Media-Group">Omnicom Media Group</keyword> has appointed Kartik Sharma as CEO for its operations in India. Sharma joins the Omnicom entity from GroupM’s Wavemaker, where he was most recently CEO for South Asia. With over 25 years of media experience under his belt, Sharma served in a leadership capacity at some of the largest agency networks, including Mindshare, Lintas Media, Madison Media and Maxus as well as managed blue-chip clients such as L’Oreal, Mondelez, Netflix and Vodafone. In his new role, Sharma will work closely with Priti Murthy, CEO of OMD India, and Jyoti Bansal, CEO of PHD India, on chartering the continued growth of the agency brands in India. Speaking on the appointment, Tony Harradine, CEO of Omnicom Media Group Asia-Pacific, comments: “A revered leader with an impressive track record, I am thrilled that Kartik has joined us. I have the utmost confidence in his ability to steer our business to even greater heights in one of the most important markets in Asia.”

Omnicom Media Group has named Kartik Sharma CEO for its operations in India

<ul><li>Kartik Sharma, CEO, Wavemaker South Asia resigns to pursue other opportunities in the industry.</li><li>Ajay Gupte will replace Kartik Sharma and will report into Prasanth Kumar, CEO - GroupM South Asia and Gordon Domlija, President Wavemaker Asia-Pacific and China CEO. </li></ul>Wavemaker has appointed Ajay Gupte as Chief Executive Officer for Wavemaker, South Asia. Gupte, who is currently COO of Wavemaker India, takes over from Kartik Sharma who steps down to pursue other opportunities in the industry. Gupte will continue to be based out of Wavemaker Gurugram and will report into Prasanth Kumar, CEO - GroupM South Asia and Gordon Domlija, President Wavemaker Asia-Pacific and China CEO. Prasanth Kumar, CEO – GroupM South Asia said, “I would like to take this opportunity to thank Kartik for his contribution over the years and wish him all the very best.” Ajay Gupte joined Wavemaker India last year from his previous role in Wavemaker Indonesia where he was Managing Director. He comes with more than two decades of industry experience, having worked across diverse brands and markets like India, Africa and Indonesia. Since 2011, under Gupte’s leadership, Wavemaker Indonesia saw exponential growth and became a top 3 agency, winning several blue-chip clients and many global and local accolades. Before this, in India, Gupte was Maxus Dehli’s General Manager, leading clients like Nokia, Hero Honda and others. Prior to joining Maxus, Gupte held various roles in Sales and Marketing with TVS Motor Company. Commenting on Gupte’s appointment, Kumar added, “At GroupM we always believe in building on the hard work and passion of our people and it gives me great pleasure to see Ajay take over as the new CEO of Wavemaker South Asia. He comes with vast experience working in multiple markets and categories. He is a well-rounded professional, and I see him bring in distinctive and increasing value for our clients and the overall ecosystem. I am confident that he will continue to grow Wavemaker as an agency of the future.” Gordon Domlija, Wavemaker President Asia-Pacific and China CEO, added, “India is a hugely important market for Wavemaker, and we’ve got a very successful team here. I’ve gotten to know Ajay as a strong client and team leader, and I’m convinced he is the right choice to help Wavemaker to future sucesss and, ultimately, to keep looking for better ways to unlock growth for our clients, our agency and our people.” Commenting on his new role, Gupte said, “I am humbled and very excited to take over the role of the CEO of Wavemaker South Asia. It is an exciting time for the Indian market as the Indian advertising industry is also having a global impact, and I see lots of opportunities for growth.”

Wavemaker appoints Ajay Gupte as Chief Executive Officer of South Asia

<ul><li>As we come to the end of another challenging year, we look forward to next with with a lot of hope. </li><li>In our attempt to crystal-gaze into what 2022 has in store for the <keyword id="35666" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="advertising" source="Orion">advertising</keyword> and media business, we spoke to a few experts from the industry.</li><li>In today's feature, <keyword id="1193084" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="rana-barua" source="Orion">Rana Barua</keyword>, Group CEO, Havas Group India, <keyword id="1627828" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="kartik-sharma" source="Orion">Kartik Sharma</keyword>, Group CEO, Omnicom Media Group - India, <keyword id="6269377" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="premjeet-sodhi" source="Orion">Premjeet Sodhi</keyword>, Chief Strategy Officer, <keyword id="5968693" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="wavemaker-india" source="Orion">Wavemaker India</keyword>, <keyword id="3364704" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="sujata-dwibedy" source="Orion">Sujata Dwibedy</keyword>, Group Trading Director, Amplifi India, dentsu weigh in on trends and themes they feel will dominate the <keyword id="1743395" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="media-buying" source="Orion">media buying</keyword> and selling landscape in 2022.</li></ul>When the pandemic hit us in 2020, most organizations around the world were unprepared for the unprecedented event. While it took everybody by surprise, it brought about a lot of changes to the entire ecosystem. It also brought with it some important lessons. Leaders told us about the importance of agility, collaboration, flexibility and empathy. While the second wave this year hit the country harder than the first, businesses took the lessons they learnt from last year seriously, ensuring they were better equipped to deal with the impact of the pandemic on business. While the months of April and May this year were especially difficult for us and for businesses across India, the bounce-back has been a little quicker this time around, with most organizations already on a road to recovery. In the advertising world, the year was driven by digital media, specifically by social, search as well as video. GroupM’s recently released global end-of-year forecast revealed that there was a much faster expansion in the advertising industry than previously anticipated, driven primarily by growth in the US, UK, and China. The report also predicted that India, the UK, Brazil, Canada, Japan and China could grow between 6-8% annually, on average. Meanwhile, Magna in its report said Indian ad spends witnessed a 14% growth in 2021 and that it will grow by 14.5% in 2022. So, as this year comes to an end and we enter another year with hope, we spoke to leaders from advertising to understand what the year 2022 has in store for us and here is what they had to say: Rana Barua, Group CEO, Havas Group India <div type="image" title="Rana Barua, Group CEO, Havas Group India" msid="88302606" hostid="261"></div> Be Relevant, Be Meaningful 2021 was all about a steady recovery. And at Havas Group India, 3 things helped us to sustain the comeback – integration &amp; collaboration of our companies and over 1000 people, a sharply defined and relevant MX &amp; CX product strategy, and our many industry-first meaningful initiatives. We realised among all innovations, we needed to become even more flexible and relevant at the core. Marketers expect agencies to be genuine partners and dynamic about consumer understanding so that they can plan smarter. Our global Meaningful Brand study reveals if 75% of global brands disappear, no one would care. This is a reality that every marketer will face. The number of brands people used in the pre and the post covid world are not the same. So, driving relevance, being honest and creating meaningful brands will become even more critical. Understanding the Consumer Experience journey and dovetailing into a sharp meaningful Media Experience will be at the core of any integrated brand planning. And with the use of smart data and analytics the same will only become richer and sharper. And finally, meaningful storytelling (short, byte or long) that connects with the consumer, will make the brands relevant and an integral part of the journey. Kartik Sharma, Group CEO, Omnicom Media Group - India <div type="image" title="Kartik Sharma, Group CEO, Omnicom Media Group - India" msid="88302611" hostid="261"></div> 2022: Back to good old creativity, emotive storytelling Data Privacy has been a highlight of the industry for a while now. The pandemic has brought to the fore new challenges of living in the digital age. And with that, having a foundational understanding of consumer privacy concerns and data protection is paramount. Data and technology are the new-age gold for the private sector across the globe. This bestows greater responsibility on leaders using it. Accountability for every concerned stakeholder and their personally identifiable information needs to be benchmarked. On the heels of data privacy bills being tabled in countries across the world, the time is nigh for companies to step up their guardrails on data and consumer privacy. Even with Google extending their deprecation timeline for third-party cookies to late 2023, the industry needs to start testing ways to reach and engage consumers across the open internet in a non-invasive manner. The big idea of 2022 is the one that'll be ideated on the back of good old creativity, emotive storytelling that humanizes brands - enabled by technology, and of course, one that respects the privacy of its audiences. Premjeet Sodhi, Chief Strategy Officer, Wavemaker India <div type="image" title="Premjeet Sodhi" msid="88302723" hostid="261"></div> Measurement of ROI as the True-North for 2022 We can’t talk enough of the changes that brands have experienced during the past Covid-affected years. Many of these changes are now at a tipping point and we will see change only accelerate in 2022. Metaverse is the flavour of the season and probably will have the highest share of conversations. However, the real work will be in the transformative shifts towards Ecom, D2C, <keyword id="623994" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="social-commerce" source="Orion">Social Commerce</keyword> and in managing media fragmentation. In this sea of ‘new’ in 2022, agencies will be at the helm working hand-in-hand with clients to work through the clutter of partners, formats, data providers, enrichment agencies and various other intermediaries for delivering on these initiatives. Novelty, excitement, and innovations will be aplenty but, objective measurement is what will be amiss. In such a scenario - measurement will be the most important theme for 2022. Each platform comes with its own activity metrics but, we need to bring in benchmarking for best practices, comparability across platforms &amp; impact on business. Marketers, figuratively speaking are at the cross-roads and they need a Compass to guide their media investment decisions. The marketers do not need to go after every new-shining media option but need to evaluate everything with ROI as the True-North. 2022 should be the year to define a clear measurement framework that will define expectations from each media intervention. It will lay-down the activity or output measures, the intermediate measures of behaviour/mindset and the business measures of footfalls/downloads/ sales/ subscriptions, etc. This needs both immediate campaign level measurements as well as broader attribution studies to derive the business impact of media investments. Outcome based Media Measurement Spends in the Industry are barely a decimal percentage of the media spends – does measurement not deserve more? What cannot be measured, will not be managed. Sujata Dwibedy, Group Trading Director, Amplifi India, dentsu <div type="image" title="Sujata Dwibedy" msid="88302719" hostid="261"></div> The year of ecommerce growth 2022 will be a sunrise year and we will see many new trends. However, we will definitely see further growth in double digits in the e-commerce space. We have already seen unprecedented growth in not only the retail e-commerce space but also many other aspects of e-commerce. The strength of smartphones and tablets is on a rise, which is also leading to the surge in e-commerce adoption, in addition to the softer aspects such as convenience and social distancing preferences post covid. If we were to contemplate on what could be working within the e-commerce ecosystem, here are a few pointers on what we may see. Firstly, customer’s satisfaction lies in the little things. So, we may see the ease of search leading to an increase in Voice Search. Diversity of payment methods, other than payment by credit card, bank transfer, mobile wallets, and others. There is a rising trend to make purchases in instalments too. We may see a surge in multichannel customer support. This will enable customers to reach the service center at any time and anywhere if they were to communicate. AI-assisted cross-selling and up-selling within seamless online purchases will be more preferred for personalised marketing and products. We have seen growth from Tier II towns and even the smaller markets. Growth in the metros comes from multiple platforms including D2Cs. With new e-commerce preferences and tools, this is likely to accelerate in the coming years.

Trends 2022: Advertising experts tell us what to expect from 2022

<ul><li>In a difficult year, <keyword id="5968693" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="wavemaker-india">Wavemaker India</keyword>'s performance, according to its CEO, <keyword id="4337750" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="ajay-gupte">Ajay Gupte</keyword> has been A+, and understandably so. In a year when many agencies are struggling, <keyword id="3313068" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Wavemaker">Wavemaker</keyword> India has won new businesses worth Rs 700 crore.</li><li>In a conversation with Ad &amp; Media Insider, Gupte discusses the year almost gone by and also looks back at the last 3 years, on the agency's 3rd anniversary.</li></ul>The year 2020 has been a difficult year for not just the advertising industry but the world in general. A recent report by KPMG stated that India’s media and entertainment (M&amp;E) sector will take till 2022 to recover from its current levels. However, there are a few organizations and agencies that took the challenge head on. They innovated, acted with agility and made the most of an otherwise challenging year. It’s been 3 years since GroupM merged its agencies MEC and Maxus into Wavemaker. Since its inception, Wavemaker has been able to win an enviable roster of clients that include <keyword id="6398864" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mondelez">Mondelez</keyword>, Vi and Mother Dairy, among many others. Moreover, the agency also clocked in new businesses worth Rs 700 crore. Some of the newly won accounts included Sun Pharma, Chumbak, <keyword id="10247458" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="religare-healthcare-insurance">Religare Healthcare Insurance</keyword> (now Care Health Insurance), Lido learning, Glance and Supr Daily. On the agency’s 3rd anniversary, we caught up with Ajay Gupte, CEO – South Asia, Wavemaker who took over the reins after Kartik Sharma moved on from the agency early this year. It’s been an eventful year for both him and the agency and he walks us through all that happened at Wavemaker and how the agency managed to win Rs 700 crore worth of new business in such a tumultuous year. Excerpts: Q) Let's look back at what has been a very difficult year for the world in general. How has Wavemaker fared during this adverse year? Yes, it has been a very difficult year for all of us. The year has been tough on business and on our people. No one has ever experienced being in such a lockdown before, so everyone is trying to grapple with this phenomenon in the best way possible. We’ve made concentrated efforts to take advantage of adversity to accelerate on the journey to achieve our ambitions. In many ways, Covid-19 has brought the future closer. The consumer journey has been altered. Digital plays a much more integral role from brand discovery to purchase. This has enabled us to bring into play the investments we have made in better understanding the consumer journey, in delivering meaningful engagement with the consumer and in effecting purchase. I am hugely proud of the team for showcasing great agility and acclimatizing to the changes. The year wouldn’t have been easy without the support and trust shown by our clients and partners. Despite being such a tough year, Wavemaker India has managed to clock in new business worth Rs 700+ crore. What more could we ask for! Q) You took the reins as the CEO of the agency in one of the most challenging years in recent times. What were your key focus areas and your strategies that helped minimize the impact of the pandemic on the agency's numbers? I do like to look at things positively. Looking back at the year, I think I’ve achieved what I couldn’t otherwise achieve in the normal scheme of life. I was able to meet a large number of our clients (although virtually) within these 6 months. It would have otherwise taken me more than a year to meet our entire client roster. I’ve regularly interacted with our team across the country, which would have been otherwise very difficult, had we to do this in person. So I would say we have been able to make the most of what was dished out to us. As Wavemaker, we believe in investing in capabilities to build tools which will help us and our clients grow. Automation, analytics, data &amp; technology, digital are some of the key areas where we have been investing continuously. These investments have proven effective as 2020 has altered the consumer journey to a large extent. However, we were able to navigate through these changes and offer appropriate solutions to clients to engage with the consumer along their purchase journey. The work we have done in this year has helped us add that much more value to our clients, thereby strengthening our relationship with them. Q) There has been a lot of movement when it comes to the leadership team in Wavemaker. Kishan Kumar MS, Premjeet Sodhi, <keyword id="2932055" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Vishal-Jacob">Vishal Jacob</keyword> and Mac Machiach have taken over key roles. What are your expectations from this power-packed team? You have rightly termed the team as power-packed and I’m quite fortunate to have such a great team. A highly experienced leadership team is the biggest asset of any agency and I am glad we have the best minds leading Wavemaker. The mandate given and expectations are very clear – keep, growing by positively provoking ourselves, our clients and our partners. Investing in the right talent, nurturing the existing talent along with providing cutting edge solutions to our clients to help them grow is the focal point of our business and offerings. The team needs to keep this at the essence of everything they do. Q) Wavemaker completed 3 years. What have some of the agency's biggest milestones been so far? We have had many milestones in this last 3 years. Right from winning Agency of the year in 2018 at Emvies and winning client of the year for Vodafone for 2 consecutive years in 2017 and 2018 at EMVIEs have been one of the most memorable moments for us. We also launched the Content Effectiveness lab with Ogilvy, launched the first-ever influencer marketing offering ‘Thrive’. We created some great analytical tools like Athena, the budget optimizer tool created by our analytics team for L’Oréal which has been highly appreciated by the client and our global teams. Q) Give us a report card for Wavemaker in 2020. How would you rate your performance so far, in terms of new account wins, the quality of work and overall performance? If I have to rate the performance of Wavemaker in 2020, I would rate it A+. We have brought our capabilities in data, analytics, content and Technology to the fore by doing some fantastic work for our clients. Very happy with the way the teams have been able to rally together for our clients bringing in learnings from all over the world and using our tools with insights and recommendations to support our clients in this time. Additionally, winning new business worth Rs 700+ crore in an exceptionally tough year like this has been a phenomenal performance. We’ve bagged new accounts like Sun Pharma, Chumbak, Religare Healthcare Insurance (now Care Health Insurance), Lido learning, Glance, Supr Daily and many more. We have also won the e-commerce mandate for Mondelez. Additionally we’re hoping to hear some more positive news in the last 2 months of 2020. I couldn’t have asked for anything more than this in a year when the world is grappling with challenges and trying to keep business sentiments high. Q) Tell us about some of the work done this year so far that you are proud of. We have been extremely proud of the work we have rolled out in this year. Creating engaging content campaigns for our clients was one of the highlights and we have done it exceptionally well. Some of our noteworthy campaigns are ‘Maa ka Haath Ka Khana’ with the famous stand-up comedian <keyword id="10247459" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="zaakir-khan">Zaakir Khan</keyword> for Mother Dairy, Thank You campaign for <keyword id="570619" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Cadbury-Dairy-Milk">Cadbury Dairy Milk</keyword> Silk, Myntra Fashion Super star, Iss Saal Har Ghar Pandal for Gemini Oil to the latest <keyword id="6399124" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="cadbury">Cadbury</keyword> Celebrations to help the local businesses which suffered during the pandemic. Also we are hugely proud of the amazing work done for the launch of Vi! All these great pieces of work have been pulled off successfully while the teams were working remotely. Q) In today's environment, what does it take to become an agency of the future? In today’s VUCA world, it’s difficult to always predict the future but we can prepare for it. 2020 has been a real test of agility and collaboration. Investing in data and technology to deliver effective solutions with the consumer at the centre is key. Also absolutely essential is the investment in automation to ensure that the basics of implementation and reporting are efficient and error-free, allowing talent to focus on brand requirements. Q) The lockdown also led to some great innovations. How have you as an agency innovated in the past 7 months to ensure you have an edge? Our digital and tech teams have been constantly working on devising newer modules for clients that will help them connect better with their consumers. The initial phase of the lockdown got us all thinking and reassessing our business plans and we have sharpened our capabilities in data and analytics and technology. We have implemented several path-breaking innovations for our clients too. One such innovative product we launched for one of our clients was an online platform to allow the client to train and equip their on-ground support team across the country. The product was developed within 10 days and implemented by the client at a lightning speed as that was the need of the hour. Q) As we inch towards 2021, what will your key focus areas be as a leader? Our focus will always be on our clients, our people and our product. We will remain<a name="_GoBack"></a> to build on our capabilities while we will continue to positively provoke ourselves, our clients and our partners. Upskilling our capabilities and training our talent will be a high focus area. We will continue to invest and enhance our capabilities in e-commerce, content, data, analytics, technology and measurement. In early 2020, we announced Positive Provocation as our proposition and backed it with our Operating system which consists of three major aspects – Unlock, Transform and Maximise. We will ensure every Wavemaker is equipped to Positively Provoke our clients to maximise growth.

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Omnicom Media Group has named Kartik Sharma CEO for its operations in India

BI India Partner

Wavemaker appoints Ajay Gupte as Chief Executive Officer of South Asia

BI India Partner

Trends 2022: Advertising experts tell us what to expect from 2022

Samarpita Banerjee

I would rate Wavemaker's performance in 2020 A+: Ajay Gupte, CEO – South Asia, Wavemaker

Samarpita Banerjee