Week at a glance: Havas launches CSA India; W+K crisis; Sony Pictures leadership

Dear friends,

As festive fervour gathers momentum, we at Adgully take an in-depth view on various facets of this important season – from brands’ perspective, media agencies’ perspective, retail sector’s perspective.

Meanwhile, it was also a week of agencies launching new divisions and one agency deciding to shut shop in India. Weiden+Kennedy is facing severe crisis in India after its top leadership has quit. Following this, the agency is known to be folding up its operations in India.

CSA & Mx Analytics’ Jamie Seltzer was in India this week for the launch of CSA in India. CSA India will merge with PivotConsult to bolster technology, data, analytics capabilities of Havas India.

There’re unique aspects to Indian market that make it incredibly exciting: Jamie Seltzer

In India for the launch of CSA India, Adgully spoke to Jamie Seltzer, Global EVP, CSA & Mx Analytics, who share her deep insights the growth of data analytics from a global perspective, the three core pillars of CSA, her observations on the unique aspects of the Indian market, targeting and personalization in today’s market ecosystem, and much more.

Havas India bolsters technology, data, analytics capabilities with launch of CSA

Trouble in W+K

Santosh Padhi, Shreekant Srinivasan and Ayesha Ghosh move on from W+K India

Together, they opened W+K's Mumbai office in early 2022 and led the creative and business operations across both the Mumbai and Delhi offices, working with some of India’s most prominent brands. Under their leadership, W+K created memorable campaigns for brands such as Jio 5G, Jio Fibre, Hero Vida, Jockey, Casio G-Shock, Jindal Steel, Hero Cycles, and more.

W+K shuts down India Offices after top executives depart

Change of guard at Sony Pictures

Tony Vinciquerra to step down as Sony Pictures CEO; Ravi Ahuja named President & CEO

Sony Group Corporation and Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) today announced that SPE Chairman and CEO Tony Vinciquerra will step down from his role as SPE CEO, and that Ravi Ahuja, SPE’s current Chairman of Global Television Studios and President and COO, will assume leadership of SPE as President and CEO, effective January 2, 2025.

Malls on festive overdrive

How malls are redefining the festive shopping experience in 2024 – Part 1

Despite e-commerce accounting for 20% of global sales, physical stores still command a significant majority of consumer spending. Malls are stepping up their game with overarching strategies that differentiate festive marketing from regular efforts. In this two-part report, Adgully speaks to a cross-section of industry leaders to find out about how their strategies differ during the festive season this year.

Innovation, experience, engagement: Decoding malls’ festive season gameplan – Part 2

AG Talk: Vijay Kaul, Yamaha Motor India

Yamaha’s goal is to build a young and aspirational brand: Vijay Kaul

In this exclusive AG Talk interaction with Adgully, Vijay Kaul, General Manager - Marketing Strategy Division at India Yamaha Motor, speaks at length about the fourth edition of the ‘Call of the Blue’ campaign, the media mix used for this campaign, the agency partners with whom they are collaborating for the current iteration, and how they have contributed to shaping its creative direction.

Rana Barua re-elected Ad Club President

The Advertising Club re-elects Rana Barua as President for the second term

At its 70th Annual General Meeting, The Advertising Club re-elected Rana Barua, Group CEO, Havas India, South East & North Asia (Japan & South Korea) Havas Group – India to lead the body as its President.

Unilever global media review

Unilever global media review: Mindshare retains lion’s share; 6 holding Cos bag biz

Unilever has completed its global media review and has appointed six ad holding companies for its FMCG business. WPP’s Mindshare has retained the lion’s share of the media account, including US, UK and China. In addition, WPP has won Sub-Saharan Africa (including South Africa). Mindshare will also handle South Asia (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan Sri Lanka), Indonesia, Australia & New Zealand, Central East Europe, Netherlands & Belgium, Nordics, Ireland, and Italy.

Cyber fraud during festive season

Expert sounds alarm bells over AI-powered cyber fraud during festive season

While there hasn’t been a notable surge yet, the fear is that AI-driven phishing attacks, deepfakes, and adaptive scams could become a major force this festive season. The sophistication of AI allows cybercriminals to create convincing emails, fake order confirmations, and impersonations that are increasingly hard to detect, potentially leading to a surge in financial scams.

Other Headlines:

Publicis Media unveils Markriti: New AI-powered marketing mix modeling tool

Publicis Groupe UK launches LeSHOP – its first creative agency

Google ad tech antitrust trial wraps up: What’s next?

Will blockbuster overload in last quarter of 2024 hit movies' Box Office performance?

Omnicom acquires digital advisory firm LeapPoint

Until next week...

Shanta Saikia

Editor

Adgully

Also Read: Connecting with Audiences: This Week's Campaign Highlights