AD Agencies
GroupM’s global brand Essence to enter India with Maxus’ aid
MUMBAI: Essence, a global digital agency, today announced it has established operations in India via the opening of a new location in Delhi. This will be the agency’s fifth office in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region and the third to open its doors this year.
In March, Essence announced its debut in Shanghai, China and Sydney, Australia.
GroupM acquired Essence, the largest buyer of digital media, in November 2015. It is GroupM’s fifth global brand.
As the formerly independent agency continues to scale globally, APAC remains a key growth region due to Essence’s commitment to deliver its proposition to its existing client roster across greater geographies, and to support the abundance of new business activity. India, in particular, holds strong strategic importance given its status as a dominant and dynamic growth market within the region, a company statement said.
To help ease its transition into India, Essence turned to Maxus, a GroupM agency in India. The unified Essence-Maxus team will be based out of the GroupM Delhi office.
In addition to transferring several existing Essence and Maxus employees to fill relevant positions, the agency is actively recruiting to hire local, outside talent for roles across the account management, strategy and planning, advertising operations, biddable and performance disciplines.
Kunal Guha, client partner and head of strategy, APAC, is serving as the Essence office lead, reporting into APAC CEO Kyoko Matshushita.
“Just over three years ago, Essence opened its first APAC office in Singapore,” Matsushita was quoted in the company statement. “It’s incredible what we’ve been able to accomplish in such a short period of time. Working with innovative clients has helped Essence unlock opportunities to bring digital innovation to the region. We see even more opportunity in India and are excited to align with GroupM as we navigate this crucial market.”
“We are delighted to bring Essence into India at a time when more and more clients are looking at cutting edge digital media solutions for their brands. With their very focussed approach they have built deep client engagements globally. Our digital offering in India is further strengthened by their opening of an office here, ” said GroupM South Asia CEO CVL Srinivas in a statement.
AD Agencies
Publicis Brazil’s creative chief Mauro Ramalho lands the jury chair at Abby Awards 2026
Mauro Ramalho brings 25 years of global advertising firepower to the new creative commerce, use of data and B2B category at Goafest
GOA: The Abby Awards 2026, powered by The One Club and The One Show, has appointed Mauro Ramalho, chief creative officer of Publicis Brazil, as jury chair for its newly launched creative commerce, use of data and B2B category. The announcement, made on 18 March, signals the awards’ intent to bring serious international muscle to a category that sits squarely at the intersection of creativity and commercial performance.
Ramalho is not a name that needs much introduction in global advertising circles. Over 25 years spanning three countries, he has worked at some of the industry’s most creatively restless addresses. At AKQA in San Francisco, he worked across McDonald’s, Nike, Fox, Target, Kraft Foods and GAP, and helped lead “The Lost Ring” for McDonald’s, one of the first alternate reality campaigns and among the most awarded projects of its era. He later moved to Organic in Toronto, bridging the Detroit and Toronto offices on Dodge, Jeep and Chrysler, before spending over a decade building CUBOCC into one of Brazil’s most iconic and innovative independent agencies, which subsequently joined the IPG network.
A stint at FCB followed, where Ramalho led integrated work bridging online and offline, before he joined R/GA São Paulo as vice-president and executive creative director, stitching together the São Paulo office with New York, London, Portland and California on global clients including Verizon, Google, Meta, Samsung, American Express and Heineken. He now heads Publicis Brazil as its chief creative officer.
His trophy cabinet includes Clios, Effies, TikTok awards and MMA Smarties, and he has served on juries at the Andys, TikTok and the Lisbon Awards.
The Abby Awards 2026 is scheduled to take place at Goafest 2026 on 20, 21 and 22 May in Goa.
For Indian advertising, landing a jury chair of Ramalho’s calibre for a category built around data-driven creativity and commerce is a statement of ambition. Goafest just raised its own bar.
