Brands
Sony unveils TVC with James Bond’s Moneypenny – Naomie Harris
MUMBAI: Ahead of the release of the motion picture Spectre, Sony has unveiled its ‘Made for Bond’ advertising campaign, which stars Naomie Harris as Moneypenny.
Spectre, from Albert R. Broccoli’s EON Productions, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, and Sony Pictures Entertainment, will be released in the UK on 26 October and in the US on 6 November.
Packing a powerful punch, the short 60 second television commercial follows a tense chase across London’s South Bank as Moneypenny fights off mysterious villains to deliver Bond’s Xperia Z5 phone. Using state-of-the-art tools, including an advanced compact RX100 IV Cyber-shot camera, she captures surveillance in super-slow motion.
The ad has been produced by the legendary British director Danny Kleinman. Created by ad agency adam&eveDDB with production company Rattling Stick, the majority of the campaign film was shot on Sony’s F65 professional 4K cinema camera, interspersed with ‘slow motion’ surveillance that can be seen through the screen of the RX100 IV camera, and photography shown on the screen of the Xperia Z5.
Kleinman said, “The campaign film truly captures the excitement of the chase, being on a mission and taking the viewer on the journey, all set against an iconic London backdrop.”
Harris added, “London provides the perfect setting for the campaign film. Ultimately, at the centre of Bond is Britishness, so it was really important that the ad was shot here. It is not your traditional commercial; it’s an action-packed mini movie in itself.”
Sony Corporation president and CEO Kazuo Hirai said, “Sony has been a proud partner of the iconic Bond films since Casino Royale. While both the Xperia Z5 and RX100 IV are action-packed and full of features, they are also real, everyday-life gadgets. Whether being used by Moneypenny on undercover surveillance or a creative photographer who wants to take and share outstanding photography captured on social channels, they’re easy to use, pocketable and award-winning products for day-to-day and secret agent use alike.”
The campaign officially launches with the TV commercial, which will first air in the UK on 1 October, 2015 and will run until 8 November. The media campaign led by MediaCom also encompasses print, retail, digital and OOH.
With its compact size, the power of the premium RX100 IV camera – featuring the world’s first 1.0 type stacked Exmor RS CMOS sensor, 40x super-slow-motion video capture at up to 960fps, and the ability to speedily read data 5x faster than previous models – makes it the perfect accessory for Moneypenny.
With the fastest autofocus in a leading smartphone delivering a ground-breaking speed of just 0.03 seconds, a fingerprint sensor integrated within the iconic power button, and beautifully sleek waterproof design, the Xperia Z5 is an advanced next-generation smartphone ideal for Bond. The Xperia Z5 was recently announced on 2 September, 2015 and will be available globally from October 2015.
Brands
Rakesh Menon joins Paytm as avp – lending
Fintech product leader takes on new role after building digital lending, payments and credit products across fintech ecosystem
MUMBAI: Rakesh Menon has joined Paytm as assistant vice president – lending, taking on a new role focused on strengthening the company’s lending and credit products.
Prior to this, Menon worked at Profectus Capital Pvt Ltd as chief manager – payments based financing and digital lending.
At Profectus, he designed and launched digital credit products for merchants with variable cash flows, including overdraft-linked and revenue-share lending models. He led end-to-end LOS–LMS API integrations with payment partners and aggregators, enabling real-time underwriting, disbursal and repayment workflows.
He also worked on funnel optimisation initiatives using journey analytics, improving onboarding, KYC and disbursal conversion by 35 per cent. He developed ecosystem partnerships for transaction-data-based credit assessment and automated settlement systems, and collaborated with credit and data science teams to strengthen risk models and early delinquency detection.
Menon standardised partner onboarding and API frameworks, reducing go-live timelines by 40 per cent and improving digital scalability.
Before Profectus Capital, he worked at PayU as senior manager – presales lead – enterprise business from August 2022 to August 2023. He set up a national presales function for fintech and digital commerce clients, aligning solutions such as EMI, BNPL, BBPS and offer engines to merchant requirements.
He also helped improve conversion rates by around 15 per cent through merchant persona mapping, demo frameworks and structured sales playbooks, working closely with product and go-to-market teams.
From April 2019 to July 2022, Menon served as business unit head – SMB – direct acquisitions at Worldline, where he built the SMB online payments vertical from scratch. The business scaled to Rs 2,500 crore in annual transaction volume, growing at 45 per cent year-on-year.
During this period, he introduced paperless onboarding processes including eKYC and eSign, developed partner dashboards and CRM automation systems, and integrated platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce and Tally to expand merchant adoption.
Across roles, Menon has worked across digital lending, payments and merchant financing, with experience in product development, ecosystem partnerships, API integrations and fintech-led growth strategies.
At Paytm, he will focus on scaling lending products and strengthening digital credit infrastructure within the company’s financial services ecosystem.
His appointment comes as fintech firms continue to expand their lending and embedded finance offerings in a competitive market.
