MAM
Mindshare partners exclusively with Crayon Data
MUMBAI: In a landmark move, Mindshare has entered into an exclusive partnership with Crayon Data to power its planning, insights and consultancy offering.
The main aim of combining Mindshare’s proprietary data and research with Crayon Data’s big data collection and analytical capability is to offer greater adaptive solutions for marketers. And provide ability to not only identify different consumer profiles and segments, but also target and track those profiles across a complex range of media channels, including social media and video.
For Mindshare, the partnership continues its focus on developing leadership in Adaptive Marketing, a shift that is impacting how the agency thinks about services, products and ways of working. Mindshare’s core DNA is about disruption, provocation and speed, working with open source partners to continuously re-define how media agencies should behave.
With this in mind Mindshare has consciously entered into a range of strategic partnerships across new emerging domains such as big data, mobility, online video, cross screen measurement, advocacy and social content. The agency has re-structured its approach to bring data, content, technology and accountability together in a way, which has unlocked dramatic growth opportunities for both clients and partners.
Mindshare’s Products, Partnerships & Services council chairman and APAC chief client officer Sudipto Roy said, “One of today’s key business challenges is the complexity surrounding the collection of data making traditional database processing and management tools ineffective in helping clients make optimal decisions about their customers’ needs. It’s a fundamental requirement of business success. Without the ability to support customer needs, organisations fail.”
“We are looking at this collaboration to dramatically transform the way consumer insights are mined and connected to our clients’ categories. For one FMCG company, we were able to unearth consumer connections and interests in a way that is almost impossible to do through standard research based methods. For a B2B client, we were able to unlock and profile a million potential leads with exact identification of what they would be likely to buy. This is a game changer; both for insights and for performance/ CRM based initiatives. It’s not a surprise that Crayon Data was recently chosen as one of the top five companies by IBM’s Watson Developer Challenge.” he added.
Crayon Data is one of the fastest growing “big data” startups founded with a vision to simplify the world’s choices. The SimplerChoicesTM engine simplifies the decision making process for marketers, using proprietary algorithms to sort the complexity and present meaningful connections between data points and providing predictions of what consumers really want. The foundation of Crayon’s Choice Engine is the Taste Graph (B2C) and Interest Graph (B2B). Crayon’s taste graph (for B2C companies) already has over 550 million taste nodes reaching close to a billion through 2014. The company’s interest graph (for B2B companies) has extensive information on over 10 million enterprises, with 500M data points.
Crayon Data founding director Suresh Shankar said, “Media, analytics and behaviour is all going digital, and choices are proliferating in every aspect of our life from media to daily decisions. The partnership seeks to marry Mindshare’s media data sets and expertise, and its innovations like Loop Room, with Crayon’s choice engines, algorithms, and taste/interest graphs. This partnership forms part of a big transformation and caters to our mission of turning the misery of choosing into the magic of choice.”
MAM
Toyota appoints Kenta Kon as President & CEO
New leader to steer EV push and global innovation amid industry shift.
MUMBAI: Toyota just handed the keys to a new driver because when the road to electric mobility gets twisty, you need someone who knows how to accelerate without skidding. Toyota Motor Corporation has named Kenta Kon as its new president and chief executive officer, a key leadership transition as the Japanese giant doubles down on its transformation in the fast-evolving global automotive landscape.
Kon brings deep expertise in automotive innovation, business strategy, and operational leadership to the top job. His appointment signals Toyota’s intent to sharpen focus on accelerating electric mobility, strengthening worldwide operations, and pushing customer-centric breakthroughs in next-generation technologies.
The company is betting on Kon to guide it through the industry’s pivotal shift toward sustainability, digital integration, and smarter mobility solutions. Key priorities under his watch include ramping up electric and hybrid lineups, expanding global market reach, driving cutting-edge automotive R&D, tightening supply-chain efficiency, and scaling connected and intelligent vehicle ecosystems.
This move comes at a time when legacy automakers face intense pressure to balance heritage strengths with aggressive electrification timelines and software-defined vehicle demands. Toyota aims to reinforce its position as a leader in sustainable, reliable, and future-ready mobility while navigating competitive challenges from both traditional rivals and new-age EV players.
For a brand that’s long defined durability and innovation, Kon’s elevation isn’t just a title change, it’s Toyota flooring it toward the next lap, ready to turn today’s tech talk into tomorrow’s showroom reality.
