MAM
Unilever splits biz between Mindshare, PHD and Initiative
MUMBAI: Unilever, which had initiated a global review in early 2012 in line with company policy to evaluate media agency arrangements periodically, has split the business between Mindshare, PHD and Initiative globally.
In India,As a part of the announcement, WPP‘s Mindshare will continue to buy and plan media for Unilever in markets including Europe (UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia), North America (US, Canada and Caribbean), Asia (India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Viet Nam, Australia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh) and Africa (South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa).
Omnicom‘s media agency PHD has been appointed in Europe (Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina), Asia (China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and New Zealand) while IPG‘s media agency Initiative has been appointed in Latin America (all countries including Mexico, excluding Brazil) and Europe (Greece, Portugal, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus).
Additionally, PHD will also handle the global communication planning account for personal care, refreshment, foods and homecare brands. Global planning for Household Care will be managed by Initiative, as part of an integrated IPG solution.
Unilever SVP Global Media Luis Di Como said, “We are confident that we have the right agency partners to service our business. They will help us leverage our scale and engage with consumers around the world in effective and meaningful ways, in order to fulfill our ambition of doubling the size of our business while reducing our environmental footprint and increasing our social impact.”
“We greatly value the long-term relationships that we have with our agency partners and look forward to continue working closely with them to deliver our marketing strategy, Crafting Brands for Life, and our ambition to continue leading in the digital marketing space,” Di Como added.
AD Agencies
Fevicol releases its last ad campaign by the late Piyush Pandey
The adhesive brand’s last campaign by the late advertising legend Piyush Pandey turns an everyday Indian obsession into a quietly powerful metaphor
MUMBAI: Fevicol has never needed much of a plot. A sticky bond, a wry observation, a truth that every Indian instantly recognises — that has always been enough. “Kursi Pe Nazar,” the brand’s latest television commercial, is no different. And yet it carries a weight that no previous Fevicol film has had to bear: it is the last one its creator, the advertising legend Piyush Pandey, will ever make.
The film, released on Tuesday by Pidilite Industries, fixes its gaze on the kursi — the chair — and what it means in Indian life. Not just as a piece of furniture, but as a currency of ambition, a vessel of authority, and a source of quiet social drama that plays out in every home, office and institution across the country. Who sits in the chair, who waits for it, and who eyes it hungrily from across the room: the film transforms this sharply observed cultural truth into a narrative that is, in the best Fevicol tradition, funny, warm and instantly familiar.
The campaign was Pandey’s idea. He discussed it in detail with the team before his death, but did not live to see it shot. Prasoon Pandey, director at Corcoise Films who helmed the commercial, said the team needed five months to find its footing before they felt ready to shoot. “This was the toughest film ever for all of us,” he said. “It was Piyush’s idea, magical as always.”
The emotional weight of that responsibility was not lost on the team at Ogilvy India, which created the campaign. Kainaz Karmakar and Harshad Rajadhyaksha, group chief creative officers at Ogilvy India, described the process as “a pilgrimage of sorts, on the path that Piyush created not just for Ogilvy, but for our entire profession.”
Sudhanshu Vats, managing director of Pidilite Industries, said the film was rooted in a distinctly Indian insight. “The ‘kursi’ symbolises aspiration, transition, and ambition,” he said. “Piyush Pandey had an extraordinary ability to elevate such everyday observations into iconic storytelling for Fevicol. This film carries that legacy forward.”
That legacy is considerable. Over several decades, Pandey’s partnership with Fevicol produced some of the most beloved advertising in Indian history, building the brand into something rare: a household name that people actively enjoy watching sell to them.
“Kursi Pe Nazar” does not try to be a tribute. It simply tries to be a great Fevicol film. By most measures, it succeeds — which is, in the end, the most fitting send-off of all.
