MAM
Seven Indian entries make it to Direct Lions shortlist
MUMBAI: Seven Indian entries have been shortlisted in the Direct Lions category at Cannes Lions 2012. While BBDO India has got two entries shortlisted, McCann World Group, Leo Burnett, O&M, DDB Mudra Group and Cheil Worldwide have gained themselves one spot each.
BBDO India‘s entries were shortlisted in sub categories – ‘Dimensional Mailing‘ and ‘Direct Response Digital: Email Marketing‘ for its campaigns for Johnson‘s Baby and Child Welfare Fund respectively.
The campaign for Johnson‘s Baby, titled India‘s First D.I.Y. Calendar for Babies, was targeted at new and first-time mothers with the key objective being to design a piece that would not just be a calendar, but engage mothers and help increase their play time with their baby.
The D.I.Y. calendar was designed to showcase the different stages of the first 12 months of the baby‘s life, leading to his/her first birthday. Each month represented a different piece of baby article that instructed the mother about the new things she should introduce to her baby.
Its second entry, titled World‘s Youngest Job Applicant, was targeted towards senior executives in corporations to help fund the education of underprivileged children. Using the insight that most senior executives normally do not delete an email job application, BBDO created job applications with attached CVs of underprivileged children and e-mailed them to these executives. The CVs detailed the hardships these kids went through in an effort to get a basic education for themselves, and went on to tell the reader that with his help these children could one day apply for the same job.
Earning it the second nomination at this year‘s Cannes Lions, Leo Burnett‘s Ink Pad campaign for Door Step School has been shortlisted in the sub category Ambient Media & Print Collateral, Non-Mail (Small Scale). The initiative was an effort towards increasing awareness and participation in the client‘s adult literacy drive. The objective of the promotion was to give uninterested adults the first taste of how much fun learning could be.
DDB Mudra Group‘s second shortlist came in the form of its campaign Growing Trees for Prism Papyrus Private / Fedrigoni in the sub category Business Products and Services. The objective was to create awareness about Fedrigoni‘s new range of recycled papers and subsequently increase sales. The target audience, drawn from both existing and new customers, was corporate print buyers and sellers in Mumbai.
In order to drive the point home, the DDB Mudra Group used a design innovation instead of using a conventional poster. Making the exercise more appropriate to the brand that is fiercely eco-friendly, these posters were printed on Fedrigoni‘s recycled papers. Thus, rather than preach about the benefits of using recycling paper, the innovation demonstrated the same in a visually-engaging manner.
McCann Worldgroup has been shortlisted in the sub category of Dimensional Mailing for its work for SaReGaMa India titled Keeping The Legend Alive. The objective of the campaign was to maintain interest in the Sawai Gandharva music festival after the passing away of its founder Pandit Bhimsen Joshi.
To grab eyeballs, McCann used SaReGaMa‘s tapes of the late Panditji‘s recordings to create his musical portraits where each portrait was intricately weaved using over 1,100 meters of tape. Five musical portraits were created and each was brought to life with the legend‘s voice, using the audio CD on the canvas.
O&M‘s shortlisted entry this year is its campaign named iFold for Vodafone India in the sub category Best Low Budget Campaign. The aim of the campaign was to spread awareness about saving paper. The idea was to encourage people to fold their bills and other correspondence extra in order to use smaller envelopes thus saving paper.
Cheil Worldwide‘s Minus One Project, which it conceptualised for Samsung Printers, has been shortlisted in the Corporate Image and Information sub category. The target of the campaign was to encourage sustainable printing practices and was targeted at existing and new customers.
The Minus One Project encouraged people to print documents after reducing the font size by just one unit. This reduced the number of pages required to print the document by up to 50 per cent and people could save trees even while taking printouts. Hence they found a solution relevant for the brand as well as nature. Minus One was adopted by many corporate organisations, schools, colleges and other institutes and presented Samsung Printers as a brand that comes up with smart solutions for complex problems.
Brands
YES Bank hands the keys to SBI veteran Vinay Tonse as it bets on a new era
Former SBI managing director appointed as YES Bank’s new MD and CEO
MUMBAI: YES Bank is done rebuilding. Now it wants to grow. The private sector lender has appointed Vinay Muralidhar Tonse as managing director and chief executive officer-designate, with RBI approval secured and a start date of April 6, 2026 confirmed. The three-year term signals the bank’s intent to shift gears from crisis recovery to full-throttle expansion.
Tonse, 60, is no stranger to scale. Most recently managing director at State Bank of India, he oversaw a retail book of roughly $800bn in deposits and advances, one of the largest in the country. Before that, he ran SBI Mutual Fund from August 2020 to December 2022, a stint that saw assets under management surge from Rs 4.32 lakh crore to Rs 7.32 lakh crore across market cycles. Add stints in Singapore and four years leading SBI’s overseas operations in Osaka, and the incoming chief arrives with a genuinely global CV.
His academic grounding is equally solid: a commerce degree from St Joseph’s College of Commerce, Bengaluru, and a master’s in commerce from Bangalore University.
The appointment follows an extensive search and evaluation process by the bank’s Nomination and Remuneration Committee. NRC chairperson Nandita Gurjar said the committee unanimously backed Tonse, citing his leadership track record, governance credentials and ability to drive the bank’s next phase of transformation.
Non-executive chairman Rama Subramaniam Gandhi was unequivocal. “I am certain that Vinay Tonse, with his vast experience as a senior banker, will propel YES Bank to its next phase of growth,” Gandhi said, adding that the bank remains focused on strengthening its retail and corporate banking franchises and expanding its branch network.
Rajeev Kannan, non-executive director and senior executive at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, the bank’s largest shareholder, said Tonse’s experience across retail, corporate banking, global markets and asset management positioned him well to lead the lender. SMBC said it looks forward to working with Tonse and the board as YES Bank pursues its ambition of becoming a top-tier private sector lender anchored in strong governance and sustainable growth.
Tonse succeeds Prashant Kumar, who took the helm in March 2020 when YES Bank was in freefall following a severe financial crisis, and spent six years painstakingly stabilising the institution, rebuilding governance and restoring operational scale. Gandhi was generous: “The bank remains indebted to Prashant Kumar, who is responsible for much of what a strong financial powerhouse YES Bank is today.”
Tonse, for his part, struck a purposeful note. “Together with the board and my colleagues, I remain deeply committed to creating long-term value for all our stakeholders,” he said, pledging to build on Kumar’s foundation guided by his personal motto: Make A Difference.
Beyond the balance sheet, Tonse played cricket at college and club level and represented Karnataka in archery at the national championships — sports he credits with teaching him teamwork, situational leadership, discipline and focus. In quieter moments, he reaches for retro Kannada music, classic Hindi songs, and the crooning of Engelbert Humperdinck, Mukesh and Kishore Kumar.
YES Bank has its steady-handed rebuilder in Kumar to thank for survival. Now it has a scale-obsessed growth banker at the wheel. The next chapter starts April 6.
