MAM
63336 launches 1st TV ad campaign in UK
MUMBAI: 63336 (formerly known as AQA 63336), a UK-based text question and answer service, is set to launch a Christmas marketing campaign on 30 November with its first television advert as it seeks to acquire new customers and increase question volume.
The advert, “I am one of the 63336” has been developed and produced using an innovative creative process started in September 2009. Eschewing the traditional advertising pitch approach, 63336 ran a competition that saw 17 teams of creative directors presenting ideas based on the brief – to get customers to text questions to 63336.
Said 63336 CEO Colly Myers, “Our challenge has always been how to effectively market a number, 63336, to an audience which compels them to text a question. For the last two years, we‘ve followed the traditional method of developing ideas by going through pitch processes, and putting on retainer a number of the most ‘creative‘ agencies in the UK. Not only has this been very expensive and time consuming, but we‘ve never achieved a satisfactory result.”
Rather than focusing on user generated content, the 63336 creative competition only focused on experienced UK creative talent. Similar to processes used by venture capital companies, the concept was to get as many teams as possible to submit ideas, from a very tight brief, from which a winning concept could be selected.
The competition was developed with Goodstuff communications, who are also responsible for managing the media buying. The Gallery Network was employed to run the competition, and then manage, develop, and produce the final television advert. The 63336 advert competition took three weeks, the eventual winners being ‘Tim & Michael‘ with their advert idea ‘I am one of the 63336‘.
“The Gallery Network were pivotal in the creation of our TV advert. They were able to bring teams of senior advertising executives to work on creative ideas for us, and once we‘d picked a winner, the Gallery managed the whole process of getting directors and producers to deliver a TV advert on a tight budget and timescale,” commented Colly Myers. “The team has created an exceptional advert and we‘re confident that this will attract large numbers of new customers.”
MAM
Gurpreet Singh named President of DishTV Alumni Network
Former Dish TV executive to lead community building and collaboration.
MUMBAI: Back to the dish, but this time it’s about connections, not channels Gurpreet Singh is returning to familiar territory with a new mandate that swaps subscribers for relationships. Singh has been appointed President of the DishTV Alumni Network, a move aimed at strengthening ties among former employees and building a more engaged professional community around the Dish TV ecosystem. The initiative reflects a growing trend among large organisations to formalise alumni networks as platforms for collaboration, mentorship and business opportunities.
The appointment draws on Singh’s deep-rooted history with Dish TV, where he held multiple leadership roles over nearly a decade. As National Business Head between June 2019 and September 2020, he oversaw profit and loss as well as operations, managing revenues of Rs 6,000 crore and leading a team of around 1,250 employees across the country. His tenure included working alongside two regional business heads and 16 circle heads, underscoring the scale of operations he handled.
Prior to that, Singh served as Executive Vice President and National Head for Sales and Revenue from 2016 to 2019, and earlier as Senior Vice President and National Head for Sales and Revenue. He also briefly led international operations as Country Head for Sri Lanka, further expanding his exposure across markets.
His broader career spans leadership roles across telecom and consumer businesses, including a stint as Chief Operating Officer at Bharti Airtel’s Malawi operations, senior leadership roles at Reliance Communications, and earlier positions at Hindustan Sanitaryware and Kodak India, where he spent over a decade.
In his new role, Singh is expected to focus on reconnecting former employees, fostering collaboration, and building a structured alumni ecosystem that leverages shared experience and industry networks. As companies increasingly recognise the long-term value of their extended workforce, the DishTV Alumni Network appears set to turn nostalgia into a strategic asset, one connection at a time.
