MAM
Essencemediacom bags Hero Motocorp’s unified media mandate in high-stakes agency showdown
MUMBAI: Essencemediacom India just pulled off a pitch win that’s revving up the media world. The GroupM-backed agency clinched the consolidated media mandate for Hero MotoCorp, emerging victorious in a multi-agency battle that involved five of India’s top networks.
For the first time, Hero MotoCorp—the world’s largest two-wheeler manufacturer—has handed its entire media portfolio to a single partner. The mandate covers Hero’s flagship range, its electric mobility arm VIDA, and its Harley-Davidson business unit.
Under the agreement, Essencemediacom will lead full-funnel strategy, planning and execution across both traditional and digital channels. The remit includes audience-first approaches, competitive intelligence, performance planning, and campaign automation through unified dashboards. The agency will also deliver tech-enabled creative solutions and integrated content models for a cohesive cross-functional execution.
“As Hero MotoCorp accelerates the journey towards its Vision, ‘Be the Future of Mobility’, Essencemediacom will play a pivotal role in driving media and data innovation to support its growth across core, premium, and electric segments,” the company stated.
Essencemediacom south Asia CEO Navin Khemka called the win “a moment of transformation”. He added, “This partnership brings together three iconic brands—Hero, VIDA, Harley-Davidson, each representing a unique facet of India’s mobility story. By blending deep market intelligence with platform innovation, we aim to drive transformational outcomes across categories, regions, and consumer segments for Hero”.
The win signals a strategic consolidation in India’s auto-media space, as brands seek integrated partners capable of scaling across formats and devices in a highly fragmented landscape. With mobility shifting toward electric and digital-first experiences, the race for full-service media dominance has clearly entered a new gear.
Brands
Faber-Castell India appoints Sunaina Haldar as director – marketing
With stints at Tata, SleepyCat and ADF Foods under her belt, Haldar is primed to redraw Faber-Castell’s brand story
MUMBAI: Faber-Castell India has poached Sunaina Haldar from ADF Foods, appointing her director – marketing as the German stationery brand looks to muscle up in a category that is rapidly reinventing itself around creativity and self-expression.
Haldar hit the ground running. “My first couple of weeks have been incredibly energising, understanding consumers, visiting markets, engaging with retailers and immersing myself into the world of Faber-Castell Group,” she said.
She arrives with considerable firepower. At ADF Foods, Haldar ran marketing across India and international markets for a portfolio spanning Ashoka, Aeroplane, Camel and ADF Soul. Before that, she was vice-president – marketing at direct-to-consumer mattress brand SleepyCat, where she helmed brand, content and performance marketing. Her résumé also includes a stint leading marketing, new product development and CRM for Tata SmartFoodz at Tata Consumer Products, no small proving ground.
Between corporate roles, Haldar also operated as a fractional CMO for early-stage startups, building marketing strategy and operational structures from scratch, a signal that she knows how to move fast with limited resources.
With 18 years straddling FMCG, D2C and the startup world, Haldar now takes the reins at a brand that has long owned the classroom but is clearly hungry for the living room. In a stationery market where the pencil has become a lifestyle statement, Faber-Castell has picked someone who knows exactly how to sell that story.
