MAM
Merkle Sokrati achieves unique feat on YouTube for Performance
MUMBAI: Merkle Sokrati, the data-driven performance-marketing agency from Dentsu Aegis Network, has been recognized for its achievement on YouTube for Performance reaching a 100% client adoption rate.
Over the last few years, YouTube has emerged as a strong performance platform, with the launch of several new formats including TrueView and Universal App Campaigns (UAC). TrueView for Action uses prominent Calls To Actions (CTAs) and headlines, encouraging audiences to visit websites and explore the product or service, share their contact information, and take other actions valuable to the business. Through machine learning, UAC provides a simple and easy solution to reach the right audience across all of Google’s channels. Google can combine signals, data, and performance metrics to automatically make adjustments to campaigns quickly, and take advantage of buying opportunities.
During the last four months, Google India and Merkle Sokrati combined efforts to accelerate adoption of YouTube for Action in the Indian market. Anubhav Sonthalia, CEO Merkle Sokrati added, “We are committed as always to lead the way in incorporating any innovation that can help our customers. Over the last year, we have seen YouTube emerge as a strong performance platform. As the leading performance agency in the country, we wanted to ensure that all our clients are leveraging the full power of innovative formats like TrueView for Performance, and we are excited to see 100% of our clients are already betting on this format.”
Commenting on this, Aditya Swamy, Head of Agency Partnerships, Google India said, “We collaborated closely with the Merkle Sokrati team to set up integrated client onboarding with custom performance creatives from IgnitionLabs using the Search-Up approach, and bespoke measurement solutions. It’s exciting to see the speed at which Merkle Sokrati’s clients have adopted YouTube for Performance, and I am looking forward to seeing our teams redefining performance video advertising excellence.”
Merkle Sokrati was also recently awarded the Google Premier Partner Award 2018 for Video Innovation.
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.
