AD Agencies
DDB Mudra appoints 11 specialists in GOB
MUMBAI: As a part of its endeavor to build a future ready marketing services organisation, DDB Mudra Group has reconstituted the executive board and has announced the formation of The Group Operating Board (GOB). Consisting of leaders with a proven track record within the group and the industry, GOB members bring together diverse skillsets in marketing services and technology from across geographies.
The GOB will advice and assist the Group CEO and MD, Chairman & CCO and CFO on various aspects related to leading and growing the organisation. The GOB will focus on achieving the group’s People and Product goals to deliver client excellence.
The Group Operating Board will include:
• Aditya Kanthy- Chief Strategy Officer, DDB Mudra Group
• Anurag Bansal- Chief Financial Officer, DDB Mudra Group
• Gour Gupta- Executive Director, DDB Mudra Group & CEO, DDB Mudramax (OOH, Events & Experiential)
• Madhukar Kamath, Group CEO & MD, DDB Mudra Group
• Ranji Cherian- President, DDB Mudra South&East
• Rajiv Sabnis- Executive Director, DDB Mudra Group & President, DDB Mudra West
• Rita Verma- Executive Vice President- Organization Development, DDB Mudra Group
• Sathyamurthy Namakkal- Executive Director, DDB Mudra Group & President, DDB Mudramax- Media
• Sonal Dabral, Chairman & CCO, DDB Mudra Group
• Vandana Das- President, DDB Mudra North
• Vineet Gupta- Chief Digital Officer, DDB Mudra Group and MD, 22feet Tribal Worldwide
Quoting on the development, Madhukar Kamath said, “I am thrilled that each one of them is also a specialist in his / her field. The Group Operating Board will help lead collaborations with external partners in Technology, Data Analytics and Content.”
AD Agencies
The smell that told Mumbaikars which station was next
Tata AIA turns Mumbai’s Parle-G memory into a sharp, city-wise outdoor play
MUMBAI: When a biscuit factory became Mumbai’s unofficial station announcement. Long before smartphone maps and automated announcements, commuters on Mumbai’s Western line relied on their noses. As trains rolled into Vile Parle, compartments filled with the warm, sweet smell of baking biscuits from the Parle-G factory. It was a cue to gather bags, wake dozing children and shuffle towards the door.
Now that memory has been pressed into service by Tata AIA Life Insurance as part of its 25-year anniversary outdoor campaign — a city-by-city salute to the lived moments that shape urban life.
One hoarding, mounted close to the old factory site, reads: “We have been protecting Mumbaikars since Vile Parle smelled of freshly made biscuits.” Spare. Local. Loaded.
The broader campaign, rolled out across major metros, leans hard into contextual storytelling. In Kolkata, it nods to trams. In Pune, to Magarpatta’s transformation. In Bengaluru, to a time before IT parks. In Chennai, to OMR before it led to tech corridors. Each line anchors the brand’s longevity to a shared civic memory.
The Mumbai execution is the most evocative. For decades, the Parle-G factory was more than a production unit. It was a sensory landmark. Residents nearby set their clocks by the factory horn. Office-goers marked their commute by the waft of glucose and flour. When the plant shut, the city lost more than jobs. It lost a rhythm.
By placing the hoarding beside the former factory, the insurer collapses distance between copy and context. The site does half the storytelling. The rest comes from commuters who remember opening steel tiffins packed with Parle-G, or jolting awake as the train slowed.
It is a neat piece of brand positioning. Rather than trumpet balance sheets or policy counts, Tata AIA borrows emotional equity from the city itself. Twenty-five years becomes less a milestone and more a presence — steady, local, embedded.
Outdoor advertising is often a blunt instrument. This one is anything but. It whispers. It remembers. And in doing so, it sells trust without sounding like it is selling at all.
The scent may have faded. The memory has not.
