MAM
Deep Focus wins award for ‘Kill Bill’ campaign
MUMBAI: A few days ago at the DoubleClick Insight Awards in the US, entertainment marketing and promotions firm Deep Focus took home a first-place award in the Best Rich Media Campaign. Its campaign for Miramax’s film Kill Bill Volume 1 was cited for the honours.
Open to all agencies, direct marketers, and publishers in the US, this year’s edition of the Insight Awards received over 100 campaign entries. The Deep Focus campaign was designed to build anticipation and awareness for Quentin Tarantino’s kung fu film. This was done before the television advertising. The goal was to introduce the film’s potential audience to its marketing assets — trailers and TV commercials. As a direct result, there were more than three million unique audience interactions with the film’s content and five per cent of all opening-week impressions resulted in local show-time lookups. This helped put people in seats.
Deep Focus’ creative director Robert Knuell was quoted in an official release saying, “When we develop an online campaign, we implement unique and original creative executions which make the content entertaining and fresh.” Deep Focus’ president Ian Schafer added, “The campaign fortified the effects of massive amounts of television advertising by using high-impact online creative. The aim was not only to prepare audiences for the enormous shock they were about to get in theaters, but to also compel them to show up there and experience it in the key first weekend of release.”
“Kill Bill was a groundbreaking creative opportunity for Deep Focus immersing us in the surreal universe that Quentin had created for the film. The iconic imagery, the unforgettable characters, and the addictive soundtrack inspired our collective imagination, while removing all traditional advertising boundaries. This unique film deserved a unique advertising campaign, and we wanted to be the ones to deliver it.”
The Brooklyn-based firm has been creating original online advertising and media campaigns since their inception in 2002. In addition to Kill Bill Deep Focus has created creative and media campaigns for films such as the Oscar nominated documentary Spellbound, Old School (DreamWorks), Barbershop 2 (MGM), and Scary Movie 3 (Dimension).
Deep Focus was founded on the understanding of how fusing interactive and traditional marketing tactics can be leveraged to exponentially increase entertainment brand exposure. Doubleclick provides tools for advertisers, direct marketers and web publishers to plan, execute and analyse their marketing programmes.
Brands
Muthoot FinCorp names Arun Kumar COO & Harjit Singh Takkar chief distribution officer
Leadership hires to boost operations and widen pan-India reach
THIRUVANANTHPURAM: Muthoot FinCorp has strengthened its top deck with the appointment of Arun Kumar B as chief operating officer and Harjit Singh Takkar as chief distribution officer, sharpening its focus on scale, speed and service as it pushes into its next phase of growth.
The flagship financial services arm of the 138-year-old Muthoot Pappachan Group, popularly known as Muthoot Blue, is expanding both muscle and mindset. With more than 3,750 branches nationwide and its digital platform, the Muthoot FinCorp ONE app, the company is betting on tighter execution and wider reach to stay ahead in an increasingly competitive lending market.
Arun Kumar B steps in with nearly two decades of experience cutting across financial services, technology transformation and customer analytics. He previously worked with CreditAccess Grameen, where he led enterprise-wide technology and data strategy initiatives and played a pivotal role during a major merger in the microfinance space. His work spanned integrating operations and products while scaling lending and non-credit offerings such as insurance and pensions.
At Muthoot FinCorp, Arun will steer operational excellence and strategic growth initiatives, aligning teams and processes to deliver sharper efficiency across the business. A gold medallist from Anna University and a postgraduate from IIM Indore, he also holds certifications in design thinking, Blue Ocean Strategy and business analytics.
Harjit Singh Takkar takes on the newly created role of chief distribution officer, reporting directly to the chief executive officer. The position is designed to energise the company’s distribution engine and bring greater governance and agility across its branch network.
Takkar brings over 28 years of retail banking experience, having held senior leadership roles at IndusInd Bank, Bandhan Bank, Yes Bank and ICICI Bank. Known for scaling branch networks and building high-performing teams, he combines distribution expertise with governance depth as a qualified company secretary with a master’s degree in finance and control.
In his new role, Takkar will oversee branch business and distribution channels, with a clear brief to expand reach, lift productivity and reinforce the company’s pan-India presence.
Commenting on the appointments, Muthoot FinCorp Ltd. chief executive officer Shaji Varghese, said the company continues to invest in leadership as it scales. “Our purpose is to improve the financial well-being of the common man. As we grow, strengthening leadership across key functions is important to ensure consistency in execution and customer experience,” he said.
With complementary strengths in operations and distribution now in place, Muthoot FinCorp appears set to move from steady expansion to sharper acceleration, backed by people, process and technology working in concert.
