MAM
Four Indian entries to contest in Cannes Lions Promo & Activation category
MUMBAI: Four entries from India have made it to the shortlist of the Cannes Lions 2012 Promo and activations category.
These include JWT‘s work for Times of India Kerala titled God‘ Own Delivery Boys, DDB Mudra Group‘s The Killing Stapler campaign for the Sanctuary Magazine, The Door Step School‘s Ink Pad initiative by Leo Burnett India and Percept/H‘s Anti Terror Bag campaign.
JWT has been shortlisted in the ‘Publications and Media‘ sub category. The campaign was carried out when Times of India launched its Kerala edition. Kerala has been dominated by language dailies like Malayala Manorama and The Mathrubhumi.
In order to grab eyeballs and enter with a bang, TOI needed a campaign that would relate to local tradition. Drawing upon ancient local folklore, the newspaper employed 108 elephant delivery boys across 10 cities from where the local editions were to be published, 126 boat delivery boys across 1,500 km of backwaters and 180 kalari warrior delivery boys across the hill country.
The campaign used local loudspeakers, postcards, posters, press ads and radio spots to announce the phone number to call for home delivery anywhere in Kerala reaching out directly to urban and rural homes across the state. More than 100,000 newspapers were delivered on the launch day with a total of 500,000 plus newspapers delivered across seven days.
The Killing Stapler campaign, which has been shortlisted in the sub category ‘Use of Guerilla Marketing in a Promotional Campaign‘, was aimed at creating awareness about the negative impact of paper wastage through printed copies on wildlife.
To reach this objective, DDB Mudra Group designed a special stapler and discreetly placed around obvious sites as a part of the environment. This stapler, when used, printed a stamp at exactly the point the stapler held the paper intact, thus making the user realise how the printout harmed the environment. The agency planted 135 staplers over a span of nine days.
Leo Burnett‘s Ink Pad campaign for Door Step School has been shortlisted in the sub category ‘Charities‘. The initiative was an effort towards increasing awareness and participation in the client‘s adult literacy drive. The objective of the promotion was to give uninterested adults the first taste of how much fun learning could be.
In order to bring illiterate adults, Leo Burnett placed a transparent sheet with cut-outs of the alphabets of Hindi (devanagari script) on top of a regular ink pad which allowed illiterate individuals to print their name. A door to door activation was conducted with the help of local volunteers, using the ink pad and thus turning the symbol of illiteracy – the thumb imprint – into a tool to write and encouraged people to enroll for the adult literacy programme.
In the Public Health and Safety, ‘Pubic Awareness Messages‘ sub category, Percept/H has been shortlisted for its anti terror awareness campaign titled the Anti-Terror Bag. With the aid of law enforcement agencies, Percept/H agency placed a special knapsack inside local trains that contained a device that would tick like a time bomb and then announce a safety message.
Brands
YES Bank hands the keys to SBI veteran Vinay Tonse as it bets on a new era
Former SBI managing director appointed as YES Bank’s new MD and CEO
MUMBAI: YES Bank is done rebuilding. Now it wants to grow. The private sector lender has appointed Vinay Muralidhar Tonse as managing director and chief executive officer-designate, with RBI approval secured and a start date of April 6, 2026 confirmed. The three-year term signals the bank’s intent to shift gears from crisis recovery to full-throttle expansion.
Tonse, 60, is no stranger to scale. Most recently managing director at State Bank of India, he oversaw a retail book of roughly $800bn in deposits and advances, one of the largest in the country. Before that, he ran SBI Mutual Fund from August 2020 to December 2022, a stint that saw assets under management surge from Rs 4.32 lakh crore to Rs 7.32 lakh crore across market cycles. Add stints in Singapore and four years leading SBI’s overseas operations in Osaka, and the incoming chief arrives with a genuinely global CV.
His academic grounding is equally solid: a commerce degree from St Joseph’s College of Commerce, Bengaluru, and a master’s in commerce from Bangalore University.
The appointment follows an extensive search and evaluation process by the bank’s Nomination and Remuneration Committee. NRC chairperson Nandita Gurjar said the committee unanimously backed Tonse, citing his leadership track record, governance credentials and ability to drive the bank’s next phase of transformation.
Non-executive chairman Rama Subramaniam Gandhi was unequivocal. “I am certain that Vinay Tonse, with his vast experience as a senior banker, will propel YES Bank to its next phase of growth,” Gandhi said, adding that the bank remains focused on strengthening its retail and corporate banking franchises and expanding its branch network.
Rajeev Kannan, non-executive director and senior executive at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, the bank’s largest shareholder, said Tonse’s experience across retail, corporate banking, global markets and asset management positioned him well to lead the lender. SMBC said it looks forward to working with Tonse and the board as YES Bank pursues its ambition of becoming a top-tier private sector lender anchored in strong governance and sustainable growth.
Tonse succeeds Prashant Kumar, who took the helm in March 2020 when YES Bank was in freefall following a severe financial crisis, and spent six years painstakingly stabilising the institution, rebuilding governance and restoring operational scale. Gandhi was generous: “The bank remains indebted to Prashant Kumar, who is responsible for much of what a strong financial powerhouse YES Bank is today.”
Tonse, for his part, struck a purposeful note. “Together with the board and my colleagues, I remain deeply committed to creating long-term value for all our stakeholders,” he said, pledging to build on Kumar’s foundation guided by his personal motto: Make A Difference.
Beyond the balance sheet, Tonse played cricket at college and club level and represented Karnataka in archery at the national championships — sports he credits with teaching him teamwork, situational leadership, discipline and focus. In quieter moments, he reaches for retro Kannada music, classic Hindi songs, and the crooning of Engelbert Humperdinck, Mukesh and Kishore Kumar.
YES Bank has its steady-handed rebuilder in Kumar to thank for survival. Now it has a scale-obsessed growth banker at the wheel. The next chapter starts April 6.
