MAM
Grapes appoints Priyank Narain as executive creative director
Mumbai: Integrated marketing agency Grapes has appointed Priyank Narain as its new executive creative director. He will be based out of the agency’s Delhi office and will report to the agency’s chief operating officer and strategy head Shradha Agarwal.
In this role, Narain will look after the agency’s creative responsibility across all brands, nationally, the company said in a statement.
He will supervise creative teams at the company and will oversee creative, copy and design strategies. He will be responsible for driving the next phase of growth for the clients, it added.
“We are excited to welcome Priyank to the Grapes family as we look to accelerate our business and deliver ground-breaking work for our clients. He has rich creative experience on a varied section of brands and categories. His unique creative approach in designing digital experience is a perfect fit for our company. I am extremely delighted to have him on board,” Grapes COO and strategy head Shradha Agarwal said.
Previously, Narain was associated with McCann Worldgroup as a senior creative director for more than two and a half years, where he was managing some of the biggest brands. He possesses more than 18 years of advertising experience and has worked with leading agencies like Cheil India, Havas, Lowe Lintas, Grey Group, and Contract Advertising, having begun his career with Leo Burnett.
“It’s wonderful to be onboard with Grapes, an integrated agency with a great vision and several interesting brands. I look forward to creating some disruptive work that drives brands and businesses forward,” stated Priyank Narain.
Brands
Apple bites back: the $599 MacBook Neo is the cheapest Mac ever made
The tech giant unveils a budget laptop that packs a punch — and a lot of cheek
CALIFORNIA: Apple has never been shy about charging a premium. So when Cupertino rolls out a MacBook at $599 (approx. Rs 55,000) , it’s worth sitting up straight.
The MacBook Neo, unveiled Tuesday, is Apple’s most affordable laptop to date — undercutting its own MacBook Air and taking a sharp swipe at the budget PC market in one fell swoop. It starts at $499 for students, which, for a machine with Apple silicon inside, is frankly a steal.
At the heart of the Neo is the A18 Pro chip — the same muscle that powers the latest iPhones. Apple claims it is up to 50 per cent faster for everyday tasks than a rival PC running Intel’s Core Ultra 5, and three times quicker on on-device AI workloads. Fanless and featherweight at 2.7 pounds, it runs silently and promises up to 16 hours of battery life. Try doing that on a Chromebook.
The 13-inch liquid retina display clocks in at 2408-by-1506 resolution with 500 nits of brightness and support for billion colours — sharper and brighter, Apple says, than most rivals in this price band. It comes dressed in four colours: blush, indigo, silver, and a zesty new citrus, with matching keyboard shades to boot.
Connectivity is modest — two USB-C ports, a headphone jack, Wi-Fi 6E, and Bluetooth 6 — but this is a budget machine, not a pro workstation. The 1080p FaceTime camera, dual mics with directional beamforming, and Spatial Audio speakers round out a package that punches well above its weight class.
Apple senior vice-president of hardware engineering John Ternus alled it “a laptop only Apple could create.” That’s the kind of line that makes rivals wince — because, annoyingly, he might be right.
The Neo runs macOS Tahoe, with Apple Intelligence baked in for AI writing tools, live translation, and the sort of on-device smarts that keep user data away from the cloud. It also boasts 60 per cent recycled content — the highest of any Apple product — for those who like their bargains with a side of conscience.
For $599, Apple isn’t just selling a laptop. It’s selling an argument — that good design and real performance needn’t cost the earth. The PC industry had better have a decent comeback ready.
